Mad cows hit truck sales
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by Brian Weatherley • If you thought it was only beef farmers who had to worry about BSE then you're not a used truck dealer in Northern Ireland. The so-called Mad Cow Disease has had a major impact on lx)th operators and dealers in the province.
"There's no doubt that BSE has hit volumes," says John Marks, general manager at Road Trucks, the Larne-based Scania dealer. Road Trucks is one of the biggest UK retailers of used tractors bearing the famous Griffen badge, not least to local international reefer operators who would be hauling frozen beef out of the province if it were not for the seemingly endless EU export ban, "Last year we did around 150 chassis," says Marks, "and this year will be much the same." To help offset the effect of BSE, Marks says the Scan in distributor is hoping to do more business with rigids—the company has appointed a new salesman who will concentrate more on middleweights, "We've got a very strong market share in tractors," says Marks, "but we need to bring the balance up. The market's there—we've a lot of homebased operators who run rigids." That push into middleweights will doubtless lead to more used rigids appearing in the company's yard.
When it comes to getting the lowdown on Northern Ireland's used scene there's no straighter talker than Frank Walsh at Newtownabbey who, with his brother John, runs J&F Trucks, one of the biggest independent used dealers in the province.
Walsh has a warning for any manufacturer thinking that 1997 will be their year: "New truck sales will flop," he believes. "Anyone who says they won't is talking a load of (rap!"
Ironically that warning should mean better times for used dealers, says Walsh: "Used has started the year well and will skyrocket as vehicles get scarce." He's scornful of the recent attempts by truck manufacturers to boost their volumes in the UK, not least through cheap finance deals, and is particularly critical of MercedesBenz. "They've flooded the market with 1834s. They did hundreds and hundreds, Why? For the registrations, It's absolute madness," he says. "They're talking about retailing more but if I've got trucks in the yard struggling to get £17,000 how are they going to get £20,000? The only thing that will save Mercedes will be the Actros."
Walsh speaks from an impressive position of strength—and knowledge. With sales of 300 chassis a year he's constantly contacted by franchised dealers asking for advice on prices or help on a deal.
The main difference between J&F and the franchised dealers, Walsh believes, is "I have to take good and bad—I can't pick the cream." A Sarnia on the forecourt still generates the greatest interest: "They beat the door down for them secondhand," he says.
Until recently John Walsh ran the main Isuzu commercial franchise in Northern Ireland with vehicles supplied from Eire, However, he didn't see to eye-toeye with the newly arrived Lexbacked Isuzu Truck (UK) and decided to switch to Mitsubishi, with chassis supplied from Portugal. Like Isuzu he'll be offering rigids at 3.5 and 6.0 tonnes and he'll have a 7.5-tonner soon too. It will be interesting to see registrations of both marques in Northern Ireland by the end of the year—whatever the result, Lex won't have it easy!
If BSE has hit used tractor dealers, it hasn't done any favours to reefer suppliers— as Billy Dougan, sales manager of Gray & Adams (Ireland) at Ballyearl, knows only too well, although he remains optimistic about the chances of a revival: "Between the collapse of the ceasefire and I3SE it was a disaster," he says. "We've done very little secondhand recently; frankly there's no money in the market at the moment for used, but it will come again."
When is anyone's guess, although Dougan reports that the first signs could be sooner, rather than later: -We just had one customer tell us that's there's going to be a demand for meat railers." For a manufacturer which has built its reputation on ineatrail reefers that must be good news.
The comments from Alan McCue, T1P's area sales manager at Ballyclare, are fairly typical of many suppliers in road transport right now: "There's a lot of enquiries. but no one's committing," he says. Like his compatriots he's seen business fall back due to the beef ban. "The market is still nervous. It's touch and go with more interest in rental last year many reefer operators were running 15 loads a week; now they've cut right back."
For Northern Irish operators and used dealers alike, the lifting of the beef ban clearly can't come too soon.