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Mixed fortunes as prices fall in the used trailer sector
Page 68
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With used trailer prices depressed, dealers are relieved that the market has not been flooded with ex-Transrent stock. Steve Banner reports.
Trailer rental company Transrent's slide into administration has yet to result in large quantities of second-hand trailers coming onto the market.
Rod Pybus, managing director of Scotch Corner new and used trailer dealership SDC Northern, expected them to appear in their thousands but it is yet to happen. "As far as I can see, most of the equipment has instead either been re-leased or sold to the current end-users," he says.
A torrent of second-hand equipment would do dealers no favours at all, says Liverpoolbased Lawrence David Trailer Sales' Brian Parkinson. "The market isn't in all that good a state," he says, "and people are nervous about the future.There are yards full of unsold used curtainsiders out there."
"Prices are very poor at present,with a lot of dealers selling trailers for ridiculous money," adds a spokesman for BrooksideTrailer Sales of Stone, Staffordshire. "We've seen profits fall by as much as 35-40% during the past 12 months."
Not that the sector is totally depressed, Parkinson stresses. "There's a lot of demand for 13.6m 34-euro-pallet fridge trailers dating back to 2001/2002, and interest in boxvan trailers and sliding skeletals is picking up too," he says."Customers are also asking for short curtainsiders — 30-40-footers — for making deliveries in London."
Pybus is reporting a surprisingly healthy start to 2007. "What's more, 2006 was the best year we've had in a long time," he reports. That is despite prices commanded by new trailers falling heavily.
"Five or six years ago a sliding skeletal would have cost a haulier £15,500£16,000. Now he'll pay £12,800-£12,900," he adds.
The drop in new prices has driven used values down too. "As a consequence, people partexchanging used trailers aren't getting the price they expected," says Pybus."But they're paying less for the new one they're buying, so the situation is evening itself out." •