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After signs of recovery in the used market, summer holidays, live sport, and the government's much-heralded austerity measures have combined to throw the industry a curve ball. How will the sector respond?
Words : Steve Banner
Early summer holidays, the recent spell of hot weather and assorted sporting events have all prompted customers to engage in activities other than buying second-hand trucks over the past few weeks, say dealers.
Nor have some grim utterances by government about huge cutbacks in public spending and talk about a double-dip recession given buyers much encouragement to get their cheque books out.
Yet the underlying mood of the market remains buoyant.
"From our viewpoint, demand for used trucks went downhill after the election and it didn't pick up after the emergency Budget:" says Stuart Wolstenholme, used sales manager at the Middleton, Manchester, branch of Scania dealership West Pennine Trucks.
"That said, we've managed to sell 22 out of the 32 R420 4x2 tractor units we've acquired from a major Ileet operator.
"They're on '57 plates, they've got Opticruise gearboxes and basic specification and they've done about 200.000km each. The hauliers we talk to appear to have plenty of work on and virtually all of the trucks on the dealership's rental fleet are out on hire," he adds.
"We're really busy," reports Matt Hammond, used vehicle sales manager at West Thurrock, Essex, dealership Harris DAE "Late-registered XFlO5s units in particular are proving to be steady sellers and, fortunately, I've been able to get hold of enough of them."
Obtaining desirable rigids is not so easy, however, he admits "Because operators are aware that they'll need Euro-4 if they want to go into the London Low Emisson Zone from 2012 without being penalised, there's plenty of demand for 73-, 18-, and 26-tonners that match that specification," he says. "In fact, I've got a list of people who want them.
"Unfortunately, there aren't many around; and there aren't that many decent Euro-3 rigids around either."
Good used trucks are hard to come by
Stocks of other types of vehicle are at a premium too.
"We're out in the market actively buying, but it's not always easy to find out who has got the trucks we need," says Tony Bevan, general sales manager at MAN's TopUsed approved used trucks programme, "Once we've located them, we can usually buy what we're looking for because we're willing to pay good money, "That's because we're selling as much late stuff as we can get and we've got customers waiting."
John Williams of Kidderminster, Worcester, independent dealership Empire Commercials. aRrees. "There's certainly a shortage of good used trucks They're not easy to come by."
Healthy demand and a stock shortage are combining to push up prices "We've just sold a couple of R480 Topline 6x2 units with no more than 200,000km recorded apiece, and with Opticruise boxes, for what I can only describe as exceptional money." says Wolstenholrne.
"They reached the sort of prices that the equivalent trucks would have fetched two years ago. when the market was at, or closer to, its peak.
"Prices of other used Scanias cannot be said to be rocketing up, but they're certainly rising steadily.he continues "We're seeing '04-registered Toplines selling for £2,000 more than similar trucks would have sold for 12 months back."
I lammond says: "Prices have gone from a slump back to where they should be. You could say that they're going back to normal."
And Bevan adds: "Prices of late-registered trucks with good specifications am certainly rising:' Some customers still do not realise, however, that prices are on an upward curve. says Andy Mackay, used truck specialist at Manchester DAF dealership Chatfields.
"The cost of stock is rising, but that's not necessarily being reflected in the retail price because it's so difficult to persuade operators to pay more for their vehicles." he says,
Hauliers can no longer afford to buy new One reason why the demand (or second-hand trucks is on the up is because many hauliers who might otherwise have bought new are baulking at paying the high prices asked for factoryfresh chassis. Consequently, they are opting for late-plate used instead.
"The difference between a brand-new unit and an '08-registered one that's done 200.000km can be as much as L20,000," one dealer observes.
"The gap between late used and new isn't always as big as people expect it to be though." Hammond says "1 think a lot of the reason why some operators are reluctant to buy new is psychological rather than price-related: they cannot bring themselves to commit to something new in this economic climate."
Dyed-in-the-wool new truck buyers who might be nervous of going down the second-hand route are being reassured by the increasing availability of all the support packages traditionally associated with new vehicles on used ones, says Bevan.
"MAN Toplised offers a range of finance packages, repair and maintenance contracts and buy-back deals," he says.
''If a haulier needs a Euro-4 truck for 2012, but cannot afford one, then we can put him in a Euro-3 for now and give him a guaranteed part-exchange price against a Euro-4 that he can take in a couple of years," he says.
"The Euro-3 we take back can be exported." N