Byrne's independent
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• Well-known used truck specialist Martin Byrne has left Mt Commercials and set up his own business. Martin Byrne Commercials, based at Northwich, Cheshire, generally holds a stock of 20 to 30 vehicles. "I'm trying to carry a mixture of everything from 7.5to 41-tormers, and a mix of ages," says Byrne. "I believe there's still room for the small independent.
"The manufacturers don't have the infrastructure to sell all the buybacks they're having to deal with themselves, and many people don't want to buy from main dealers because they think they're too expensive," he adds. So what's selling?
"Big-cabbed 6x2 tractive units with at least 36ohp on tap," he says. "If they're at 400hp to 42ohp they'll sell immediately."
Day-cab tractors are generating interest, too, mainly from buyers who want to stretch them and turn them into rigids. But it's difficult to move 7.5-tonne boxes, flats and curtainsiders that don't have at least a 2oft body, he says: "And they've got to be P-plated or later. Changing the registration letter twice a year is making vehicles look old very quickly, "The market is buoyant, and I'm getting lots of inquiries, but overall there's a shortage of good, clean trucks," Byrne remarks. "The fleets didn't dump as many vehicles after Christmas as people expected."
He aims to turn stock over reasonably quickly. "I want to move trucks on at sensible prices, not hang on to them in the hope of making a big lump of money out of each one," he says. That makes sound sense from a cashflow viewpoint; and it should also mean that he doesn't end up faced with hefty stocking finance charges.