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Curtains up

24th May 2007, Page 71
24th May 2007
Page 71
Page 71, 24th May 2007 — Curtains up
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

As demand for 75-tanners wanes, the 3.5-tonne curtainsider finds itself taking centre stage on the used

market Kevin Swallow reports.

Burgeoning demand for a 4rare used vehicle, the 3.5,

tonne curtainsider, has been detected by Graham Pollard, who runs used sales at Avonmouth Iveco dealership Bristol Street Commercials.

He believes this is because buyers are shying away from 7.5-tonners due to the growing shortage of people automatically qualified to drive them.

Car drivers who passed their test after 1 January 1997 will have to pass another test if they want to drive anything heavier than a 3.5-tonner. And 7.5 tonner operators are subject to tachograph-monitored drivers' hours rules, 0-licensing and various other restrictions.

1 recently bought four 3.5-tormers with I 2ft curtainsider bodies on them, all on 53 plates, and sold them within a week," Pollard reportsen you think about it, you can buy a decent 3.5-tonne chassis cab for £6,500, put a curtainsider body on it for another £2,500, and you've got yourself a vehicle that will move a payload of 1.5 tonnes or more."

Admittedly, that is not nearly as much as a 7.5-tonner, espedaily a lightweight example such as a Mitsubishi Fuso Canter."The point is, though, that you are not subject to the same legislation, and legislation is forcing trucks off the road," Pollard points out.

At the heavier end of the market there is still demand for late-plate tractor units with big engines, he adds, but only if they are fitted with analogue tachographs. "People are still afraid of digital,he says.

Confirming this, Pollard recently advertised a small number of tractor units, emphasising that they had analogue tachos."I took 30 phone calls and sold all of them to customers as far as Norfolk and Scotland," he says.

Different story

Had they sported digitachs. Pollard believes it would have been a different story He points out that some dealers are even finding it hard to dispose of their digitach demonstrators.

What's more, he fears the market might be about to suffer a downturn: 'Things are already pretty flat. I do a lot of business in South Wales, and hauliers are expressing concern about the high price of diesel and a lack of work.

We may he seeing a recession starting to kick in." •


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