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Going it atone...
Page 52
Page 53
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The omission of trucks from the Chancellor's vehicle scrappage scheme has not stopped a handful of manufacturers from offering their own examples. Take MAN, for instance...
Words: Steve Banner
While vans are included alongside cars in the £300m government-backed scrappage programme announced by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, in his April Budget, it should perhaps come as no surprise that trucks were omitted.
However, this has not deterred a few manufacturers from promoting their own versions of the scrappage scheme they tend to prefer the phrase "environmental allowance" without any state support.
MAN, for instance, is offering a minimum allowance of £7,000 to operators looking to trade in any truck in regular use with a current annual vehicle test certificate that has been in the hands of the present owner for a minimum of three months. However, it is only valid if you are seeking to acquire a 2006-vintage MAN TGA XLX D20-powered tractor unit with a 12-speed Tipmatic box, or an ERF ECT LX unit of the same age with a Cummins 420 engine and a 16-speed manual box. The part-exchange also has to be insured, taxed and 0-licensed.
Auto gearboxes
So what has prompted this move, other than, perhaps, a desire to ride in on the back of the widespread publicity the government's own scheme has received?
"It's because the used truck market still needs a bit more stimulus," reveals Tony Bevan (pictured left), general manager, sales, for MAN's TopUsed approved used trucks programme. "We also want to encourage businesses to part-exchange older vehicles in favour of newer, more fuel-efficient ones."
"You are more or less guaranteeing yourself a one mpg improvement," adds MAN Truck & Bus UK chief executive Des Evans.
Bevan points out that the trade-in initiative is linked with the availability of funding through MAN Financial Services. "Operators are only too aware that if they go to the banks, finance may not be readily available," he observes. "Over the years, the banks have proved to be fair-weather friends."
Signing an MAN funding agreement is not compulsory, though, and a number of customers have taken advantage of the part-exchange scheme without taking up the option of the company's finance.
The scheme is, of course, also a means by which MAN can dispose of ex-contract units carrying price tags from £25,000 to £30,000 in what will, hopefully, be an orderly fashion. "However, it is not the case that we've got fields full of used vehicles we cannot get rid of," Evans stresses.
So how has the programme been greeted by operators?
"The response has been really positive," Bevan replies. "We received around 65 enquiries during the first week, and that number has been rising ever since."
And this interest is not coming solely from ownerdrivers and small hauliers. "We've already done a deal with a fleet operator for 24 units," he says.
Despite some dyed-in-the-wool second-hand buyers still being wary of automated gearboxes, the Tipmatic box seems to be widely accepted, Bevan reveals, adding: "Occasionally you get a driver who reckons he can do better than Tipmatic can, but most people appreciate that it brings benefits and cost savings.
"We still get buyers who don't want trucks with digital tachographs, though," he adds.
The majority of the trade-ins are shipped overseas. This, of course, lays MAN open to the accusation that, far from benefiting the environment by getting less-fuel-and-0O2efficient trucks off the road, it is simply exporting the problem to what are primarily Third World countries.
Bevan denies this charge. "The reality is that most of these trucks will be broken up for spares to maintain existing vehicles," he states.
"Remember too that those put back on the road will often be replacing really environmentally unfriendly trucks that may be 15 or 20 years old," says Evans.
MAN owns six used vehicle outlets and directly employs 20 used truck salespeople. As a consequence it has its finger firmly on the pulse of the UK's second-hand truck market.
"We believe it's recovering, albeit slowly," Evans says. "It's certainly far better than it was in January and February, when it was completely dead."
Buyers recognise value
"Note that one of our standard benchmark tractor units is now priced at around £70,000 if you want a new one, largely thanks to the way in which the pound has depreciated against the euro," Evans observes. "But a three-year-old example with reasonable mileage will cost you less than half that figure.
"That's got to be good value, and that's something buyers recognise."
Introduced just over three years ago, the presence of the TopUsed programme, which covers vehicles up to four-and-a-half years old, strengthens the argument for buying late-registered products.
"Used truck enquiries and sales are on the increase, and the number of repossessions seems to have tailed off," says Bevan. "In many respects, we're probably getting back to where we were before we had the big spike in prices, just before the price crash. •