• Independent dealers have responded cautiously to Neil Chapman's suggestion
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(CM 25 February-3 March) that they should set up a specialist trade association.
Trafford Park, Manchester-based Chapman has advocated the idea for some time as a means of raising standards across the sector. Now working with Stone, Staffordshirebased Malcolm Harrison, trader Robert Reynolds reckons it's a good idea but wonders who would decide which traders would qualify.
And improving standards, is something that is sorted out by the marketplace, he believes. "Hauliers won't deal with people who aren't straight, and if you don't do the job correctly, you don't get customers," he says. John May of Chaddesley Commercials in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, believes an association might be quite difficult to set up in practice. "Ours is a fragmented industry composed of self-made people who do their own thing."
May suggests it might have more clout if it were affiliated to the Road Haulage Association and the Freight Transport Association.
Chapman says he has received only two phone calls of support in response to his rallying cry. He's disappointed, but not surprised: "I think it tells you something about our industry." But he still thinks the idea is worth pursuing.
There's one thing that John May and Neil Chapman can agree on. Selling used trucks remains hard work.
"It's tough out there, and going to remain so as far as I can see," May says. "It's not helped by manufacturers continuing to give trucks away for f200 a week. And none of them is making any money doing it." Chapman adds: "Business is flat, and I believe the economy is in far worse shape than the government would lead us to believe."