Trailers for Transits
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• Exporting used trucks from the UK is proving so difficult that one dealer specialising in overseas sales is diversifying into importing trailers from South Africa. But it's not the strength of sterling that's causing lain McKee, a director of Warrington, Cheshire-based Global Trucks, so much grief; it's the length of time it takes to get paid.
"Many of the countries we deal with have strict currency regulations," he explains. Importers may have to wait seine while before the central bank gives permission for payments in foreign exchange to be made.
"As a consequence it can be 6010 90 days before you turn your money over," he observes. 'On one occasion I had the payment for 10 vehicles tied up for five months." What's more, he's also finding some buyers who used to deal through him turning up and bidding at auction themselves.
You'll see them at the sale run by British Car Auctions at Belle Vue in Manchester, and at the Doncaster sale run by Commercial Vehicle Auctions," he says, "The UK is the cheapest place in the world to buy second-hand premium trucks."
The lightweight Pony single and tandemaxle semi-trailers he is bringing in are made by LCM Engineering of Pietermaritzburg, and are designed to be hauled by 3.5-tonners such as Ford's Transit converted into miniature tractors.
"With a gross combined weight of 6.6 tonnes you can achieve a 3.2-tonne payload," he says. "And with South Africa's currency so weak, and the pound so strong, I'll be able to offer my trailers at two-thirds of the price of the nearest rival product."
The currency restrictions he refers to are a particular
obstacle in subSaharan Africa, he adds—but he's still selling there. "I've just sent two Mercedes-Benz Actros 1840 tractive units to Nigeria. It's still
a worthwhile business to be in if you can cope with the peaks and troughs."
Nor is it the case that dealing with modern European truck technology—electronics, ABS, and so on—is an obstacle to the acceptance of such vehicles. "The local agent in these countries will be equipped to handle it," he says, If Africa is tough, then how about the Far East? "Still licking its wounds after the economic problems it suffered two years ago," he replies. "The only people buying are European companies contracted to carry out civil engineering projects, and it's the same with India.
As for the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I've done quite a few to Poland, but it's people from those parts of the globe who are coming to British auctions and purchasing trucks themselves," he reports.
McKee has enjoyed a long association with Mercedes dealership Enza, and still works closely with the company.
As overseas buyers start coming to the UK in increasing numbers, some British buyers are being tempted to bid at auctions in the Republic of Ireland, and take advantage of sterling's strength. "One Irish auction is claiming that prices over there are 30% lower as a consequence of the currency difference," says Ian Armitt of independent dealership Malcolm Harrison in Stone, Staffs.