DEMAND FOR LATE-PLATE VEHICLES
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Not everyone is convinced that there is a massive switch from new to late used among operators. Phil Holmes, used truck sales manager at West Bromwich-based Scania dealership Keltruck, says: "We saw a little bit of it a while back at Keltruck, but we don't seem to be seeing it now."
However, Matt Heath, general manager, fleet sales at Maritime Transport, and responsible for the company's used truck disposal operation, says there is plenty of demand for the late-plate Volvo, DAF, Scania and MAN units that Maritime supplies "A while back we saw, as I think everybody did, a prolonged period of customers simply ringing us to find out about prices and leaving it at that," he observes. "Now they're calling us about prices with the intention of doing a deal."
Nor is finance an issue. "So far as we can see, more truck finance proposals have been accepted by funders in the past two months than in the previous six," Heath remarks.
"I think there are more green shoots emerging than we've seen for some time."