Light demand
Page 48
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• The wet and miserable summer weather has taken its toll on Manheim's auctions held in Dursley, Gloucestershire. Truck sales have had to be moved temporarily to nearby Sharpness Docks because relentless rain has soaked the field they usually occupy, and cars and vans have taken up all the available hard standing.
"But Sharpness is only five minutes away from Dursley and is well signposted," according to Jeremy Martell, Manheim's commercial sales manager, HGV and plant.
Recent Manheim sales have seen strong demand for 7.5-tonners, Martell reports. "Nothing else is really setting the world on fire, however, with everything else making CAP money or thereabouts," he adds.
Vehicles with special equipment seem to sell well, no matter what their vintage. A 1988 Renault Dodge 50 Series with a Spencer roof-mounted hoist recently shrugged off its advanced years to sell for £3,500.
Some trailers command good prices too. At another sale, a tidylooking 1996 Crane Fruehauf 3oft triaxle skeletal on air suspension went for £7,500.
Two auctions held on behalf of operators went well, says Martell, even though both took place on a Saturday. "We sold pretty much everything at a sale we organised for Freightliner at its Cardiff depot, despite the fad that some of the tractors, such as 5985 Leyland Roadtrains and 1987 Seddon Atkinson 311s, weren't exactly spring chickens," he says.
"As for the sale we did for Hyder at Mansfield, we disposed of almost Lim worth of vehicles— everything from Ford Escort vans to Leyland Constructor eightwheelers," he concludes, "with all my vehicles fetching good 'retail' prices."