Steve Banner meets a dealer who has been making waves by importing right-hand-drive trucks from the Continent.
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Sean Clarke is a battler who isn't afraid to make himself unpopular with some of the most powerful truck manufacturers in the world. As managing director of Hunslet, Leeds-based MI Commercials, he's been independently bringing in new 7.5 and 18-tonners from Continental Europe and selling them at bargain prices to eager UK customers.
He could bring in a lot more, he contends, but believes that truck makers are not exactly encouraging their dealers to do business with him. "One dealer even suggested I change my name because the manufacturer concerned would recognise it, and would not process any orders I submitted," he claims.
An Isuzu agent with a 2.5-acre site with extensive service and repair facilities, Mi also sells second-hand commercial vehicles.
"Two years ago, however, good used trucks were hard to come by, so I had to look elsewhere in the market for business opportunities," he recalls. He talked to a number of franchised dealers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany—makes represented included Daf, Volvo, Iveco, MAN, and Mercedes—about the possibility of importing new right-hand-drive trucks to UK specifications.
Savings
"Every single dealer I spoke to was very amenable to the proposition," he says.
He began by ordering some Volvo 12 and 18-tonne rigids from a Dutch Volvo dealer.
-I brought in seven initially, starting in January last year, and after that I decided to import some Daf 45 Series 7.5-tonners," he says. "I did a volume deal for 50 with a Netherlands Daf dealer at a very attractive price.
"I am sure nevertheless that the dealer made a profit out of it. Daf in the Netherlands made a profit, the factory made a profit, and I know I made a profit. It makes you wonder what the true cost of a truck actually is."
He got them without a problem, with delivery spread over several months. They began arriving on this side of the Channel in July zoo°. We had to apply to Daf's UK headquarters at Thame for letters of European conformity (see box) before the trucks could be registered. We had been making applications in ones and twos, but because of the volumes involved we decided to apply for ro in one go."
M I sold the 7.5-tormers all over Britain.
"The vast majority of the customers paid a deposit in advance, and were prepared to wait up to 14 weeks in some cases for delivery," he says. "They were saving around £3,000 a chassis when compared with UK prices.
"They were making similar savings on the Volvo 12-tonners referred to earlier, and savings of about i2,000 on the i8-tonners."
Clarke claims that several UK Daf dealers contacted him to ask him if he would sell them chassis, but he declined to do so.
"I said `no' because I didn't buy the trucks in Holland to shaft Daf in the UK on price," he states. "I did it to give end users value for money and make a profit for myself "
The volumes MI was dealing in were starting to make waves within the Daf organisation. Clarke found it increasingly difficult to obtain 45 Series in the quantities that he was looking for, or at the price he had been paying previously.
The Dutch dealer he had been buying from—Charles Feijts—disposed of its Daf dealerships at the end of last year. Earlier this year Clarke contacted Dutch Daf dealer Truckland instead, at—he claims—the suggestion of Daf in the Netherlands.
"I spoke to Mr Brandenburg, their sales manager, and he asked me to come over and see him," says Clarke.
01126 February 2001 a deal was concluded for 25 right-hand-drive FA 45,150-B08 7.5-tonne chassis at a price of 52,000 guilders each (almost ,ti5,000). A contract was signed on that date by Clarke on behalf of Mi Commercials, and by Brandenburg on behalf of Truckland.
" I was paying 4, oo o guilders ( nearly LI,150) per chassis more than I had paid previously, despite the fact that the 45 Series was a run-out model, but I went ahead and did the deal anyway," says Clarke.
Transfer
He paid a roo,000-guilder (L28,500) deposit on the trucks by telegraphic transfer on the same day. "It arrived while I was still at the dealership," he says.
To his astonishment he received a telephone call from Brandenburg the following day saying that the price from the factory had gone up, and that he couldn't supply the vehicles. Clarke pointed out that he had signed a contract with Truckland, and that he intended to enforce it. He subsequently got his money back.
He received a letter from a Mr H Everts, a director of Truckland, dated 5 March 2001, saying that Mr Brandenburg had not been
authorised by the company to make the deal that he had made. The letter further stated that Truckland's dealer agreement meant that it could not supply a buyer who was not the end-user, and suggested that he contact a Daf dealer in the UK.
CM has inspected both a copy of the contract, and the letter. Mr Everts confirmed in a telephone conversation that the franchise agreement Truckland has with Daf does not allow it to supply resellers. Clarke contacted Leeds solicitors McCormicks with a view to taking legal action, but decided against doing so on cost grounds.
Before trying to do business with Truckland he had a meeting with executives from Daf s Belgium subsidiary at the Brussels Commercial Vehicle Show in early February.
"I asked them to sell me 50 7.5-tonner chassis, and they got very excited about it," he says. "They asked me to come back to the stand the following day to sign the order. So I came back the following day, and they told me they couldn't supply me."
Clarke decided to scale down his ambitions, and buy smaller numbers of vehicles.
Franchise
He's managed to order five of the new LF 7.5-tonners through Charles Feijts, despite the fact that it no longer has a Daf franchise. At the time of writing two were due to be delivered. The Charles Feijts Group is an Iveco dealership as well as representing a variety of other franchises.
Last summer Clarke began ordering Cargo 7.5-tonners from the company at a rate of two or three a week, and obtained a total of 2 o. He also obtained three Daily vans.
He applied to lveco Ford's headquarters at Watford for conformity letters. He got the letters, but deliveries of trucks subsequently dried up. "I was told by Charles Feijts that they could not supply me with any more vehicles," he states. The only exceptions were 3.irn Cargo sweeper chassis.
"I've ordered five of them, and two of them have arrived," he says. "I will be having them stretched to a length more acceptable to my customers—probably to a 4.5m wheelbase so that I can put 2ofi bodies on them.
"The odd thing in all of this is that if I want to order Iveco tractive units, I can have as many as I want. I can still get as many Volvo 12 and j8-tonners from Belgium as I like, but I can't get hold of any other right-hand-drive Volvo models."
Despite the difficulties he has experienced in laying his hands on supplies, Clarke says that he has nevertheless managed to obtain and sell 90 new trucks since he became an importer. He believes both manufacturers and franchised dealers will have no choice but to get used to the existence of independent importers like MI, because it is likely that the European Commission will not extend Block Exemption beyond September 2002.
Block Exemption allows motor manufacturers to operate a selective distribution system —in other words, to supply new and unregistered vehicles solely to their own franchised outlets. Its abolition could result in their being obliged to sell unregistered vehicles to anybody with the cash. That could cause the collapse of their existing networks.