Truck prices set to decline
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• Truck prices could decrease in real terms over the next five years as falling demand forces manufacturers to offer better deals.
That's the conclusion of operators this week after the Economist Intelligence Unit predicted that Europe's manufacturers are going to be hit by a downturn in demand for heavy trucks.
The report—World Commercial Vehicle Forecasts 1996— says demand will not pick up again until after 2000.
But operators will not suffer falling demand for haulage, says the report; instead they will lead the trend as electronic aids and deregulation allow them to use their trucks more efficiently.
"It will cut prices," says Gareth Duvall, finance director of Berkshire-based Robert Daryall. "It's supply and demand." But he says smaller operators will be less able to negotiate better deals. Anyone who buys standard bodies will enjoy better prices because there is more competition to supply standard units, one eastern European specialist haulier believes. But he adds that buyers committed to longterm purchase contracts will wait longer for price benefits to feed through.
L World Commercial Vehicle Forecasts (1996 edition) costs £595 from the EIU, 15 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4LR, phone 0171 830 1023.