Contract and lease hire set to become more popular in 2011
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steve.hobson@rbi.co.uk
EXTENDING CONTRACT hire or lease deals will become increasingly common in 2011, according to a survey of the road transport industry commissioned by Chevron in association with Commercial Motor and its sister titles Motor Transport and Roadtransport.com.
Almost 70% of the vehicles run by the operators surveyed had been bought outright in the previous 12 months, while 15% had been acquired on lease, and 12% were on long term contract hire. On average, operators surveyed bought 7.1 new vehicles in the previous 12 months; took 4.2 on contract hire or lease; and extended contract hire or lease on a further 2.7.
Looking ahead to purchasing intentions for the coming 12 months, most acquisition plans were slightly down – although extending contract hire or lease deals rose signiicantly to 5.7. Four-in-10 companies using contract hire or lease now go direct to the manufacturer, although just over half still use a specialist leasing company.
Overall, 41% of operators intend to buy at least one new vehicle in the coming 12 months, with operators of leets of more than 50 vehicles planning to buy 25 new trucks each, up slightly on the previous year. DAF, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Scania look set to see rising order books in 2011, with 35% of operators saying they are most likely to purchase DAF, 26% Volvo, 25% MercedesBenz and 19% Scania. DAF and Volvo found most favour with the smaller leets, while Mercedes-Benz and Scania are preferred by bigger leet operators.
The majority of our sample vehicle parc (42%) was Euro-5, with 36% Euro-4 and just 22% Euro-3 or below. A third of the vehicles run by operators with leets of ive to 20 vehicles were Euro-3 or below. Some 70% of operators said it was essential or important that a vehicle conformed to Euro-5 when considering a purchase. Only 8% of respondents were aware that Euro-6 was coming in 2013, while 67% admitted they had given no consideration to how Euro-6 might affect future purchasing strategy.
● The research was conducted by telephone among 500 UK operators of leets of ive or more CVs over 3.5 tonnes. Some 66% held standard national licences, almost 30% held international licences, and 7% had restricted licences. The average leet size was 134 vehicles.