CARDIFF ACQUIRES FAIRWOOD Leyland Daf dealer Cardiff Truck Centre is
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acquiring Swansea Foden dealership Fairwood, one of the UK's longest-established Foden outlets. "We heard the owners wanted to sell up and retire, so we made an approach," says CTC managing director Ray Nessbert. "We'll be taking on its Foden franchise and operating the firm as a separate business—and we'll be trying to expand it."
Elsewhere within the Foden network, Manchester Truck Centre is to appoint a service and parts dealer to cover Preston and the surrounding area.
DEALERSHIPS FEAR FOR SURVIVAL Tight operating margins in the transport industry are slowly throttling the life out of dealerships, says Alan Stonier, sales manager at Stoke-on-Trent ERF distributor Beech's Garage. Hauliers cannot afford to pay prices that allow dealers to make even a modest profit, he warns, and that has worrying implications for the long-term survival of franchised networks.
"It's desperate times out there, and a noose is being tightened around our necks, says Stonier. "I cannot remember the last price increase we had, and I despair of where the industry is going. We're now in a situation where we're lucky to get a labour rate of £24 for servicing a truck, yet Joe Public will pay £30 an hour to get his Ford Escort serviced."
"The labour rate you can ask if you're servicing a truck is roughly 40% less than the rate for servicing a car," reports Jim Snape, director and general manager of Renault dealer Renault Trucks Chiltern. "That's causing real problems at a time when we're trying to reward technicians properly and give them the recognition they deserve."
The Government's policy of imposing high diesel duty and high tractive unit Vehicle Excise Duty is responsible for much of the damage being done to Beech's customers. if it isn't relaxed then haulage will go the same way as mining and engineering," says Stonier. "And if curing road congestion is the aim of Government ministers, then they should perhaps remember that when a 40ft trailer delivers food to the local hypermarket, 300 car drivers take it out."
Stonier believes the barriers against entering the transport industry need to be raised because there are too many shoestring hauliers operating poorly maintained, untaxed trucks and driving the rates down. He'd like to see hauliers obliged to show financial resources of at least £20,000 for every truck they run, and Traffic Commissioners given the power to make spot checks on their bank accounts. That way, he says, they wouldn't be able to get round the requirement by borrowing the money from a relative, then quietly returning it once an 0-licence had been granted.
Stonier's worries are shared by Brian Wynn, service director at LCW, one of the biggest independently owned MAN outlets in the country, with branches at Blackburn and Halifax. "There is an erosion of profitability, and I don't know where it's all going to end," he says. "All truck dealers are in the same boat."
PHILLIPS ON THE MOVE Alan Phillips (pictured, right) ,s on the move again. Briefly with MAN dealership MAN North London as used truck sales manager, he's now at Southway Scania's Banbury depot. Before he went to MAN North London Phillips spent 11 years with Renault, latterly as general manager, used operations.
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