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Domestic sales bring long-term gains
Page 70
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The export market wants young models, but shifting late-year stock overseas doesn't take into account the big picture. By selling closer to home, says Steve Banner, dealers can also supply parts and servicing.
Export markets are looking for much younger trucks than they were a few years ago — Russia now refuses entry to anything that is more than five years old, for example — but franchised dealers should think carefully before they sell their stock overseas, says Dave Watts, managing director of Staffordshire CV, a Renault dealership in Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent.
"Even if it means taking a smaller initial margin,you should still try to sell them locally, because that way you can supply the owners with parts and workshop labour for as long as they own it," he points out. "There is no opportunity to do that once the vehicles are out of the country. Exporting is only a one-off profit opportunity."
Much of dealers' income is generated from providing backup for live to six-year-old trucks. Younger trucks are so reliable they require little workshop attention, while older examples tend not to come the franchised dealer's way.
Staffordshire CV runs an eighthay workshop open 24 hours a day, and Watts would like to see it take on more light commercial servicing work. "It makes sense from the customer's view, because we know a lot more about commercial vehicles than car dealers do, and our hourly labour rate is lower —£45 compared with £65 to £70 or more," he says.
"And because we've invested heavily in equipment and training, we can often complete jobs more rapidly than many non-franchised workshops," he contends.
While the workshop can service the used trucks Staffordshire CV sells, it cannot MoT them. For that they have to go to a Vosa test station, and Watts says he and other dealers are becoming increasingly concerned about the length of time they have to wait before tests are carried out. "It can be as long as 30 days," he says.
That can be awkward if the dealership has told a customer the truck will he supplied with a 12month MoT.The customer may not be willing to wait four weeks before the vehicle — assuming it passes — can he delivered. He may be willing to take it with the unexpired portion of the existing MoT and run it until the date the test has been booked. But before that happens, the vehicle will have to be checked over and any faults rectified. Some of those faults may have arisen while the operator has been using the truck, and are not necessarily the dealership's responsibility. It may nevertheless feel duty-bound to rectify them. •