ROUND-UP Newark site CHRISTMAS CHARITY 4. Commercial Motor's Truckmart team
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would like to wish all readers and advertisers a happy and prosperous New Year. We're not sending greetings cards this year, but that's not because we're Scrooges. Instead we've donated our card budget to the charity Operation Christmas Child, which supports orphans and child refugees in Armenia and other places suffer. ing from war, natural disaster, poverty, and starvation. Brian Parkinson of Liverpool-based Ritsons Trailer Sales, is involved with the charity. "This year we will be sending more than 500,000 shoeboxes filled with Christmas presents from the UK alone," he reports. "We anticipate over two-million shoeboxes will be sent from the UK, US, Canada and the Netherlands to more than 43 countries."
ALAN PHILLIPS 4:In a surprise switch, Renault general manager, used operations, Alan Phillips has moved to MAN dealership MAN North London as used truck sales manager. Phillips had worked for Renault for more than 11 years. "It's early days, but things are starting to come together for me here," he says. "One big difference between Renault and MAN is that in the latter case there's more activity at the 7.5-tonne end of the business, although we're getting interest from eight-wheeler operators, and from people looking for high-horsepower three-axle tractive units."
WILLIE ROSS NETHERLANDS + British and Irish traders spent a whopping £8.5m at a three-day unreserved truck, trailer and plant sale organised in the Netherlands by auctioneer Ritchie Bros at Moerdijk, Rotterdam. Everything from tractive units and mixer trucks to skid-steer loaders and concrete crushers came under the hammer, and almost 300 people from Britain and Ireland attended.
for Scanias
Scania distributor East Midland Commercials has opened its sixth depot, in Brunel Drive on the Newark Industrial Estate, next to the Al. The new site's workshop boasts two double bays, and will provide service cover from 08:00-22:00hrs, Monday to Friday. Weekend working will be by arrangement with operators. The company's other branches are at Nottingham, Burton on Trent, Sutton in Ashfield, Lutterworth, and Groby in Leicestershire. Managing director Kevin Taylor hasn't appointed any sub-dealers to help him cover his territory, but doesn't rule out the possibility. "One option might be for us to take over the running of a haulier's workshop, maintain his trucks at preferential rates and take on third-party work too," says Taylor. All distributors will have to improve their service and parts coverage if they're going to persuade operators to close their in-house workshops and use franchised outlets, he adds. "There's no point in offering a customer a two-year repair and maintenance contract if he can't get to your depot very easily." New vehicle sales were going well for East Midland just before Christmas. Its share of registrations in the target market in its territory had reached 18.1%, compared with a national average of 17.3%, and it was leading the market—hotly pursued by Leyland Daf.
"I believe we can talk ourselves into recession," says Taylor. "What may look like a downturn in demand for vehicles is uncertainty over the likely Vehicle Excise Duty rates at 40 and 41 tonnes. That said, interest rates could stand to come down a bit more."
He concedes that the used market isn't as buoyant as he would like it to be, but adds that Scania's Approved Used Trucks scheme seems to be working well. And East Midland has been reasonably successful in retailing older Scanias that fall outside the terms of the scheme. "We try not to trade out Scanias if we can help it," Taylor explains, "and there's always interest in, say, an old P82 curtainsider that might make a handy support vehicle."
Personal shopping from Paul May
LI& ITC has left
Kidderminster-based Chaddesley Commercials and set up on his own. Working from home as a one-manband, he's sourcing trucks for hauliers too busy to search for the vehicles they require themselves. "People ring me and ask me to go and find a Volvo six-wheel tipper, for example," he explains. "They haven't got the time to do it themselves, and they want to deal with somebody they can trust." His departure from Chaddesley Commercials, run by his father John May, was an amicable one: "I had a good upbringing and a good tutor, for which I will be eternally grateful," he comments.So why not set up his own depot and stock it? 'Because premises drink your profits," he replies. "It's the overheads—workshops, employees, security, and so on—that kill this job."