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Laurie Dealer: Stick, twist or bust?

9th January 2014, Page 12
9th January 2014
Page 12
Page 12, 9th January 2014 — Laurie Dealer: Stick, twist or bust?
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

As a child I struggled with the card game Pontoon, or 21s. The crux was always around the 14 mark, knowing you had to do something to try to win. You had to twist to force the issue, and today, hauliers owning their own trucks face the same dilemma. This year any Euro-5 truck between two and four years old will exceed the written-down value set when it was new. With the bottom line critical, how will operators play their unexpected trump

card? At some point this year, operators will discover that Euro-6 isn't the big, bad wolf naysayers predicted. There is a price hike for Euro-6, which could be partly negated

by the higher RVs of the part-exchanged Euro-5 and brought down by OEMs keen to supply.

And Euro-6 is approximately 100kg to 150kg heavier, but unless your operation weighs out before it cubes out there are other ways of trimming down the kerbweight; technically as well as dietary.

The key thing is fuel economy, and as CM demonstrated with the UK's first Euro-6 test (CM 10 May 2012), mpg is fuel neutral at worse.

So, when do you twist and cash in? I reckon you've got until the summer before Euro-5 values start to weaken. You can catch up with Laurie Dealer's blog at commercialmotoncom/laurie-dealer