‘Interesting’ time in the used truck and trailer market

On average, Dawsondirect handles trade, export and direct retail sales of around 2,500 used trucks and trailers every year.

Perfect storm

At the start of this year, overall supply of trucks and trailers was as low as anyone remembers. This was a direct result of the COVID-19-engendered shortages of components, materials and, in particular, semiconductors for the manufacture of new vehicles.

In addition, the Ukraine war impacted heavily on the supply of ‘noble gases’. These are required in quantity and at a high level of purity for the manufacture of semiconductors.

The ‘perfect storm’ that had started with the pandemic continued to rumble on.

Heading to net zero deadlines

On top of all this, I think we’re likely to see a weakening of the Government’s resolve on the 2035 and later net-zero dates. If for no better reason than the low levels of infrastructure and the lack of a clearly defined strategy for progressing in this key area.

My guess is we’ll have to echo the car profile and look to ease our way towards zero emissions with hybrid vehicles. Protect the environment by running trucks on battery power first, but don’t damage supply chains by not having ICE back-up once battery power runs out. That would make sense to me, especially for rigids in more localised distribution work.

Change of national policy?

On the other hand, if there’s no change in the Government’s net zero policy, there’s a strong possibility that the haulage sector will try to buy as many diesel trucks as possible in the run-up to 2035. Within the bounds of legislation, they’ll probably look to running them for longer than usual – maybe eight to ten years.

If this happens, there’ll most likely be constraints on the supply of diesel trucks in the UK – both ahead of 2035 and beyond. This could result in a boost to the sale of used diesel trucks, with an emphasis on low mileage and later registration vehicles.

Our Smarter Asset Strategy

Whatever the future scenario and whatever business model our customers might have, here at Dawsongroup, we’re ready with our Smarter Asset Strategy approach to help operators meet the challenges they face on their transition to net zero.

I think we can safely say that there are still even more interesting times ahead for the used truck and trailer market!

James Hunter, Head of Remarketing