“As we moved into August we experienced the traditional summer seasonality in the market place that has been absent over the last few years with the number of buyers falling away. Historically this would make for a very tough month but looking around the auctions it’s not as hard as some predicted as those buyers that remain are bidding strongly. A drop off in volumes coming into the market has helped and the buyers attending sales are definitely looking to stock up. Many I have spoken to outside the London area are not reporting many customers coming onto their sites, but they can see the market is beginning to run short of decent vans and they expect sales to pick up in September, so are willing to stock up now. Those spoken to from in and around London are reporting a good flow of buyers to their sites with many mentioning the forthcoming LEZ charges coming into force at the start of next year.

The main challenge we are seeing ourselves is duplicate stock. Buyers are obviously cherry picking and damaged vans are being ignored. With this in mind we are working closely with vendors and are advising that reconditioning wherever possible will help with remarketing of these vehicles. There was a supply of one year old vans at auction in recent weeks and these vehicles have been snapped up quickly. Amazingly, given the time of year, the 4x4 double cab market has seen a recovery recently with 3 year old models being fought over. Some of these vehicles are for export but a lot are being purchased for use in the UK.

With many of the leasing companies stating that used stock will not increase in numbers for a while and the September upturn in the demand expected, we should see some healthy competition in the auction halls over the coming months.”

Tim Spencer, group commercial vehicle auctioneer, Manheim Auctions