Traditionally, Royal Mail has run a three-year-old disposal strategy, but vans coming back at two years gave buyers a mix of good value vehicles from Ford and LDV.

The Escort van, which generally is in short supply, made an average of £1,925 with 44,000 miles on the clock, while LDV Convoys and Pilots made around £2,000. Star of the show from a Royal Mail perspective was the Peugeot Partner. Through a mix of lower numbers and the popularity of the car-derived van sector, the Partner is currently consistently making £500 more than the Escort.

Partners and Berlingos in general are both in demand currently, with prices slightly higher for the HDi engine.

The small panel van market at two, three and four years of age is one of the bright lights with a 280 Transit likely to make nearly as much as a 3.5-tonne Transit. Like all sectors, nearly new vans are suffering from aggressive deals on new vehicles, but both the new Mercedes-Benz Vito and Volkswagen Transporter are an exception to the rule.

Both vans at low mileage and on 54 and 05 plates are making fantastic money. The biggest impact of the changing new van market is at 3.5 tonnes gvw, (Ford Transit, Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, Vauxhall Movano) which is more sensitive than any other sector currently to mileage and condition. Anything coming up for grabs that has more than 100,000 miles on the clock and with £500 worth of damage on the vehicles is impacting hugely on residuals.

It was clear at Manheim’s first ever Welfare Bus sale at Gloucester that there is a trend developing among minibuses. 12-seat Transit buses are in very short supply and so are being snapped up by buyers for as much as £6,750 on an 01/51 plate, while 17-seat Transits are finding a steady stream of buyers at around the £10,000 mark for an 01/51 model.

That leaves the 15-seat minibus in general which is struggling to find buyers at around £7,250 on an 02-plate. It’s too big for a taxi and those wanting more space will always opt for the 17-seat variant so they are looking very good value currently.