News

I hate to mention it in November, but that is no escaping the fact that the festive season is rapidly approaching. Fortunately, TruckNet UK has teamed up with those nice people who operate the Commercial Motor reader offers to put its wares online – which means you can order all those truck-related Christmas goodies from the convenience of your computer.

There is another advantage – order via the  new online shop and the post and packing charges will be waived. The shop can be accessed directly via www.truckingshop.co.uk (terrible name, I know, but was the most appropriate one available) or via the button on the TruckNet UK forums.

It seems it's not all doom and gloom if you're an owner-operator, as at least some are looking to replace their existing trucks in the near future. One of the side effects of the economic slowdown is that the massive waiting times for new trucks at the end of last year and the beginning of this one have disappeared. Operators are reporting that dealers are offering trucks straight off the forecourt, and some extremely attractive deals are on offer as dealers try to unload stock and cancelled orders.

One report is of a top-of-the-range  6x2 tractor with premium interior that is £23,000 cheaper than it was a few months ago. Another report is of new curtainside trailers being offered for as low as £15,600. Even with these competitive prices, some canny operators are holding off purchasing, believing the prices will be squeezed still lower as the recession continues to bite in the new year.

The price of fuel seems to be dropping as well, with offers from the fuel card companies last week as low as 84.5p/lit. Having more than one card seems to be the way to obtain extremely competitive quotes one operator notes that when he uses a company's card for a week, the price doesn't drop the following week - but when he doesn't use the card, the price comes down.

Switching between cards every seven days keeps the fuel card firms on their toes, it seems.