Commercial Motor was there 12 months ago when ProTruck Auctions opened its doors for the first time. It was a step into the unknown for Charlie Wright, who had long been synonymous with Commercial Vehicle Auctions.
On 16th October 2007 at 10am PTA celebrates its first year of trading. After a cracking opening start, they turned over £1.4m on the opening day, Wright saw auction revenue drop towards Christmas. Since then it has developed gradually and its last sale turned over a record £1.7m selling 261 bits of kit.
Wright hasn’t tinkered with the sale too much but is conscious of getting business done swiftly and keeping the buyers focussed. He kicks off trailers at 10am and starts the tractor sale at 11.30am.
The five-year-old tractor is king at the moment for export with prices very strong. They tend to be Russia-bound – it has a maximum five-year-old age limit on imported trucks.
“Your Renault ‘03 Premium is very strong,” Wright says. “A couple of years ago it was doing £12-13,000, now its doing £18,000. By contrast a 2001-Premium will do somewhere around £8-8,500.”
Domestic buyers are still after what little clean, late-year stock is available. “An 04-Daf Spacecab, on a 04/54-plate with up to 360,000kms on the clock is doing £35,000 and upwards, and that is for ‘Plain Jane’s’, nothing fancy. In Cap that is retail price in what is a non-retail market.”