New truck market showing signs of recovery

The UK heavy truck market showed its first signs of returning to normality in January after a difficult 2014 in which new vehicle registrations dropped by almost 30 per cent.

Registrations for January 2015 are up by over 43 per cent compared to the same month last year, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, with 2,094 new trucks of six tonnes gross weight or over put on the road. Manufacturers DAF, Mercedes-Benz, Scania, Volvo, MAN, Dennis Eagle and Fuso all registered increased volumes.

The biggest growth was in tractor units: with three-axle tractors recording an increase of 121 per cent to 968. Demand for rigids was rather less healthy: while light vehicles between 3.51 and six tonnes grew by nearly 19 per cent to 424, rigids from between 6.1 and 16 tonnes were only up by 1.8 per cent to 387.

Rigids over 16 tonnes grew by 9.1 per cent to 634. The rigid market may well still be suffering a hangover from the mini-boom of last October triggered by the introduction of Whole Vehicle Type Approval.