DAF targets 30 per cent of UK truck market
DAF aims to retain a 30 per cent share of the UK heavy truck market, although its share for the first quarter fell to below 20 per cent, managing director Ray Ashworth has told Transport Operator.
He was speaking at a recent ride-and-drive event that the Paccar subsidiary laid on for press, dealers and operators at the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire. He outlined a further corporate ambition for the Paccar subsidiary of a 20 per cent share of the European truck market by 2020.
Ride-and-drive attendees had the chance to drive virtually all configurations of DAF vehicle from a 180 hp LF 7.5-tonner with a factory-built aerodynamic body up to a 510 hp XF Super Space Cab 44-tonne tractor unit.
Mr Ashworth pointed out that there were now 11 per cent fewer trucks registered for the road in Britain than there were in 2007. Euro 6 had had a huge distortive effect on the truck market, he conceded, with many pre-registered Euro 5 vehicles to come into use in the first half of 2014, distorting new truck registration figures.
“But by the middle of the year we will be back to the ‘new normality’ of truck sales post- 2008,” he said. Currently, sales of the LF were recovering faster than those of the heavier CF and XF trucks, he asserted.
“The haulage sector tended to ‘buy forward’ to avoid the Euro 6 premium, and that has impacted on CF and XF in particular, but sales of the LF to own-account operators are really strong.”
DAF’s heavy truck customers were currently favouring the well-proven MX13 engine over its smaller, lighter and more modern MX11 counterpart. He expects eventually to see customers for the smaller-cabbed CF mostly choosing the 11-litre unit while XF operators stick in main with the 13-litre engine.
Mr Ashworth said the ride-and-drive events were an alternative to an appearance at the Commercial Vehicle Show for DAF.
“The vehicles on display would have been the same as the vehicles that we displayed last year,” he said. “The ideal for truck manufacturers would be to have a CV Show every two years: the problem is getting them to agree which years those should be!”
