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Van shortages lead to RV boost

Date: 01 May 2007   |   Author: Tristan Young

Fleets are being advised to, where possible, dispose of commercial vehicles now to capitalise on strong and improving RVs created by a shortage of new vans.

Van RV expert David Fildes at Cap said: "The commercial vehicle market it stable as a whole and there have been rises in values in the some areas. The 2.0t to 3.5t area benefiting most.

"The upward trend started at the end of last year and it doesn't look like there will be stocks of new vans before the end of the year."

The majority of van makers at the CV Show denied any problems supplying new vans, but did say demand was particularly strong in the market.

Ian Hughes, Citroen's head of fleet and remarketing, said: "There is more demand than supply. We're going through the ramp up of Relay at the moment. But key for us is getting the build quality right."

While VW claimed it did not have a problem with supplying enough vans for customers, VW CV boss Robert Hazelwood said order banks were currently double what they have been in recent years.

Jonathan Akeroyd, GM's European van boss, admitted there were some shortages: "We're putting better logistics in place to get vans quicker and we're ramping up production."

However, his colleague Bill Parfitt, Vauxhall MD, said that although the firm was able to supply orders for vans he wants to build more vans for stock.

Ford was the only van maker to admit there was a problem.

CV boss Steve Kimber said his order books were "absolutely full".

"We could do with more vans. It's a problem because I don't want to lose customers. The situation would be helped by building more vans, but you can't just turn the tap on production."



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