Unfortunately the registration of new vans here in the UK dropped by a huge 12.5% – reversing July’s gain of 10%.

It was difficult to ascertain why the big rise was seen in July but it may have been due to a number of large deliveries of fleet vans and a number of pre registered vans.

Unfortunately, this latest set of figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) could well result in the van market being the last sector to recover due to the problems caused by the recession.

Paul Everitt, who is the Chief Executive of SMMT said: “Trucks have performed well throughout 2012 with volumes up 20% for the year-to-date, but vans have struggled and look set to end the year almost 10% behind last year’s levels. Last year we saw heavy trucks leading recovery, now medium-weight trucks are performing well, up 40% for the year so far. The economic situation in Europe and around the world is far from certain, but if business and buyer confidence improves, we’d anticipate the van market recovering in 2013.”

It is perhaps not a surprise to hear the above as, in the current recession, it tends to be the smaller business owner who feels the pinch more than the long established big operators. The smaller business operator may well find it harder to obtain finance in the current economic climate.

The sale of vans are, disappointingly, 8.4% below the year to date level of last year on a rolling basis. However, on a rolling 12 month basis to August 2012 the sale of vans has only reduced by 1.4% when compared with the year to August 2011. This would indicate that the situation is not getting dramatically worse but nor is there an improvement.

The registration of trucks was stable in August as a result of their being 2,408 new registrations with 47,766 trucks being registered, an increase of 20.9%, on a rolling twelve month basis.

Source: Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) – September 2012