The thing at the end of the year involving Europe is looking about as interesting as it ever has..... with the fate of the UK Currency swinging with the trade agreement or no trade agreement the prices of trailers in the UK remains uncertain into the new year. How does that affect me shouts the UK haulier purchasing a UK built trailer. Well about 80 % of the value of the the trailer is the materials - and all of that is made abroad and will change with the currency for BETTER or for worse.
Tarrifs also get fruity. Perhaps 2.5% as an additional.
However interest rates are almost negative so the change in price will not be felt so much when purchasing on the never never.
Posted by Andrew on 27/10/2020
For some reason the season of mellow fruitfulness is feeling a little less bucolic and little more uncertain than in past years. We have an exciting Triumvarate of Brexit trick or treat: this will reveal whether the euro:sterling rate shifts high or low. Low and all our trailers get more expensives and high and all our trailers stay the same (probably cheaper). We are sat at a slightly uncomfortable 1.10 exchange rate which leaves everyone mildly unhappy. So no trade agreement = pound reduces in value and tarrifs introduced. A thin trade deal will leave the pricing largely unchanged. Trump - well enough said. And Covid is also an exciting opportunity to catch your nadgers in the door.
So back to VUCA = volatility; uncertainty, complexity; ambiguity. This is hard for the trailer manufacturers - just ask Cartwrights and tricky for others Fruehauf but slightly better for dealers; and totally unknowable for end users.
Just need Father Christmas to appear and we have a full house.
Posted by Andrew on 16/10/2020
Spent some time with journalists which gives some valued time for contemplation and navel gazing. One of the recurrent themes of the discussions was 'what is the value of a brand'?
A brand should stand for something. Literally it is burned into the skin of the animal to show the ownership of the animal...it should be a recognizable mental shortcut substituting all the values and standards of the product it marks. My question to myself is that when all the manufacturers essentially assemble the same components into roughly the same shape and when governments create rules for the product to conform to what does the brand do?
Easy to see in the olden days when toothpaste might contain rat poison that a trusted brand was useful, but what about today? What does Newton Trailers stand for? Still pondering that one. What does Fruehauf stand for? How far can a brand be stretched thinner and thinner until it becomes dust? What does Wilcox stand for, what does Weightlifter stand for, what does STAS stand for? Signifier and signified are so often different.
Posted by Andrew on 27/08/2020
The world has changed - we all know a lot more about our families than we did 10 weeks ago. Our previous aspirations to be bigger, better with a larger turnover than previous years has been altered by something which is just 50 nanometers across and arguably isn't even alive until it inserts its' RNA into you.
So we have all been through what appears to be a world wide Balloon Debate - one where each person gets thrown out of the balloon to keep the balloon afloat. Who knows who will be the survivor and who will be a smear mark on the countryside below! Quite possibly there will be no casualties amongst the trailer manufacturers. In the UK they are all equally sized and all equally badly managed. But then again the customers tolerate this and even seem to desire it. So my guess is a poor finish to 2020 and then a slow lifting of the balloon until Covid is forgotten and the next 'big thing' hits. God Bless Us All.
Posted by Andrew on 06/05/2020
The implications for Trailer Manufacture of Covid 19 Virus is that we are all about 3 weeks away from not seeing any new trailers for some months.
The issue of course is that any manufacturing process is only as strong as the link that breaks. If it is cable ties or axles or lighting systems - a trailer needs all of them to be ......... a trailer.
In Germany Wabco have shut the factory so constructors using WABCO EBS system (or brake calipers) are not going to producing when Inventory is used up.
Could get interesting.
Posted by Andrew on 13/03/2020
