{"id":3832,"date":"2012-10-11T15:27:59","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T15:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=3832"},"modified":"2012-10-11T15:46:01","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T15:46:01","slug":"van-registrations-up-1-in-september-stability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/3832","title":{"rendered":"Van Registrations Up 1% In September – Stability?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Van registrations edged up by 1.1% in September, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). So does this represent a return of stability to the market?<\/p>\n

SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt certainly thought so, commenting:<\/p>\n

“The September plate change provided enough of a boost to stabilise van demand in a challenging economic environment. Continuing the trend seen so far this year, light rigids performed strongly in the month growing 23.4%, while light vans and pickups reversed recent declines, recording rises of 8.8% and 17.2% respectively.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, I’m not entirely sure I feel as optimistic as Mr. Everitt. A 1.1% increase on last September’s figures is hardly a reversal of the 6.3% decline in van registrations for the year to date (compared to the first 9 months of 2011). Nor does it complete reverse the rolling year decline of 2.6%, although it’s certainly a move in the right direction.<\/p>\n

My feeling is that if the plate change only delivered a 1.1% boost, we are likely to be back into flat or negative territory by the end of this month — although I would be very happy to be proved wrong!<\/p>\n

\"SMMT

SMMT commercial vehicle registration figures (courtesy of SMMT)<\/p><\/div>\n

Big Vans vs. Little Vans<\/h3>\n

Interestingly, the mix of different types of light commercial vehicles continues to change. This year has seen fewer sub-2t and 2.5t-3.5t van sales, as this SMMT graph shows:<\/p>\n

\"Light

Light commercial vehicle registrations by type (courtesy of SMMT)<\/p><\/div>\n

Truckin’ Ahead<\/h3>\n

For those that are interested, truck sales have continued to perform more strongly than van sales, especially in the light rigid (3.5t – 6.0t) category, where new registrations were up by 23.4% on the same period last year and are up 48.6% for the year to date.<\/p>\n

Registrations of larger rigids have also grown strongly and are up 28% (6.0t – 16t) and 26% (>16t) on the year to date, although >16t recorded an 18% fall in registrations in September compred to September last year.<\/p>\n

\"Truck

Truck registrations for 2011 and 2012 YTD, divided into rigid and artics -- rigids have gained strongly this year (courtesy of SMMT)<\/p><\/div>\n

Artic sales are flagging and are down 6.2% on the year to date, although sales of 3-axle artics (by far the most popular), rose by 3% last month, perhaps because of the plate change effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest SMMT figures show that van registrations rose by 1.1% in September compared to the same period last year — but is it a sign of stability or simply the plate change effect?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[1212,310,1328],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3832"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3840,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions\/3840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}