More details have emerged about the collapse of truck rental firm PT Hire, with its administrator saying it had more than 80 MAN lorries off the road at one point due to “significant mechanical issues”.
FRP Advisory said the Derbyshire firm was hit by rising inflation, interest rate rises and the illegal invasion of Ukraine, all of which forced many haulage firms out of business.
It had also suffered when it took over a site in Scotland following the purchase of another business out of administration, and the contract turned out to be loss making.
However, despite these financial setbacks, PT Hire was regularly operating at a 98% utilisation rate of its 500-strong fleet of trucks.
But in early 2024 the hire firm began to experience issues with MAN’s Euro 6c engines within its fleet: “Significant mechanical issues meant vehicles began to suffer various mechanical failures and had to be taken off the road,” FRP said.
“By the summer of 2024, over 80 trucks were off the road and unable to be rented out.
“As these vehicles were held under hire purchase agreements the monthly obligations of c. £60,000 were still required to be paid and this had a huge impact on the company’s cashflow.”
FRP said PT Hire’s directors managed to negotiate a “level of forbearance” with its lenders while a resolution was sought with MAN and it also struck a time-to-pay agreement with HMRC to deal with tax arrears.
But despite conversations and meetings between the company directors, FRP, MAN and the truck maker’s lawyers, no suitable solution could be found and eventually PT Hire entered administration in October having been unable to find a purchaser of the business.
MAN did not respond to our request for a comment.
