UK operators are typically thought of as a conservative bunch and research conducted on behalf of Motor Transport late last year goes some way towards providing that idiom, as Euro-5 continues to dominate UK operator fleets.
That said, the findings of the 2015 Overview of the UK Commercial Vehicle Industry report, produced by MT publisher Road Transport Media on behalf of Texaco and in association with Continental, Euro-6 has made remarkable headway in the past two years showing that we shouldn’t believe everything we hear.
The survey of 500 operators accounted for a combined fleet of some 74,000 trucks, an average of 148 per operator, and it found that 57% of all vehicles in the sample were Euro-5, up from 48% when the survey was conducted at the end of 2013.
The headway Euro-6 has made is remarkable, considering the scare stories regarding the premium attached to the purchase price and running costs of such vehicles. From a marginal 1% penetration of UK operator fleets in 2012, it has jumped to 6% in 2013 and now accounts for 9% of all vehicles run by UK operators.
Unsurprisingly the popularity of Euro-3 and Euro-4 is diminishing: Euro-3 fell from 15% penetration in 2013 to 10% in 2014, while Euro-4 fell from 31% in 2013 to 24% in 2014, albeit still accounting for one in every four vehicles on the road.
Larger operators (51 vehicles or more) are more likely to run Euro-5, at 59%, compared to 44% in medium-sized operators (26 to 50 vehicles) and 39% in small operators (5 to 25 vehicles).
TREND IN EMISSION LEVELS
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |
| Euro-3 | 22% | 13% | 9% | 15% | 10% |
| Euro-4 | 36% | 50% | 37% | 31% | 24% |
| Euro-5 | 42% | 32% | 53% | 48% | 57% |
| Euro-6 | 0% | 0% | 1% | 6% | 9% |
SOURCE: OVERVIEW OF THE UK COMMERCIAL VEHICLE INDUSTRY REPORT 2015
The most popular marque is Daf (30%) followed by Mercedes-Benz (19%) – roughly reflective of new truck registration trends over recent years.
While Euro-6 had a considerable impact on vehicle purchases in 2014, the survey also shows it could have been a lot worse. A staggering 44% of operators said that Euro-6 had had no impact whatsoever on their vehicle acquisition strategies, but a remarkable fifth of the market (22%) said they had pulled forward buying cycles to avoid buying Euro-6 vehicles.
The report also shows an continuing increase in the level of optimism expressed by operators – and this will translating into vehicles being sold. Those surveyed predict buying an average of 29.6 vehicles in the 12 months ahead, up from the 25.9 new vehicles acquired in 2014.
The 2015 Overview of the UK Commercial Vehicle Industry report is essential reading for anyone wishing to know the size, scope and scale of the UK road transport industry. It analyses O-licence data from the Office of the Traffic Commissioner; vehicle registrations at the Department for Transport; new truck registration data from the SMMT; the level of compliance among UK and foreign-registered operators and the state of the UK economy.
It also looks at vehicle acquisition and running behaviour based on a survey of 500 operators, from the types and trends in vehicle ownership, through to a breakdown of maintenance methods and average fuel efficiency levels throughout the industry.
