Success at Palmer & Harvey auction

A two-day auction of vehicles from defunct operator Palmer & Harvey resulted in the sale of more than 200 trucks and trailers as well as strong online bidding from overseas buyers.

The wholesaler went into administration in November with the loss of 2,500 jobs, and administrator PwC, working with asset valuation company Hilco Global, appointed Protruck and Fleet Auction Group to sell the fleet. On 23 January, Doncaster-based Protruck auctioned approximately 100 trucks from Palmer & Harvey’s northern depots, with a 2012 Mercedes-Benz Axor with box body attracting the highest bids.

A day later, about 100 trucks from the haulier’s southern operating centres went under the hammer at Fleet Auction Group’s Coalville base. A 2009 Scania P320 6x2 day cab with box body, 377,000km on the clock and MoT’d until August attracted the most interest. And a 2012 DAF LF 4x2 day cab with Frigoblock fridge unit, which had clocked up 231,000km, was also the subject of strong bidding.

Several 08-plate Iveco Eurocargo 4x2 day cabs with fridges were up for sale, while the youngest truck auctioned was an Isuzu Forward with tail-lift, registered in February 2013. Protruck auctioneer Charlie Wright told CM: “The auction met our expectations; some of the prices, particularly for the DAF CFs, exceeded expectations. We also had strong bids online from overseas buyers.

“A lot of the vehicles carried out stop-start jobs from corner shop to corner shop for Palmer & Harvey so were fairly similar and came with relatively low mileages. Some of the trucks with steel suspension and manual gearboxes will probably be knocked down into skip-loaders and scaffolding lorries.”

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