Britannia AuctionsCommercial vehicle and fleet auctions in Bristol
Avonmouth and Severnside are where the big warehouse fleets of the south west sit, and warehouse contracts change hands. A food and drink distributor loses a customer, a national operator consolidates two sheds into one at Central Park, and thirty tractor units and trailers are surplus on the same Monday. Elsewhere in the city the fleets are smaller and more varied. Aerospace suppliers on the north fringe run tidy vans, and waste firms at Avonmouth run hook loaders. Builders at St Philips Marsh and Brislington run tippers and crew cabs.
We sell any of them by online timed auction, cataloguing at the yard, running bidding for a week or two and handing over to buyers in an agreed collection window.
With the M4 and M5 meeting at Almondsbury, the trade in Bath, Weston and across the bridge in South Wales is close enough to come and look. Bidding runs online and is open to the rest of the UK.
Warehouse fleets on the Severnside estates
A large shed fleet is straightforward to catalogue and easy to undersell. The yards at Avonmouth and Central Park were laid out for artics, and when we first visit we check what the access, the turning space and the hard standing will take, so the catalogue can tell buyers what to send. The harder part is that a fleet of that size has vehicles at every stage of life, and a single batch price from a dealer treats them all the same.
At auction each tractor unit and trailer is a separate lot. A unit is judged on mileage, service history, MOT and tachograph calibration, and a trailer on its plated test and the state of the curtains or the box. The older end of a fleet is usually where export interest sits, and Royal Portbury Dock is on the doorstep for a buyer who wants to ship.
Reserves can be set on the main units and the rest left to find their level.
Tighter yards on the inner city estates
The inner city estates are where the smaller fleets are, and some of those sites were laid out long before anyone thought about transporters. A builder's yard at St Philips Marsh with four tippers and a crew cab, or a printer at Brislington with three Lutons behind a railway arch, needs the approach and the turning space looked at before anything is promised. We check that when we first visit and say whether buyers collect by appointment from the yard or whether the vehicles come to our own premises and are sold from there.
The waste and recycling fleets are heavier. Hook loaders and skip lorries need somewhere to park that is not between two full bins, and a viewing day works better if the operator keeps one bay clear.
Whichever site, the M32 and the A4 Portway bring buyers in from the motorway without the centre.
What these sales can include
- Panel vans
- Long wheelbase vans
- Luton box vans with tail lifts
- Tippers and dropside trucks
- Refrigerated vans
- Rigid lorries
- Tractor units
- Curtainside trailers
- Flatbed and skeletal trailers
- Minibuses and welfare vehicles
- Pickups and 4x4s
- Car derived vans
- Plant trailers
- Vehicle mounted equipment
How the sale runs
We photograph and describe each vehicle, record the mileage and note known faults. The vehicles are listed in an online timed auction and the catalogue is marketed to trade buyers, hauliers, owner drivers and export buyers. Bidders can inspect on a viewing day, usually at your yard or ours, and lots close in sequence on the sale date.
Lots are offered as seen under the auction terms, and buyers are expected to inspect before bidding. The buyer pays the hammer price plus a buyer's premium, with VAT charged where it applies and shown separately on the buyer's invoice. Your charge is a separate commission, with any costs agreed in advance, deducted from the proceeds.
Reserves can be set on individual vehicles where there is a clear reason, such as a finance settlement figure.
The commercial vehicle and fleet auctions page covers when auction suits a fleet, paperwork that affects the price, livery and fleet kit, after the hammer.
Questions about selling in Bristol
- Do buyers come over the bridge from South Wales for a viewing day at Avonmouth?
They can. Avonmouth sits on the M5 with the M49 and M4 minutes away, so a haulier from across the bridge or a builder from Bath is at the gate inside an hour, and the viewing day is open to anyone who wants to come. It is not the whole market, though. Bidding is online, so the catalogue is also in front of buyers who will never see the yard and who judge a lot on the photographs, the mileage and the MOT dates. That is why the description has to be accurate.
- We are a waste contractor with skip lorries and grab lorries as well as vans. Do they sell in the same auction?
Yes. One catalogue with the heavy vehicles and the vans is marketed to two groups of buyers at once, waste operators for the skip and hook loaders and the general trade for the vans, and each lot finds its own price. Grab lorries want the crane inspection and the body condition described plainly, and we do that. Where the fleet is spread between Avonmouth and a second yard, we catalogue at both and list one sale.
More questions about vehicles and fleets
Related services
Guides
- Selling a commercial vehicle fleet
Fleet sales turn on paperwork as much as on price. This guide covers the V5C, MOT and plating documents, clearing finance before listing, keys and livery, recording mileage and tachograph data, and how to defleet in batches while still trading.