Britannia AuctionsCommercial vehicle and fleet auctions in Cardiff
The east of Cardiff runs on vehicles. Wentloog Industrial Estate and Capital Business Park hold courier depots and builders merchants, and Hadfield Road and Penarth Road hold the trade counters and vehicle workshops. Across the Bay, the studios and production firms run vans that have had racks, edit desks, generators and camera mounts built into them.
Any of those fleets can be sold in an online timed auction. The sale can run at your premises or the vehicles can be collected and sold from ours, depending on the lots, the yard and the timetable. We photograph and describe each vehicle where it stands, bidding runs a week or two with a viewing day, and buyers pay us before collecting in an agreed window.
Bidding runs online and is open to the whole of the UK, and the trade in Newport, Barry, Caerphilly and Bridgend, and up the valleys through Pontypridd, is within reach of a viewing day.
Courier and merchant fleets at Wentloog
A courier depot that loses a parcel contract and a builders merchant that closes a branch have the same problem in different shapes. The courier has twenty near identical panel vans with trackers and a bulkhead. The merchant has two dropsides with a crane on the back, a flatbed, a tipper and a couple of car derived vans, none of them alike. Both want the yard empty by a date.
Auction handles both. The identical vans are listed as separate lots, so each is priced on its own mileage, condition and paperwork rather than averaged into a batch. The merchant's mixed bag is listed the same way, and a crane dropside is judged on the crane's inspection report and rating as much as on the vehicle.
Wentloog was laid out for articulated traffic. We confirm the access and the turning space when we walk the site so the catalogue can tell buyers what to send, and the A48(M) reaches the M4 in minutes.
Fitted out vans from studios and site crews
Media and creative firms in the Bay build vans into working rooms. Camera trucks with racking and cable drums, crew vans with seating and lockers, vans with a generator and an edit desk in the back, and pickups with a tow bar for a trailer generator all turn up when a production company winds up or a contract with a broadcaster ends. The question every seller asks is whether to strip the fit out before the sale.
It depends which buyers the van is aimed at. A working generator and sound racking are worth keeping for a buyer in the same trade, and we photograph the interior so they can judge it. An edit desk bolted to the floor is worth nothing to a plumber and costs him a Saturday to remove, so a van aimed at the general trade is better emptied first. We give you a view on likely interest once we have seen it.
Vehicle mounted equipment on a flatbed is described the same way.
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 Cardiff
- We run a courier fleet from Wentloog and the vans have trackers and shelving. Should we take them out?
Take the trackers out, or have your provider disable them, because a buyer will not want a van reporting to your account. Shelving can stay. It is useful to the next courier, and a van that is already racked saves an owner driver the job of fitting it out. Remove vinyl livery, keep the keys and V5C documents together for each van, and we will do the rest at the depot.
- Our production company is closing and we have three vans with generators and edit desks built in. Who buys those?
Other production firms and equipment hire companies are the obvious market for a van that is already fitted for the job, and because that market is thin on the ground the catalogue is written for bidders anywhere in the UK. We photograph the interior, run the generator where it is safe to do so and list the hours. If a van is too specialised to reach that market, we would advise stripping it and selling a plain van to the general trade. Either way, three vans is not too small a 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.