Britannia AuctionsCommercial vehicle and fleet auctions in Hull
Hull's fleets follow the port and the caravan works. Haulage yards along Hedon Road and around King George Dock run tractor units and curtainside trailers on ferry and container work. The caravan and holiday home plants and their joinery and chassis suppliers run box vans and dropsides between Sutton Fields and the factories in the East Riding. Food processors add refrigerated vans. Offshore wind and the chemicals park at Saltend add crew vans and pickups.
When a contract ends or a season finishes, any of those fleets can be sold in one online timed auction. We catalogue at your yard, run bidding for a week or two with a viewing day at the premises, and buyers collect in an agreed window after paying us.
Bidding is open to the whole of the UK, and Beverley, Goole, Brough and Barton over the bridge are all close enough to come and look.
Vans from the caravan supply chain
Caravan building has a season. Production runs hard through the winter and spring to fill dealer forecourts for Easter and the summer, then slows. The suppliers feeding the plants, joinery shops and chassis firms among them, feel the same cycle, and a firm that loses a plant contract or decides to stop can find itself with a yard of vans in the quiet months.
Those vans are useful lots. A Luton with a tail lift that has carried furniture to a factory gate is the kind of vehicle removals firms and delivery contractors look for. A dropside from a chassis supplier is aimed at the building trade, and car derived vans at sole traders. Each is priced on its mileage, its MOT and the state of the body.
We would sell a batch like this in one auction rather than piecemeal, so the good ones are not discounted to shift the tired ones.
Trailers and tractor units by the docks
Port haulage yards on Hedon Road turn over trailers as ferry contracts change, and they are usually catalogued and sold where they stand. We check the approach and the turning space on the first visit, and where a buyer's tractor unit can drop in, hook up and leave, the collection window runs straight from the yard. We list curtainsiders and box trailers with the plated test date, the tyre condition, the state of the curtains or doors, and photographs of the chassis and landing legs, because those are what a haulier is judging.
Export buyers are part of the market here. Older tractor units go to bidders who want to ship them, and having a port on the doorstep saves a road move. We do not promise that an export bid arrives, but the catalogue is marketed where they look.
The A63 is busy at peak times, so viewing and collection hours are set around it where the yard allows.
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 Hull
- We are a joinery firm supplying the caravan works and want to stop at the end of the season. Is autumn a bad time to sell vans?
Not necessarily. Vans are bought by people who need one that week, and removals firms and delivery contractors need vans all year. What matters more is that each van has its V5C, an MOT with some months left and a service record buyers can read. Sell when the business needs the money and the yard, and let the date of the auction be set by your lease or your last delivery rather than the calendar.
- Can we keep running the haulage yard on Hedon Road while six surplus trailers are sold?
Yes. We photograph and describe the trailers in a single visit and they stay in a corner of the yard until collection. Bidding is online, so there is no crowd at the gate, and the viewing day is a few hours with buyers walking round trailers that are parked up and labelled. In the collection window we agree the hours with your transport office, so a buyer's unit arrives when your own are out on the road.
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.