Britannia AuctionsCommercial vehicle and fleet auctions in Milton Keynes
Two very different fleets come up for sale here. The first is the retail and parcel fleet from the sheds at Magna Park and Tongwell, which arrives in batches of a dozen or more when a contract changes hands. The second comes from the automotive and motorsport firms on Knowlhill and Kingston, and it is a stranger mix: race transporters, articulated units with living space in the trailer, support vans and the odd pickup that has spent its life in a paddock. Both suit an online timed auction, and both do better when the catalogue is written with the right buyers in mind.
We photograph and describe every vehicle where it is parked, run bidding for a week or two with a viewing day, and buyers pay us before they collect. Bidding is open to bidders anywhere in the UK, with Bedford, Luton, Northampton and Aylesbury in reach of a viewing day.
Race transporters and support vans at the end of the season
Motorsport runs to a calendar, and the vehicles come to market when it ends. A team that has lost its budget or changed formula has a transporter, an awning trailer, a pair of support vans and a pickup that cost money over the winter and earn nothing until spring. Selling in the autumn puts them in front of teams that are planning the next season rather than holding them through it.
We list a transporter the way a team manager reads it: the trailer's internal layout, the tail lift or ramp, the generator hours, the mileage on the unit and the plating dates, with photographs of the workshop area and the living quarters. Support vans and pickups are described as ordinary commercial vehicles, because that is the market for them. Livery comes off unless it is painted, and sponsor decals should go before we photograph.
Where the vehicles are viewed and collected
The grid roads reach almost any estate from junction 13 or 14 of the M1 without passing a house, and the yards at Magna Park and Tongwell were laid out for constant HGV movements. We still check the access, the turning space and the standing at your yard on the first visit, and where it suits, a distribution fleet is viewed and collected where it stands. The viewing day is a morning at the gate, and collection runs in a window agreed with your transport office.
The older estates at Bletchley need more thought. Vehicle repairers and trade units there often share a forecourt, and a couple of vans behind a locked gate on a busy road are usually better collected and sold from our own premises than viewed on the pavement. We say which way we would go after seeing the site.
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 Milton Keynes
- Our vans have telematics units and fleet trackers fitted. Do they come out before the sale?
The tracker belongs to whoever pays the subscription. If it is yours and the contract is ending, have it removed or deactivated before the viewing day, and tell us which vans still have one so we can say so in the listing. If it belongs to a leasing or fleet management provider, check the agreement, because it may have to go back to them. Buyers do not mind a blanked hole in the dash, but they do mind a device that still reports to someone else.
- Will a race transporter sell to anyone outside motorsport?
Yes. A transporter with a workshop area and living quarters is not only a motorsport lot: touring exhibitors, mobile workshop operators, event firms and film crews all use the same thing, and online bidding brings them to one catalogue. We market the sale to the motorsport trade and list it where general commercial buyers look too. What it makes depends on the layout, the condition and the plating dates, and a sensible reserve protects you if the specialist buyers do not turn up.
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.