Britannia AuctionsCommercial vehicle and fleet auctions in Peterborough
Peterborough sells vehicles at the meeting point of two trades. The agricultural machinery dealers and engineers around the city run pickups, 4x4s, plant trailers and dropsides to get parts and small kit out to farms, and the food processors and packaging firms run refrigerated vans and box vans on daily rounds. Above both sit the national depots on Fengate and the logistics sheds at the Gateway site by the A1(M), where a lost contract can leave a yard full of rigids and curtainside trailers.
An online timed auction sells all of them on one date. We describe each vehicle at the seller's yard, run bidding for a week or two with a viewing day, and buyers pay us before they collect.
Bidding is open to the whole UK, and Spalding, Wisbech, Stamford and Huntingdon are in reach of a viewing day.
Pickups and plant trailers after the season
Farm machinery dealers replace their service fleet on a cycle, and the old pickups come to market after the autumn work is done. A dealer's pickup has usually towed a plant trailer for years, so we describe the tow gear, the load bed, the tyres and the underside honestly, and we photograph the trailer's brakes, lights, deck and coupling as well as the plate. This kit is aimed at farmers, groundworks contractors, landscapers and small plant hire yards, who know what a hard life looks like, so an accurate listing is worth more than a flattering one.
Vehicle mounted equipment is common here too. A service van with a compressor and a crane, or a rigid with a lorry loader for delivering parts, is judged on the equipment as much as the chassis, so we list the equipment's test certificate alongside the vehicle's MOT.
Selling from Fengate and the Gateway sheds
The big depots are the simpler sale. A parcel or pallet operator on Fengate or at the Gateway site at Alwalton has a yard laid out for artics, and where the first visit confirms the access and the standing, a fleet of rigids and trailers is viewed and collected where it stands. The viewing day is a morning at the gate, and collection runs in a window agreed with the transport office so it does not clash with your own movements. Junction 17 of the A1(M) is close by.
Refrigerated vans from the food processors need one extra step. We run the fridge unit before photography where it is safe to do so, and the listing says whether it held temperature and whether the unit runs on the engine or on standby power. That is what a caterer or a food wholesaler reads first, wherever they are bidding from.
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 Peterborough
- We are a machinery dealer in Whittlesey with four pickups and two plant trailers to sell before the new ones arrive. How do we time it?
Work back from the delivery date of the new vehicles. If the replacements arrive in a month, we catalogue the old ones now and set the auction to close ahead of delivery, with collection in the days either side, so you are not left without a service vehicle. The exact dates depend on the number of lots and the access at the yard. Where a pickup is on finance, it stays with the funder until the agreement is settled, so ask for a settlement figure at the start. The trailers can stay in use until the viewing day, provided the photographs match what buyers will see.
- Our fridge vans are on a food contract that ends in March. Is spring a good time to sell them?
A fridge van is bought when a buyer's contract or season starts rather than in one month of the year, so the date matters less than the condition. Caterers, wholesalers, mobile food traders and event firms all buy them, and event work does pick up in spring. What moves the price is a fridge unit that has been serviced, a full service record, a clean insulated body and an MOT with months left. Sell when the contract ends rather than paying tax and insurance to wait for a better month.
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.