Britannia AuctionsCommercial vehicle and fleet auctions in Portsmouth
Portsmouth has a lot of small fleets. Vehicle repairers, trade counters, small builders and marine engineers on the older estates at Fratton, Cosham and Paulsgrove each run a handful of vans, a recovery truck, a pickup or a plant trailer, and defence and electronics contractors at Hilsea and Dunsbury Park run engineers' vans on programmes that end when the programme does. When a repairer retires or a contract finishes, those vehicles need to be gone by the day the unit is handed back.
We photograph and describe the vehicles where they are parked, list them in an online timed auction that runs a week or two, and hold a viewing day at the premises before it closes. Buyers pay us, then collect in an agreed window.
Bidding is open to the rest of the country, with Havant, Gosport, Fareham and Chichester in reach of a viewing day.
Selling up a vehicle repair business on the older estates
A repairer closing on one of the estates at Fratton or Cosham usually has more vehicles than they realise. A recovery truck, courtesy cars, a parts van, a pickup for collecting engines and a couple of customer vehicles that were never collected. We sort out which are yours to sell, which are on finance, which are held for unpaid bills and which belong to someone else, and we catalogue the workshop equipment in the same sale so the lifts, the tyre machine, the compressor and the diagnostic gear go out on the same collection days as the vans.
The recovery truck is usually the main lot. The plated weight, the winch and bed condition, the mileage and any operator's licence history all belong in the listing, and a reserve on that vehicle is sensible. Courtesy cars and small vans are ordinary lots, and an MOT with a few months left on it takes one question off the bidder.
Getting vehicles off the island
The island matters for collection, so the approach is what we look at first. Everything from Hilsea southwards leaves by the M275 or the A3, and a transporter picking up from the Airport Industrial Estate joins the M27 a few minutes later. Further into the city the sites are older, with shared forecourts and on street parking, and when we walk the site we check the turning space, the standing and where a buyer could load. What we find goes in the listing, or the vehicles are collected and sold from our own premises instead.
Dunsbury Park and the estates at Havant are the simpler end. Yards there were built for lorries, and where the first visit confirms it, a fleet of engineers' vans from a defence or electronics contractor is sold from where it is parked, with collection hours agreed with whoever is still running the building.
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 Portsmouth
- We have a fleet of racked engineers' vans coming off a defence programme. Should the security markings and racking come out first?
Racking stays; markings go. Racking is worth having to an owner driver or a trade buyer, so leave it in and we photograph it. Anything that identifies the programme or the site, from door decals to pass holders and window stickers, should come out before we photograph, and any tracker or radio fit belonging to the client needs to go back to them. Tell us if the vans carry a tow bar or a roof rack, because both are worth listing.
- We are a boatyard at Portchester with a crane lorry and a plant trailer. Do they sell with the yard kit or on their own?
In one catalogue. A crane lorry from a boatyard is a specialist lot with a market in the marine trade, the building trade and plant hire, and bidding is online, so the catalogue reaches all of them wherever they are. A plant trailer that has moved tenders and engines sits naturally beside the yard's forklift and cradles, and listing them together puts the whole yard in front of one set of bidders on one date. We set a reserve on the lorry, photograph the crane, the bed and the outriggers, and note the last inspection certificate for the crane in the listing.
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.