Today we took a drive to the Pretoria branch of a company that specializes in commercial vehicles as we need two for work. I must have looked at hundreds of vehicles and out of those hundreds only one stood out ticking all the boxes. There was a lot of "crap" that would be just too risky and with season coming up quickly purchasing a vehicle that maybe suspect would be reckless.
There were quite a few Chinese and Indian models that were crossed off immediately and they are here being sold for a reason and it is never a good reason either. There were some non runners and again you may get lucky or maybe not as someone sold it because it was going to cost too much to fix.
This vehicle is a Hino which is a subsidiary company of the Toyota Motor Corporation so the engine quality and reliability will be something you can bank on. This vehicle is one year old and has only 24 000 kilometers on the clock which is 15 000 miles so this has not even been broken in yet and still new.
I have had a similar sized truck in the past and is about the biggest truck I can purchase knowing the quality of the drivers. Unfortunately you have to think like this and unlike in the rest of the world this is Africa and driving standards are virtually non existent. Just the 45 minute drive to Pretoria we avoided at least two crashes as the normal rules of the road do not apply here. A vehicle ahead of us overtook a dumpster truck on the inside lane and was nearly squashed into the barriers which made us have to take avoiding action.
We have managed to get rid of our entire fleet over the last six months and even though a bigger truck would be better this will help us get by. Trucks are tied up for hours in queues when delivering to the online platform warehouses so it makes sense to use their transport and this vehicle for all the other customers.
Last year we managed to sell over 8000 items between Black Friday and the first week of December which was a 50% increase on the year before. Who knows if this year will be busier or the figures will drop off as that is the million dollar question. I am a realist and knowing the state of the economy has deteriorated since last year I do expect the numbers to decline and happy to be proved wrong. If there is no disposable income with the credit cards having been maxed out which is what we have been told by Debt Busters then this could be a bleak Christmas season.
All I have to do now is some extra homework double checking this deal is the best deal on offer. There are many vehicles being repossessed and by chance there could be a similar vehicle available on auction which could save me an extra 30% or a little more on this deal. I need to make the call this week as next week I am in Durban for the entire week and this vehicle could be sold by then. Time is not your friend and when you see something that looks decent then you have to decide quickly because there are others looking so by Thursday I need to say yes or no.
