25 YEARS AT THE TOP

25 YEARS AT THE TOP

There’s been plenty for DAF Trucks to celebrate recently, but the business isn’t standing still

Words: John Challen

Photographs: Karl Hopkinson

There were double celebrations at DAF Trucks in January, as the company posted recordbreaking market share figures and also achieved the milestone of being at the top in the UK, for 25 years straight.

First, the news from 2019 in isolation. DAF Trucks took its largest-ever share of the UK truck market, with 30.5% of the market above 6.0 tonnes GVW – up from 27.2% in 2018. This percentage out-performed the company’s previous high of 30.1% in 2016. There were a total of 14,814 DAF registrations in 2019 – the highest volume for any manufacturer since 1988, when DAF Trucks registered over 15,000 trucks in a UK market where vehicles above 6.0-tonnes accounted for almost 68,000 units.

“Our all-time-high market share is testament to our customers and their continued support and the confidence they place in the DAF brand,” says Laurence Drake, DAF Trucks’ managing director in the UK.

Catalysts, for this higher demand, were concerns over potential tariffs for imported chassis ahead of the UK’s originally scheduled Brexit date of March 2019, the introduction of SMART tachos causing a pull forward in June and further Brexit concerns before its rescheduled October deadline. DAF Trucks’ order book was further boosted by customers investing in Euro 6-compliant vehicles to comply with London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone and other planned Clean Air Zones throughout the UK.

“The best products and services are developed through close cooperation with end-users,” adds Drake. “We rely on those relationships; with customers who tell us what we do right, and perhaps more importantly, what we do wrong. This dialogue enables us to develop and deliver products and services that meet the market’s ever-changing

Image supplied by DAF Trucks

Left to right: Jonathan Dudley, Claire Weller & gold medal winner Mathew Hands

requirements.”

The vast majority of DAF vehicles for the UK market are built at Leyland Trucks in Lancashire. The state-of-the-art production facility produced over 19,500 vehicles in 2019, with more than 12,500 going to UK operators and just over 7,100 exported across the world to 51 countries.

A quarter century of quality

The latest market share success figures coincide with DAF Trucks celebrating 25 years at the top of the sales charts in the UK.

To mark DAF Trucks’ 25-year market leader milestone, a fleet of special DAF demonstrators, painted in ‘liquid metal silver’ and embellished with special commemorative livery, will be hitting the road over the coming weeks across the DAF dealer network. The three-axle XF tractor unit demonstrators are spec’d with Super Space Cabs to correspond with the joint milestone of producing 250,000 Super Space Cabs since their introduction in 1994, one year before DAF began its unbroken streak atop the sales charts in the UK.

“We really want to celebrate our 25-year milestone and make a visual impact out on the road,” says DAF Trucks Marketing Manager, Phil Moon, “And we want drivers to share the experience, too. We have a thriving DAF driver community here in the UK, as evidenced by the DAF owner-drivers who turn out in their droves at industry events like Truckfest. DAF has always been a ‘driver’s truck’; good looks, well-equipped, spacious, exceptional performance – and all behind a DAF badge that is a symbol of outstanding quality.”

The next generation

Hoping to ensure DAF Trucks stays at the number one brand in the UK are a team of aspiring team of technicians, engineers and product specialists. One of the company’s apprentices –Mathew Hands, from DAF dealer Brian Currie in Bedford –emerged victorious at the national WorldSkills UK National Final at the NEC.

The Gold medal triumph completed an

OUR ALL-TIME-HIGH MARKET SHARE IS TESTAMENT TO OUR

CUSTOMERS AND THEIR CONTINUED SUPPORT AND THE CONFIDENCE THEY

PLACE IN THE

DAF BRAND

outstanding one-two for the DAF brand with Claire Weller from Adams Morey in Portsmouth, picking up the Silver medal. Both shared top spots on the podium in the Heavy Vehicle Technology category.

WorldSkills UK is a government-funded initiative that promotes apprenticeships and technical education, with the ambition of inspiring young people to consider a wide range of skilled, vocational career pathways. WorldSkills UK LIVE is the country’s largest apprenticeships, skills and careers event.

DAF Trucks enjoyed a significant presence at the event, with its dealership-style exhibition stand kittedout with workshop equipment and live demonstrations, against the backdrop of DAF’s crowd-pulling 530bhp XF Showtrekker tractor unit. Apprentice teams from DAF dealer groups, Ford & Slater and MOTUS Commercials, played a key in role in demonstrating to students the huge range of job opportunities that exist, in a modern truck dealership.

“We’re extremely proud of all three of our DAF Apprentices at the WorldSkills UK Final and we’re especially thrilled for Mathew and Claire, bringing home Gold and Silver medals,” says Drake.

“The WorldSkills UK event has really put DAF front-of-mind for the thousands of students who visited our stand and the excellent work from our MOTUS and Ford & Slater apprentice teams, helped deliver a clear message that DAF is a dynamic, forward-thinking and technologically advanced manufacturer,” he added.