It took a pandemic for Commercial Vehicle Auctions to shift the truck auction exclusively online. Ross Dalton and Jonathan Earp recall the transformation and why it works to Kevin Swallow.
I REMEMBER my first truck auction at Doncaster back in 2003. Trucks and people on the move, auctioneers’ rhythmic patter battling the babble and laughter, the smell of bacon butties and diesel engines, not to mention the weather.
People dressed in overalls or smart casual kicked the tyres, opened doors to look inside the cab or peered into the chassis for signs of oil. Buyers nodded, winked or waved the programme to register a bid. Auctioneers had eyes in the back of their heads. All the while sandwiched between a four-hour round trip, I marked the catalogue with ‘sold’ or ‘provisional’.
A sale was the climax of two weeks preparation of magazine ads and phone calls. Through the early noughties came the CVA website so people could go online to see what was on offer. In 2007 CVA unveiled its online auction facility.
