Sell a used truck online: platforms, costs, process

Advantages and disadvantages of auctions, listing portals and transactional platforms when selling and buying commercial vehicles

Apart from the local dealer who buys trucks, most owners of used trucks can only think of mobile.de. But the options for advertising used trucks online and free of charge have increased. Here is a brief description of the three ways of selling a truck online.

Listing portals such as mobile.de at a glance

The best-known category for buying and selling vehicles is the listing portal. In Germany these include mobile.de, truckscout24 and eBay Kleinanzeigen. In principle, anyone who wants to sell their truck can advertise here. Listing portals focus solely on the listing itself. That means the vehicle is advertised with pictures and text, but the sale takes place offline. Everyone knows the many enquiries by email and telephone, or the meetings in person. The number and variety of truck listings is large: vans through to heavy haulage, semi-trailers and trailers. Accident-damaged vehicles are part of the range as well. The focus of most portals, mobile.de for example, is nevertheless on the car segment. The many variants are not reflected there (thermal insulation on tipper bodies, for instance), which means a laborious search for buyers, and many do not go to that trouble.

Truck auctions such as Troostwijk at a glance

Another way to buy and sell commercial vehicles is the online auction. In most cases, however, only dealers can register as buyers here. Dealers have to inspect the vehicles on site before they place a bid, because the rule is: sold as seen. Returning the vehicle later, or any goodwill, is ruled out. And that is reflected in more cautious bidding. At auctions, buying is usually only possible on the closing date or through a bidding agent. Some of the well-known auction websites are Autobid, BCA, Troostwijk, equippo and Zollauktion. Here, too, the largest auction platforms concentrate primarily on car listings. The variety of commercial vehicles is in some cases limited to particular vehicle types, such as vans.

Transactional sales platforms at a glance

The most recent category is the transactional sales platform. Here the entire sale – listing, valuation, inspection, sale and processing – takes place online. Negotiation is digital, and the platform provider is the contractual partner and point of contact for both sides. Sellers start the process online; registered dealers and workshops buy through the platform and use additional services such as logistics and document handling. Cars are generally not traded on specialised commercial vehicle platforms.

Checklist for selling a truck:

A business owner who wants to sell a commercial vehicle ideally wants, alongside a suitable sale price, no effort at all plus secure payment and processing. How far auctions, listing portals and transactional platforms meet these requirements is examined more closely against 5 criteria.

1. Influence on the sale price:
2. Business owners have the greatest influence with listing portals and transactional platforms. With listing portals, the negotiation takes place in person or over the telephone. The business owner can therefore decide for himself which offered price he accepts. With transactional platforms, the physical negotiation is brought into the digital world. Here, too, the seller is in the driving seat and can accept the price offered or not – simply digitally, at the push of a button. With auctions, by contrast, the influence on the final sale price is more limited. Once the reserve price has been exceeded, it is the bidders who ultimately determine the final sale price.
3. Easy to fit into the working day
4. Transactional platforms come out best on the question of fitting into the working day. The sales process starts with a short vehicle inspection, ideally as part of a service job, at the familiar truck workshop nearby. The platform takes care of listing the vehicle and marketing it internationally. Sellers enter into just 1 negotiation per vehicle, yet benefit from a large international pool of buyers whose offers (always only the highest offer) are passed on to the seller automatically by notification. Sellers then have the option of selling their commercial vehicles or making a counter-offer at any time while on the move – at the push of a button. With listing portals, by contrast, the effort lies for the most part with the seller. That includes the listing, answering questions from a large number of different interested parties by email or telephone, the negotiation in person on site and the handover.
5. International reach of the pool of buyers
6. All three categories have an international reach of buyers. There is nevertheless a significant difference. While auctions and listing portals often describe the condition of a vehicle in only one language (German, for example), transactional platforms translate every listing into at least 16 languages. The language barrier can therefore be overcome, and international buyers who do not speak German, for instance, are not shut out of the negotiation.
7. Costs for sellers
8. Transactional platforms are the only category that offers sellers its infrastructure as a sales channel free of charge. Auctions usually charge an auction fee for taking part, and with listing portals even placing the listing costs money. Depending on the number of vehicles to be sold, sellers should factor these costs into their decision.
9. Secure processing and payment
10. Auctions and transactional platforms give the seller a secure and guaranteed sales process once an offer has been accepted. Most auctions offer a processing and payment service. Transactional platforms guarantee the entire sales process and quick payment on handover of the vehicle. If they wish, sellers can in some cases also commission services such as deregistering the vehicle or removing the OBU. With listing portals, buyers' offers are sometimes very non-committal. The supposedly firm offer of, say, €30,000 net made over the telephone is negotiated down again at collection. As a seller you also cannot be 100% sure that the vehicle will really be bought and collected within a reasonable time. The risk lies with the seller.
    

Checklist for choosing a provider when buying a truck:

From the point of view of a buyer who ideally wants to buy inspected commercial vehicles including a service package with no effort, auctions, listing portals and transactional platforms again have certain advantages and disadvantages, which are examined more closely against 3 criteria.

1. Who offers the vehicles
2. While transactional platforms concentrate solely on vehicles owned by companies, auctions and listing portals offer both dealer and company vehicles. The focus of mobile.de and truckscout, for example, is on vehicles currently owned by truck dealers.
3. Reliability and level of detail of the vehicle data shown
4. At auctions, the reliability of the vehicle data is ensured by the auction houses themselves or by appointed assessors. The description of condition, however, is sometimes so general that buyers find it hard to make a purchase decision on the basis of the data given. Auction platforms themselves often recommend an additional inspection of the vehicles on site. Listing portals leave the description of condition to the sellers themselves. Sellers therefore decide for themselves how truthful and how detailed the vehicle listings are. Buyers are consequently always advised to take on the time-consuming and costly physical inspection on site. Ensuring an accurate description of condition is part of the business model of transactional platforms. On transactional platforms, the vehicles offered go through a standardised inspection process carried out by partner repair shops. Vehicle data, including the list of defects, is presented in the listing exactly as recorded. On the basis of the data given, buyers can make a purchase decision.
5. Easy to fit into the working day
6. For a buyer, the purchasing process via auctions and listing portals is hard to reconcile with the working day of a business owner or dealer. Although the search for vehicles takes place digitally, listing portals such as mobile.de do not offer a truck-specific search function. A business owner looking for a refrigerated box body finds it hard to narrow the search down to genuinely relevant listings. Filtering by a body length of 6 metres, for example, is not possible. In addition, a physical inspection on site is always recommended with both auctions and listing portals. Transactional platforms, by contrast, concentrate on making the purchase as simple as possible. From the search through bidding and negotiating with the seller to the purchase itself, everything takes place online via one platform, which can of course also be reached by mobile phone. Automated notifications support the purchasing process. Buyers can enter into negotiations with sellers at any time while on the move. Placing a bid is never more than a button press away. If the purchase is successful, buyers can even commission further logistics and document handling services.

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