Pre-owned truck dealers shift to eBay to reach rural mkts

Ban on old trucks triggerring the trend.

With state governments drafting strict regulations regarding the prohibition of trucks with a life of over 7-10 years on Indian roads especially in the metro and tier I cities, eBay Motors India "" the online B2B motors marketplace of eBay "" is witnessing a huge number of automobile dealers and small transporters sourcing older trucks online to be sold to a wider number of regional dealers in tier II cities and below.

Recent overloading laws and rise in interest rates making new truck financing expensive have also contributed in the growth of dealers opting for transactions online.

eBay Motors India has re-corded a total of 150,000 online vehicle transactions since August 2002 and the company has estimated the online used vehicle opportunity/market across all segments to be around Rs 9,000 crore.

The company has over 10,000 dealers of which 68 per cent are from the non-metro towns. Further, 25 per cent of these dealers now source their vehicles online through eBay Motors, said Amit Bhartiya, Director, eBay Motors India who added that the overall used vehicle segment was growing 13-15 per cent annually.

Typically, deals on the Large Commercial Vehicle (LCV) segment are wrapped up around Rs 2.5-3 lakh while those of Heavy Commercial Vehicle (HCV) are usually between Rs 7.5 -8 lakh through the online platform.

The vehicles have an average usage period of around 3-4 years. eBay Motors is especially attracting companies fulfilling construction and infrastructure contracts who later want to dispose their trucks through a wide platform for quick disposals and maximum returns, said Bhartiya.

While dealers from smaller towns and cities are now discovering the internet to buy or sell trucks, Bhartiya said that financing purchases was still a obstacle faced by these dealers since banks and financial institutions were reluctant about lending to smaller traders.

To overcome this, eBay has admitted to being in discussions with banks and financial institutions to help create a product to facilitate credit access for smaller dealers trading online.

The company recently launched a Motors classifieds category on its website on the back of a reasoning that "used cars" is one of the largest searched keywords on eBay.

Those consumers who offer their vehicles for sale through the classifieds section on ebay.in are able to do so for free while the sellers on the B2B marketplace are charged between 2-5 per cent depending on the vehicle.