Kenworth, Peterbilt Won’t Attend Mid-America

By Frederick Kiel, Staff Reporter

This story appears in the Jan. 26 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Paccar Inc. truck makers Peterbilt Motors Co. and Kenworth Truck Co. said they will not attend this year’s Mid-America Trucking Show, and instead will focus their marketing efforts on special events at their factories and dealerships.

The annual Mid-America Trucking Show, scheduled for March 19-21 in Louisville, Ky., bills itself as the “largest heavy-duty trucking show in America.”

“Kenworth will not be exhibiting at Mid-America this year, nor will we hold any press events,” spokesman Jeff Parietti told Transport Topics. “We are strategically refocusing our resources towards hosting more events at our plants and at our dealerships in order to meet with our customers on a more personalized basis and be able to offer them in-depth ride-and-drives.”

Parietti said that Kenworth is planning the first event in February at its main plant in Kirkland, Wash., where up to 200 customers and dealers may attend.

“This will increase the amount of time for ride-and-drives, and they’ll be able to visit our research and development facility as well,” Parietti said.

David Giroux, spokesman for Peterbilt, Denton, Texas, said much the same thing.

“We will be funding our new series of 2009 innovation and technology showcases by reallocating resources and, as such, Peterbilt will not be exhibiting at several industry trade shows in 2009, including Mid-America,” Giroux told TT. “Instead, we choose to bring our news directly to our customers and our media partners.”

Parietti and Giroux signaled their companies would likely cut back the number of shows they attend during the year, but did not name any others.

Truck makers sold only 133,473 new Class 8 tractors in the United States in 2008, down 11.6% from the very poor year of 2007, according to WardsAuto.com. Industry executives have said they expect 2009 sales to remain low.

Toby Young, president of Exhibit Management Associates Inc., which organizes Mid-America, said each company has exhibited at the show for the past 22 years.

“We respect the difficult decisions made by Kenworth and Peterbilt and we understand that the economy is having an impact on all of our exhibitors and attendees,” Young told TT. “We are pleased that the other truck OEMs have maintained their commitment to the show, as have more than 850 exhibiting companies.”

Other truck manufacturers indicated that they would attend Mid-America, but could pull back from other shows later this year.

“We’ll be at Mid-America, where we’ll be showcasing our new 15-liter engine,” Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley told TT. “Beyond that, we’re in tough times and we’ll evaluate each show to see whether enough of our customers are attending to make it worthwhile.”

“We will be attending MATS [but] we are looking at [other] shows and evaluating, just as everybody else is doing,” Maria McCullough, spokeswoman for Daimler Trucks North America, told TT.

DTNA builds Freightliner and Western Star trucks, as well as Detroit Diesel Corp. engines. Sterling Trucks, which is being phased out this year, has not exhibited at Mid-America since 2006, Mid-America organizers said.

“We are most certainly going to be at MATS, where Detroit Diesel will be unveiling its BlueTec system and hardware,” David Siler, DD’s director of marketing, told TT. “Otherwise, DD is scaling back its activity where it makes sense to do so in this competitive yet significantly stressed market,” Siler said. “We have no definitive plans at this point to forgo any major trade shows but have to be sensitive about the market conditions we’re all facing.”

Volvo Trucks North American, Mack Trucks and engine maker Cummins Inc. all said they would be attending Mid-America, but declined to discuss future plans.

Caterpillar Inc., which is withdrawing from the heavy-duty market after 2009, is currently signed on as exhibitor this year, Young said. Caterpillar did not confirm this to TT.

The MATS Web site carries an announcement that the Great American Insurance Group Trucking Division will give away a new Kenworth W900 heavy-duty tractor to one of the people who register online or at the insurance group’s booth at MATS.

“Our plans are to move forward with offering a new Kenworth truck at the Mid-America Trucking show, no matter what the company Kenworth does,” Ingrid Ross, spokeswoman for Great American’s trucking division, told TT.