TORONTO (Jan. 28) — The morning after Ontario Trucking Association board members hosted about 40 industry supplier representatives at a dinner and tour of the National Trade Centre in downtown Toronto, where the OTA plans to host a truck show in September 2000, organizers of Truckcan scrambled to demonstrate their level of commitment to the association.

Southex Exhibitions, the Toronto-based manager of Truckcan, issued a press release yesterday detailing $512,000 in contributions to the OTA since the biennial truck show — Canada’s largest — began in 1982. In the past, the OTA had agreed to support Truckcan in exchange for a negotiated fee. Its contract with Southex expired in 1998, and last month the association announced it would produce a competing show to be held five weeks before Truckcan.

The association was paid $100,000 in 1998; $100,000 in 1996; $75,536 in 1994; $35,313 in 1992; $45,051 in 1990; $47,634 in 1988; $39,282 in 1986; $39, 282 in 1984; and $30,000 in 1982, Southex said.

“The increased amount given to the OTA comes from Southex’s profits and not at the expense of exhibitors,” said Southex group manager Chris Seeney, explaining that exhibitor show rates have increased by an average of 3% a year. “Southex understands the importance of maintaining a strong commitment to local truck markets while it expands its truck show operation in Canada and worldwide.”

Seeney said the partnership between Truckcan and the OTA is mututally beneficial, and implied that the relationship should continue.

He pointed out that Southex is the largest single contributor to OTA, “enabling them to represent the interests of Ontario trucking companies before governments and provide educational and other commercial services to its members and to non-members.”

The OTA has no plans to scrap its show and endorse Truckcan, said association chairman Dan Einwechter, president of Challenger Motor Freight in Cambridge, Ont.

Einwechter said the fee paid to the association in 1998 is “not even 10% of the profit” Southex earned on Truckcan last year.

“Our suppliers want to see that profit — 100% — go to the benefit of the industry they serve,” he said. “They’re looking forward to a top-quality, industry-driven show in a wonderful facility.”

The OTA has said earnings from its show would be split between the OTA and the Canadian Trucking Alliance, which is comprised of the provincial trucking associations.

Last month, Seeney told NewsFIRST that Southex hardly plans to fold the Truckcan tent. He said 91% of exhibit space had been reserved for Truckcan 2000, and, if need be, Southex could afford to “give away space for free for a number of years” in order to compete with the OTA show.

Southex produces 110 exhibitions in North America and is a division of media giant Daily Mail General Trust plc, based in London. Worldwide, DMG manages more than 200 consumer and trade events. The group includes broadcast and publishing companies, including one that produces the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday newspapers.

Einwechter said he was confident that industry suppliers would be loyal to fleet customers who support the OTA show. However, he acknowledged that some suppliers have expressed that they are feeling pressured to do so.

“Do I sense that maybe some suppliers felt that? Yes,” Einwechter admitted. “I’m not trying to put them in an adverse position or to squeeze them like that. But you know, I was a non-believer at first when I looked at this show. Now I’m convinced that it’s right for the industry, and I’m enthusiastic about it. I’m hoping some of that enthusiasm will rub off.”