Perth Show pulls 'em in

There was movement at the station, for the word had got around – that we're in a downturn and so why would you go to the 2015 Perth Truck & Trailer Show?

But it looks like the word was wrong – or at least that most operators had ignored it. Perth's bi-annual Truck Show followed on from the industry's premiere 2015 Brisbane Truck Show, and so many of the latter's headliners headed west for the WA event.

As such the 2015 Perth Truck & Trailer Show – held at the Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre over July 24 to 26 – was far more of an industry event than just a collection of trucks and related accessories.

While an official tally is yet to be announced, the crowd attendance figure for the show appears more or less the same as that for the 2013 event, which organiser Peter Woods of Premiere Productions views as a healthy result.

"I'm delighted," Peter told me at the mid-point on Saturday afternoon.

"Most of the people I've been chatting to are very busy with visitors, and most of those visitors are here to pick up ideas to optimise their business."

One exhibitor, Truckworld Rentals, seemed to agree. They said they'd had more enquiries at this year's show than they had had at the previous two.

The past emphasis on big-impact displays of new models, with a long line-up of bling – paint, chrome, stainless steel and highly polished aluminium – has morphed into a more practical exhibition with parts, components, gadgets, support systems and IT.

In an example of the latter, several distributors of dash-cam systems were exhibiting, with back-to-back video footage of nightmare accidents drawing a crowd. There's even an infra-red night vision system available for pushing your vision out to 800 metres in adverse conditions.

The product story is still strong, however, and at the top of the pile is Scania. The Swedish company brought its vivid-green Euro 6 prime movers to Perth, with engines that are at the peak of the global drive for ultra-clean, fuel-sipping on-road diesel technology. They're available in Australia before the regulators have even managed to decide when to adopt the requirements.

One impressive display was actually the result of a blunder. PACCAR ordered some DAF chassis that are so heavy they are virtually unsaleable in Australia. Somebody ticked the box for dual 10mm chassis sections for ultra-heavy-duty applications by mistake. SA-based Ahrns Handling Equipment bought one of the DAF 86-460s, converted it to 10x4 configuration and added its heavy-duty tilt tray.

DAF slashed the price – I hear that an equivalent European brand would be around $70,000 more. It looks like a bargain, with a huge level of over capacity, and it was on display at the Perth show.

Meanwhile Kenworth was showing T909 and K200 customer trucks front and centre, and right next door was a Kenworth bling specialist that had hung so much chrome on a 909 it was probably overweight.

Isuzu hadn't made a big deal of it when I walked around, but the giant-killing 8x4 twin-steer was there in the corner. This truck has changed Isuzu's market positioning and has delivered big dollars to both Isuzu Australia Limited and its dealers.

In short, the 2015 Perth Truck & Trailer Show still has its headliners, but it's the subtext of profitability that is the real draw. That's why it attracted serious industry people. And that's why, on the way out, the new Iveco Powerstar 7800 road train demo had a big sign in place on its windscreen: 'Sold'.