Let's not confuse censorship with protecting this website against defamation claims. We have an obligation to ensure a fair and free exchange of ideas that doesn't impinge on anyone's rights. It's a difficult balance, and I hope we succeed most of the time.
The Editor.

What is the definition of a forum?
Is censorship within that definition?
Definitely, if you live in China or Russia.
Does this site originate in one of those countries?

It is the business owners' decision whether to settle, fold or fight because they are the ones making the monetary investment. However, for some owners, there is more at stake than just the annual profits. For some owners, especially those who have spent years of their lives building a business, they won't let it just get taken away, or at least not without fair compensation. And for at least one owner with whom I've worked, the fate of the employees was a very important consideration in the decision to fight to preserve the business.

Thanks for adding a serious and worth considering factor to this discussion, forklaw.
Doesn't this come down to "one man's meat is another man's poison"?
And are not the dealers in fact really corporations?
So that the "human factor" is the employees? and do/did/should all the employees (as the "humans" in "human" cost factor) not only share in the loss, but share in any sort of gain from the "fair price" and settlements? I know this varies greatly by state. but I would love to have any information on this part of the equation.

Manufacturers have to make profits, but when deciding to terminate a dealer, the smarter manufacturers include in their calculations the payment of fair compensation to the dealer for the value of what they lost. Many states have laws protecting dealers from terminations "without good cause," and at least in those states it can cost the manufacturer a good bit more if they don't treat the dealer fairly from the outset, and the dealer chooses to litigate (for example, the recent Maintainco v MCFA case in New Jersey covered in earlier Forkliftaction.com). However, it's complicated valuing a dealership - - to pay a truly fair price, it's not just the lost profits, there is also the human cost of closing down a business for both the owners and the employees - - and manufacturers don't understand (or are not willing) to pay those costs.

I don't think it should come as any surprise in this day and time that "corporations be corporations".
bjohn, don't you think that if you exist only for the sake of profit, then only profit is what matters to you? Why do you think it's -Japanese- Companies? I think any "entity" that has a single objective can fail to see the big picture of their actions and results.
Sometimes, it may be an advantage to only see the trees and not the whole forest, like if you have a tiger chasing you.


"commitment and loyalty" ha-ha-ha-ha.
oh, you were serious, sorry about that.
It wasn't personal, I think we all are in the same boat, just fishing in different rivers, kind of like being twin children of different parents.

So much for commitment and loyalty , eh?
Is it just Komatsu or do all Japanese companies maintain a standard operating procedure of abusing their customers and employees ?

If no one noticed, CROWN introduced their new I.C. line and All Crown factory stores were using the TUSK brand as their I.C. line. This move killed TUSK as over 75% of TUSK's market share and factory orders were generated by CROWN. Done Deal to discontinue TUSK.

This is no surprise to me, as it's been brewing for a good nine months.

With the trucks in Covington and Japan, the Japan liason in Chicago and the customer service people in South Carolina, how will this affect the dealers?

I would assume that the current Tusk dealers will not be able to sell Komatsu and need to look for something else if there's an exsisting Komatsu dealer in the same territory.

What will happen to the tusk dealers if there are no tusk forklifts? Will they be able to sell Komatsu trucks?
If so, could end up having two dealerships in the same territory, which most OEM's never do to their dealers?

Komatsu needed to change the brand name of Kalmar AC and then adopted the Tusk brand name which were sold to Crown dealers and certain former Komatsu brand dealers.

to pick up on ed t Tusk = Trucks UnSold by Komatsu

Tusk = Truck Used to Say Komatsu.