At first glance, the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville looks as full as ever for the Mid-America Trucking Show. Giant, Class 8 trucks and trailers fill the show floor, booth experts discuss features with visitors, and the lines for fried pork chop sandwiches are long. Then you notice that the trucks on display are from dealers, not manufacturers. The engines are from service companies and parts suppliers, not Cummins or Navistar. The decision by the big manufacturers to go to the show every other year shows up in the crowd size – just under 75,000 attendees, an 8.4% decline from 2015.
On the other hand, with the big manufacturers away from the show, suppliers have more booth space, highlighting new or updated equipment that will be on commercial trucks in the near future.
Mid-America Trucking Show