This video, taken at this year’s Mid-America Trucking Show, illustrates just why the trucking world is so different to others, it shows us a trucking culture on display.
It is good to see this massive US trucking event in Louisville, Kentucky still going strong and getting the support it needs from the truck manufacturers in the United States. The consistenetly high turn-out for the show continues to maintain a long term tradition among North American trucking folk.
The revival of the show is a welcome one in these post-covid times, as its survival as an event was in doubt when I last visited Louisville back in 2018. That year the major truck makers abandoned the show, only Mack Trucks had an official truck OEM stand.
Mack had just launched the Anthem line-up of trucks and were keen to introduce the new shape and concept to the trucking world. A competing truck show was being touted as a replacement for MATS, but the attempt to usurp the show’s position in US trucking culture did not eventuate.
The reason it did not kill off Louisville is because shows like MATS do genuinely reflect the culture in the US trucking game. It is the rank and file truck enthusiasts who are at the heart of an event like this, and they were not prepared to abandon a cultural institution for the glitz and glamour of a much more corporate event.
The truck displays from the manufacturers get the warm atmosphere inside the large central pavilions, but the public will spend more time outside in the cold Kentucky early spring weather wandering between the rows of show trucks.
Walking around the display has a surprise around every corner. There’s a stainless steel bumper mounted one millimetre above the ground here and a lacquered multi-coloured cabin floor there. A ridiculously large amount of highly polished metal work, plus amazing custom paint jobs. The craziness of the custom designs is a wonder to behold.
This is an event where you really can see a trucking culture on display.
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