More Smiles at Mid-America

The Mid-America Trucking Show this year was miles beyond the somber version last year. The exhibition hall in Louisville was humming last week with new products and rising expectations, reflecting the fact that virtually all segments of trucking are showing signs of recovery.

While no truck maker or parts supplier professed to be happy with current business levels, there was nearly universal agreement that things are better than they were a year ago — much better, according to most — and that prospects were even better.

There still was a lot of concern about the strength of the recovery, but it appeared to develop more from a healthy business caution than from a belief that the nation’s economic recovery is in jeopardy of stalling.

Most truck-equipment executives last week were predicting sales increases of around 15% for 2010, and many said they are expecting sales levels in 2011 to be more than 30% higher than 2009 levels.

As we report in other parts of Transport Topics this week, suppliers unveiled new models, new options and new services in the 2010 version of MATS. Besides boosting fuel economy or safety, some of the improvements were designed for driver comfort (lower sound levels in cabs) or driver entertainment (in-dash online services).

One unmistakable observation for this show is that fuel economy has become the central mantra for trucking suppliers, whether the product being discussed was an entire truck, an engine, an axle or a software program.

For the first time since their 1998 models, truck OEMs are able to tout fuel-efficiency gains when they market their new models, with some vowing that fuel savings will more than offset the added costs of products that meet new federal emissions standards.

That’s a far cry, and a welcome change, from what happened to fleets as they moved to the first two generations of the lower-emissions equipment, which seriously cut efficiency.

The truck-supply community has hopes that added miles per gallon will make it much easier for fleets to swallow the $9,000 average cost increase that OEMs have placed on 2010-compliant vehicles, and it may encourage some carriers to buy their new equipment rather than extend the service lives of their current ones.

In any event, there were a lot more smiles in Louisville.