Not much is certain in today’s world, but two things can be counted on as winter releases its icy grip on Louisville, Ky. The first, and most important to the locals, is the March Madness surrounding the NCAA college basketball tournament. Although it doesn’t quite rise to the level of madness, the other reliable sign of spring in Louisville happens when 80,000 people and a ton of chrome fill the Kentucky Exposition Center for the annual Mid America Trucking Show (MATS), which took place March 27-29 this year.

As the trucking industry’s single largest event, it’s fairly common for the chief executive officers of exhibiting companies to report on recent performance and prognosticate about the year to come. Although everybody had a slightly different take on the numbers this time, the general consensus was that 2013 sales levels lived up to expectations and that 2014 is expected to be equal to or slightly better than 2013.