A record crowd of 13,570 industry professionals turned out for The Work Truck Show 2018, which was highlighted by six vehicle launches from North America’s leading commercial truck manufacturers, more than 175 other new product introductions and an expanded educational conference that included the all-new Fleet Technical Congress. It was the largest event in the history of NTEA – The Association for the Work Truck Industry, it says.

Work Truck Week took place March 6-9 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. Educational sessions, the Green Truck Summit and Fleet Technical Congress began March 6, and the Work Truck Show exhibit hall was open March 7-9.

Chassis manufacturers introduced new commercial vehicles in almost every weight class, from Ford Commercial Vehicles’ Class 1 Transit Connect Cargo Van all the way up to Hino Trucks’ new XL Series Class 7 and 8 trucks. Chevrolet Commercial Vehicles revealed its first Silverado Class 4, 5 and 6 chassis cabs and International Truck unveiled its Class 6/7 MV Series. Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America Inc. launched its gasoline-powered Class 4 and 5 FE Series cabover work trucks. Ram Commercial also debuted its Ram 1500 Tradesman model.

Creating additional buzz at the show were Nissan’s “Smokin’ TITAN1” concept TITAN XD Gas King Cab truck with an integrated in-truck-bed smoker and mobile kitchen and ROUSH CleanTech announcing that Southern Eagle Distributing purchased two propane autogas vehicles to reduce emissions and costs. Many companies used the event to launch a variety of truck and van bodies, including Knapheide, Morgan Corp., Morgan Olson, Omaha Standard Palfinger and Reading Truck Body. “The Work Truck Show was once again the venue for showcasing the best, newest and most innovative commercial vehicles, equipment and solutions the industry has to offer, across all weight classes and applications,” said Steve Carey, NTEA executive director, in a statement. “Our exhibitors were happy with the show traffic, and attendees were happy to have so many new products to discover. The educational sessions and networking events were also all well-attended as fleet managers, distributors and upfitters took advantage of the multiple opportunities to learn from each other and industry experts. And now we turn our attention to making The Work Truck Show 2019 even better.” BI