Last week's umpteenth annual Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville drew plenty of crowds despite an early Kentucky spring trying to bust out-- and shedding a thunderhead or two in the process-- at the good old Fair Grounds & Expo Center. But in terms of real, sink-your-pen-into news, there sure wasn't much to write home about.
Not that FleetOwner's merry band of editors covering the show didn't make the rounds of at least a couple dozen official news conferences as well as who-knows-how-many booth visits and on-the-fly interviews.
You can still check out many of the stories we filed straight from Louisville at our Fleetowner.com home page under "Trucking Headlines." Just keep scrolling till you see what you're after.
Editorially speaking, the show came out about like this: One major OEM (Freightliner Group) and one major supplier (the Eaton-Dana Roadranger partnership) cancelled news conferences at the 11th hour. Some smaller concerns did not even show up for their scheduled time slots. To be fair, still other OEMs and major component players had not scheduled events in the first place. And more than one of those that went ahead with a gathering of the media, had nothing new or very little new to say, having made major announcements earlier this year at other venues.
The two most noticeable things about the show: 1) More "booth babes" were on duty than in recent years, perhaps indicative of a slow economy and thus the perceived need to grab more eyes, male ones anyway and-- somewhat related-- 2) many many many pronouncements by supplier executives that while this year may be quite the downer, 2008 and 2009 will be real certifiable barn-burners. We can only hope!
