Trucks events: Let's Show Off

Competition, exhibitionism, marketing and entertainment; truck shows are a multifaceted phenomenon. It is the natural result of the continuously thriving business and community of truckers, who more and more conscious of being an essential part of the American economy.

There are as many kinds of truck shows as the number of trucks that exist. The shows could be classified in two branches: the purely entertaining truck shows and the marketing and business shows. The first ones are made by the communities or groups of local trucks; its goal is to show their trucks to the public. In those events, the whole town usually joins since it is a fest that includes live music, food and contests.

The parade of trucks is colorful and wide-ranging, that is because the light truck, drag trucks or heavy hauling trucks are called in to participate. The most important of those shows is the "great factor". The truck exhibitors expect to entertain people by the innovation, beauty and boldness of the trucks. The appearance really counts indeed.

Shows like The Spring California Truck Jamboree or The Truckerfest in Reno, have those characteristics. In the shows there are several contests to encourage the competition among the truckers. The best paint, best chrome, best interior and best engineered are some of the general categories used. Also, there are categories for certain trucks like the best service truck, best tractor and trailer, best construction truck and more. And the creative categories such as the best truck name for example.

Those kinds of shows can be enjoyed by the whole family; they do not need special knowledge to admire the trucks or to watch competitions, races, strength challenges, speed rides, and much more.

On the other hand, there are the marketing or business focused shows. Although the entertaining shows also include the commercial side by the sponsor brands and the local trucking companies, there are other things involved for amusement. Business shows tend to be mostly commercial; they are more specific events that are made for the truckers, trucking companies, owner operators, and the others elements of the truck industry.

The business is the basic ingredient on the show. Some shows are called by manufacturer companies as Mack, GMC or Volvo. The purpose of the shows is to expose the new products, the innovations on their machines, and to make contact with their clients.

Other shows are made by big trucker organizations. The shows put together different trucking companies, manufacturers, accessories suppliers, or companies that give parallel services to truckers, like technologies of communication companies, specialized media and such.

The richness of those shows is that it is a better advertising point. In a show, there are the famous and indispensable beauty contests. You can see the most shining and sophisticated trucks in this contest. One of the most famous is included in an important show: is the Overdrive's Pride and Polish beauty contest of the Great American Trucking Show.   

This large concept (not only in beauty but in size and numbers) contest is just one of the attractions of the Great America Trucking Show (GATS). The GATS wants to get together the participants of the truck industry in the country. The event of this 2005 year gathered more than 500 companies and a public of 45,000 people approximately.

There were specific activities thought in function of the specific public. The owner operator, fleet owners and business truckers can find seminars or obtain offers from manufacturers, dealers, technology innovations. The drivers have this opportunity on recruitment centers inside the show. And of course, the entertainment could not be less; concerts, personalities autograph signing, truck makeovers and more.

The truck shows allow the truckers to renew the ideas, make new business movements and to get more saturated of the industry progress. To the general public, these events help bring closer the people in the trucker business and allow them to relax and even see the amusing side of the trucks.

You can find truck shows of any kind, almost year round and in almost all the states. Some examples are the American Truck Dealer Annual Convention in January, the North American Truck Show of Boston made in April, the Used Truck Association Annual Convention in November, and The Truck Show in Las Vegas or the most recent variation: the Truck Show Latino in Pomona, California, thinking on the Hispanic truckers. The event includes the Spanish language as a facility.