Every year, Indianapolis hosts Work Truck Week. This four day event is the premiere location to learn what is to come in the world of work trucks for the following year. Work Truck Week has been going on for over 20 years, and has become more than just a trade show. Every aspect of the work truck is on display here: design, manufacturing, usage, and maintenance. The people behind each aspect come to Work Truck Week to share their own developments while learning from a talented community of individuals in the field. Because of this, Work Truck Week attracts over 500 exhibitors, with many more visitors than that. Work Truck Week wrapped up in early March, and we are ready to share the biggest takeaways from the event.
The Gas is Always Greener
The most crucial emerging trend in the work truck industry is the design and implementation of green technology. Electric trucks have been gaining in popularity in recent years, but this year showed larger strides toward electric than ever before. Part of Work Truck Week is the Green Truck Summit. This summit features appearances from those leading the industry with green technology as well as government representatives. Various government programs have been put into place in order to encourage the development of more environmentally friendly work trucks, and only more programs are going to be created. The work truck is only going to continue to work towards lowering emissions, especially as demand (both from private and government buyers) increases year to year. Even fuel is a major topic here. The exploration of lower emission fuels is a vital part of making work trucks more sustainable. This year, the most popular fuel was… electricity. Because electric trucks work so differently from gasoline-based trucks, there is an exciting opportunity to innovate pieces of the work truck that have long been taken for granted. The push to green offers an exciting blank slate that will continue to be drawn on for many years to come.
Let the Customer Decide.
The first truck was invented in 1896. That’s a lot of time to hone in on design and technology. Perhaps that’s why work trucks have become so specialized. More and more companies are beginning to specialize on a case-by-case basis through customization. Having a healthy dose of customization options allows individual customers and clients to shape their work truck to their liking. For many drivers of work trucks, the truck is the most vital tool of their trade. So it only makes sense that it can be fine-tuned to best assist them. Work Truck Week demonstrated this in spades, and showed that it will only continue to be a more central part of work truck services.
Not All Trends are Fun
Unfortunately, not every trend is an exciting push toward the future. LIke with any industry, the work truck world has its fair share of hardship. While the pandemic is softening, its blows to the industry will take time to heal. Long lead times and labor shortages are the main issues plaguing the work truck industry. Additionally, shortages in computer chips continue to increase cost and manufacturing time for work trucks. However, this is exactly what an event like Work Truck Week was created to address. Banding together across the industry, solutions are in the works at many cutting edge truck designers. And as we get closer to the pandemic finish line, we also get closer to addressing many of the larger issues that create these setbacks.
That’s it for Work Truck Week 2022. IMH continues to draw on what we have gained by participating in the event and are excited to innovate all year round. If you’re interested in signing up for the the next Work Truck Week (taking place March 7-10, 2023), you can register here.