NACV 2019 IS ON ITS WAY

January 16, 2019 Volume 1, Number 1

Welcome to the first issue of The NACV Report. This is a newsletter dedicated to providing readers with timely information about the products and technologies of the trucking industry. I’ve been writing about this business of ours since 1979, so I’m reasonably well equipped to provide perspective rather than simple reportage. And that’s what I shall do.

The name of the newsletter tells you plainly that it’s sponsored by the North American Commercial Vehicles Show. First held in the fall of 2017 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, the show was a major success. We’re now heading toward the second event, October 28-31, 2019, at the same venue. The organizers promise an even better exhibition this year.

One of this report’s purposes will simply be to keep you informed about the upcoming NACV Show, specifically about who will be exhibiting and what they’ll be bringing to Atlanta. At the outset this newsletter will appear monthly but as the show approaches it will become a fortnightly report — likely in September — as we learn more and more about what you’ll get to see in Atlanta. We expect quite a few product introductions there and I’ll give you a heads-up on those with as much information as I can muster in advance.

I make no apologies for the promotional aspect of The NACV Report, and I won’t produce a series of what we journalists call ‘fluff pieces’. What I write here will be ‘news you can use’, as they say, and certainly not just about the show. More particularly, since I learn new things about trucks and trucking every day despite my already long career, I’ll ensure that you do too. Promise.

WHO THE HECK IS LOCKWOOD?

For those who don’t know me, a brief bio may be in order. I’m the founding editor of Today’s Trucking magazine, which took its first breath in the summer of 1987 here in Canada. Nowadays my title is Editor at Large, as well as Vice President, Editorial here at Newcom Media. I’m also Executive Contributing Editor on HDT magazine in the U.S. And every two weeks I produce The Lockwood Report newsletter. I have a distinctly continental view of the trucking industry, because trucks and trucking technology are essentially the same in both the U.S. and Canada. The rules may be a bit different, rarely a lot different, but it makes little editorial sense to separate the two. This newsletter will reflect that conviction, with a mix of original and curated content, with opinion thrown in here and there.

THE NACV SHOW IS A PARTNERSHIP

There will be no balloons and belt buckles to be seen at the North American Commercial Vehicle Show (NACV) this coming October. The biannual exhibition focuses firmly on the needs of fleet owners, managers, and decision makers, and all of the major class 8 truck manufacturers and Tier One suppliers will be there.

The NACV Show is a 50/50 partnership between Newcom Media and Hannover Fairs USA (HFUSA), a subsidiary of Deutsche Messe AG, best known for the giant IAA Commercial Vehicles Show in Hannover, Germany every two years. The NACV Show is held in the intervening years.

All major truck makers will be display and launch their latest products at NACV 2019, and leading trailer manufacturers and suppliers have also signed on to exhibit at the Georgia World Congress Center. As well, there will be a variety of educational and tutorial sessions both on the floor and immediately before the show floor opens every day during the event.

NACV 2019 will cover 530,000 square feet of net exhibition space in this year, up from 370,000 in 2017. It will span the entire Building B and expand into Building A at the Georgia World Congress Center. The organizers expect to host more than 550 exhibitors, up from 439 in 2017.