Back when the coronavirus pandemic officially started back in March, it was safe to assume the whole thing would blow over by 2021 and that 2020 was but a fluke year. As we get closer and closer to 2021, that possibility seems to be becoming bleaker and bleaker. A small blow was dealt to the trucking industry when the Association for the Work Truck Industry (NTEA), announced that it would be canceling plans for the Work Truck Show, the first recorded event in 2021 to be canceled by the pandemic.
The Details
The event would have taken place sometime during the first half of March, 2021, in Indiana.
A joint statement from the association’s Board of Directors Chairman Peter Miller and NTEA President & CEO Steve Carey explained that, “the health and safety of our attendees, exhibitors and staff” was the main reason for canceling the event, and because of the tight restrictions due to the pandemic, the event organizers “cannot confidently ensure attendees, exhibitors and industry stakeholders will be able to accomplish their goals or get what they need (and rightfully expect) from Work Truck Week.”
Essentially, the organizers felt that they would be unable to fulfill the expectations set in a typical Work Truck Show while keeping people healthy and complying with Indiana regulations.
Currently there are no plans to substitute the event with a virtual one, and NTEA looks forward to coming back for another Work Truck Show in 2022.
Conclusion
While trucking industry events being canceled or changed into virtual ones as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic is nothing new, this marks a special occasion because it is the first one that we know of that has been canceled in 2021, and a year after the pandemic officially started.
While this cancellation is a bop to the head for the trucking industry, it mostly appears to be recovering. Record truck and trailer sales, high freight rates per mile, and a consistent uptick in industry jobs heavily implies that shipping goods from one place to another is not going to disappear any time soon.
Truckers and the rest of society as a whole is feeling the fatigue of having to deal with coronavirus regulations month after month. Hopefully it is not another year before we get relief and back to normal functions.
