Adam Brockmiller of Liberty Utilities in Joplin, Mo., checks out an Altec service body on display in Altec’s air-conditioned tent during a sweltering 2019 International Construction & Utilities Equipment Exposition in Louisville, Ky., this October.Photo: Keith Norbury
For Adam Brockmiller, who manages substation operations for Liberty Utilities in Missouri, attending the 2019 International Construction & Utilities Equipment Exposition this fall was like walking into a dream.
“Oh my gosh, they’ve got all your dreams and wishes here,” Brockmiller said as he checked out a service truck on display at the Altec Industries booth at biennial event, held Oct. 1-3 at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville. “They’ve got trucks you wouldn’t dream of having and trucks you definitely need. So a wide variety, a wide ability to test and ask all the follow up questions you need to know about whatever you’re working on.”
At Liberty Utilities, he’s in charge of all the electricians who maintain more than 160 substations. The company builds about three new substations a year; and it also has crews to look after transmission and distribution.
“We have a wide range of need for trucks in different applications,” Brockmiller said. “And this is the excellent place to check them out and see all of our options.”
The truck he was checking out at the Altec stand is similar to six that Liberty would take delivery of at the end of October. The six new ones also have bodies mounted on Ford F-550 chassis and come with cranes, compressors, and other accessories.
“We actually we have one already,” Brockmiller said. “It’s very similar; it’s a smaller, more mobile machine. That way we can use the four-wheel drive to get in an out of our substations easier on the dirt paths and it allows us to hold all the tools and drawers and inverters that we need.”
Record Attendance
Brockmiller was among more than 19,000 attendees at the biennial trade show, which is a production of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. That record number of visitors came from Canada, the U.S., and 65 other countries. Exhibitions covered a record 1.34 million square feet — over 30 acres. Showcasing their products were more than 1,000 exhibitors, including dozens of service truck manufacturers and accessory makers. They included such familiar brands as Auto Crane, Stellar Industries, Vanair, VMAC, and Maintainer.
“By all measures, this was an outstanding ICUEE with more to see and experience than ever before, and it was gratifying to see such positive energy among attendees and exhibitors,” said Rick Johnson, ICUEE 2019 show chair and CEO emeritus of Charles Machine Works, in the show’s wrap-up news release. “ICUEE is always such a tremendous opportunity to make lasting industry connections that help participants continue to grow and stay competitive.”
This year’s show coincided with an unseasonal heat wave in the region, with temperatures in Louisville reaching nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Consequently, the outdoor exhibits received most of the traffic in the morning when temperatures were only in the 80s. In the afternoon, visitors sought refuge inside the air-conditioned exhibition hall — or, as Brockmiller did, in air-conditioned booths like Altec’s massive tent.
Beating the heat
“It’s hot,” said Todd Hannum, director of marketing for Auto Crane, echoing a sentiment heard
Todd Hannum (right), director of marketing for Auto Crane, meets with Dan Parsons, advertising manager for Service Truck Magazine, at Auto Crane’s outdoor stand at ICUEE 2019.Photo: Keith Norbury
throughout the outdoor exhibits. A resident of Atlanta, Hannum is no stranger to warm temperatures but he was only too happy to spend time in the indoor booth of Auto Crane’s parent company, Ramsey Industries, to talk about the features of an Auto Crane service body on display there.
“I think that a lot of people have been able to bring some of their best out here,” Hannum said. “It’s been a good show. I think that what really is impressive for me is the technology swing in our segment of the industry.”
For example, he was impressed by the emphasis on hydraulics as well as game-changing all-in-one units that accessory company partners have recently introduced. Hannum said Auto Crane focused on determining what customers want to see and read and getting that information into their hands to help them make decisions. “That’s what we’ve been able to concentrate on here,” he said.
The 2019 heat wave contrasted starkly with the weather at the 2015 version of ICUEE when chilling rains prompted show goers to seek shelter indoors, leaving outdoor exhibitors shivering in the cold.
“I think we’d take the heat,” said Shelley Morris, president of Maintainer of Iowa Corporation Inc. “We were here for the monsoon and you could throw a bowling ball down this aisle and not touch a thing.”
A good show overall
Morris described the 2019 ICUEE as “really good” and “busier than some of the other shows.” ICUEE isn’t the biggest show for Maintainer or its competitors, he said. As its name implies, ICUEE is tailored toward utilities and municipalities. “But if we were in the small body, fiberglass body business, (and) utility and municipal market, this where you want to be,” Morris said.
At the Palfinger booth, David Phillips, midwest regional sales manager for work truck bodies and lifting systems, agreed that ICUEE isn’t the busiest show for service trucks but that it is a good show nonetheless. “We’ve had a lot of distributors visit us who are happy with how things are going,” Phillips said. “And a lot of customers that own our equipment come by and tell us what they’re experiencing. Some guys are looking for new as well.”
Among the accessories on the three service trucks displayed on Palfinger’s stand was a lube skid from Service Truck Depot of Fairfield, Texas. “This is their truck; they upfitted this one,” Phillips said. “They’re a big dealer for us. So we’re showing it off here a little bit.”
Many good contacts
Service Truck Magazine later bumped into Brent Burnett, a co-owner of Service Truck Depot, as he chatted with Joe Halpin of Stahl Truck Bodies & Cranes at Stahl’s booth. Burnett was so impressed with ICUEE that he might book a booth for his company at a future show. “I think the vendors have done a great job of putting it together — (there’s) a lot of people here,” said Burnett, who has also walked previous versions of the show.
Burnett didn’t even have any complaints about the weather. “I’m from Texas,” he said. “The heat doesn’t really bother me.”
It didn’t seem to bother Halpin either, who was hatless in the afternoon sun. His secret: “sunscreen, lots of it, and drinking lots of water.” Halpin said ICUEE “is the place to come” because it has everything from lube skids, to cranes, to bucket trucks. “Any kind of tool you could want on your truck, it’s here,” he said.
“Our premier show”
For mobile power equipment maker Vanair Manufacturing Inc., ICUEE is “our premier show,” said company president Greg Kokot. The company had a fairly large outdoor booth near the entrance to L lot, one of the expansive outdoor exhibition spaces. Despite the booth’s size, it wasn’t big enough to display Vanair’s entire product range. But the company did show off a sampling of wares, including new lightweight aluminum versions of four products, including its Air N Arc 250-L unit that combines an air compressor, welder, generator, battery booster, and battery charger into one machine.
Kokot described ICUEE 2019 as “a very hot show,” not just from a temperature standpoint but in the quality of customers and booth traffic.
“I think the customers that are coming through are really, from our standpoint, what we consider to be really good customers, customers that would use our products,” Kokot said.
ICUEE is also known as The Demo Expo, which Vanair took to heart in holding almost continual demonstrations of equipment, such as the Vanair Total Electronic Control for its under-deck compressor and generator systems. “Just about every major utility company in the country uses under-deck air compressors, Kokot said. “Then obviously there are service vehicles throughout this show because they’re here to service all the fleets and all that type of stuff. So we serve that market also.”
Vanair also makes applications that require huge air volumes, up to 1,000 cubic feet per minute, such as for drill modules. “We’ve had customers that we’re quoting now that came to the show yesterday,” Kokot said.
At the Sage Oil Vac booth company president Aaron Sage noticed that, while traffic dried up during the hot afternoons, everybody was in a good mood. “There seems to be a lot of demand for equipment, especially on-site oil change equipment, on-site lube trucks, and lube skids,” Sage said. “You see a lot of lube skids here. So I think on-site maintenance is becoming more in vogue — to do oil changes cleanly out in the field.”
Good conversations
Inside the convention hall at the Hannay Reels booth, marketing manager Jennifer Wing said she met many customers and also saw many Hannay reels displayed on trucks at the show. “So we had a lot of good conversations,” Wing said. “It’s always good to meet this part of the industry.”
Wing said the show seemed bigger than in previous iterations. She also noticed more interactive displays. “I noticed things picked up in the afternoon, Wing said. “People were outside in the morning and then they took advantage of coming into the air conditioning in the afternoon.”
Darrell Martin, marketing director for CTech Manufacturing, said he and his colleagues had a lot of good interactions with dealers and manufacturers that they work with regularly as well as with customers dropping by to ask questions. “It’s really, really good to get that face-to-face, to have them touch and feel the products,” Martin said. “It’s always been a really beneficial show for us. And it’s just nice to see everybody.”
CTech is well known in service truck circles for its drawer sets. However, the company also produces carts and cabinets, as well as observation carts for NASCAR racing teams. The company even brought its largest one, a dual-deck version, to serve as its booth for the show.
“Below, you’ve got all of your tools, storage, your monitors for maintaining what’s going on in the race,” Martin explained. “And the pit crew can come and go underneath as they please to work on the car. Up on top, the front row of monitors is for the racing engineers. And the rest of it is for entertainment. The upper deck can seat 17 people the way this one’s configured.”
After the show, the observation hub will join three others on the NASCAR circuit. “It was just kind of a neat thing to bring down to the show and show what else we can do besides tool drawers,” Martin said.
Demo truck rolled in
At its booth, Boss Industries LLC rolled in its brand new demo truck that carries example of most of the company’s main product lines, including under-deck and above-deck compressors, tool lifts, and its new Mechanix 250 multi-function unit. The Ford F-450, which was upfitted just before the show, will travel across North America to trade shows and dealerships, including in Canada. “Our goal is this truck will be on the road minimum 40 weeks a year,” said Chuck Hamilton, director of marketing and military sales at Boss Industries. In future, Boss plans to send out more demo trucks, perhaps on Ram or Chevrolet chassis, to provide sales and service training and do product presentations.
“For us, barring frying eggs on the pavement, the show’s been really good,” Hamilton said. “The people have been managing the heat well. But also we seem to engage a lot of good customers this year.”
It was as similar story for Stellar Industries Inc. and its American Eagle Group subsidiary, noted Rachel Lynch, a public relations and event specialist with Stellar.
“We’ve had a lot of really positive feedback,” Lynch said. “Everybody’s been pretty receptive, giving us good feedback, asking us questions, things like that.”
Much of that interest has been in its line of utility and telecom construction trailers that were formerly made by Kiefer Built, which Stellar acquired the assets of a few years ago.
“We’ve had some pretty heavy booth traffic over in the Stellar with questions about the mechanics package and the crane we have,” she said, referring to an aluminum TMax body with 12630 model crane on display.
Location, location
As with many endeavours, booth location is key to a successful trade show. At the Maxilift Cranes stand, Rita Pecorari was happy with a booth a colleague picked out — right near the entrance to the N lot, the closest of the three outdoor lots to the exhibition hall. “We’ve got a perfect spot, a lot of traffic and a lot of interest,” Pecarari said.
Her only reservation is that she should have placed the truck, which had a BrandFX body and a pair of cranes — a Cobra 3800 and a smaller M150 — at the opposite side of the booth. “But we’re gonna get the same one for the next two years and go from there,” she said.
— Keith Norbury
