Hey Little Truckers, I hope you have all had an awesome holiday. Late last year with the New Zealand Trucking magazine team I was lucky enough to be able to head down to the TMC Trucking Industry Show in Christchurch at the Canterbury Agricultural Park. There were over 400 trucks from many transport companies from all over New Zealand there to see.
On the first day of the show there were trade stands set up by com- panies associated with road transport. At these, you could find anything from a new truck or trailer, to truck seats, tyres and other parts.
This day is also where local schools and trade programmes were invited to come and see the wide variety of jobs the road transport industry has to offer.
Day two of the event was the Show n Shine, where so many amazing trucks were put on display to the public. Arriving nice and early along with the rest of the New Zealand Trucking magazine team, I took the opportunity to scout out the show before it got too busy. I discovered transport companies from all over New Zealand had travelled to Christchurch for the show. I recognised trucks from way up in Nelson where I live; Solly’s Contractors and Waimea Heavy Haulage Limited were among some of the fleets I spotted that had made the long journey down. I also spotted several other trucks that caught my eye including a fleet of NZ Express Container trucks, an Orbit Heavy Haulage Scania with a CAT loader on the back and a fleet of Protranz classic Macks.
As well as the vast range of trucks from transport companies, there were also major truck manufacturers, such as Southpac Trucks with the Kenworth and DAF brands; and Scania and Fuso, who had stalls of their own, displaying new vehicles and selling merchandise.
My duties at the show included manning the New Zealand Trucking stall, promoting Little Trucker Down Under and assisting with the sales of merchandise like T-shirts and caps.
The show was also a chance for me to connect with people involved in road transport as well as catch up with Little Trucker readers, like you!
I also took the opportunity to film some of the action and compile it into a video for you guys to view (this is on the New Zealand Trucking YouTube channel for anyone to watch).
As this fabulous event drew to a close I was able to reflect on the amazing time I had down in Christchurch seeing all that was on show and meeting some pretty amazing people.
The TMC Trucking industry show is held every second year and I am keen to attend it next in 2024 and hope to meet more of you there.