Two Decades of Driving Success: How MATS Fueled Truckstop's Long-Standing Growth
For over 25 years, Truckstop has been a leading technology partner for the transportation industry, providing critical solutions for carriers, brokers, and shippers. Central to its enduring success and market leadership has been a deeply rooted, strategic partnership with the Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS). This relationship, spanning more than two decades, has been instrumental in fueling Truckstop’s consistent business growth, enabling direct access to its core audience, and serving as a premier launchpad for its innovations.
Brent Hutto - Chief Relationship Officer, Truckstop
Challenge:
For a pioneering technology company in the dynamic trucking industry, maintaining consistent market leadership and achieving sustained business growth requires a steadfast platform for customer engagement, strategic initiatives, and new customer acquisition.
Solution:
Forging and nurturing a multi-decade partnership with the Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS), leveraging it as a primary engine for reaching core customers, launching key innovations, and driving substantial, long-term business growth.
Results:
NEED RESULTS STATEMENT
A Partnership Forged in Time, Strengthened by Results
Truckstop’s commitment to MATS is a testament to a partnership that has delivered tangible results year after year. “We’ve been here every year since 1995,” states Brent Hutto, Chief Relationship Officer. “Mid America has been a partner with Truckstop for 26 years… We’ve actually set a lot of the foundations and growth of our company on being at the show.” This sentiment underscores a relationship that goes beyond a simple vendor-event dynamic. As Hutto also notes, “Mid-America is turning 50… we turned 26, so we’ve kind of grown together a lot.”
This enduring presence is built on trust and mutual benefit. “We really appreciate it at Truckstop.com, good partners, and it’s hard to find them, and Mid America has been… easy to do business with,” Hutto adds, highlighting the practical strength of their collaboration.
MATS: The Bedrock of Truckstop’s Business Growth Strategy
The impact of MATS on Truckstop’s growth trajectory is undeniable and consistently emphasized by its leadership. “It’s really been a big part of our strategy in growing our business because owner operators are the core and muscle of what we do,” Hutto explains. “Being here is super important to us, just to be able to grow the core base of our customers.”
This growth is fueled by several key factors uniquely provided by MATS:
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- Unmatched New Customer Acquisition: MATS is where Truckstop connects with new entrants, the “lifeblood” of their business. “This is the major place you can find new customers face-to-face,” Hutto asserts. “The Mid-America Truck Show attracts new entrants into the market… new customers that come to the booth in droves.”
- Exceptional Return on Investment: The strategic importance of MATS is reflected in Truckstop’s budgeting and ROI expectations. “When we do our annual budgeting… Mid-America is the number one location that we assign our budget to,” says Hutto. “You won’t get any better return on your money than Mid-America for the owner operator… Our cost per dollar average of interacting with our customers and new customers that we add here is the best in the industry.” Kendra Tucker, CEO, echoes this: “It’s hard to compare, but I’ll tell you what, MATS pays for itself.”
- Direct Access to a Core Audience: Both leaders stress the unparalleled access MATS provides to owner-operators. “There’s nobody like the Mid-America Trucking Show that brings our customers, which is the owner operator, straight into our booth,” Hutto emphasizes. Tucker adds, “For us, our customers are everywhere… MATS is a great place to bring them together for us.”
A Premier Platform for Strategic Initiatives
Beyond general growth, the partnership with MATS has enabled Truckstop to launch pivotal strategic initiatives directly to its most important audience. “We use Mid-America as that launching point for us,” Hutto remarks. This includes critical moments such as rebranding to Truckstop.com and launching new products like “Load Pay” and the “Truckstop Go app.” Tucker highlights the benefit for such launches: “We get the chance to show our customers our new mobile app, and they get to touch it and feel it and actually get somebody who can walk them through it.” These successful launches are integral to ongoing business development and maintaining a competitive edge.
Building on a Legacy of Trust and Looking Ahead
The decades-long presence of Truckstop at MATS has built significant trust with its customer base. “What’s important to our customers is being here at MATS,” Hutto notes, indicating that their consistent presence aligns with customer expectations and values.
This partnership is not viewed as finite. “We’ve participated in MATS for twenty straight years, and we have no desire to change that. We will be here for the next twenty years because our core market is right here at Mid-America,” Hutto confidently states.
Conclusion
The relationship between Truckstop and the Mid-America Trucking Show is a powerful example of how a long-standing partnership can serve as a consistent and reliable engine for business growth. For over two decades, MATS has provided Truckstop with an unmatched platform to connect with its core audience, acquire new customers, launch strategic innovations, and achieve an exceptional return on investment. This enduring alliance has been fundamental to Truckstop’s journey from a nascent technology provider to an established industry leader, demonstrating the profound impact of a strategic event partnership on long-term corporate success.
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