WASHINGTON -- They’re a special breed, those sales guys.

Even when things are at their absolute gloomiest, you can count on a truck dealer to jump up and down and make noise about any bright spot he can find. And good on them.

Take Kyle Treadway, for instance. He’s chairman the organization repping all the truck dealers in the U.S., and even though his industry's business was off by a whopping 13 percent last year, he’s still bullish.

In remarks made at the American Truck Dealer’s (ATD) annual conference in Washington, D.C., last week, Treadway encouraged dealers to maintain a positive attitude and prepare for a sales recovery.

At the event, Navistar's LoneStar was
named

"We can dwell on bygone days, or we can focus on what’s left. Yes, the Dow has lost 40 percent of its peak value. Yes, one in six mortgage holders is in jeopardy. Yes, Class 8 sales dropped over 13 percent last year;·127,000 trucks were idled in the past 12 months, and ·yes, our industry downsized over 106,000 employees since December 2007.

"But," the optimistic truck salesman went on, "fuel prices have returned from the stratosphere, interest rates [when you can get them] are friendlier. Consumer and corporate purchasing power has improved. Wage pressures have eased, driver-turnover rates have cut in half. We’re experiencing a short respite from the technician shortage; the world’s nations are linked in a global economy – for better or worse.

"And," he added, "·We have survived it all."

Meanwhile, International’s new LoneStar was named ATD's “Commercial Truck of the Year” at the event.

It’s the first time the group has given out the award. In presenting the prize, ATD past chairman George Grask cited the rig’s design, innovation, quiet cab and space utilization.

Runners up were Freightliner’s Cascadia, Kenworth’s T660, Mack’s Titan and Pete’s 386.

(For a review of the Titan, check out the May issue of Today’s Trucking. And the LoneStar is taken for a test ride in the May issue of Today’s Trucking’s sister publication, highwaySTAR, available at better truckstops across Canada.)