Great American Truck Show: What Happened to GATS, and the 2026-2027 Calendar

Updated August 23, 2026: the GATS domain does not resolve and no live source confirms an edition. What is confirmed, with dates and venues checked at each organizer's own site: ATA MCE 2026, Work Truck Week 2027, MATS 2027, the National Trucking Show in Dallas and Expo Transporte ANPACT 2027.

Great American Truck Show: What Happened to GATS, and the 2026-2027 Calendar

Update, August 23, 2026 — Truck Savers News verification. This page used to answer for the Great American Truck Show (GATS) in Dallas. Those dates have passed and the edition was never confirmed, so the page now answers the question that does repeat every year: which truck shows are happening, when and where, with every date checked at the organizer's own site instead of an aggregator.

What happened to GATS

Here is what is verifiable today: the gatsshow.com domain does not resolve — not an empty page, no DNS record to answer at all. The last documented GATS was 2019; the 2020 edition was cancelled. Industry calendars carry it as date to be determined.

We are not saying it is cancelled, because nobody has announced that, and the difference matters when someone is about to book a hotel. We are saying what can be checked: no live source confirms an edition, and in that state you do not book a trip.

What is on the calendar for that same Dallas venue is the National Trucking Show, August 14-15, 2027, at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. Its own site bills it as a first edition: a new show in the building where GATS used to run, not GATS coming back.

The verified calendar

Every date below was checked on August 23, 2026 at the organizer's own site.

  • ATA Management Conference & Exhibition (MCE) 2026 — October 17-20, 2026, Charlotte Convention Center, Charlotte, North Carolina. This is where fleet owners and executives meet; it is not a product expo. mce.trucking.org
  • Work Truck Week 2027 — March 9-12, 2027, Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis. The show for work trucks and mounted equipment: cranes, flatbeds, bodies, upfitters. worktruckweek.com
  • Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) 2027 — March 18-20, 2027, Kentucky Exposition Center, Louisville, Kentucky. The biggest one for owner-operators, and the one to pick if you only attend a single show a year. truckingshow.com
  • National Trucking Show — August 14-15, 2027, Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, Dallas, Texas. First edition, in the old GATS venue. truckshow.com
  • California Trucking Show — October 3-4, 2026, Ontario, California. The closest one in time if you would rather not wait for 2027. trucking.show
  • Florida Trucking Show — February 20-21, 2027, Palm Beach, Florida. trucking.show
  • Expo Transporte ANPACT 2027 — November 10-12, 2027, Expo Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. The big heavy-truck event in Mexico, held every two years. expotransporte.com

One confusion worth avoiding: the National Trucking Show is not GATS under a new name. It is produced by a different company than the one that ran GATS; what they share is the Dallas venue, not the organization.

The full calendar, including the Mexican dates and the racing season, lives in this site's events calendar, and the walkthrough of what each show offers is in our 2026-2027 show roundup.

How to verify a show before you book

The GATS case is the checklist. Four steps, ten minutes:

  • The organizer's domain has to open. If the show's own site does not resolve, there is no show to book, no matter how many third-party calendars list it.
  • Registration has to be open, with a badge you can actually buy. A real show sells admission months ahead.
  • The venue has to list it on its own calendar. Convention centers publish their schedule: if the building does not have it, the date does not exist.
  • There has to be a group hotel rate. It is the cheapest signal that the event is really under contract.

And the step almost nobody takes: check again two weeks out. Show cancellations are announced late, and the driver who already bought the plane ticket is the last to find out.

Heading to Dallas or Houston

The Truck Savers™ runs shops in Houston and Dallas: road simulator inspection, alignment and suspension work. If the trip to the show goes through Texas, that is when to check the truck — not once it is already showing the problem.