When commercial truck professionals gather in March for Work Truck Week 2026, Scelzi Enterprises will bring almost five decades of truck body manufacturing expertise to one of the show’s most forward-looking conversations: how upfitters must evolve their designs and mounting strategies for next-generation work truck technologies.
As vehicle technology evolves, so do the challenges for manufacturers. Scott Martzen, a tech leader at Scelzi, will join a panel discussion to explore the operational impacts of these sophisticated new platforms. The session addresses a critical time in history for the upfitting industry, when time-tested mounting methods and body designs are being reconsidered in light of electrification, advanced driver-assistance systems, integrated telematics, and evolving chassis architectures.
“The relationship between the chassis and the body has always been a careful engineering balance,” Martzen noted. “What’s changing now is the complexity of that equation. We’re not just bolting a service body to frame rails anymore—we’re integrating the body and accessories with vehicle systems that previous generations of upfitters never had to consider.”
No matter the chassis builder, new technologies are changing end-user expectations. The new systems offer significant advantages in practice but require upfitters to rethink electrical routing, weight distribution, heat management, and data connectivity from the earliest stages of design.
“It is astounding how technical our business has become,” notes founder and owner Mike Scelzi. “The days when my brother Gary and I would weld bodies together in our garage and paint them under the light of a flickering Coleman lantern seem like a million years ago, but it was 1979. We are in a different world now, and it is harder than ever to maintain quality workmanship and our very quick turnaround times. More than ever, we need to hire and train good people who are willing to learn and adjust to ever-changing technologies. ”
Scelzi Enterprises, founded in 1979 and headquartered in Fresno, California, has been working closely with Ford and other OEM partners to develop body configurations that complement rather than compromise these advanced features. The company’s engineering team has invested considerable resources in understanding how emerging technologies affect everything from warranty considerations to long-term serviceability, not to mention production time and scheduling.
The panel discussion at Work Truck Week will explore several key themes relevant to fleet managers and dealer partners. Among them: how upfitters can maintain structural integrity while accommodating high-voltage components, best practices for preserving OEM telematics functionality through the upfitting process, and strategies for future-proofing body designs as vehicle technology continues to accelerate.
“Fleet customers are asking different questions than they did five years ago,” Martzen explained. “They want to know how a body choice affects the range in an electric chassis, or whether their telematics data will remain intact after upfitting, or life cycle costs for aluminum beds and other parts of the body. We are in constant learning mode now, and don’t see an end any time soon.”
As the builder of premium quality work truck bodies, Scelzi’s commitment to maintain that reputation remains firm. “We probably get asked to do more exotic builds than others because of our reputation for handling the most complex jobs you can think of”, states Scelzi. “And that is fine with us – our team is up for the challenge. But it does require a bit more thinking and collaboration between departments. And you need smarter people with good judgment across the board.”
For more information about Scelzi’s commercial truck body solutions, visit seinc.com.
