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OPINION
Association Corner
Why should anyone care about trucking?
Trucking makes everything possi- ble, from here to tomorrow.
This is the message of the
Manitoba Trucking Association’s (MTA) new public relations cam- paign, set to officially launch in 2019. With “movement” as the main theme, the MTA has begun to unveil its message on our website and YouTube channel. The message is a powerful one, and we hope with this campaign the MTA will get the public thinking about how profoundly their lives are impacted by trucking.
For those of us in the trucking industry, this comes as no sur- prise. Anyone who has worked in our industry – as a driver, dis- patcher, technician, or sales – knows the numbers: 95% of goods in Manitoba are shipped by truck, trucking contributes more than $2 billion to Manitoba’s GDP, and it employs (directly and indirectly) approximately 4.6% of the pro- vincial labor force. But outside
of trucking, who knows these numbers?
That’s why the trucking indus- try isn’t the intended audience of the MTA’s new campaign; the general public is. Too often the
attention our industry gets from the media isn’t for the good news stories. They say any publicity is good publicity, but I think truck- ing might be the exception to that rule. Generally, we are an invisible industry, except for when we make the news. Then all of the good, safe, on-time work we have done becomes irrelevant. We want the general public to see that we are a safe industry, and that what they do, for work or pleasure, relies on us to do our jobs right.
“Trucking makes everything possible,
from here to tomorrow.”
John Erik Albrechtsen, presi- dent of the MTA, agrees. One of his beliefs about how the trucking industry can achieve some of its goals is to get the public on board.
An example of this is man- datory entry level training, or MELT. Currently, Ontario is
the only province with such a program for the trucking indus- try in place. In Manitoba, the trucking association has been advocating for a driver training standard for years, even going
so far as to develop a program with MPI, the provincial driving insurer. This program, Manitoba Entry Level Professional Truck Driver Training, trained drivers through a six-week course plus mentorship, meaning it took two full years before commercial drivers were qualified and on the road alone. While a new, equally popular program has been devel- oped to replace the original, there remains no provincially legislated training standard in Manitoba.
However, due to last year’s
tragic accident in Humboldt, public will toward a commer-
cial driving training changed. Alberta announced a new stan- dard, as did Saskatchewan. In Manitoba, the government claims to be moving toward implement- ing one, however, as of this writing, the MTA has not received any definitive answers from anyone
in the provincial government. With public will providing the
Terry Shaw oversees the planning and priorities of the MTA, is the lead for political liaison and relations with all levels of government, media relations, and acts as a spokesperson for the industry. He is a member of several MTA committees and represents the association through his involvement with Trucking HR Canada, the Manitoba Employers Council, and the Winnipeg and Manitoba Chambers of Commerce. Terry also engages on national issues as a regional vice-president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, of which he is a board and executive member.
fuel for provincial governments to get this done, the trucking indus- try in some provinces is gaining the training standard for which it has long advocated, and the MTA wants to ensure that Manitoba becomes one of those provinces.
So, why should anyone care about trucking? Trucking makes everything possible, from here to tomorrow. TW
THIS MONTH’S CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Across Down
1 Ocean containers, slangily (3,4) 5 Truck repair pros, briefly
8 Driver ____ accident cause
9 Trailer cargo restraint (4,3)
10 Suspension components
11 Trailer kingpin portion
12 DPF system cleanses
15 Uplifting vocational truck attachment 17 Driver’s seat comfort item
20 Quebec home of Simard transport
21 Road ____, lengthy Australian rig
22 In-bond trailer attachments
23 They’re sometimes one-way
1 Trucks’ design details, briefly
2 Truck fuel economy factor (3,4)
3 “Rubber City” in Ohio
4 Icy road rigs (4,9)
5 Ford cargo van
6 Mississauga aluminum trailer maker 7 U.S. truckers’ ’73 and ’79 actions
12 Truckmakers’ defect-fixing campaigns 13 Isuzu low cab forward line (1,6)
14 Goods in excess of Bill of Lading
16 Ultra One wheels brand
18 Trucking company, a.k.a. ____ carrier 19 Air or fuel system reservoirs
12 TruckNews–West•January2019
TW-187 Jan. © 2019 M. Jackson
Answers on page 28