National Trucking Week is September 4 – 10, 2016, we celebrate the trucking industry in Canada. The Nova Scotia Trucking Safety Association would like to thank the entire truck transportation industry for their amazing dedication, professionalism and tireless efforts in getting millions of pounds of goods delivered each and every day throughout North America. This industry is like no other, the extent of the truck transportation industry is truly breathtaking. It’s much more than trucks, trailers and professional drivers. Think for a moment behind the scenes in term of people, equipment, other businesses, manufacturing, design, engineering, exploration the list goes on for days.
As you read this article, take a moment to look around the room you are reading this article in. Look at the walls (gyprock, paint, nails, studs, all came on a truck) lighting fixtures, wire, switches, covers, plugs (all came on a truck). Now think about the places you go to purchase your office products (paper, desk, chair, all came on a truck). The roads you travel daily to and from work (all built by trucks carrying gravel, asphalt, other road building materials).
Think about the hobbies you and your family enjoy (hockey baseball, music, golf) All of those hobbies involved trucks at numerous points, in building arenas, tennis courts, concert halls, most still involve trucks on a regular basis.
September is back to school for countless thousands of students of many ages, think school supplies, paper, books, pens, cafeteria supplies, all come on trucks to the schools daily or weekly.
One category many people forget is when we go shopping for items used in our life outside of work. Items like groceries, medicine, pet food, clothes, building supplies, cleaning supplies. Those items arrive by truck for delivery to your local shopping places. Additionally, those same products may well have traveled by airplane, sea transport, rail transport or bus transport to arrive in your community depending on where you live.
Another great example lets’ look at the home you live in today. At one point your residence was built, perhaps site preparation had to be done. Heavy machinery like a bulldozer may have been used to level the ground, That equipment arrived on site by truck. That same bulldozer when it was built was likely shipped on a truck from a manufacturer of heavy equipment to a local seller in the area your home was built. Countless goods, products and equipment most people assume will be there when required all arrive at one point or another by truck. Truck transport plays an important role in everyday life for all of us.
Back to our truck and trailer with the professional driver. There are far more people involved than the driver. The support personnel behind the scenes will amaze you. A list of the employees would include folks that load the freight, repair the trucks & trailers, dispatcher the drivers, data entry people to do all the paperwork required for that trailer load of goods moving down the road. Terminal managers, sales people, computer people, owners of the companies. Safety and compliance employees, employees that deal with trucks crossing international borders every minute of the day. Safe to say the support staff keeping those trucks and trailers moving around North America is pretty big.
Other groups that are related to the truck transportation industry are commercial vehicle safety alliance( keeping unsafe trucks off the roads), Transport Canada, trucking associations, trucking safety organizations , driver training schools, mechanics, materials handling equipment (pallet jacks, forklift, etc).
We at NSTSA celebrate this truly amazing diverse exciting truck transportation industry, the great people that work with and within in the industry. It’s a fantastic dynamic industry that grows every year as more goods, products and material travel by truck transport.
A neat demographic we discovered that is something to think about, what would happen if trucks stopped moving ?
Please join us in celebrating National Trucking Week and this amazing industry !