Saskatchewan Trucking Association: Impacting our Community in Trucking

August 12, 2022

2022 has given us many opportunities to connect with others in both our professional and personal lives. Through a stroke of luck, I was given an opportunity to work at the Saskatchewan Trucking Association in 2022, and it has been an eye opener in many ways.

Saskatchewan Trucking Association: Impacting our Community in Trucking

My background has been cemented in the world of retail and service and coming to a nonprofit organization has offered up so many different challenges and prospects. The idea of selling a concept was unusual for me as it probably is for many people. People are used to having something tangible to touch, prize, and show others. Having a physical item generates a conversation with others as the exchange flows towards the different choices that were available and the story of how the interaction took place, good time or bad. It helps quell the most common of instincts when making a purchase, the dreaded buyer’s remorse.

On the other side of the coin, the task of selling a concept is a different beast. It deals with a person’s emotion or a feeling that is generated. Its’s doing the right thing without any of your five senses to guide you forward. Of contributing to a greater idea that helps a whole. It is a sort of a leap of faith knowing that those you put your trust in will inevitably make the right choice. Much like going to vote, you need to have a certain level of belief in the outcome. I have always found that by contributing to something bigger than myself has always provided me with a certain feeling of satisfaction. I know deep down that I have done the right thing. But for others, that feeling of buyer’s remorse slowly creeps into the back of their minds before they commit. They find reasons to disengage from the opportunity. To use excuses or compare statistics. And so, even today, the battle against buyer’s remorse rages on.  

My hope is that everyone I reach out to has an opportunity to make a difference in their community, regardless of it being big or small. And believe me, there is a community when it comes to the trucking industry in Saskatchewan. I have one of the best viewpoints of how proud and passionate the stakeholders are. They are engaged in sharing their voices and contributing to their industry brothers and sisters. They will provide a piece of advice or a piece of equipment when needed. They recognized the roles they took on during one of the worst times in our modern history. The threat to our society was apparent and the torch was picked up and carried. From food and medical supplies to raw materials, trucking was there to keep us from falling so far down there was no return. They understand that relationships need to be developed and they only want to be included at the table when problems are being discussed and decisions are being considered. I have tried to harness this energy and use it to design opportunities for members. I want them to be proud of the association they are part of. 

Trucking has always had its dark corners that can be very cold and uninviting. There are times you feel that this is the only side that anyone outside the industry sees. But it is not. The generosity extends far beyond being a good corporate citizen. Truckers still stops to help others and ban together and donate time and resources to a cause. They are a group who are very much separated by distances but work shoulder to shoulder when it is important. I was able to be part of an opportunity to serve lunch to a group of these road brothers and sisters at a weigh-scale barbeque recently and was amazed to hear that every one of them thanked us for the offering. No one was complaining, everyone had big smiles. It was genuine. It was about them because it was for them. We were proud to be able to let them know they are important. It might have been brief, but this was their time. When they crossed the scale and were served lunch with a thank you, they appreciated that small bit of recognition. They welcomed that that we understand how important they are to everything we do.  Their time constraints and commitments were put aside. Not one complained that we were wasting their time. You could tell that there was a level of appreciation and respect. And that’s what being part of this association entails. The understanding that small things generate into greater changes. That there is a level of respect shared between each other and that the more you are engaged the greater you benefit from your investment. 

My final word to those who are hesitant to become members is to focus on how you can pay forward what has been a great opportunity given to all of us in the trucking industry. To everyone that is a member, please accept my sincere thank you for understanding that we are stronger together.  

 

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