he STA held it’s Annual General Meeting on October 26 in Saskatoon. Two new members join the STA Board – Troy Christian of Manitoulin Transport and Tom Siemens of Siemens Transport.

Following the AGM, the Board of Directors met for the first board meeting of the new fiscal year. The board discussed the need to continuing working with SGI towards a higher standard of training in Saskatchewan, advancing the wide base tire permit pilot program, pushing for delete kit enforcement in
the province.

Canadian Trucking Alliance Senior VP of Policy Geoff Wood joined the meeting to speak with members about where the industry is at with ELDs, marijuana and the CTA Driver Inc. file.

Also after the AGM, the STA and Newcom Business Media hosted a panel discussion entitled “A Better Image.”
The panel featured six industry participants from different aspects of the trucking industry and was moderated by Derek Clouthier editor of Truck West, and western editor for Truck News, Truck Tech, and Inside Logistics. Conversation centred around the current image of the trucking industry and how/if we need to be working collectively as an industry to change it. Another topic was the underrepresentation of women and minorities in the industry and how immigration could be used to help close the driver gap.

Everything from better infrastructure to the use of technology inside of trucks were cited as ways that we can show drivers that this is a great career choice. The consensus was that we need to get out in front of not only the millennial generations, but school aged children to cement in young minds that trucking is a viable career option. Special thanks to Erin Diehl
(D&E Trucking), Chelsea Jukes (Westcan Bulk Transport), Jim Olson (SGI Canada), Roger Clarke (Gordon Food Services Ltd.), and Bridget O’Shaughnessy and Balpreet Singh from Falcon Transport for participating in the discussion.