Trucking Toward A Better Future 2022 – Not this time
After careful deliberation, organisers and judges have decided not to award prizes for the Trucking Toward a Better Future 2022 competition.
“Once again, entry numbers were modest. But last year, the winning entry not only defined the issue but also offered a solution. This year, the entries merely stated or restated an issue, with little in the way of suggested resolution and how that should be executed,” says Dave McCoid, editorial director at New Zealand Trucking Media.
“There’s certainly an element of frustration on my part. I know the reasoning and intellect that exists out there. I’ve been around it all my working life, and as I’ve said many times, most of my mentors are or were, at one stage, truck drivers. But we’re an industry rarely willing to pop our head above the parapet.
“Truck drivers throughout the country are as worried as anyone else about the future, but I know many are cynical about the hypocrisy they see. Then comes their perception of the value a society, ever more demanding of their service, awards them. Getting them to rise above that and have their say for me is really important.
“Like our industry associations always seeking numbers to bolster their effectiveness and voice, this competition is a stage from which drivers and industry participants can speak, and the value of what they have to say is truly appreciated.
“The prize pool this year was certainly worth an entry, but required the winning entry to be worthy of its value. It had to be of a standard that either reveals a new idea or builds on an existing one.”
“Nothing in this has diminished my belief in a huge reservoir of great ideas in the minds of individuals in the trucking sector,” says competition co-organiser Lindsay Wood, director of climate strategy company Resilienz Ltd.
“Maybe Dave and I need to open up new channels to reach those ideas; maybe the sector just needs a little longer to warm to the notion of sharing them. But I never forget that truckies see into almost every corner of the country – and a devil of a lot in between – in a way that nobody else in the universe does. Whichever way, I’d guarantee if I were a fly on the wall of any smoko room in any yard in the country, it wouldn’t be long before I’d hear some genius of a concept. It might start with ‘Jeez mate, if only they’d…’ or ‘Don’t they ever think that…?’ but, sure as hell, round the next corner in the conversation would be a cracker of an insight.”
The competition is queued to go again in the new year, and McCoid and Wood are undeterred and as positive and enthusiastic as ever. They are adamant that those at the execution end of the transport industry must be heard.
“Oh, absolutely,” says McCoid. “You’ll never stop me advocating for the value and quality of people in the cabs of our trucks, nor will I stop petitioning them over the value of the knowledge they hold and the imbalance it creates in real-world outcomes if they’re not heard. Like I said two years ago, this process is like getting a bear out of a cage with a stick.”
“And it kind of fits, doesn’t it?” Wood adds, with a wry grin, “that to win over the long-haul sector, we need to be in it for the long haul too. Roll on, 2023!”