Kudos to an industry that continues to help those in need

There is no shortage of good causes available to the trucking industry if it wants to help, and for the most part, the industry steps up to the plate when needed.

Most recently, the Missing Children Society of Canada (MCSC) spoke during the Saskatchewan Trucking Association’s annual AGM in Regina to inform them of how they can make a difference in its effort to bring missing children home.
Two years ago, MCSC partnered with the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA) for this very cause.

The partnership centered around MCSC’s CodeSearch program, and rolled it out to AMTA members. The program is an app-based rapid response platform, which engages law enforcement and others of missing children.

The very nature of the trucking industry is a perfect fit for efforts such as this. Locating missing children is seldom an easy task, and with drivers literally scouring North America 24/7, what better industry to lend a hand in finding these lost and/or abducted souls?

At the time the partnership was announced in 2017, MCSC said it recognized the incredible opportunity it was awarded being able to work with the AMTA.

MCSC CEO Amanda Pick said, “We know that it only takes one person in the right place at the right time to help a missing child. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, commercial transport vehicles are in every community across Canada. The drivers behind the wheel of those trucks are ideally positioned to provide the valuable eyes and ears in the search for missing children.”

She could not be more correct.

As part of its partnership with MCSC, the AMTA has trained all its staff on the usage of the CodeSearch app and how to share it. The association has also written articles about the collaboration, shared information on MCSC in its membership newsletters, provided MCSC with opportunities to speak during AMTA events, and stayed engaged with MCSC on social media by sharing information on missing children posts.

Having truck drivers involved in helping to find missing children is similar to the effort of Truckers Against Trafficking, which expanded into Canada this past September.

These kinds of partnerships could not make more sense, with trucking possibly being the most valuable industry resource organizations like MCSC and Truckers Against Trafficking can have.

And the fact that the industry continues to develop collaborations like these only goes to show the type of people who work in trucking and their unrelenting desire to help those in need.

This holiday season, another example of the trucking industry doing its part is 18 Wheels of Christmas.

On Nov. 22 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., and again Nov. 23 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the organization will hold its 17th annual Food and Toy Drive. This year’s campaign will go to help those in need in the Dawson Creek, B.C.-and area.

There will be three locations where they will be looking to fill a trailer with food and toy donations – Dawson Creek Co-op, Save-On-Foods, and Safeway.

There’s no question that this holiday season and beyond the trucking industry deserves a pat on the back for all it does to help others. But as we all know, that is not why they keep doing what they do.

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A university graduate with a degree in English, I have worked in the media and trucking industries as a writer, editor, and now as western bureau chief of Today's Trucking and TruckNews.com. I have several years of management experience in journalism, as well as hospitality, but am first and foremost a writer, both professionally and in my personal life, having completed two fiction novels.
derek@newcom.ca
@DerekClouthier


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