OTTAWA, Ont. – The Canadian Trucking Alliance has canceled plans for a special strategy meeting looking at the state of the trucking industry, and will, instead, address the issue during an extended annual meeting in April.

Discussions will be a little warmer, too, since plans for a Winnipeg conference in February now shift to a spring meeting in Phoenix, Ariz.

“The centrepiece of the discussion will be a survey we’re conducting through Compas (pollsters) on a host of issues,” explains Massimo Bergamini, vice-president of government and trucking affairs. “There was absolutely no way we could get the survey completed in time for February.”

Surveys – covering safety, environment, labor and infrastructure – are only now arriving in the offices of CTA members.

Recently elected CTA chairman John Stollery called for the Winnipeg meeting to address the wide array of issues affecting the trucking industry, from public perceptions to the laws that govern it.

The meeting on the state of the industry will be April 11, followed by a meeting of the alliance’s procedures and policy group on April 12, and the general board meeting on April 13. n