Indian Trucking Association recently held a press-conference to inform the media about their achievements and preparation for their own second Indian Truck Show that will take place in Brampton in August 08, 2009. DorogaRoad informed our readers about the creation of the Indian Trucking Association a year and a half ago. Now we seize the opportunity to ask the President of the association Nachhattar Chohan a few questions about organization’s progress.
DorogaRoad: We first met time in February 2008, and you then told me about the creation of Indian trucking association, your plans, and objectives. What are your achievements now, in June 2009? Nachhattar Chohan: We have a lot of achievements. First, let’s talk about our people. We gather a lot of new members into the association. The drivers from different companies felt totally isolated. Not any more. Whoever becomes a member of our association attain immediate access to all the benefits that our organization provides. We’ve made a very good network of transportation professionals and associates.
One of the big issues we’re trying to resolve is overloading and improper loading of the freight. As you know the driver might be heavily fined when caught by MTO (Ministry of Transportation – DR) with overloaded or improper loaded, insecure freight. We consider this as nonsense and insist that responsibility in such cases should be lying on the shipper, not on the driver. As we all know overweight is a very serious issue, it is a safety issue as it may become a reason for road accidents with heavy consequences.
We held a few seminars for our members with participation by MTO and Border Security representatives. It was very helpful and informative for the attendees. Drivers were informed about all the latest law enforcement developments, rules and regulations.
From the other side, trainers from MTO were interested in feedback from our drivers; they were looking forward to making their lecturers more adaptive and acceptable for different audiences.
DorogaRoad: In general, do you feel more acceptance of Indian trucking association from the government structures, from the MTO and other organizations, today as oppose to a year ago? Nachhattar Chohan: Yes, we do. They listen; we have a good rapport with MTO people and hope that our relations become only better. We will continue to protect drivers, we are telling them repeatedly that the drivers and transportation companies penalized for the other people’s fault, and it shouldn’t be like that. We are positive that we’ll have the results very soon.
DorogaRoad: I remember that among the objectives you listed upon the creation of Indian Trucking Association was your desire to see more Punjabi speaking officers on Canadian weigh stations. Is there any progress on this issue? Nachhattar Chohan: That wasn’t our requirement. We live and work in Canada; we must know the English language. Of course, some people have less knowledge on it. For example, if you call the office of the city of Brampton, you can talk in any language, and you will have a response in the same language, even though we are in Canada and everybody must know English. There’s nothing wrong with that. Today every bank, every airline, almost every store hire somebody multilingual to make a good communication with the people. There’s nothing wrong, if they hire Punjabi speaking employees.
DorogaRoad: You are working on the preparation to your second Indian Truck Show that will take place in August this year. Another show that we probably also can call “Indian” just took place May 30-31st at the very same Powerade Centre in Brampton. What do you think –is this not too many shows, like two shows in one year? Nachhattar Chohan: I don’t like to comment on other’s shows. We are doing the show that represents not just a person, or a company, we are the organization. We are looking after our people, we are issuing ID cards, and we create networks. The people must understand that it is the difference between an individual and an organization.
We invite everyone to the second Indian Trucking Show that will be running on August 08, 2009 at Powerade Centre in Brampton, Ontario.
DorogaRoad: Thank you, Mr.Chohan.
If you would like to read the first interview with Nachhattar Chohan you can find it by visiting www.dorogaroad.com and scrolling down the home page.
As we just mentioned, another truck show, Road Today Truck Show came about on May 30-31st in Brampton’s Powerade Centre. This event took place just before the current issue went to print, so we didn’t have much time to cover it, however it deserves a good coverage because of its success. Maybe it is a bit early to measure the commercial advance of the Show (although we have witnessed as representatives of International, one of the show Gold Sponsors, closed a deal selling on a spot the most popular brand’s model The Lone Star) however it was a real community celebration of The Trucking. With great prizes, like roundtrip flight to India from Platinum Sponsor Arrow Truck Sales, concerts with the participation of local stars and even a playground for the kids – all well organized and aligned. Such a celebration of Trucking is especially valuable in tough times for the industry. Congratulations to Manan Gupta, Editor in Chief of Road Today magazine – show organizer, and his team for a job well done and thanks to the show sponsors for the money well spent. Please see some pictures of the Road Today Truck Show 2009 on pages 8-9 of this issue.
