TRUCK & BUSINESS 273

Unforeseeable, brutal, unprecedented, rapidly spreading, merciless… words fail us to describe exactly what went through our minds in March when the most serious health crisis in our modern history broke out. Who would have thought that Western society would agree to quarantine itself at home, that 62% of the working population would switch to teleworking and that one day European football, the Olympic Games and the 24 Hours of Le Mans would be postponed?

During the entire period, the healthcare workers have been fighting in the front line all the time to ensure that the population has access to that essential product that we cannot live without for 90 seconds: air. But right after that front line, the transport sector had a unique opportunity to prove to the general public that without them, those other important necessities of life (food and drink) would not be met. Everything else, from the Queen Elisabeth competition to Tomorrowland, had suddenly been pushed to the background.

But still, man has a short memory. We must leave these weeks of fear and quarantine behind us as soon as possible. He may spontaneously think back to the applause for the healthcare sector every evening at 8 p.m. when the bells rang. On the other hand, the children's drawings, where (sometimes) a big thank you was also given to the drivers who supplied our shops with new goods, will long since be found in a forgotten drawer or even torn up and in the bin while the radio announces a new accident involving trucks on the E17.

Unless… A month after the start of this pandemic, the Regions and the Social Fund announced a major campaign aimed at recruiting drivers. The sums invested are also unprecedented on a Belgian scale. The animators of this campaign would do well to use the momentum of the past works to give their campaign even more power.