I think as I was commenting, our industry is very much pushed by the user. Really, if there is demand for a lot of the technologies that have already been developed, they will come up with solutions. In many of these components, you speak of the side guards. Currently in North America the focus is more on the aerodynamic guards, which are a little different from the safety-related guards the Europeans are using. However, coming up with those solutions can be done. The key is really the demand from the end-user.
Again, this is one place to keep a level playing field with all of those manufacturers, and this is something where the association has come into play, along with Transport Canada. Regulation has a role to play because it does do that. It levels the playing field; it says all of you must have this on specific types of vehicles. There are going to be vehicles where certain solutions on certain aspects are not going to work terribly well. However, if there's regulation put forth, at least it keeps a level playing field for all of those manufacturers, especially the small and medium-sized, and then says we all have to have that.
Having been in the truck manufacturing industry for years, I was around when ABS was introduced on trucks. We actually had the technology for a number of years prior. It wasn't as developed as it is now, but it was there. We offered it as a standard. The demand throughout the industry by the end-users was that if it wasn't a regulation, they didn't want it. They wanted a deduct option, and they didn't want to spend that money. We wanted to try to make it as cost-effective as possible. But, again, until the volume increased, it was an expensive option. Once we got past that and said it had to be used by everyone, the cost of the option dropped, and all of a sudden it was a non-issue.
There is a role to be played by regulation when it comes to equipment, especially, and to the manufacturer of equipment. I'm not a huge proponent of regulation, but I realize that we could do an awful lot if the industry were willing to pay for it. I realized that during my career of 17 years in manufacturing and 12 years as a compliance engineer, compliance manager, and test manager. I worked for Western Star Trucks. At that time, it was the last fully Canadian-owned truck manufacturer, and I'm darn proud of it, but unfortunately it is now part of the Daimler family.
There were always those big guys, and if they weren't going to push forward, and they were in the U.S., and they were going to play by the U.S. rules, we were stuck. We couldn't have survived. There's always that, and especially for the small and medium, I think that's a big issue.