Let's Focus on the Best

By Becky Thiessen, WSTDA President

What a journey this has been. As my fourth and final year as president of WSTDA comes to an end I have many things I am grateful for. Thank you all for your support, faith and hard work. I have truly enjoyed my journey; it has made me a better member, a better tie down manufacturer and a better person. Thank you again for the privilege to have served.

I would like to use my last newsletter article to spark a new journey. I recently became aware of a .com magazine, whose name is not important, that published an article entitled:

"A Ticking Time Bomb?"

"What good is a load rating on a cargo strap if the maker is free to buy labels and sew them to any strap at all?"

I found this article to be very disturbing for several reasons. The author claims “the standards pertaining to the labeling of webbed cargo straps are toothless” and “strap makers are more or less free to make a tie down assembly in any fashion they choose, and then affix any label they want to the strap, making it look like a legitimate and proper cargo strap.” He goes on to say that “this is a delicate issue because in writing about it, we call into question the integrity of strap and cargo-tie down device manufacturers.”

He and I agree on one thing - this is a delicate issue. Being a tie down manufacturer for over twenty years and a member of WSTDA for more than ten entitles me to be disturbed by his comments. I know our industry is not perfect but I also know that many tie down manufacturers are diligent in producing tie downs to meet or exceed WSTDA standards.

My intention is not to debate whether our standards are toothless, for we all know they are not. My intention is not to debate our freedom to label or our integrity. My intention is to invite my fellow tie down manufacturing members of WSTDA to market the best of the industry.

Let us start a new journey, a journey to inform our customers, enforcement personnel and authors that there are many of us that do the right thing day in and day out. If there is doubt, and I know that there is, that the label affixed to some tie downs in the marketplace today can’t be trusted then let us start to provide undeniable proof that our working load limit can and should be trusted. Let us start to provide undeniable proof that our tie downs meet or exceed the ONLY industry standard for synthetic web tie downs.

I do not believe a regulatory body is needed in our industry. More importantly, I do not believe WSTDA should become such a regulatory body. This leaves us with an honor system. A system of integrity fueled by ethics and monitored by knowledge. A system my father founded his business on and one I strive to maintain every day.

We don’t need to be pointing fingers and talking about the worst of our industry. We need to focus on the best and that, my friends, is us. So I invite you to San Francisco to be the best you can be and let the world know you are.

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Web Sling & Tie Down Association

2105 Laurel Bush Rd. • Suite 200 • Bel Air, MD 21015 • phone: 443-640-1070 • fax: 443-640-1031 • wstda@ksgroup.org • www.wstda.com