The Freight Transport Association (FTA) is preparing for a change of government as part of meeting the goals set by new president, Stewart Oades.
He wants to make sure that the FTA "effectively represents the industry during what is going to be a very difficult couple of years of recession".
He says: "We've got to make sure we maintain the status of the industry and that we represent and reflect the interests of our members. There will be a change of government; it's likely that will be a change of party. We're already beginning to see the first signs of the Conservative Party having a few policies. We're engaging with them, but not seeing an awful lot of content."
Oades adds: "We'll be active at the party conferences [in the autumn] to ensure the FTA's position is clearly articulated."
He is also keen that the FTA leads the industry on climate change: "The industry is consistently reducing its carbon emissions and we're getting no reward whatsoever for that - quite the opposite in fact. We should be given more incentive to invest further.
"We've agreed more funds for our policy team to ensure we are the absolute voice for the industry as far as climate change is concerned."
But the FTA will not lose focus on members' biggest worry. "We're not going to back away from our position on fuel duty: members have made that clear," says Oades.
Oades also wants the FTA to get involved as early as possible with any future regulation of the van sector: "We need a very clear position and policy. There's lots of noise coming out of Brussels that they're quite keen to regulate; we're keen to avoid that if at all possible by making sure there's a voluntary scheme that introduces driver training and compliance, etc."
Any such voluntary scheme 
would need to be publicly auditable and transparent.