Insurers, suppliers, and Ontario Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney joined the Skelton Truck Lines family on Aug. 18 as the fleet formally accepted the national 2023 Northbridge Insurance Transportation Safety Award.

The honor compares hundreds of fleets, considering business operations, safety practices, and crash data including collisions per million miles, high-cost collisions, and visibility-related collisions, Northbridge Insurance says.

“Almost four decades ago we forged a partnership with Northbridge over shared values and a common purpose of effectively managing risk,” fleet president Ron Skelton said. “Over the years through collective efforts, Skelton and Northbridge have been able to develop and implement industry-leading safety management practices that we believe have led us to be one of the safest transport companies in North America.”

“Creating these critical jobs and keeping them in East Gwillimbury, it’s incredible. And watching your success and [how] you’ve grown and partnered with an incredible company like Andlauer Healthcare, I mean the future is unlimited for you,” said Mulroney, whose York-Simcoe riding includes Skelton’s head office. “The people who work here are family.”

Andlauer Healthcare Group purchased the fleet in February 2021.

But the Conservative MPP offered one suggestion if Skelton Truck Lines ever wanted to rebrand.

“You might want to take blue instead of orange,” Mulroney quipped. Ontario’s governing Conservatives are branded blue, while the opposition NDP is branded orange.

Regional winners of the 2023 Northbridge Insurance Transportation Safety Award included Vedder Transportation Group (Western), Skelton Truck Lines (Ontario), Groupe Transcol (Quebec), and Atlantic Pacific Transport (Atlantic).