One of the first things you must know about 2013 Highway Star Award Winner Brian Bertsch is that his wife, Debbie, never knows when he’ll be home because “he always stays late to help the other guys finish up.”

“He just says, ‘well, that way we can all go home together at the same time,’” she told Today’s Trucking editors at the awards ceremony luncheon at ExpoCam in Montreal this past April.

It was just one of many reasons Highway Star judges picked Brian Bertsch as this year’s winner of $10,000 in cash and prizes.

Bertsch has driven for Hi-Way 9 Express Ltd. out of Drumheller, AB. for 35 years, but his love of all things freight started when he was a boy following his uncle and father, both of whom worked for CN in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

The number of customer testimonials that accompanied Bertsch’s Highway Star application was outstanding, and most of his customers consider Bertsch a friend. Even the most difficult customers Bertsch can win over with humor, respect and top-notch service, his employers noted.

Regular customers can set their clocks by him, said Reg Trentham, vice president, Hi-Way 9.

The safety-conscious, two-­million-accident-free-miles Bertsch will also let dispatch know if he thinks one of the other drivers headed out should wait until the roads are cleared.

The Highway Star of the Year Award is sponsored by Newcom Business Media Inc.—which owns Today’s Trucking, Transport Routier, and truck shows ExpoCam and Truck World—Freightliner Trucks, Cummins, Espar, Meritor, Chevron, and the Owner-Operator’s Business Association of Canada.

The winner gets a $10,000 cheque, a trip to Montreal for two, a special-edition Chevron jacket, an Espar heater system, a road-ready laptop from OBAC, and other gifts.

In this case, the winner also got his name and accomplishment emblazoned on one of his boss’s trailers.