Here’s a Challenge: Find dirt at Einwechter’s spotless new digs

CAMBRIDGE, Ont. — “If it doesn’t look like this when Dan comes around in the morning,” the guide said as he pointed to the maintenance-shop floor that was so clean you could eat off it, “he hits the roof.”

The guide was taking yet another team of visitors and celebrants on a tour of Challenger Motor Freight’s brand new headquarters in Cambridge, Ont., and the “Dan” he mentioned is of course Dan Einwechter, the founder of this 19-year-old success story.

You best keep Challenger’s new headquarters clean
when boss Dan Einwechter comes around

Everything about Challenger is built to Einwechter’s exacting specs, from the splashy driver lounge (where a few guys were hanging around watching Brazil beat Croatia one zip) to the high-tech automatic mechanical inspection sensors that trucks drive over as they enter the spic-and-span shop. Sensors read air pressure and tire temperature, wheel by wheel and once inside, the rigs pass over a small pad in the floor that assesses alignment automatically.

At about 4:00 pm a beaming-proud Einwechter stood in front of a crowd of family members, suppliers and local supporters — including R. Larry Gravill, one of Einwechter’s high-school pals who is now the chief of the Kitchener Waterloo Police Force — and cut the ribbon, officially opening Challenger’s new 113,000-sq. ft home.

The facility, which looks more like a Silicon Valley Computer mecca than a trucking company headquarters, is perhaps the most advanced of its kind in Canada.

Maintenance director Wayne Scott had the 24/7 maintenance shop and separately housed post-trip inspection lanes pretty much up and running last year. The trailer shop, the body shop, the state-of-the-art 50-ft paint booth, and the truck wash (touchless for tractors, brush for trailers) soon followed.

He has about 50,000-sq-ft of maintenance space to work with, and it’s full of the latest technology. The facility can handle two full tractor-trailers plus two bobtail tractors at a time in the dedicated safety lanes, and the crew can service about 6o trucks a day if they have to.


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