Alberta-Trucker Wins 2014 Professional Woman of the Year Award
GARDEN CITY, NY — Twenty-five years ago, Angelika and Maurice Ringuette entered into a partnership that was destined for success: they bought Ashton Transport Ltd., an Alberta-based trucking business providing freight and hotshot service throughout western Canada.
Today, an esteemed organization for professional women, the National Association of Professional Women (NAPW) recognized Angelika’s success. NAPW spans many industries and has over 600,000 members in Canada and the U.S. and nearly 400 chapters.
“She had a good head for figures and he knew everything about the trucking business,” NAPW wrote about the Ringuettes in a press release. “Recognizing each had what the other lacked, they decided to form a company that would last over a quarter of a century.”
“I feel honoured. I’m just beside myself,” Angelika says. “I was 13 years in banking. My husband’s always been in trucking. He drove for many years and then he ended up in an office doing dispatch for a company and then he’s seen an ad in the paper in ‘89 and the rest is history.”
This year in June, Angelika and Maurice will celebrate 41 years of marriage. They have three children: two sons and a daughter, two cats and two dogs and of course, the business.
The Ringuettes bought Ashton Transport Ltd. after they saw it for sale in an ad and have since built it up to 20 tractors and 70 trailers. They haul pipe, steel, lumber and concrete in BC, Alberta Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Territories, servicing industry leaders such as Dow Chemical, Inland Pipe, Home Depot, Sifto Canada Syncrude Canada and many others.
“There are challenges every day,” Angelika says. “I have a busy, busy desk. I do the payroll, I do all the payables, the group insurance, I’m involved with the hiring and firing – I don’t do it but I’m involved in that,” she says.
Their two sons are also involved in the business.
“Our eldest is an owner-operator working for our company and the middle son is a shop foreman,” Angelika says.
This year, the business hits its quarter century milestone.
Have your say
This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.