TORONTO, Ont. — It was a star-studded night on Oct. 11, as Trucking HR Canada hosted its annual Top Fleet Employers Gala Awards Dinner in Toronto.

The night brought together more than 300 trucking and transportation professionals to celebrate human resources best practices and shine a light on some of the best places to work in the industry.

Fifty-two fleets were celebrated as the 2018 Top Fleet Employers, but only a handful took home the coveted awards. Awards were given to celebrate the most impressive workplaces across the country, taking into consideration online applications and employee surveys which look at a variety of HR best practices.

The Top Private Fleet Award went to Trailer Wizards. ONE For Freight was the recipient of the Top Small Fleet Award. The Top Medium Fleet award went to Saskatchewan’s Q-Line Trucking and rounding out the fleet awards,was Bison Transport who took home the Top Large Fleet Award.

The Achievement of Excellence Awards are broken down into five categories to highlight leaders in specific HR areas. The recipient of the Workplace Culture Award was Canada Cartage. Ryder Canada Supply Chain Solutions took home the Award for Workplace Diversity. The recipient of HR Innovation Award was Arrow Transportation Systems. The Employee Engagement Award went to Sutco Transportation Specialists, and taking home the Award for Training and Skills Development was Caron Transportation Systems.

The night’s most anticipated award – the HR Leader of the Year Award – was awarded to Challenger Motor Freight’s Geoff Topping. Topping is an industry veteran, and currently the v.p. of human resources at Challenger. He started his career in the trucking industry as an owner-operator.

“I’m not usually speechless, but wow,” said Topping upon accepting the award. “Thank you to Trucking HR Canada, and all my team at Challenger. And thank you to our industry. We should be very proud of our industry. We always say it’s a people industry and it really is. I’m sure there’s lots of equippment and things, but when you take it all away it’s really about people. The trucking industry has the best bunch of people you could possibly get. If you look around the room today, we’re all friends and competitors and we all share best practices with each other. We should all be proud of this industry. I love this industry, it’s been great to me, and thanks so much.”

Trucking HR Canada’s CEO Angela Splinter added: “We are honoured to highlight organizations who work year-round to provide great workplaces for all
their employees. And, with fleets under pressure to attract and recruit workers, being a Top Fleet Employer certainly helps these fleets stand-out from the
crowd.”

The event was made possible by Trucking HR Canada’s partners which include Reimer Associates, TransCore Link Logistics, Revolutions Staffing, The Guarantee, In Transit, Monster, Driver Engagement, Isaac Instruments and exclusive media sponsor Newcom Media.

Applications for the Top Fleet Employers Program opens October 15th and is open to any Canadian fleet.