Donald “Don” Freeman, founder of Consolidated Fastfrate and a pioneer in Canadian trucking passed away on June 26. He was 89 years old.

Freeman was born in Toronto in 1937 and started working from a young age. He entered the transportation industry in 1953 when he joined Kingsway Transport as a dock worker at the age of 16. At the time, he was the youngest person in the company.

After gaining experience in the sector, he co-founded Consolidated Fastfrate with Sophie Weimert in 1966.

Back then, he struck a deal with Canadian Pacific Railway to reposition empty boxcars returning west, laying the foundation for what would become one of Canada’s largest intermodal transportation companies. That relationship with what is now Canadian Pacific Kansas City remains a cornerstone of the business until this day.

Under Freeman’s leadership, Consolidated Fastfrate grew from six employees to about 1,000 by 1985. In 1986, Freeman acquired Kingsway Transport, the company where he had started his career more than three decades earlier. The combined business, CF Kingsway, employed more than 3,500 people and became Canada’s second-largest transportation company.

After Freeman sold CF Kingsway in 1989, he was involved in many other ventures. In 2003, he purchased a small fire protection company, Onyx-Fire, that had employed 20 people. It has since grown to be the largest in Ontario and had 350 employees by 2020 until its sale in November 2020.

“He was an incredibly devoted husband, father and grandfather. His life was defined by his deep devotion to his family as well as all his friends,” his family wrote in the obituary. Freeman is survived by his wife, Danuta; four children; a brother and sister; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held July 10 at Turner & Porter Peel Chapel in Mississauga, with a funeral service scheduled for July 11.