Manitoba Trucking Association’s new President, Greg Arndt.

WINNIPEG — Greg Arndt is the new President of the Manitoba Trucking Association (MTA).

Arndt is Vice President of Jade Transport, a bulk transporter with about 70 tractors based in St. Boniface. He took over from Norm Blagden of Searcy Trucking Ltd., at the MTA’s Annual General Meeting in Winnipeg Tuesday.

Arndt joined Jade in 1986.

The company can actually trace its roots to Mexico, where founder Jake Dyck began hauling logs with a Model A truck. He immigrated to Manitoba in 1952 and started hauling cars from Ontario to Saskatchewan.

He eventually started J&J Trucking, which eventually became Jade Transport. In 1984, Jake’s son Larry along with his wife Kim bought the company. Two  years later, Jake retired and Larry brought in his high-school friend Arndt, who is now a partner.

As new MTA President, Arndt says the association has traditionally had representation from a wide variety of carriers on its board of directors so it advocates for as many truckers as possible. 

“I’ve always felt the association had a place for non-mainstream operations like ours,” he says.

According to Jade Transport’s (very impressive) company website, when asked about education that is most relevant to his career, Arndt says that “most of what he learned was by the seat of his pants.

Although he did do many night school accounting classes he attributes much of his success to the perseverance, endurance and self confidence he gained after five years in Navy Cadets and the Canadian Navy Reserve.”