STEINBACH, Man. (Mar. 28, 2005) — Gary Coleman, like most fleet owners these days, is constantly on the lookout for a new source of drivers. Recently, the president and CEO of Big Freight Systems not only got what he was looking for, but also a new business partner.

In early January, Big Freight Systems and the Tribal Councils Investment Group Ltd. (TCIG) announced a deal giving the First Nations investment group a minority ownership position in the Steinbach, Man.-based trucking company.

Today, with over 200 power units and 240 drivers, Big Freight is one of the 10 largest trucking companies operating out of Manitoba. But finding new drivers is a major challenge for the company, as it is for most long-distance carriers.

So last summer, Coleman approached Allan McLeod, TCIG’s president and CEO, about starting a driver-training program for aboriginal people. TCIG is comprised of seven Manitoba tribal councils and has investments in a wide range of businesses in the province ranging from beverages to aviation, to banking and professional sports.

“We talked,” Coleman says, “and Allan shared his vision and long-term objectives with us. As Allan learned more about Big Freight, he expressed interest in having TCIG become an investor in our company.”

One of the benefits of the partnership — which is already starting to bear fruit — is the new business potential TCIG extracts from the aboriginal community.

Coleman reports that Big Freight and TCIG will launch a 13-18-week training program for drivers in early spring. He foresees a two-step process whereby the aboriginal trainees would first qualify for their Class 1 licence and then learn the nuts and bolts of being a driver –for both flatbed, and eventually in the company’s growing dry van fleet.

“We have to turn down business every day because we don’t have enough drivers,” Coleman says. “We are confident that this will work out and we will be able to continue to grow our business.”

An additional benefit from employing aboriginal drivers is that they would be exempt — due to their treaty status — from long-standing cabatoge rules that restrict other Canadian drivers from moving freight point-to-point in the U.S.

“It would give us a lot more flexibility in our American operations,” says Coleman, who adds that U.S. freight accounts for 60 percent of Big Freight’s business. “There are so many regulations. There are provincial, federal, and American regulations and none of them are harmonized. All of these regulations cost the Canadian economy hundreds of millions of dollars in lost efficiency.”

Big Freight isn’t the first trucking company to try to recruit aboriginal drivers. Some other carriers have tried over the years with limited results.

But the aboriginal involvement may help bridge some of the cultural and socio-economic differences that in the past have made it difficult for other fleets to recruit native drivers.

Coleman, for one, acknowledges the potential pitfalls, adding that Big Freight’s staff needs to be sensitized to aboriginal culture. “It will take some time for our two cultures to mesh,” he notes, “but this isn’t a flavour of the month thing with us. Our training program is an integral part of our mandate to grow our business.”

– by Myron Love