NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. — As well as recognizing the best in eye-stopping graphics, the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada takes time to recognize the safest fleets and best drivers.

The PMTC doled out awards to two very safe fleets and inducted three more drivers into the Hall of Fame For Professional Drivers, at the council’s annual conference in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ont.

The private fleet safety competition was open to all Canadian private carriers and was co-sponsored by Zurich.

Pro Trucking Systems of Burlington, Ont. took home the Small Fleet Category award. Pro Trucking has won this award four times in the past 11 years and the six truck and 13 trailer fleet ran 100,000 km during the past two years delivering flyers to more than 200 newspapers in Ontario.

Home Hardware Stores of St. Jacob’s, Ont. was awarded top honors in the Large Fleet Category. Home Hardware Stores operates a fleet of 124 tractors, more than 400 trailers and a few straight trucks, which deliver 95 percent of the goods sold in the nationwide chain of 1,100 stores.

HALL OF FAME

The Hall of Fame For Professional Drivers is sponsored by CPC Logistics and recognizes superior over the road performance by drivers whose companies are members of the PMTC.

“We read and hear a lot about the shortage of qualified drivers in North America,” said PMTC President Bruce Richards, “but we don’t hear nearly enough about the true professionals that have served the trucking industry for years with safety records that are astounding.”

The three inductees in 2008 were: Laverne Martin of Home Hardware Stores, George Barnes of Huron Services Group driving for Tona Transport, and Bruce Wilson of Global Driver Services driving for John Deere.

Martin has been working for Home Hardware Stores for almost 43.5 years as a trucker, when the founder, Walter Hachborn, hired him in 1964. Since the first truck he drove – a Chevy in-line six cylinder with a 16-ft box – Martin has accumulated more than four million miles.

Barnes began working for Huron Services Group in April 1971. As one of their first employees, he was assigned to the Dupont Canada private fleet, now Tona Transport, and is the senior driver on this fleet. In more than 37 years on the job Barnes has missed less than 10 days due to sickness and has more than three million accident free miles in that span.

Wilson is a highway driver employed by Global Driver Services and is presently operating on a contract basis to John Deere in Grimsby. He has been assigned to the John Deere fleet since 1984, and since that time has logged approximately 2.4 million miles with no reportable accidents.