SASKATOON — It was 1962. John Diefenbaker was prime minister and the Toronto Maple Leafs were Stanley Cup champions. Yeah, that actually happened once upon a time.

That’s also the year Erwen Siemens launched Kindersley Transport. Today, he’s 69 and he’s still as involved with his business as he was when it launched half a century ago.

“He comes to work everyday; he doesn’t have to, but he does,” said his son Doug Siemens, vice-president of Siemens Transportation Group. “He still likes it, enjoys it, and he has lots of interest in it. It’s his life and he’s been very successful.”

Erwen’s father operated Siemens Transport and a teenage Erwen worked in the family business alongside his brothers hauling bulk commodities around Saskatoon.

In 1962, Siemens decided to strike out on his own, buying a truck and doing a run between Saskatoon and the town he would name his company after, Kindersley.

The expansion continued through the ’80s and as the industry was deregulated, Kindersley established a full North American service network.

1962 Siemens went out on his own with one truck,
doing a run between Saskatoon and Kindersley

Meanwhile, another growing trucking company, the Mullen Group, eyed and purchased the original Siemens Transport, in 1997. After merging that company with its own interests, Mullen dropped the Siemens name, and then in 2000, the family picked it up again.

The family pride and sense of ownership also helped keep the Siemens family on the buying side of the mergers-and-acquisition game. In the past few years a number of large Canadian carriers have expended a lot of effort buying smaller fleets. The team at Siemens has never entertained the idea of selling and always keeps an eye on prospective buys.

“We’re not just going to buy for the sake of buying,” he says, “but we’re open to it and have talked to several people, but it has to be the right fit for us, at the right time.”

Although new additions to the Siemens fold have been scarce during the past several years, the company has found ways to grow. “It seems in the trucking industry,” Doug says, “you have to grow and offer more services to your customers. Whether it’s expanded regions or territories, or more services, you can’t be stagnant.

“We try and diversify because we’re in Saskatchewan and there’s not the volume of a big metropolitan centre, so we have to be as diversified as possible.”

Kindersley is well known for its internal apprenticeship program

Instead of relocating the head office, Siemens relied on setting up branches in other regions and utilizing current technology to monitor developments.
“In terms of keeping the head office in Saskatoon, well Saskatchewan is a great place to live, this is home and our friends are here,” says Doug. “It was a conscious decision and it fits with our culture better.”

Siemens is well known for its internal apprenticeship program, designed to bring new drivers as well as new technicians into the industry. Vehicle technicians can get hired with virtually no experience and the company subsidizes their tuition fees and tops up E.I. to 95 percent while the student is away from work in the classroom.

As well, a few years ago the company introduced an international driver-recruitment program. Called Going Global, the division has brought more than 200 new drivers from abroad into the Canadian fold. And new recruits as well as veterans can polish their driver skills on the company’s $150,000 driver simulator.

As Erwen has proven during the past 46 years, Western Canada breeds a lot of success.

With a prime minister from Alberta; Saskatchewan native Ryan Getzlaf leading the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks in points; and the Saskatchewan Roughriders the reigning Grey Cup champs, he might have even been ahead of his time.