TORONTO, (Nov. 12, 2004) — The Financial Post magazine has named Vitran Corp. CEO Rick Gaetz its number one CEO on its CEO of the Year/CEO Scorecard issue.

This marks the first time a president or CEO of a trucking company has cracked the top spot on the prestigious list of leading company CEOs.

“There’s Rick Gaetz. Rick who? Okay, so Gaetz, the 46 year-old CEO of Vitran Corp. Inc., may not be a household name. But he should be, because on this year’s CEO Scorecard, Rick Gaetz is No. 1,” writes Financial Post editor Brian Banks. “His achievement? Over the past three years, his Toronto-based trucking firm posted the largest share-price return — 438 per cent — among the 200 largest public companies in Canada. At that rate, I’ll bet Vitran shareholders know who Gaetz is.”

And the rest of the trucking industry sure knows him as well. Yesterday at an Ontario Trucking Association convention business session, Contrans Income Fund CEO Stan Dunford led a room of hundreds of other trucking chiefs in commending Gaetz’s achievement.

“For our industry to have a man who’s achieved what he has with this award, and for him to run a business the way he does proves that this industry is finally getting some credibility and that we really do have an industry that you can do well in, and people will respect,” Dunford said, followed by round of applause.

Based in Toronto, Vitran Corp. is a North American group of transportation companies offering mainly less-than-truckload, but truckload, intermodal, and truck brokerage services as well. It ranked No. 3 on Today’s Trucking’s annual list of top for-hire carriers.

Gaetz was named CEO in 2002, succeeding Rick McGraw.