KINGSTON, ON. — As President of Tallman Truck Centres Kevin Tallman told it, it was Christmas Day morning when his father, Gerald Tallman, got a call from a trucker looking for a part.

The trucker wasn’t a regular Tallman customer, but had found an ad in the Yellow Pages that the elder Tallman had placed, which included the family’s home number for after hour emergencies just like this one.

Gerald Tallman didn’t want to disturb his employees on Christmas, so he took his son Kevin with him and the two spent 7 hours looking for the right part.

Eventually, they found the part and the trucker was back on the road.

That, Kevin said, is when he learned all he needed to learn about the business: take care of your employees and take care of your customers.

It’s what has kept the Ontario International Dealer running strong for 40 years, and today, Tallman Truck Centre employs over 400 people, owns and operates a network of eight truck dealerships throughout Ontario, making it one of the largest commercial truck dealers in Canada.

And on Saturday, they threw a 40th Anniversary party in Kingston at the K-Rock centre to celebrate their employees and customers.

Employees were treated to a day off work, plus drinks, dinner and music. The Tallman’s also put their out-of-town employees in hotel rooms.

Mark Belisle, president, Navistar Canada, also was also on hand to congratulate the Tallman’s.

Customers, too, were invited, both big and small and bigger — like Mark Seymour, president of Kriska Transport, based out of Prescott, ON.

It was, interestingly, Mark Seymour’s father who helped Gerald Tallman get the dealership off the ground in 1973 by selling him a dealership at a price his friend could afford.

It was also the Tallman’s who helped give Mark Seymour his start in the trucking industry.

And perhaps Tallman’s success was best explained by Seymour in a speech to the 600- plus people in attendance. “Call me old fashioned,” he said looking at the Tallman’s, “but I still believe that business can be based on trust and friendship.”