Trio of trucking pioneers find gold at AMTA event

BANFF, Alta. – Just because he recently retired after 50-plus years in trucking doesn’t mean that Darshan Kailly won’t continue to be a major fixture at the Alberta Motor Transport Association.

That was made clear this weekend as the AMTA honored the longtime Canadian Freightways boss with a couple of well deserved awards at its annual management meeting in Banff.

Kailly was given the prestigious AMTA Historical Award and was among three recipients to receive the American Truck Historical Society Golden Achievement Award.

(The ATHS award recognizes those who have been in the trucking industry for 50 years or more. ATHS was formed in 1971 in the U.S. In 1992 it expanded in Canada and opened a chapter in Alberta).

Kailly got his start in Vancouver as a 16-year-old part time billing clerk for CF. Typing was a must in those days and the young Kailly was pretty good at the craft. (Kailly admitted at the presentation that the only reason he and a buddy "gathered up the nerve" to take a typing course was because the girl-boy ratio was 27-2).

"And that’s how a career starts," he told the audience. "Sometimes it’s about where you are and who you say hello to."

Typing wasn’t all that stuck. In the decades that followed, Kailly rose to the top of the company, guiding CF through the disastrous National Energy Program in the 1980s and evolving it into a more versatile carrier.

He eventually bought the company when its parent Consolidated Freightways went bankrupt in 2002. When CF was acquired by TransForce in 2006, Kailly stayed on as CEO.

(His retirement may be a little busier than first thought as he will continue with TransForce in an advisory capacity and was recently appointed to the board of the Calgary Airport Authority).

He helped found the AMTA and over the years has played a vital role at the national level with the Canadian Trucking Alliance.

Kailly – who today is largely recognized as one of the most influential people the industry produced in the last 50 years – thanked many of the other fleet managers at the event.

"Some of you have been great competitors. It’s been a fantastic ride."

MORE GOLD BESTOWED

Two other longstanding AMTA members also received American Truck Historical Society Golden Achievement Awards: Al Kits of Porter Trucking and Standen’s Limited, as a company.

Kits immigrated to Red Deer, Alta. from Holland in 1952. Not long after he bought two International R-160 trucks and hauled grain and cattle for local farmers.

A few years later, Kits, now driving a Kenworth contracted to Midland Superior Express, bought out several owner-ops and hired new drivers to operate the trucks.

In 1968, the Teamsters were organizing at Midland and so Kits moved his six trucks to Porter Trucking. Not long after Kits was offered the entire company and "with his heart set on wining a fleet" – and against the advice of accountants — he mortgaged everything he had to pull off the deal.

It was tough sledding at first, but eventually Porter started turning a profit. He then purchased Horton Transport, giving him a footprint throughout the West and into Ontario.

By the early ought years, he had grown the fleet to 100 power units – mostly owner-ops — and 300 trailers. As did many other fleet owners around this time, Kits sold the company to TransForce in 2004.

A company most fitting for this award is Standen’s Ltd., whose founder Cyril Standen was recognized with the ATHS Founders Award in 1983.

On hand to accept the award was Mel Svendsen, the third owner of Standen’s.

As cars and trucks were quickly replacing horses and wagons in the 1920s, broken springs were commonplace. Cyril Standen, a blacksmith, and his father recognized the opportunity and began focusing the business on springs repair.

A fire in 1935 nearly destroyed the shop, but a new one took its place a few years later. It was expended several times over the next 20 years.

Another fire ravaged the business again in 1970. But working under a temporary roof, they were back in business in six weeks.

By the 1990s the plant had expanded to include agricultural component manufacturing as well as a wide array of springs and suspension components for trucks and RVs.

Operations now stretch across points from Calgary to Montreal and south to Indianapolis to L.A. It even has joint ventures in China.

Svendsen, a lifelong employee of Standen’s bought the company from Cyril’s daughter and husband Walt Kilbourne, who took over and ran the company for years when Cyril retired.


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