Winnipeg Motor Express pres buys fleet from Sobey clan

WINNIPEG — After running Winnipeg Motor Express for the last nine years, Brian Page decided he wanted something more. So he decided to buy the 400-truck family fleet from its long-time owners.

As the new owner, Page has no intention of changing his approach to running one of Manitoba’s fastest-growing trucking companies.

“I have always believed in an open-door policy,” says Page. “I used to walk the dock daily when I first started in this business as a terminal manager and I still believe that it is very important to be seen in the halls on a regular basis.

“It gives people the feeling that they are part of a team. The greatest satisfaction I’ve had in buying this company is having our drivers come up and tell me how happy they are that I bought the company instead of somebody from the outside.”

Winnipeg Motor Express grew out of Ram Messenger Service, which was started by Rick Sobey in 1973. Ten years later, Sobey expanded the company into a long-haul outfit under the Ram Group of Companies.

But the carrier’s most impressive period of growth has occurred in the last few years under Page’s watch.

Page, who’s bee involved in trucking in some form since he was 16, worked his way through the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. working on a shipping dock.

He eventually got hired at Overland Western Express and later Kleysen Transport, before eventually becoming president of Winnipeg Motor Express in 1999.

In the four years alone, the pieces of equipment the company operates has almost doubled. Page says revenue in 2006 is projected to hit $75 million as compared to $60 million in 2005, and less than $40 million in 2003.

“Although we go east-west,” Page says, “our primarily focus has been on north-south traffic. About 75 percent of our business is into the United States.

“We were benefiting from a very robust American market until about the middle of 2005,” Page says. “But our growth is primarily among existing customers.”

The company is split into three divisions. The dedicated service division operates between Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon with about 70 trucks. The Van business has 220 tractors and 400 trailers under its tent and employs 200 drivers evenly divided between owner/operators and company employees, while a reefer division — the carrier’s newest service — employs a 90-truck owner-op fleet.

— by Myron Love