Canada Cartage driver Ian Fleury wins Bridgestone Ontario Trucking Association Highway Hero Award

TORONTO - Dec. 2, 2014 - PRLog -- Toronto, Ontario – Canada Cartage has a hero on their hands.

Third-generation transport driver Ian Fleury, who has worked for the company for 15 years, has always been known as a devoted professional dedicated to safety and customer service. But now he’s in the spotlight for saving lives, and has been awarded the Ontario Trucking Association’s 2014 Bridgestone Canadian Truck Hero Award.

In the late fall of 2013, Fleury was driving through the Poconos Mountains, following behind another truck. A smaller vehicle merging onto the highway slammed into the transport in front of him, causing the driver to roll his truck and forcing both vehicles into the guardrail. Fleury pulled over immediately to help. The cab was on its side, so he smashed the front window to get the driver to safety, called for help on his cell phone, and stayed until the emergency response team arrived.

The second incident occurred in early 2014, when he came across another driver in distress. He noticed a stalled car on the 401 that was on fire, but nobody was stopping to help. He used his truck to block two lanes of traffic, and rushed to the car, getting the passenger out, just as the tires blew out and the car became engulfed in flames.

Fleury did not initially welcome the recognition – he says he was just doing what he thought was right. However, he chose to accept the award as a way of spreading a message that’s important to him: doing your best to help others.

“When you think you can’t do anything, you can, even if it means picking up the phone and calling 911,” he said in his acceptance speech. “Because one day, and I guarantee as I am standing here now, you will be out there and you’ll wish somebody called for you.”

In the speech, he continued on to thank his father, a 40-year trucking veteran who passed away this year, and to offer this message:

“We as drivers need to look out for one another and for the people who surround us every day – whether it is people in cars, or simply the people we encounter day-to-day. You never know when you are going to need each other. We all have the same goals: make a decent living for our family, and return home safe and sound to the ones we love.”

“We are very proud to have a hero on our team – and to know that there are people like him out there, really looking out for each other”, says President & CEO Jeff Lindsay.

About Canada Cartage

Founded in 1914, Canada Cartage is Canada’s largest provider of outsourced fleet solutions, providing dedicated equipment and drivers to both small and large firms.  Canada Cartage also provides a complete range of supply chain and logistics services under its subsidiary companies including Direct Distribution Centres, Direct2Home and Freight Management Services.  For more information, visit http://www.canadacartage.com or see Canada Cartage’s LinkedIn profile (http://www.linkedin.com/company/canada-cartage?trk=hb_tab...).