Though I only got to work for this company for about a month and a half before I was laid off, I figured I should post about them here. I don't stop by this forum often but I do have many memories of reading threads in this section.

I got my Class 1A license (CDL for all you yanks) earlier this year and searched for a job that would be anything aside from hauling gravel. After getting a job with a moving company, I lost ten pounds in a week and then tossed that job after a month. This post isn't about that moving company so I won't go on at length about them but I will say that their local office was full of people who saw themselves as support staff for the office and not for the drivers. Nuff said...I quit quite readily.

After about a month sitting at home (what a great month) I got the job I had actually been angling for from the moment I passed my road test. I got to work for Zeena Transport out of an office they maintained in Regina Saskatchewan (I live in Saskatoon SK) doing LTL work to various grain elevators out of a terminal in Regina. There was a moderate amount of handling freight but for a new driver, it was a fantastic job. I was given a beautiful western star to drive that was previously an owner operator's rig so it had been babied and well maintained. My truck (A 2005) was the oldest in the fleet while almost every other driver either had a 2007 or 2008 truck to ride.

Needless to say, Zeena transport gives their drivers very well maintained and driver friendly equipment. The owner of the company (Henry Geisbrecht) is a very understanding fellow who knows how to treat a driver right if the driver is willing to work for his money.

Perhaps the best part of working for Zeena and being a brand new driver (after 6 months or so of driving, I still have oodles to learn of course) was how the owner (having driven truck himself for about 20 or 25 years or so) was so understanding of the hurdles I had to jump being so green. In my first week, I was so nervous and trying my best to rush to get things done that I caused what must have been about $1,500 or so of damage to the truck. Ripping the fenders off, bending a stack and a few other minor mishaps had me sweating bulletts on a few occassions. Despite being told a few times that I didn't need to rush things, it took a while for the message to sink in.

I remember calling Henry to tell him when I bent one of the stacks and I felt about two inches tall even though it was just a phone call. I apologized up and down and offered to pay up for the stack myself because it was a stupid backing accident. Not only did Henry assure me that nothing was going to show up on my record but he said the stack could probably be repaired back at the yard and everything was fine. He could very easily have flipped out and tried to make a negative impression that would have lasted in my mind but instead, he made sure I simply understood what I did and that I wouldn't do it again. He knew I had a lot to learn and was entirely ready to accept that I would make a few mistakes on the way.

My employment with Zeena ended when their Regina office closed and I was offered the opportunity to keep my job with Zeena if I was willing to move to Manitoba. I told Henry that regretfully, that wouldn't be a possibility at all but that I appreciated the chance to be employed with him.

I now work doing local work with another good company and am home every night which is exceptionally preferable as I have kids at home but I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Zeena Transport as I learned a lot about the neccessities of driving a rig and I had an incredibly supportive employer to help me along the way.

If you have a need to be employed by a company in Manitoba and want to drive nice equipment as a company driver, I would reccomend Zeena Transport out of Morden Manitoba in a heart beat. I was doing LTL in the Canadian praries but I was an odd one out. The rest of their work (and now all of it since they closed their Regina office) is all pin to pin US/Canada long haul reefer work.

Cheers