Driver Excellence Celebrated at 2024 MTA Driver Awards Banquet

Jun 4, 2024

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Members of Manitoba’s trucking industry gathered to celebrate the industry’s top drivers at the annual MTA Driver Awards Banquet on Saturday, June 1. The top winners were MTA-MPI Grand Champion Jasvinder Brar of Bison Transport and MTA-Volvo Trucks Canada Driver of the Year for Manitoba Mario Bulacso of Hylife.

Jasvinder Brar (Bison Transport) took home top honours from the day’s Professional Truck Driving Championship (PTDC) with a score 97 points above average in the tandem-tandem category. Brar’s colleagues from Bison Transport also took first and second place in the Team award category. Sergeii Linkevych, also of Bison Transport, took top honours in the tandem-day cab category, and was the Hal Bjornson Memorial Award recipient (top score overall).

Other PTDC winners were Gurinder Singh (XPO Logistics) as Top Rookie. Dave Mikkola (By’s Transport) took home top honours in the Super-B category.

Second place PTDC recipients were:

Tandem-tandem: Prabhjot Randhawa (Bison Transport)
Tandem-Day cab: Gord Unger (Searcy Trucking)
Super-B: Bruce McKechnie (Bison Transport)
Team: Bison 2

Third place PTDC recipients include:

Tandem-tandem: Brian Chandler (XPO Logistics)
Tandem-Day cab: Gurinder Singh (XPO Logistics)
Super-B: Murray Manuliak (Bison Transport)
Team: Thunder (XPO Logistics)

Winners from the PTDC were not the only drivers recognized at the Driver Awards Banquet. Through the MTA-Inland Group Industry Excellence Awards, other professional drivers were recognized for their commitment to industry, safe driving records, acts of heroism, and contributions to community. MTA-Inland Group Industry Excellence Award winners recognized at the event included:

Herb Martin (Arnold Bros. Transport Ltd)
Don Taylor (Big Freight Systems Inc)
Donald Simonson (Payne Transportation)
John Cooper (Searcy Trucking)
Leonard Swedick (Penner International Inc)
Mario Bulacso (Hylife)
Marshall Timmer (Arnold Bros Transport Ltd)
Randy Bielik (Gardewine)
Tatiana Kulish (Penner International)
Timothy Loughrin (Penner International)

Bryan Johnson, General Manager at Inland Group noted that when combined, this group has over three hundred years’ driving experience and more than 37 million miles.

From the group of ten Industry Excellence recipients, a selection committee consisting of industry and law enforcement members selected Mario Bulacso of Hylife as the 2024 MTA-Volvo Trucks Canada Driver of the Year for Manitoba. Bulacso has worked as a livestock hauler for Hylife for the last ten years. With a bachelor of science in agriculture and more than 18 years in the pork industry and experience as a barn technician, Bulacso understands well the complexities and responsibilities of hauling animals. In an interview, Bulacso’s advice to new drivers is to drive safe, love the company you work for, and remember that livestock driving is more than cargo: it is the driver’s responsibility to care for those animals.

The event was opened with greetings from Pauline Wiebe Peters, President of the MTA’s Board of Directors. Greetings were also shared from The Honourable Lisa Naylor (Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure), Satvir Jatana (MPI), and Dave Kramer (SAFE Work Manitoba).

The MTA would like to congratulate all participants and thank all of the volunteers, sponsors, and equipment donors who make this event a success year-over-year.

Driver Awards Banquet