Left to right: Mayor Chris Goertzen, Fred Hiebert, President of United Transportation and Keith Unger, President of the Steinbach Chamber of Commerce.
United Transportation Driver Training has been named Business of the Year by the Steinbach Chamber of Commerce at its annual meeting and business excellence awards gala held at the Mennonite Heritage Village on November 2.
The award was handed out Thursday night. Owner Fred Hiebert’s reaction was, “I’m speechless. To catch a Hiebert that’s speechless, that’s amazing.” He added “it just means the world to me. It tells me what kind of a team I have. Because this isn’t built on one person only. This is built on a second to none team.”
Hiebert says he started the business four and a half years ago working out of his basement. “I bought one truck, one trailer of course and I thought I would be a happy man for the rest of my life.”
Today, Hiebert says he’s “trying to build this to a standard that I could be proud of and still go home and sleep at night. And we have not reached that standard and we will never reach that standard, it’s too high. But that just means we’re just going to keep on striving and striving.”
Other awards from the Chamber went to:
• The Community Involvement Award went to Funk’s Toyota
• Future Leader Award was given to Justin Schinkel
• Customer Service Award was handed to Supersplash.
Cam Bergen from the Chamber sat on this year’s nomination committee. He says the process changed this year.
“Two things we did is bring simplicity and transparency to the process,” says Bergen. “What we did is we reached out to the business community forming a selection committee made up of business representatives. So we had businesses honouring businesses.”
Bergen says in years past there was a lengthy process consisting of a booklet, financial review, interview and questionnaire. But this year they broke that down into a few categories and put the voting online.
“We’ve had more nominations, more voting, more response from the public,” says Bergen. “And I was able to talk to all the winners tonight who all appreciated the simplicity to the process. So we’re happy. We consider it a success.”
The awards were handed out at this year’s Annual General Meeting. Chamber President Keith Unger says the last year “was a year of trimming. We think it was a successful year. We needed to free up some resources and focus on some of the value added activities and make sure that what we’re doing is benefiting our membership.”
The Steinbach Chamber’s mission is to promote and improve trade and commerce and the economic, civil and social welfare of the district.
The Steinbach Chamber of Commerce is an advocate for business and community in Steinbach and acts as the anchor that connects them both. The Chamber promotes the community as a great place to shop, live, work, and play. The Chamber Office also serves as the information centre for community residents, tourists, visitors, new residents, and those researching the area. In addition, the Steinbach Chamber manages the Eastman Immigrant Services program, assisting immigrants and newcomers as they settle into the community.
The Steinbach Chamber works closely with educational institutions, community-based organizations and local charity groups, and plays a major role in community events and acts as the hub that connects the community.
