May 6, 2003

*** SPECIAL: INSIDE BISON TRANSPORT – A sneak peak at the new head office

Canadian Shipper

Bison Transport is preparing to celebrate the opening of its new 50,000 square foot facility in Winnipeg this Wednesday.

Two days before the official opening, company officials have shared a sneak peak at the details of the impressive new building with Canadian Transportation & Logistics.

The new building provides the fast-growing carrier with a centralized North American operations base, corporate head offices and Tatonka a revolutionary driver development centre which houses Mark II, the only full size, full motion truck simulator in Canada.

Designed by award-winning architectural firm Smith Carter, the centralized operating base contains resource planning, sales and marketing departments, dispatching, customer service, fleet management and a driver development centre.

“The new head office will allow us to bring together the people that are making the decisions that make things happen on a daily basis in an environment that allows improved communication beyond what we’ve enjoyed so far,” says Jeff Pries, Vice President, Sales & Marketing. “This is not your traditional trucking head office. Drivers and dispatchers and accounting staff share common areas. This is a very well planned out facility for enhancing communications among all levels of our employees from the president to the driver. And with that will come the benefits of efficiencies of teamwork that will benefit our clients.”

The Tatonka driver development centre, which is a cornerstone of the new building, is home to the Mark II training simulator, a classroom area, computer labs and smaller training simulator. Bison Transport is the first, and only, privately owned trucking company in Canada to invest in a driver skills development program that incorporates the type of simulator technology that the aviation industry and the military have used successfully for many years.

“The new driver development centre is a recognition of how far we have come, from the time when we were just a small truckload carrier to today our bright future as a big league transport player”, says Rob Penner, Vice President, Operations.

With new corporate headquarters in Winnipeg and driver terminals in Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton, Bison has grown from just over 18 tractors and 32 employees in 1991 to a leading edge organization with 650 new model trucks and over 1000 full time staff today.