Ladysmith trucking company competes in North America-wide calendar contest
A Ladysmith trucking firm is hoping community spirit and the public's love of big trucks will help them with a mission: to get one of their big rigs a big win in a calendar contest.
Coastal Trucking operates more than 50 Mack trucks in their fleet on Vancouver Island, but one built in 1987 is part of a contest where 12 rigs will be featured in a 2024 calendar distributed to Mack dealerships throughout North America.
"We just want everybody to vote. It's North America-wide and we're really trying to get in the top 12. Currently we're 13th, but we're getting close," says Janine Cornett, the company's office manager.
Cornett says despite having a fleet of more than 50 Mack trucks, owner Jag Basi is particularly fond of the one he purchased and restored for his 50th birthday.
"It is his special truck, he is the only one that drives it, he's the one that polishes it, he's the one that keeps it in pristine condition," she says.
Basi convinced the truck's previous owner, Richard Mayer, to sell it to him even though Mayer himself had plans to restore the rig. Mayer owns Vancouver Island Mack, a big-rig dealer with locations in Ladysmith, Nanaimo and Victoria.
"Jag, one of our long term and largest Mack customers on the island convinced me to sell it to him, and the restoration was his 50th birthday present to himself," Mayer says.
The custom restoration, which also includes a train whistle, took over a thousand hours and according to Mayer, was pricier than the cost of a new rig.
"He was basically no expense spared, I want this as a show truck. He won't even drive it in the rain, but it is a working truck," Mayer says.
The calendar project is being conducted without Basi's knowledge -- he's off on holidays and out of contact, not arriving until shortly before the contest closes. The staff says they're doing the contest as a tribute to Basi and everything he does for the community of Ladysmith, including being a volunteer fire fighter for 30 years.
"He does so much behind the scenes, he donates so much to all the organizations," Cornett says.
If the voting is successful, the truck will be featured in a calendar with wide distribution.
"There's over 1,500 dealers across North America with a countless number of customers. Mack Trucks sells about 300,000 trucks a year and all their dealers get the same calendar," Mayer says.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.