Our Mission
We are a family owned and run company. We care about servicee and want our customers to know that they are not just a number! Whether we are providing trucking , doing a cross dock or providing warehouse space for your product we want to provide the best personal service we can!
Contact Us Today!
dispatch@dgtractorservices.com
6803 30 St SE, Calgary, AB T2C 1N6
24/7 Dispatch Line: 403.236.3063
Our Story
In the Beginning
Dawn Gordon Tractor Service Inc opened in June of 2009. Yes, that is right June 2009, pretty much the beginning of the recession. We opened the doors on the first of June and put our first drivers to work on the 6th. We started with 4 trucks, all lease operators and it was tough going.
During that first winter, everyone one was hurting and we would not hire drivers who actually had jobs for fear of not being able to keep them busy. Everything was so unpredictable. It was hard work by Christmas, we were running 9 owner operators. We kept our rates humble and really tried to provide the very best service we could.
Throughout our experience building dispatches, we knew the importance of quality in service. For the first couple of years, it was just Dawn running the show: dispatching, billing, answering the phones and cleaning the bathrooms. In the spring of 2011 Rick finally joined the company.
He was driving full time immediately and spending all of his free time trying to get the logo truck back on the road.
The Growing Team
The winter of 2011 we were running 25-30 trucks and the business turned into a seven day a week job. The weekdays were crazy with phone calls and dispatching and the weekends were busy with the billing.
In the spring it was apparent that staff was necessary. After some trial and errors, a biller and a full-time dispatcher were added. The summer of 2013 we once again made an add-on, this time it was a dock. This gave us the ability to be able to offer both storage and cross dock.
While we were in the process of excepting the keys and doing the walk through our first cross dock was backing in, literally.
Quality Work
I think that it is safe to say that we stand for quality work. We try to always do the best we can, and that we believe in service. There is always someone on the other end of the phone 24/7, seven days a week doing the best we can to cover the work you need to be done. We are not your competition, but your partners to success!
Dawn Gordon
Boss Lady
Dawn Gordon started her career in the trucking industry as a shipper/receiver at one of the largest warehouse companies in Canada. The foreman at the company recognized the opportunity to train and educate a blank canvas. In doing so he would help her to become a shipper/receiver that would be hugely beneficial to the customers, and the trucking companies they shipped with.
Dawn advanced her skills further by adding more skills to her resume such as making appointments and building relationships with companies all across the country. Once she felt comfortable with her new skills, she started looking for advancement opportunities within the company. The dispatch desk caught her attention. Already the thrill of “making it happen” was growing. That desk had the productive buzz she was looking for. Unfortunately, the company thought her to irreplaceable as a shipper/receiver. As a result, Dawn moved onto a small struggling trucking company and added more skills to her resume.
She dispatched, worked even closer with customers and management. Growing professionally she what ready for the next step in her career. The dispatch position she had wanted at the distribution company came available through another company who had taken over their trucking. Dawn saw yet another opportunity for advancement both in wages and experiences and jumped at it!
Where to now?
Dawn found that feeding her dispatch thrill at her another small trucking company was very difficult. The dispatch was organized that the 4 drivers could pretty much look after it themselves. Craving that fix, Dawn approached her boss and pitched a full-fledged tractor service idea, with the contacts she had built in the last two jobs, she felt confident that she could put a lot more drivers to work. The idea was accepted and she was off and running!
Ten years later, she was running the largest city tractor dispatch in Western Canada. Dawn Gordon Tractor Service Inc was established during a recession in 2009. We made it through the first year achieving and continuing to set higher goals, working with old and new friends.
Richard Atkinson
Humble Beginnings
Richard Atkinson grew up on farms and started driving long before he had a license. His first official driving job was with Sparks Eggs. Sparks was owned by Meb and Nasir Gillani. Rick has said that they are two of the most personable and professional business owners he has ever worked for.
He started with a 1979 Chev 1 ton and delivered to restaurants and bakeries all over Calgary. After a year he was moved up to an international 1700 series and soon was also doing deliveries out of town as well. He worked with Sparks for 4 years, but the highway was calling and he applied and got a job driving for Bridge Brand. At Bridge Brand, he started out with city deliveries but before long they put him on the highway. He started with a run to Regina, then up to Saskatoon and back to Calgary. It was great fun meeting new people and learning more about the industry.
Trucking Career
In 1991 a good friend talked him into another move and Rick went to work for Sten Trucking. Running team, he ran beef to Montreal and denim back to Calgary. He also ran cheese from Bashaw, Alberta to Montreal or Vancouver. Team driving was not his thing. So he went to work for Doug at Western Waste Systems and stayed with them for 4 years. Driving mostly from Calgary to Lethbridge, twice a day with cow hides.
Big Yellow
In 1992 while at the 18 Wheeler Weekend, he saw a 1985 yellow Kenworth W-900B and it was love at first site. He never forgot that Truck and September 4, 1998, he started a new job driving for a guy and driving that exact yellow truck.
He started a new job driving at Monarch Messenger, met Dawn and bought the big yellow truck and has never looked back. In 2013 Rick won the Wow Trucks 365 Award and he tells how it was his proudest moment, but truly he earned it, there is not much Rick doesn’t know about trucks and trucking and he is always ready to help a fellow driver or customer.