‘The best place to work’

Asked if he would recommend his family work at Minimax, Ed Renaud laughs.

“My daughter works in accounts payable, my son worked here for years and my wife is the receptionist,” says Renaud, who will wind down a nearly 31-year career at Minimax Express Transportation this summer. “So yes, I would recommend it.”

Renaud says it’s a very familyoriented place, with good benefits and excellent management. He started his career on the dock, then he did billing, customer service and now he’s the rates office manager. He also had a stint as a dispatcher. He remembers his time on the dock as mostly mechanized work, but there was some manual labour too.

Both his children had summer jobs there all through high school and university and joined the company after they finished.

Asked about the company culture, he says: “Well, I’ve been here for 31 years, so that's a good sign. I would say that you're not just treated as a number here — your opinions matter and you are valued.”

He noted that there’s an annual Christmas party and also regular summer picnics that bring employees together.

His colleague, Jim MacPherson, who is the general manager of operations, says when he hires people, he looks them in the eye and tells them it’s a challenging job, but that they won’t find better bosses.

“I tell them the best place to work is right here at Minimax,” he says, adding that the Poirier family respects its employees. “If you show them respect, they'll respect you back twice as much. I can say that for sure.”

MacPherson has worked at Minimax for 15 years and worked as a trucker before that. He joined the team in a safety and compliance role and then moved up into the terminal manager job. MacPherson agreed with Renaud that the benefits at the company are reasonable, but for him, the bigger draw is the staff events.

“It's not like a big corporate company,” MacPherson says. “These guys are so fantastic. The Christmas parties are great and every once in a while we surprise the drivers and put on a breakfast for them. It's that family open-door policy they have. They say ‘We don't lock our doors. If you need to come in and talk, you can. I really like that about this company.”

A testament to MacPherson’s statements is that his nephew now works there, and many of his other family members would like to do so.