December 2024 Driver of the Month: Andras Klement, Car Couriers Inc. (Cremona, AB)
Bio Submitted
Car Couriers Inc is honored to have our driver Andras Klement selected for the 'Driver of the Month' for December.
Andras has come a long way to live his dream. He always thought he wanted to move to Canada, from his native Hungary. After driving trucks in and around Hungary for about 10 years, delivering Flowers on a temp controlled truck Andras took a leap of faith and moved to Toronto. There he got his Class 1 licence with a Peterbilt 389 and was told by his mentor - don't ever pull flatbed!
Andras then struck out on his own for the West, not having much English and little support he ended up living the Canadian Dream -working at Tim Horton's in Medicine Hat! Here he honed his skills in English and also met his future wife, also from Hungary. After 3 months at Timmy's Andras was promoted to Shift supervisor in charge of running the store. This is not the end of the story!
On a cold stormy day in October 2013 Andras made his way to a job interview in Calgary to hopefully start his dream of driving transport in Canada. He left Medicine Hat at 7:00 am and never got to Calgary until just before 5:00 pm. due to ·a winter storm. He was so stressed out and excited when he drove into the yard at Boots Transport he never even noticed any of the trucks or trailers. The Manager at Boots stayed to interview him, even though he was late and after 5 or 10 minutes of discussion they shook hands and Andras now had a job driving transport. Only when he walked out into the shop with the owner did he realize he had just signed on to pull flatbeds.
After a couple of years at Boots he migrated to Tri Line and ran Garbage to Coronation for awhile. In 2016 the economy changed and Andras bought his own truck ( not a Peterbilt) and went on with Sunrise Transport from Cranbrook. ( still pulling a flatbed). He stayed on there until the fall of 2021when he took another 'leap of faith' and came over to the 'dark side' and joined our team at Car Couriers.
Andras runs our 'Corridor truck' mostly Calgary - Edmonton - Return.
Periodically he will venture off to Lloydminster or somewhere else in north central Alberta. Andras operates a 'hybrid LTL' route with a high mount 5th wheel auto carrier. His job entails picking up his freight all over Calgary at dealers and railyards and transporting to Edmonton - to deliver all over the city there and reload all over the city and return to Calgary. He will do this 3 or 4 times a week every week. Yes, his ELD is pretty full at the end of the his shift.
When Andras gets home he has two ladies waiting for him - His wife Agota and his young daughter Eliana. Apparently they will have a schedule all laid out for when he gets home.
When he does get time to himself, his father inlaw and him like to buy cars, fix them and resell them - it's a family hobby.
He did have a free moment one time when his wife was in Hungary and he chose to show his leadership skills and bought a 'Cruiser" motorcycle. It's a Honda not a Harley but, then he also drives a Western Star not a Peterbilt.
