For immediate release
PMTC ANNOUNCES RECEIPIENT OF THE 2024 RICK AUSTIN MEMORIAL DISPATCHER AWARD
The PMTC and CPC Logistics Canada announced the recipient of The Rick Austin Memorial Dispatcher of the Year Award on June 19th as part of the PMTC’s 2024 Annual Conference in Niagara Falls, On. This award was established in 2018 to honor the memory of one of CPC’s Fleet Dispatchers, Rick Austin, who passed away suddenly on March 15th of 2017.
Rick began his career in the Transportation Industry right out of high school, starting with a dry wall company loading, tarping and strapping trucks. Rick joined the John Deere Canadian Fleet on November 25, 1991, and quickly developed a reputation as a dependable driver with a great work ethic. Rick earned his Million Mile Award and started to train to provide relief dispatch, and then moved into the full-time dispatch role in 2000. Rick received the CPC Logistics President’s Award in recognition of his exceptional loyalty, service and dedication.
Because of his years on the road, Rick fully understood the demands and strains on a long-haul driver, and became not just a Dispatcher, but a good friend and wise council to many drivers over the years. Rick always took the time to communicate with the drivers and tried to make sure that they kept life in balance.
This award is designed to help recognize the exceptional and often under-appreciated efforts of Dispatchers who have made an outstanding contribution to their company over their career.
The 2024 Rick Austin Memorial Dispatcher of the year award went to Carrie Scarselli of John Deere Canada ULC.
Information and background for Carrie.
Carrie began her career at John Deere 6 years ago, being hired to fill the role that was left vacant as a result of Rick’s tragic passing. Carrie had a daunting task in front of her.
Carrie started her career in Transportation at the age of 20, working for Apex Driving School answering calls & performing bookkeeping duties. From there, Carrie worked for a Customs Broker for 6 years, which lead her to work as a Safety Coordinator for a floral distributor. From that position, Carrie was introduced to other branches of shipping, receiving, dispatching as well as warehousing. Carrie eventually began working for a Transportation Company as a Safety Coordinator. This was Carrie’s final steppingstone before coming to CPC to manage the John Deere Fleet. Carrie was recommended to us by a previous employer to Charlie Shields, John Deere’s former safety manager. Her previous employer told us that Carrie just had a way with people, would work shoulder to shoulder with drivers & always meshed well with a team.
When Carrie started, she quickly learned who all the drivers were, found common ground, & within months was a full-fledged teammate.
Carrie is always available to the office staff & drivers, ensuring she is available for support whether it is early in the morning or late into the evening. She always takes the time to listen, & has been instrumental in modernizing our processes, eliminating unnecessary paperwork for drivers as well as the shipping office.
Carrie is a cheerleader for the teams safety goals, believing & communicating that perfection, or at least near perfection, is possible, & has an open door policy with everyone. There is genuine respect between Carrie & the team. A true testament to the respect Carrie has earned is the 30 drivers who took time to provide testimonials for her application, with over 20 of them taking the time to insert meaningful comments supporting her submission & laying out the reasons why. There are too many testimonials to read them all, however the main themes from the drivers testimonials were, Carries takes the time to listen, genuinely cares about their wellbeing & that of the company, is there to answer questions whenever it is needed, always there for them, goes above & beyond what her role requires. The respect that goes both ways between Carrie & the team is evident in the testimonials. Carrie is a very deserving recipient of this year’s award.
For more information, please contact:
Private Motor Truck Council of Canada Tel: 905-827-0587
225 Main Street East, Unit 5 email: info@pmtc.ca
Milton, Ontario, L9T 1N9 website: www.pmtc.ca
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