Archie
Verspeeten’s family immigrated to Canada from Belgium, 1925. Settling in
the Chatham region of southwestern Ontario, Isidoor and Aimee Verspeeten,
some five years later, became the proud parents of Archie who would grow
up in Norfolk County learning tobacco farming. After Archie married Irene
Clarysse, 1951, he foresaw opportunities in the trucking business. He left
his farm operations, and established Verspeeten Cartage Limited, 1957,
the year he moved to Dehli. At first trucking agricultural crops, Archie
saw further opportunities, 1967, and purchased a competitor in the trucking
business. Now the proud father of five sons, Archie got into the general
commodity freight hauling business. By 1989, all operations were shifted
from Delhi to Tillsonburg where grounds for a new terminal on a five acre
site was purchased. Business continued to grow rapidly, especially when
General Motors awarded VCL a contract large enough that Archie was obliged
to establish, 1992, a trucking terminal in Oshawa to accommodate the shipping
needs of the General Motors plant there. Additional terminals have since
been opened in Whitby (1994), Flint, Michigan (1994), and Dayton, Ohio
(1996). As well, a state-of-the-art terminal along Highway 401 at Tillsonburg
was opened in 1999 to serve the ever growing needs of a trucking fleet
in excess of 1,500 pieces of equipment. Verspeeten trucks travelled some
142 million kilometres in 1998, serving both Canada and the U.S.A. Archie’s
five sons are all established in the business and Archie, today, nearly
50 years after purchasing his first truck, 1952, is still running the growing
operations as president. In this view, Archie, sitting, centre, is flanked,
first row, by sons, Alan, left, and Mark, right. In back row, left to right,
stand Brian, Ron (Vice President), and Dennis. [Photo, courtesy Archie
Verspeeten]