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]