Maxim Messenger: December 2021

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December 2019 | June 2020 | December 2020 | June 2021

President's Message

Greetings and welcome to our December 2021 Maxim Messenger.

When we first started to see the impact of COVID 19 in March of 2020 it would have been hard for us to imagine that we would still be working and dealing with COVID 19… 22 months later… and counting. I would like to encourage all of us to continue to be diligent in keeping ourselves and those around us safe and to look for the silver lining in situations that we never thought we would have to deal with. The regulations and protocols have caused inconveniences as we go about our day-to-day activities in life, but if our collective efforts help to keep the case counts lower then it is well worth it. At Maxim, we believe it is important for our employees to have access to assistance if they are struggling through challenges and I want to highlight that this can be found through our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) on our website.

Last year had many ups and downs and created lots of volatility within our business and Team Maxim responded in kind to see us through. This year we knew there were going to be additional challenges with:

• Production shortages from our suppliers for the products we sell.
• Pricing Volatility due to Supply & Demand.
• Disappointment and chaos for our customers, our suppliers and ourselves.

Great Dane Factory                                                                        International Truck Factory                                                                        IC Bus Factory

The challenges have continued through the first half of our year and Team Maxim has stayed true to working with our customers to provide solutions and stay positive through the disappointments. Our customers need us to be there for them and we will stay close with them and our suppliers for our third and fourth fiscal quarters.

For our sales and financial results, our sales volume was behind forecast and up 9% vs our prior year and overall, we are ahead of our forecast and expect that to continue through the second half of the year. We always like to recognize performance and our Top 3 Branches for financial performance and improvement year-over-year were:       

I would like to say thank-you to our valued employees who get the job done through the ups and downs and to the DLH COVID Committee for keeping us aware and informed as we continue through these COVID times.

I am always proud of our efforts to support great causes and this year I am excited about our “Giving Back to those who Give Back” initiative. Recently, we have reached out to 10 food banks in the cities we do business to show our support through a financial donation, having a “tin for the bin” set up to collect food items and encouraging people to volunteer their time if they are able. I would like to say thank you in advance to everyone who contributes in whichever way you can. Thank-you!

Wishing all of you and your families a safe & healthy Christmas season and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Troy Hamilton, President

 

Company Christmas Parties - Plan B

It’s the time of year where many of our employees will have been used to attending Christmas parties with co-workers outside the workplace. With the continued goal of keeping each other safe & healthy, I am happy to share that each employee will receive a gift card in lieu of our annual Christmas Party get-togethers.

Last year the restaurant industry was hit hard, and we gave gift cards to local restaurants to offer support. Currently, with the cost of food and groceries on the rise, we thought it would be beneficial to offer gift cards to Sobeys (or their group of companies where applicable).

For this year, in December each employee will receive a $75 gift card and in January each branch will have a lunch catered in for staff that will be done in a safe and acceptable manner.

On behalf of the Executive Committee, I would like to say thank you for your efforts as we continue to work our way through the waves and restrictions of COVID.

Sincerely,

Troy Hamilton, President

Maxim Truck & Trailer Donates $50,000 to 10 Food Banks Across Canada

Maxim Truck & Trailer is pleased to announce the donation of $50,000 to 10 Food Banks across Canada. Each of the 10 Food Banks received $5,000. The Food Banks were matched up to the 10 communities across Canada that Maxim Truck & Trailer does business in. 

“Our company has always had a mandate to give back,” says Maxim Truck & Trailer President Troy Hamilton. “This year, we’ve seen so much need out there, particularly with the rising cost of food that we had to act. No one should go hungry.” 

Indeed, Food Banks Canada recently released a report titled HungerCount2021 that demonstrates the increased demand for Food Bank services in communities across Canada. This increased demand coupled with a significant rise in food costs highlights the needs in communities across Canada.

These organizations include; South Delta Food Bank (Vancouver, BC), Calgary Food Bank (Calgary, AB), Edmonton's Food Bank (Edmonton, AB), Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre (Saskatoon, SK), Prince Albert Food Bank (Prince Albert, SK), Regina Food Bank (Regina, SK), Samaritan House Resource Centre & Food Bank (Brandon, MB), Harvest Manitoba (Winnipeg, MB), Regional Food Distribution Association (Thunder Bay, ON), Sun Youth Organization (Montreal, QC).

Maxim Raises Over $12,000 for the Christmas Cheer Board

Thank you to everyone on this email who contributed to Maxim’s Christmas Cheer Board Campaign this year.

Maxim’s Winnipeg branches held a “virtual” charity pancake breakfast again this year to support the Christmas Cheer Board. Funds raised will go towards hampers for low-income seniors, people living with disabilities, newcomers to Canada and needy families across Winnipeg. 

We had contributions from 62 employees, customers, suppliers and friends for a total of $6,120 raised. Adding the Maxim Corporate matching funds, we will be sending the Christmas Cheer Board a cheque for $12,240 just before Christmas. That’s close to double our $6,670 total in 2020!

Winners of our prize draw – selected from those who contributed to the cause were:

• Third Prize - $400 in Gift Certificates – SANDY WOLOSHYN
• Second Prize – 24 Bottles of Wine – BRAD PEACOCK
• First Prize – Set of Snow Tires – KIM CLAWSON

Sales, Lease and Rentals

The Sales, Lease and Rental division’s (SLR) first-half financial results are ahead of forecast and well ahead of the prior year.  We have seen great improvement in both gross profit and net profit results year over year.  The COVID-19 pandemic has created a lot of opportunity for the sales team as we have seen our business on order continue to climb along with strong quoting activity across the country.  In the current state of the global supply chain and all the delays and price increases it has caused, we have continued to move forward and have a very strong start to the first half of the year.

Our top three branches for overall performance and our top three branches for year over year improvement are:

The totally re-designed International MV will also be landing at our dealerships in the New Year.  A complete re-design of the MV will feature an all-new cab design and new technology that will continue to set this truck apart from the competition and continue to be a great seller in our new truck offering to our customers.

Trailer sales

First-half results are ahead of forecast and 51% ahead of the prior year’s results. The trailer division has had major negative impacts from the pandemic as material shortages continue to affect production and also shortages in the manufacturing labour force have caused continued delays and greatly reduced allocation of available trailers to sell.  Our Management team and Sales Reps have done a great job so far to keep results positive and also when trailers are available to sell them quickly and deliver them just as fast to our customers.  The Sales Reps continue to work hard and stay in contact with all customers so when trailers do become more readily available we are ready to go.

Rental

Results are off to a great start, margins are well ahead of forecast and far ahead of the prior year. We have made some major changes in the way our fleet is managed and the overall size of the fleet across the country.  With the demand for equipment that the pandemic has created, we have been able to re-deploy over a dozen ex-full service lease units and put them back to work to take advantage of a strong rental market.  We have made great progress on how we manage our fleet and the type of equipment we have across the country at our branches. 

Full Service Lease 

Margin results are slightly behind forecast but ahead of the prior year’s results. With the lack of new equipment arriving and paired with production delays, these two main factors have put a slow down on the Leasing division's progress and results. If the equipment was available to deliver to our customers the results would be far greater.  Our lease reps continue to engage with our customers and find repeat and new business.

I am extremely pleased to welcome Kirk McCuspey to Maxim as our Used Truck Sales Manager. Kirk assumes these responsibilities that have been handled by Ron Krulicki who retired after a very successful 21-year run.  Kirk comes to Maxim with 10 years of sales experience in Heavy Construction and Ag. 

Maxim Excellence Club

We currently have ten sales reps on pace to achieve Maxim Excellence Club status.  To all our salespeople, continue the great work and I hope to see more names achieve this status by year's end.

With all of the challenges the pandemic has brought to the SLR division, I want to thank everyone for their hard work and dedication through the first half of this year.  The current global market is very unpredictable and with new supply chain problems, manufacturing delays and cost increases occurring daily,  we need to continue to work together to communicate clearly and most importantly remain focused to serve our customer’s needs.

I want to wish you and your family’s a safe and happy holiday season,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ryan Sapach, Vice President of Sales/Lease/Rentals

Maxim Earns Prestigious Presidential Award

We are pleased to announce that for the second year in a row, Maxim Truck & Trailer has received the prestigious International Truck Presidential Award. The Presidential Award honours the top eight percent of International Truck dealerships that achieve the highest level of performance in terms of operating and financial standards, market representation, and most importantly, customer satisfaction.

“This award is the highest honour an International Truck dealer can achieve from the company,” said Mark Belisle, senior vice president of Dealer Sales and Operations at Navistar. “Maxim Truck & Trailer is one of only 14 International dealerships in the United States and Canada (out of 720 locations) who earned this prestigious recognition in 2021.”

The Presidential Award also recognizes the effort and dedication of all the dealership’s employees. A highly skilled, professional staff is a critical success factor for any commercial truck dealership.

Parts

For sales and financial results, our sales are up by 2.7% year to date which is a welcomed improvement over last year’s 4% decline. Our increase in sales can be attributed to programs such as Route Optimization and the new SYNNRG Parts platform and we anticipate improvement in our numbers as time goes on. These programs will help us better manage the day-to-day business and monitor customer visits as well as document detailed calls for future follow-up. Overall, our financial results are up 11% and this is the second year in a row where we have seen significant growth at the mid-year point and we trust this will continue into the second half of the year. Unfortunately, our supply issues will worsen as time goes on due to import complications and delays at the ports. Today we are ahead of the supply issues, but we anticipate things will worsen before we start to see improvements into the new year.

I appreciate our whole teams’ efforts from our office staff to the staff on the front lines every day. We are an essential service and will continue to be here for our customers. We have continued to give great customer service despite being down four outside sales positions and numerous inside staff positions. This year we are moving full steam ahead and replacing most of these vacated positions. We will be recruiting in many locations and filling numerous open positions in the next 6 months.

Top 3 Performing Branches	Top 3 Most Improved Branches
1. Winnipeg Main	1. Winnipeg Trailers
2. Winnipeg Trailers	2. Thunder Bay
3. Thunder Bay	3. Regina

 

We had some changes in people since our last newsletter, below are some changes for the Parts team:

• Dennis Tysoski, Outside Sales Rep – Retirement after 25 years at Maxim
• Al Flett, Inside, Parts Counter – Retirement after 26 years at Maxim
• Jeff Knapp – New Outside Sales Member
• Joel Wray – New Outside Sales Member

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With hopes that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, we will get back to doing what we do best, provide solutions for our customers and be better than our competition. The first six months of this year were good overall, and I am certain our team will have continued success in 2022. Thanks again for all your efforts and dedication during these uncertain times.

Wishing you a great holiday season and all the best in 2022,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Young, Vice President of Parts

Service and Operations

The purpose of this message is to give you all a quick update on how Maxim Service and our Fleet fared in the first half of Fiscal 2021-22 (May 2021 through October 2021).

Service

Service finished the first 6 months of this fiscal year with financial results well ahead of the same period last year (up 20.5%)

Top 3 Performing Branches	Top 3 Most Improved Branches
1. Thunder Bay	1. Calgary
2. Regina Trucks	2. Winnipeg Trailers
3. Winnipeg Trailers	3. Saskatoon

 

As a group, we managed to achieve these results with fewer technicians than at the same time last year (down 18), which is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire Maxim Service Team.

Fleet

• Some of the supply chain and logistics challenges you have been reading about have impacted our Lease and Rental Fleet.
• While we have plenty of new and replacement units on order (for both fleets) delays in deliveries from the factory have meant we are running older equipment in our fleets than we normally would.
• This fact, combined with increased parts costs (again, related to the supply chain crunch) has resulted in our maintenance costs being higher than expected.
• That being said the Central Fleet Maintenance Team has been working hard to get our equipment in and out of Maxim shops across the country to keep our fleet on the road and to ensure our customers remain well looked after.

People

Included below is an update related to changes in key positions since our last newsletter:

• Allan Zaik was promoted to Service Manager at Tereck Diesel (from has role as a Service Advisor at Winnipeg - Branch 1);
• Jamie Maclean (Thunder Bay) and Kim Baehnk (Winnipeg – Branch 1) were both added as Service Advisors/Administrators; and,
• The following technicians were added across our network (Alex Zimak – Thunder Bay, Maxon Dowsett – Brandon, Steve Duquette – Edmonton, Sarah Nelson – Calgary, Roberto Amaral – Winnipeg Trailers, Kiwoon Park – Winnipeg Trailers, Nicholas Radke – Saskatoon, and Piyara Flora – Edmonton).

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Congratulations to all of you and we appreciate you taking on these new challenges within Maxim!

Closing

Although slightly less challenging than the first six months of the last fiscal year, May through October 2021 has had its fair share of challenges as well.  As I have noted in the past, these challenges are much easier to take on knowing we have a strong team full of dedicated employees like yourselves.

I hope you all get a chance to enjoy some well-deserved rest over the holiday season and I look forward to working with you all to make 2022 a great year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kyle Cuthbert, Senior Vice President of Service & Operations

Marketing

Merry Christmas,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harry Dornn, Vice President of Marketing

 

Lightning Round

With nearly 500 employees spread across 17 branches from Vancouver to Montreal, it's hard to know everyone at Maxim. For each issue we feature two employees answering our fun Lightning Round questions so you can get to know Maxim employees from other branches. Be ready for when your turn comes for the Lightning Round.

Human Resources

The HR Team helps you with; Recruitment, Employee Relations, Employment Legislation, Performance Management, Policy Development, Disability Management, Training & Development and Compensation    

Current Recruitment

Maxim is looking to hire Technicians at many of our branches. Refer a Technician candidate to Maxim – if they are hired and stay with Maxim for at least six months, they will receive a FREE iPad and $1,000. 

A list of all open vacancies is emailed to Maxim employees every second Friday for your quick review. If you or someone you know are interested in a current open position, please see the full details at www.maximinc.com/jobs

Recent Retirements

• Allen Flett, Parts Counterperson, Winnipeg – 26 years
• Dennis Tysoski, Outside Parts Sales Professional, Winnipeg – 25 years
• Guy Gervais, Account Manager Truck Sales, Thunder Bay – 33 years
• Ron Kruilicki, Used Truck Sales Manager, Winnipeg – 21 years

Retired But Still Helping Out

It’s tough to find great people these days. The following Maxim employees retired but came back part-time to help us out during challenging times.

• Sheila Chalecky– Prince Albert Service
• Wayne Willis – Edmonton Parts
• Michelle Kott – Winnipeg Head Office (Payroll)

Outstanding Service Award

Do you want to recognize an employee’s internal or external customer service excellence?  Forward your monthly nomination to maximhr@dlhgroup.ca or contact your Branch Administrator.  All nominees receive Maxim branded promotional products valued at $25 and one will receive a $100 gift card (taxable) through a random draw. 

Maxim Long Service Award Recipients

This year, we have 78 employees who have reached between 5 and 35 years of service milestones. For Maxim, this tenure is appreciated and celebrated. Expand the link below to see this year’s Long Service Awards.

Passed Away

It is with sadness that we acknowledge the passing of two long-term employees over the last six months.

• Dale Gaab, who worked in the Parts Division at our Regina Branch had 26 years of service at Maxim. See Obituary here.
• Pat Ivany, who worked in the Service Division at our Calgary Branch and had 32 years of service at Maxim. See Obituary here.

Employee Assistance Plan (EAP)

An Employee Assistance Plan is a confidential, 24/7 counselling service and online resource that support you and your family’s well-being.  Maxim’s EAP service is provided by Lifeworks.  Masters-trained professionals offer free advice and guidance on a variety of topics such as work-life stress, finances, relationships, retirement and health concerns issues. 

Call: 877-207-8833 English or 877-307-1080 French

Online: login.lifeworks.com User ID: dlhgroup  Password: eap

Happy holidays and stay safe,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa Parent, BA, CPHR, Director, People & Culture, DLH Group

 

Covid-19 Committee Update

New to the committee is Jeff West, Health & Safety Manager.

We thought we were done with COVID-19, but it’s not done with us.  We are now well into the 4^th wave with pandemic provincial regulations still in place.  Please continue to be diligent with following Maxim protocols and recommendations for the health and well-being of all employees. 

Protocols:

• Stay home if showing cold/flu-like symptoms
• Managers to report all sickness to Human Resources
• Physical distancing of 2 metres or 6 feet
• Wash or sanitize hands regularly
• Wear masks in public places (required) and when leaving your workspace (recommended)
• Clean and disinfect surfaces regularly
• Fill out the Return to Work checklist

New government rules dictate when someone is deemed a “Close contact” of a positive COVID-19 case you must isolate for a period of 10 days from last contact.  There may be exceptions but this must be confirmed through your local Health line or Public Health agency. 

“Close contact” is defined as within 2 metres or 6 feet:

• For more than 10 minutes
• Cumulatively over 24 hours
• With OR without masks

To reduce your risk of exposure, please be aware of any situations that could break the 2m/6f rule such as chatting at a colleague’s desk, training in close quarters, smoking breaks, eating lunch.  Think of alternate ways to communicate (Teams), use a meeting room for training, etc.

Take care of each other.  Questions or concerns?  Contact us: covid19committee@dlhgroup.ca

Lisa Parent                                  Jeff West                                     Michael Rosenbaum

Director People &  Culture           Health & Safety Manager             Senior VP & CFO