Fremont Beverage employee earns Mechanic of Year honors

WORLAND — Fremont Beverage and Admiral Transport Corporation brought home several top honors from the Wyoming Trucking Association’s 79th annual convention in Sheridan May 11.

Among the honors was Danny Ernest of Fremont Beverages, earning his second Mechanic of the Year Award. Ernest was first honored in 2000. He said he thanks the Wyoming Trucking Association for the honor and for his company for nominating him.

Bart Richardson, operation specialist with ATC nominated Ernest. In an interview Friday, Richardson said, “He is a born mechanic. He was basically self-taught. He started out overhauling transmissions and moved to tractor repair and then hired on with Fremont. He’s a natural mechanic.”

Richardson said Ernest goes above and beyond and will come in at night or on weekends if a tractor-trailer needs to work to get back on the road immediately.

“He saves our company a lot of money when he quickly returns tractors to the drivers,” Richardson said.

He added that having someone from the company honors shows the dedication of the employees at the company.

Ernest has been a mechanic for 42 years, the last 29 at Fremont Beverages, according to the WTA. He attends trainings in regard to his profession and performs the Wyoming Department of Transportation inspections on new tractors and installs all safety equipment on the units.

According to the WTA release, Ernest, “has positively impacted the FMCSA [Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration] Safety Management Systems scores for his company and was responsible for installing the electronic logging devices on all power units.”

He serves at shop foreman over three mechanics.

The WTA Mechanic of the Year award recognizes deserving mechanics for superior work on vehicle maintenance. Nominees are evaluated on the basis of equipment responsibilities, safety, equipment downtime, community involvement and special accomplishments.

Ernest received a plaque and a gift certificate for the purchase of tools from the Wyoming Trucking Association Council of Safety Supervisors Maintenance Council.

SAFETY

In the safety contest, Admiral Transport took first place in the 500,001 to 1 million miles category. The company has received this honor numerous times.

The contest is based on overall safety record with no accidents and on roadside inspections, Richardson said.

C&Y Transportation out of Casper won the “coveted” Best Overall Trophy in the annual fleet safety contest. They drove 1,574,285 safe miles in 2017.