For more than 20 years, Brad Demmon has been tinkering away underneath trucks in Vernon: doing everything from oil changes and break replacements to diagnostic work. The key to his success and happiness has been the shift flexibility while doing something he loves with Dawson International Truck Centres and Dawson Idealease.
Demmon spent the 80s and 90s bouncing from job to job, from B.C.’s west coast, through the Interior and up to Edson, Alta., where he did everything from logging, to road building, machine operating and everything in between, as he tried to find something that stuck.
Later, Demmon and his wife chose Vernon because of their admiration for the city and everything it encompasses. The only thing missing in his equation was a job he was passionate about. One day, he strolled down to the Vernon International Truck Centres office without a resume and struck up a conversation with the former service manager, Gerald Hutchinson. An engaging conversation ensued and Demmon left the office that afternoon with a job offer as a technician in his back pocket. He hasn’t looked back since Sept. 3, 2002.
Since jumping on board with Dawson, Demmon has kept a strict three days on (12 hour days), four days off schedule.
He loves adapting to vehicles and their improving technology as time goes on, especially these days, as he spends a lot of time fixing electric busses.
But it’s his work outside of Dawson that Demmon has become most fond of. With his shift schedule and vacation days, he has been engineering one month off each year. But you won’t find him on a boat on Kalamalka Lake or up in a lodge at Silver Star. Demmon spends his month off halfway around the world, building medical facilities in a remote section of Africa.
Great with his hands and a knack for building and fixing things, he was recommended nearly one decade ago that he look into a construction project in the heart of Africa by his sister, who is a medical consultant at the time. She had just came back from a work trip and mentioned that a small town called Chinguetti in the western African country of Mauritania, could really benefit from his services, as they needed operating rooms for their hospital.
For the past eight years, he has gathered a team of architects, ordered supplies, dealt with overzealous border security guards, all in the name of good faith.
On our 100th Anniversary, Dawson Group extends its sincerest gratitude to Brad Demmon for his 22 years of dedicated service. His contributions helped us achieve this significant milestone and lay the groundwork for our promising future.