10/07/2025
The Original Owner of Inter County
INTER COUNTY MILK TRANSPORT
RON GUEST, OWNER, OPERATOR
SEES MANY CHANGES IN TRUCKING INDUSTRY
by Scott Webster
Enterprise News
January 13, 1982
Ron Guest has come a long way since the days when he drove a coal and ice truck in what used to be Port Credit for $20 per week. Of course, that was in 1929 when a ton of coal fetched about $14.50 and a 50-pound block of ice, cut right from the frozen surface of a nearby river, went for a quarter.
From his office at Inter County Milk Transport Ltd. last week, Mr. Guest recalled his early days as a young trucker. Just a short time before Christmas, the 70-year-old businessman was awarded a certificate by the American Truck Historical Association in recognition of his efforts over the years promoting the trucking industry. Just two years earlier, the Ontario Trucking Association cited Mr. Guest for his 50 years as a trucker by presenting him with a special recognition pin.
“I started driving a truck when I was 18-years-of-age in what is now Mississauga but was Port Credit at that time. I started driving for Victor Skinner Coal and Ice … and was making what was big money in those days.”
I went to a small dairy in Port Credit in 1932 and that's where I started in the dairy courier business and stayed there until 1946 when I came up here and started Inter County Milk with one truck. My wife did the books and I did the slugging.”
Nearly 36 years later, Mr. Guest and his wife of 40 years, Florence, are still in the business of transporting milk, but that's where any similarity to the company they founded in the post war euphoria ends.
“That first day, on September 13, 1946, I had 26 cans, which would be 2,000 pounds of milk, which wasn't very much to tell you the truth. All I know is that the first year we ended up in the hole. In fact, there were hardly any black and white dairy cattle up in this part of the country then. Today we move around 200 million pounds of milk a year and we haul about ??? million dozen eggs a year. We also handle freight … most of which is All Treat Farm products.
Since it wasn't the proximity to the large dairy herds for which Arthur was chosen, Mr. Guest was asked what prompted him to decide upon this location. At that time, Hanover farmers were becoming increasingly involved in milk production, he explained. Arthur was chosen since it is located approximately midway between Hanover and Toronto, the “largest fluid milk market in Canada.” It was also decided that by locating in Arthur, Inter County Milk would be ideally situated to supply Dominion Dairies plants in Hamilton and London and also the Purity Dairy plant in Windsor.
As it happened, dairy farming gradually shifted eastward in the ensuing years and now plays a major role in the agricultural industry of this area as well.
Another major change is that the free market system has gone the way of the dinosaur and has been replaced with the Ontario Marketing Board which establishes milk prices. “The Ontario Marketing Board buys all the milk in Ontario and they sell it to different plants and they direct us where to take it. We've hauled milk for them right up to Thunder Bay. The dairy industry is in the best shape of any farm related industry. The marketing board is doing a good job,” said Mr. Guest.
“I wouldn't say it's any tougher (today). It's changed dramatically. Then it was all strictly free enterprise but now you've got special government marketing boards … they're farm oriented and farm directed.”
Although Inter County Milk has diversified over the years and now handles eggs and freight, its mainstay remains milk and milk products which Mr. Guest estimates comprises about 80% of his business. “We branched into eggs in '52 when the railways went on strike, but it was just as a service to local farmers to haul their eggs to Toronto … but it kept growing and growing until we decided to get into it full-time.”
Today, Inter County Milk has grown to a 27 man operation and has 38 pieces of equipment, including 22 power units, on the road most of the time. In all, its drivers call upon about 300 area dairy farmers every day to collect milk, which when brought back to the Arthur depot, is re-loaded into large tankers for shipment to the various processing plants.
Each tanker, some of which hold up to 46,500 gallons, is thoroughly washed down and put through a lengthy four-phase cleansing process to sanitize their cargo holds. As a further precaution, samples from each pickup are held for 15 days and then sent to a government testing lab in Guelph for analysis. Regulations also require that each driver be a government registered milk grader.
In addition to Inter County Milk, Mr. Guest is a part owner of Graymar Milk Transport of Markdale. He is a director of the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) representing the agricultural division for western Ontario. As a trustee for the Ontario Trucking Education Foundation, sponsored by the OTA, he plays a role in the allocation of $70,000 in funds to students for higher education.
