20 years of quality: How TerraPro partnered with Ritchie Bros. for a major fleet realignment

Twenty years ago, Colin Schmidt co-founded TerraPro alongside his father-in-law. What started as a close-knit family organization has since grown into a premier civil and matting contractor, serving the Western Canadian infrastructure market.

When you spend two decades building an ironclad reputation for excellence, you don’t trust your fleet to just anyone. That’s why, when it came time for TerraPro to execute a strategic fleet realignment, Colin knew exactly who to call: his Territory Manager Bryan Watson and the team at Ritchie Bros.

With TerraPro’s massive unreserved auction in the books — which ran in Edmonton from March 17–20, 2026 — we caught up with Colin to look back at the meticulous care behind the gear and why buyer confidence made this partnership such a massive success.

The strategy behind the sale: Realignment, not retirement

For TerraPro, this auction wasn’t about stepping back—it was about gearing up for a highly active construction season.

The industrial landscape in Alberta is humming with pipeline activity starting back up, power line projects on the horizon, and steady growth in the drilling space. To position the company perfectly for these upcoming opportunities, the timing for a fleet refresh was ideal.

“We’re excited about what’s happening in Alberta right now, and it was a good time to do a realignment sale,” Colin explains. “It was time to clean up some redundant assets, freshen up our gear, and be able to put some new serial numbers in the business.”

To pull off a sale of this scale, Colin leaned heavily on Ritchie Bros.’ unmatched regional market share. “It was an easy decision to reach out to Bryan for this sale. Ritchie Bros. has the depth and breadth of relationships to market our equipment across Western Canada and potentially further reaching with that.”

Heavy equipment maintained to the TerraPro standard

If there was one thing Colin wanted buyers to know about the TerraPro fleet lined up at the Edmonton yard, it was this: this gear was maintained to log hours on day one.

In the civil and matting industry, unexpected downtime is a project killer. “It’s too expensive moving gear back and forth because of equipment breaking down on a job site,” says Colin. To prevent that, TerraPro employs a dedicated, full-time staff of seven technicians in their shop just to keep the fleet in peak mechanical condition.

Because of this rigid standard, every single lot number in the March auction came backed by an open-book maintenance history.

“As the buyers were inspecting our gear, it was easy for them to come into the office and look at every lot number and the history we have as an organization for all of the paperwork, all of the services, all of the equipment maintenance that we’ve done to each gear. It gave the buyers confidence because they were buying a piece of gear ready to go to work.”

Featured auction lots: Kenworth W900s & excavators

While the entire package underwent rigorous inspection and detailed reporting before bidding opened, Colin highlighted a few heavy-hitting assets that garnered immense interest during the four-day event:

• The Heavy Haulers: Two pristine Kenworth W900 trucks: “Those had a pile of work done to them and were ready to go,” Colin notes.
• The Earthmovers: Several high-performing excavators were refreshed. To ensure the new owners got maximum value, the undercarriages were completely done and serviced prior to the sale.

A textbook partnership in Edmonton

By moving the entire fleet directly to the Ritchie Bros. yard, TerraPro allowed local buyers to walk the lot, pull the complete maintenance packages, and inspect the iron firsthand before placing their online bids.

Reflecting on the final results of the March 17–20 event, the collaboration proved to be a perfect match of values.

“I’m excited about the partnership between Ritchie Bros. and TerraPro, knowing the reputation Ritchie Bros. has had over the years in treating the buyers right, as well as TerraPro and our reputation in the market,” Colin says.

With the redundant assets officially down the road and the fleet successfully realigned, TerraPro is ready for the busy year ahead — backed by a fresh lineup of serial numbers.

Interested in partnering with Ritchie Bros. to realign your fleet?

Get in touch with your local rep for a free valuation and a no-obligation chat about your multiple selling options.

See also

Malcolm Excavating retirement sale reaches buyers beyond Ontario