Transportation and Logistics Report 2023

Transportation Logistics Report

How local businesses keep goods moving across the province, to manufacturers and to our doors.

From road to rail to water

THE TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS SECTOR IS TAKING OFF IN EASTERN ONTARIO

By Jennifer Campbell

Transportation and logistics companies have benefited from the widespread changes brought about by the pandemic and are expanding at significant rates, regional officials say.

While many people tend to view these companies as some of the worst environmental offenders, in fact, the businesses tend to be environmentally conscious, pay above-average wages and build sophisticated and technologically advanced operations.

Bob Peters leads logistics efforts for the Ontario East Economic Development Commission, which promotes Eastern Ontario as a centre for investment and business growth. He’s also the manager of economic development for the City of Cornwall.

As Peters explains, transportation and logistics companies are a vital link — but an often overlooked one — in Eastern Ontario’s supply chain.

“In fact, some of our most advanced technology and AI systems can be found in distribution centres, including robotics, voice-activated commands and all sorts of wonderful stuff,” Peters says. “And so you

have a sector that is extremely advanced, progressive, environmentally friendly and, in many cases, a major employer.”

Transportation by road remains a primary way of moving goods. In Eastern Ontario, Hwy. 401 takes a lot of that traffic.

“Hwy. 401 clearly is that key transportation corridor,” says Peters. “The competitive advantages of businesses locating in the Cornwall area is primarily transportation and its proximity to major markets.”

For the logistics sector, every kilometre a company is away from the Hwy. 401 corridor is measured in time and money.

“There's a significant advantage to

distribution centres, shipping companies and the companies that support them of clustering along nodes along Hwy. 401,” says Peters.

A scan of recent headlines shows major investments in logistics and transportation in the region, with a multimodal logistics village under development near Cornwall; Wills Transfer Ltd. investing in new warehousing facilities in Ingleside; and Minimax Express completing the acquisition of Snowbird Transportation Systems Ltd., a family business that has operated in Hamilton for 40 years.

Strader Ferris International, meanwhile, launched a company called MyUSaddress, a consumer-focused company that allows cross-border shoppers to have goods shipped to an Ogdensburg address and then have the packages customs-cleared and delivered.

Amazon has built two fulfilment centres near Ottawa — one 450,000-square-foot space in Barrhaven and another with one million square feet in Navan. Giant Tiger has distribution centres in Brockville, another in Johnstown and a third in Edwardsburgh Cardinal.

According to Peters, the attractiveness of Eastern Ontario to these companies is the quality of the highway network and the

Walmart’s Cornwall distribution hub supplies the chain’s retail stores throughout Eastern Canada. Its two buildings are 1.5 million square feet each and handle more than 500,000 packages a day.

fact that the region’s municipalities have invested in making sure land is available.

But there are other aspects to the transportation and logistics sector in Eastern Ontario. The region has 15 municipal airports and an international airport in Ottawa, as well as a deepwater port in Johnstown. The latter is an important destination for rail, truck and vessel shipping and receives salt, grains, aggregate and project cargo, or bulky pieces of equipment. The port offers easy access to Kingston, Cornwall, Ottawa and New York state.

“It is our deepwater port in Eastern Ontario (and it) continues to be significant for aggregates and farm products,” says Ann Weir, economic development manager with the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville. “And they are continuing to expand their product base as well with specialty goods and looking at other areas for expansion.”

There’s also a port in Cornwall.

“Historically, the St. Lawrence Seaway has been a significant transportation corridor for the movement of goods throughout Central Canada and Eastern Ontario and including Cornwall, which is lucky enough to have a harbour,” Peters says. He adds that the majority of finished goods being shipped by sea tend to land at

a port either in Halifax or Montreal and are then put on a truck.

Peters said rail is also important as it connects transportation systems and it provides efficient transportation of goods over longer distances.

“In Cornwall, we’re very fortunate to be on all three of those super corridors,” he says.

There’s rail service in Leeds Grenville, Weir says, through the Canadian Rail Equipment Works and Services Inc. based

in Johnstown, which offers everything from railcar storage, transloading, switching and track maintenance.

In Renfrew County, a rail system runs between Arnprior and Ottawa. Currently, it’s operated by CN. An Arnprior company called Nylene Canada ULC owns the rail, while the City of Ottawa owns the land, explains David Wybou, business development officer with the county. He says Nylene would welcome other businesses interested in using the rail.

Renfrew County is also seeing an extension of Hwy. 417 from Arnprior to three kilometres past the town of Renfrew. The last time the highway was extended, Wybou says, it created a real estate boom and a mini retail boom in the area with coffee shops, clothing shops, restaurants and professional and medical services opening.

“Even accounting and legal firms have been moving out here and extending their reach,” he says.

Of course, labour is a constant part of the puzzle. Many companies are trying creative approaches to the tight labour market. Minimax Express started training prospective drivers and paying them while they train. So far, it has hired 14 new drivers this way.

St. Lawrence College has created a logistics graduate course and programming and a mechanics skilled trades program in Cornwall.

As Peters points out, because logistics trades are increasingly technical, logistics centres are no longer looking for forklift operators, but instead electrical mechanical technicians.

“The skill level has gone (up) and they've always paid 30 per cent above average wage,” he says. “So this is a good sector with good careers.”

Fulfillment and distribution centres are more than warehouses — they’re full of robotics and IT that make the job easier and more efficient.

Supply chain specialists

THE WILLS FAMILY HAS BEEN RUNNING WILLS TRANSFER LIMITED FOR FOUR GENERATIONS AND HAS CONSTANTLY EVOLVED TO SERVE ITS CUSTOMERS’ CHANGING NEEDS.

It’s hard to imagine what George Wills would think if he could see today the company he founded in 1945. Wills started his business after the war with two five-ton trucks, then called “stake trucks” as the stakes on the sides of the flatbed retained their loads. The founder’s business was moving goods in and out of the Canadian Pacific railyard in Smiths Falls.

“They found an opportunity for a local cartage [and] delivery business,” says Jordi Wills, senior vice-president at Wills Transfer Limited and the great-grandson of George Wills. “They would go to the railyard and offload boxcars with a whole variety of commodities.”

Among the commodities at the time were flour, which was being transported to and

from Davidson’s Bakery, and bricks, bound for the huge Rideau Regional Center.

“It was very manual work,” Wills says. “The most technology they had would have been a dolly with steel wheels, so no forklifts and a lot of manual labour.”

Today the company provides third-party logistics and supply-chain management for more than 200 clients. Wills Transfer has 220 employees and a total of seven warehouses, representing more than one million square feet of space between them. It’s come a long way, but the growth has been incremental and always in direct response to client needs.

The beginning of third-party logistics

For approximately 25 years, the company provided refrigerated transportation services for many of the large meat packing

Wills Transfer’s Brockville warehouse stores primarily paper, resin, lubricants, filters and oil.

This photo dates back to the beginnings of Wills Transfer.

companies. It delivered fresh and frozen meat throughout the Ottawa Valley.

Then, in 1979, Hershey Canada, which was the second-largest employer in Smiths Falls at the time, partnered with Wills on a Christmas display project. Hershey couldn’t have any glass in its plant so it had to ship the glass for the project to Wills. As such, Hershey became Wills’ first third-party logistics client. The relationship deepened and Hershey’s vendors started shipping direct to Wills and Wills would provide just-in-time delivery to Hershey as the products were needed.

Under the leadership of Osborne Wills and his wife Grace, Wills Transfer Limited began to provide household moving services. In 1953, they became one of the first agents for United Van Lines in Canada. The household goods moving division continued until 2014.

“That was an emotional decision,” Wills says. “We had closed other divisions — we had closed our U.S. freight division in 2008 for a number of rising cost issues. But 2014 was very significant, especially for my father. We’d been in that line of business for a long time and it was what we were most known for.”

That closure prompted a senior manager to ask “Who are we if we're not a moving company?” In small town Smiths Falls, the household moving arm had become the company’s predominant identity over the years.

After some soul searching, the team decided the company “provides innovative logistics solutions, contributing to customer success.”

There was serendipity in the timing of that question-and-answer session. It just so happened that a high output, very efficient manufacturing plant of

Shell lubricants in Brockville — one that supplies customers such as Walmart and Canadian Tire across Canada — was looking to cut costs.

Shell’s efficiency consultant asked Wills to quote on staffing its entire warehouse.

“This would be a Wills Transfer worker doing a warehouse function in a Shell lubricants facility,” Wills explains. “Shell knows its core competencies and warehousing is not one of them. Oil extraction is what it does — and research and development.”

Since 2014, Wills has been managing Shell’s warehouse within its plant, with a total staff contingent of 26 people who work on site. “I would say for the last 10 years, we've grown with our customer, so Shell is still actually our largest customer today,” Wills says.

Soon, a similar invitation came from 3M in Brockville.

It was very manual work.

“The most technology they had would have been a dolly with steel wheels, so no forklifts and a lot of manual labour.

JORDI WILLS

Wills Transfer Limited is in its sixth year of the Canada’s Best Managed Companies program and has been recognized with Gold status the last two years.

All in the family Jordi Wills came back to the business in 2013. He and his wife Heidi had been working in Christian ministry on the University of Guelph campus and, as a fourth-generation member of the business, Wills wasn’t sure how a business career would fit with his family life. As it turned out, he liked it a lot and found fulfillment in learning how to be a leader like his father. Jordi is now completing an MBA and Heidi has joined the business as well.

“When I got in here, I watched how my dad did business and how much enjoyment he got from leading and influencing people,” says Jordi, who will succeed his father Terry as president in 2024. “We have four main values: People matter; commitment to excellence; do the right thing and be good stewards. And the ‘people matter’ part is really how my dad lives his life — both my parents, Terry and Heather, at home and at work. Watching how he would influence people in a positive way really made it attractive to me.”

Jordi and Terry continue to look for

opportunities to grow business, with the goal of reaching $50 million in sales by 2027.

And they’re using technology to be as efficient as possible.

“Our customer wants real-time data information to manage their inventory as well. We want to be able to take that data and find out how their inventory moves so we can find efficiencies and opportunities.”

“We're a medium-sized third-party logistics provider, and those who are taking the industry up a level every single year are the Amazons, Walmarts and other large retail operations, and they have to because they're putting through so many millions of widgets every year.”

In 2020 the company acquired Orange Logistics, a deal that brought with it the opportunity to enter the pharma warehousing market.

“We see continued expansion opportunities in Eastern Ontario in our future, by means of our new west Ottawa land purchase as well as an expansion at our Ingleside location.”

Wills Transfer has operations in Ottawa as well, including this one.

Wills Transfer’s latest property is this 155,000-square-foot warehouse in Ingleside, just south of the 401.

‘A very progressive culture’

WILLS TRANSFER LIMITED ENCOURAGES A POSITIVE CULTURE AND PROFESSIONAL GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES FOR ITS EMPLOYEES.

Jeremy West has been working at Wills Transfer for nine years and says he can’t imagine a company that aligns more fully with his own values. He’s also appreciated that the company has fostered skills he already had and could build upon.

“I love to learn I love to take on things,” West says, which is clear as he’s graduated from managing the Perth warehouse to also managing the Smiths Falls warehouse and now also taking on the IT and the continuous improvement departments. “If I want to learn and go to school, that’s always been encouraged.”

West enrolled in leadership training at the University of Toronto, for example, and he’s also taken some business management courses at Algonquin College. Obviously, he still has to put in the time to do the learning, but the company has paid his tuition fees.

“For me, it’s been a great journey,” West says. “The values of the Wills family perfectly align with my values.”

Leslie Thompson agrees. She works as the executive assistant to senior vice-president Jordi Wills and also works as support staff for the Brockville operations. She too values the corporate culture.

WILLS TRANSFER LIMITED AT A GLANCE

Facilities: 135,000 square feet in Perth; 50,000 square feet in Smiths Falls; 460,000 square feet in Brockville between 2 warehouses; 155,000 square feet in Ingleside; 250,000 square feet spread amongst 2 warehouses in Ottawa; 10 acres of land in Carp on which it will soon build

Employees: 220

Model: Business to business

Customers: mostly multinationals, including Shell, Abbott and 3M

Growth: 10 per cent per year in revenue

“It’s a very inclusive culture and one where employees are respected and heard, and their viewpoints and any contributions or suggestions are always taken into consideration,” Thompson says. “People really do matter and gratitude is expressed on a regular basis. It’s a friendly, warm environment to come into. It’s also a busy environment, but there’s always time to appreciate the small moments, the big wins and the challenges.”

‘Professionalism and competence’

WILLS TRANSFER LIMITED CUSTOMER

Stephen

Dobie says his clients at Wills Transfer are the kind of people with whom you want to sit down to Christmas dinner.

“It’s a high trust, high respect kind of relationship,” says Dobie, Shell Lubricants’ Logistics Leader for Canada. “And you get that trust and respect almost immediately from their professionalism and competence — how they listen, how they talk. You just get the sense that this is somebody you want to partner with.”

It’s high praise from Wills Transfer’s largest customer. Shell Lubricants in Brockville has been using Wills Transfer to staff its warehouse and provide the logistics for distribution to such big players as Walmart and Canadian Tire. Altogether, there are 26 Wills employees who work on the contract.

Dobie says it’s hard to put into words how the Wills folks do business.

“They're just really genuinely great people,” he says. “And that flows through to their employees, the type of business they run, how they interact with companies like us. They have some big-name customers, Shell being one of them and 3M being another. They attract that for a particular reason and it's because of the value set they have.”

Dobie says Wills is also helping Shell work to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions where possible.

“If you go by the Wills facility, you'll see that that there are solar panels on the roof,” he says. “They electrify forklifts, they have LED lighting. They get involved in those kinds of things that help slow down to greenhouse gases. It's nice to see regional companies, especially family-owned ones, taking a front-foot approach changing their business so their carbon footprint is not as negative as it once was. They're very strong on some of those initiatives.”

Dobie said the forward-thinking folks at Wills also work hard at retaining staff at a time when people are focused on recruiting.

SAYS THE COMPANY IS ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS, COMPETENT AND AN EXCELLENT PARTNER.

Terry Wills and his son, Jordi, are president and senior vice-president of the company founded by Jordi’s great grandfather in 1945.

Straight-forward and steady

MINIMAX: THE FAMILY-OWNED TRANSPORTATION COMPANY HAS BEEN SHIPPING GOODS ACROSS EASTERN ONTARIO FOR 32 YEARS.

“Peace of mind transportation from our family to yours” is Minimax Express Transportation’s motto, and that sums up the Poirier family’s approach to business.

The less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping company, which has 150 trucks and 225 trailers, is now 32 years old and three generations of the Poirier family now work in the Cornwall-based head office.

“It’s all about family here,” says Yves Poirier, 56, who is the company’s president and whose brother Marc, 54, is vicepresident. Their father, Paul, started the business and still comes in a couple of days a week to check in, and also to fill the fridge, Yves Poirier says.

“It’s a family business, and our staff confirm that,” Poirier says, adding that in addition to many staff appreciation events, the Poiriers will often show up at the site of a customer and host a barbecue lunch for staff. “We have a trailer with a barbecue on it. We show up at 11 a.m. with a tent and the barbecue. We serve them lunch and by 1:30 p.m., we’re out of there. It goes a long way with customers because a lot of times, the person on the dock or the person in the plant or the warehouse or the production facility never gets anything from anybody. They just love it.”

The company’s roots date back to 1991 when patriarch Paul Poirier, who started

his career in the trucking business and had worked for Glengarry Transport (GTL) for 28 years, left to start Minimax with two former colleagues. Within the first four years of operations, the two partners sold off their shares and Minimax became an entirely family-owned company.

In the early days, the transportation took place between Montreal and Toronto, with base operations in Cornwall. Eventually, the Poiriers added Ottawa and Brockville as destinations and also added new bases of operation across Eastern Ontario. Today, there are terminals in Drummondville, Belleville, Toronto, Kitchener and Cornwall, and in early

March 2023, Minimax completed the acquisition of Snowbird Transportation Systems Ltd., a family business that has operated in Hamilton for 40 years. The acquisition gives Minimax a chance to better serve existing clients and develop new clients, Poirier says.

A COVID problem and novel solution

The COVID pandemic created labour shortages across many industries and trucking was no exception. But Poirier and his team came up with an innovative solution.

“We decided to start training our own

drivers,” he says. “Because recruiting is so difficult, we train candidates who don't have a trucking licence. We do it from Minimax here in Cornwall.”

Indeed, Minimax has become certified to deliver the course mandated by the province, which includes training, road tests and written tests.

“Then drivers just go to the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario office and get their licence,” says Poirier, who notes that the program has been a big success. “We just started in 2022 and we’ve graduated about 14 drivers so far. We actually pay the drivers to take the course. If they took this course at a truck driving school, it would

cost them about $10,000. Instead, they come here and we actually pay them while they’re taking it, so it's pretty good deal for them.”

And it works for Minimax, which is trying to replenish its ranks after a number of drivers retired in 2022.

Changing business

Poirier says most of his business these days is trucking product that originated overseas, usually arriving in Toronto and then delivering it to distribution centres or the end user.

“Twenty or 25 years ago, it seemed like we were hauling more raw materials

to produce things,” he says. “Then production went offshore and I hear now that it's reshoring and coming back. That’s a good thing for trucking because we can bring the inputs or the raw materials and then we can also pick up and distribute the finished products.”

Today, the company employs 275 people, about 60 of whom work in administration and 20 work on the freight handling side. The rest are drivers. Revenue hovers around $50 million a year. The goal is to grow that organically — always by between five and 20 per cent year over year — although the company did make its first ever acquisition in the

winter of 2023, but couldn’t share details at press time.

“We're not super aggressive on growth,” Poirier says. “We’re more concerned about the quality of the revenue and making sure that new business fits our business. Our model is not to grow, grow, grow.”

The sales force is made up of seven full-time people, which is quite a few for a company this size, Poirier says.

“If our client has a question whether they want a new lane, or to add a rate for a new destination or they have a problem with a shipment they can call their salesperson and they're going to answer and help them,” he says. “That's the way

Minimax Express Transportation participates in a United Way fundraiser organized by CFB Trenton.

we look at things and why we have so many salespeople.”

A homespun corporate culture

That person-to-person service approach also carries through in the way the company treats its own employees. In addition to hosting popup barbecues for customers, Minimax holds them for its own staff members as well.

“We go to our own service centres and hold these lunches or suppers,” Poirier says. “We do quite a bit for special occasions, too — Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving and I think people really appreciate that.”

In Cornwall, he and Marc and their four sons will show up at the office at 5 a.m. to produce a big breakfast for staff, drivers, freight handlers and mechanics, for example.

“There's no way we would be this successful without our people obviously, everybody will tell you that, and if they feel valued and respected I think you're going to get so much more out of out of people.”

Minimax Global Solutions

A recent addition to the business is a division called Minimax Global Solutions, a load broker that finds carriers to take

Yves Poirier and his brother Marc run the company their father Paul established in 1991.

A Minimax vehicle delivering a load to a Loblaws distribution centre.

loads beyond Minimax’s capabilities. That division would, for example, find a carrier to take a load from Toronto to California.

Minimax Go Direct is another division, which offers a white glove, dedicated and expedited transport service.

“Here, we do a lot of same-day deliveries,” Poirier says. “If something is really rushed, we’re involved in that.”

The company name was chosen by Paul Poirier, who is still chairman of the board of the company, to suggest the company will take minimum and maximum loads. It also works well in French and English. Paul Poirier’s grandsons — Richard, David, Ben and Pat — now all work in the business.

Warehousing on the side

Richard Poirier is interested in the warehousing side of the business and to that end, the company recently bought a warehouse in Alexandria. At 36,000 square feet, it will allow the company to expand a service it’s always provided.

“We've always done a little bit of warehousing,” Poirier says. “We see this as an added value to our existing clients and a sector of our business with good potential growth”

Whatever it does next, the goal is always to keep growth at a reasonable rate and any expansion needs to be a fit for the company, Poirier says.

MINIMAX AT A GLANCE

Facilities:

Cornwall head office –

75,000 square feet

Drummondville service centre –

17,000 square feet

Belleville service centre –

11,000 square feet

Toronto service centre –

52,000 square feet

Hamilton service centre –

15,000 square feet

Employees: 275

Model: Business to business

Customers: Clients vary widely – mostly retailers and their distribution centers and manufacturers of personal care products, food retailers, other carriers, third-party logistics and tire distributors.

Growth: 10 per cent per year in revenue

‘The best place to work’

Asked if he would recommend his family work at Minimax, Ed Renaud laughs.

“My daughter works in accounts payable, my son worked here for years and my wife is the receptionist,” says Renaud, who will wind down a nearly 31-year career at Minimax Express Transportation this summer. “So yes, I would recommend it.”

Renaud says it’s a very familyoriented place, with good benefits and excellent management. He started his career on the dock, then he did billing, customer service and now he’s the rates office manager. He also had a stint as a dispatcher. He remembers his time on the dock as mostly mechanized work, but there was some manual labour too.

Both his children had summer jobs there all through high school and university and joined the company after they finished.

Asked about the company culture, he says: “Well, I’ve been here for 31 years, so that's a good sign. I would say that you're not just treated as a number here — your opinions matter and you are valued.”

He noted that there’s an annual Christmas party and also regular summer picnics that bring employees together.

His colleague, Jim MacPherson, who is the general manager of operations,

says when he hires people, he looks them in the eye and tells them it’s a challenging job, but that they won’t find better bosses.

“I tell them the best place to work is right here at Minimax,” he says, adding that the Poirier family respects its employees. “If you show them respect, they'll respect you back twice as much. I can say that for sure.”

MacPherson has worked at Minimax for 15 years and worked as a trucker before that. He joined the team in a safety and compliance role and then moved up into the terminal manager job. MacPherson agreed with Renaud that the benefits at the company are reasonable, but for him, the bigger draw is the staff events.

“It's not like a big corporate company,” MacPherson says. “These guys are so fantastic. The Christmas parties are great and every once in a while we surprise the drivers and put on a breakfast for them. It's that family open-door policy they have. They say ‘We don't lock our doors. If you need to come in and talk, you can. I really like that about this company.”

A testament to MacPherson’s statements is that his nephew now works there, and many of his other family members would like to do so.

The company regularly hosts well-loved barbecues for staff and clients.

A community-minded family-owned company, Minimax also participates regularly in community initiatives, including this one for Ducks Unlimited.

Customs, e-commerce and warehousing

STRADER-FERRIS INTERNATIONAL HAS BEEN OPERATING FOR 70 YEARS AND IS EASTERN ONTARIO’S ONLY INDEPENDENT LOGISTICS AND FULFILLMENT COMPANY TO OFFER CANADIAN AND U.S. CUSTOMS BROKERAGE SERVICES.

Strader-Ferris International (SFI) is celebrating 70 years of success in 2023, but the company isn’t taking too much time away from the business at hand to celebrate. As a major player in the Ottawa area logistics scene, SFI is squarely focused on the next chapter of its continuous evolution, which has delivered double digit growth in each of the last five years.

With Canadian and U.S. customs brokerage operations, a fleet of trucks running back and forth across the border, a full-service logistics division moving freight all over North America and just shy of 200,000 square feet of e-commerce fulfillment warehouse space, things are busy indeed.

“Having an end-to-end solution is key to our ability to help customers succeed,” says Jesse Mitchell, director of business development. “When potential partners understand how many bases we can cover, they are really impressed”.

“We’re right-sized, meaning we haven’t lost that ability to provide a personalized solution,” says Mike Ferris, president and third-generation owner of this family business. “One thing we understand from experience is that we are a niche player.

We have found a way to offer a successful alternative to the one-size-fits-all approach that some larger players try to force upon companies. It’s key in a business like ours to be comfortable with change and to be on the move strategically all the time. The niche is never static”.

SFI got its start in 1953, about the time that an international bridge was being conceived to link Prescott, Ont., to Ogdensburg, NY. Today that bridge has become a competitive advantage for many Eastern Ontario companies that can take advantage of quick and seamless access to the U.S. market with the help of SFI’s services. With 70 employees, and 90 per cent of customs operations staff holding CCS (Certified Customs Specialist) designations (or U.S. Customs Broker licenses), SFI sets itself apart in terms of front-line expertise.

“Customers enjoy the fact that they get to engage day to day with a partner that can provide answers quickly and efficiently,” Mitchell says. “We hear all the time about the horror stories that some companies have to experience with some of our competitors. There is a tendency to not invest as much in people, not to empower people. Having previously worked for several large North American logistics companies, I immediately saw the difference when I came onboard several years ago.”

e-Commerce expansion

While customs brokerage is still a core service that SFI provides, these days the company is seeing rapid growth of its e-commerce fulfillment services.

“We’ve taken our core skills in crossborder logistics, customs brokerage and transportation management and put that together with warehouse management to create a better solution for e-commerce companies,” says Derek Van Schie, vicepresident of SFI and overseer of Canadian operations. “We have warehouse space on both sides of the border, but having expertise to manage inbound logistics as well as the final distribution in both Canada and the U.S. sets us apart from competitors in this space. We’re not looking to take on Amazon, but rather create better value for the kind of customer that can benefit from a more hands-on, more strategic partner.”

Customs duty elimination

SFI has seen an increase in the number of U.S. companies looking to take advantage of its strategic footprint and capabilities. A key strategy SFI has been executing for its customers is based upon its ability to eliminate duties on U.S. e-commerce sales that would otherwise

apply if orders were fulfilled from U.S.based warehouses. The U.S. allows most e-commerce orders valued at under $800 to enter under an expedited customs release program free of duty.

“It’s another example of how SFI is always striving to find opportunities to combine our services to create value for customers,” Mitchell says. “When I explain to someone that we can setup a footprint in Canada right on the border for them, manage duty deferral so they don’t pay Canadian or U.S. duties on inventory, and then provide duty-free U.S. market access, they usually think it sounds too good to be true. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy for them to figure out that it’s legit and a bit of a slam dunk. The fact that we can also provide a bit of hand-holding and help them open up the Canadian market is a real win as well. They end up relieved that one company can handle this entirely in-house.”

Leveraging technology

Another key service that SFI proudly promotes is its proprietary transportation management system (TMS). SFI extends this web-based platform for all of its customers to use to manage their shipping, both domestically and internationally,

for outbound as well as for inbound shipments, and for product returns.

SFI’s in-house IT supports integrations with customers’ ERP and accounting systems so order data can drive the shipping process to eliminate errors and automate customs clearance processes for cross-border shipping. One feature of SFI’s system is that it allows Ottawabased customers to prepare shipments to be tendered to carriers care of its Ogdensburg, NY, warehouse dock. The shipments are picked up by SFI trucks, customs cleared by SFI brokerage staff, and then cross-docked by SFI warehouse staff. “We’re at the point where our technology can automate the preparation of hundreds of courier and LTL (pallet) shipments onto one cross-border entry and then inject customer deliveries into the domestic networks of Fedex, UPS, USPS and a mix of trucking companies,” Ferris explains. “The goal is to bring the right options to the table to minimize costs and eliminate border-related delays. A mandate of ours from day one has been to simplify cross-border logistics for Ottawa area companies.”

Van Schie is quick to add, “Over time we have expanded our focus to include domestic logistics, including supply chain support where we warehouse materials for customers and deliver replenishment on-demand. Our technology provides real-time visibility to our customers and keeps us on the same page. We will never lose sight of our goal to provide a superior solution to empower our partners to successfully manage their supply chains and grow their markets. When our technology can help we’re happy to oblige.”

myUSaddress

An added benefit of SFI’s cross-border service is that it provides an easy footprint for customers to use when ordering supplies from U.S. vendors or managing product returns from U.S. customers. An interesting twist is that cross-border shoppers can also take advantage of SFI services care of myUSaddress, a consumer-focused offshoot among the SFI mix of services.

“When we started myUSaddress, we were able to leverage a lot of our freight handling and warehousing technology to be able to provide a winning service for cross-border

We have warehouse space on both sides of the border, but having expertise to manage inbound logistics as well as the final distribution in both Canada and the U.S. sets us apart from competitors in this space.

DEREK VAN SCHIE

Over the course of the pandemic, SFI has seen an increase in the number of U.S. companies looking to take advantage of its strategic services.

shoppers,” Ferris says. “Everything is managed electronically, from receiving, to package notifications, through to an ability to have your package customs cleared and delivered to your door anywhere in Canada.”

SFI now counts tens of thousands of Canadian individuals among its ranks of satisfied customers.

Keeping it personal

SFI is doing something right as its long-term roster of clients has included scores of high-profile companies across a multitude of industries in and around Ottawa over seven decades.

“We’ve had the privilege of working with some of the greatest partners you could ever hope for,” Van Schie explains. “Take a company like Ross Video. We have been partners since 1978. There is no doubt in my mind that having a customer like that makes

you a better company over the long term. It has to. You will do anything to not let them down, and knowing they appreciate when you perform is a key driver for team satisfaction and growth. We’re also fortunate to have very low employee turnover. This provides for a consistent point of contact and allows us to build great relationships with our customers. When it comes time to troubleshoot a situation it makes a big difference when you know the person you’re working with, when you have that level of understanding about that customer’s operations and unique needs.”

Looking ahead

The one thing that SFI can be sure of is that change will continue to dominate its landscape. 2023 will most likely see the launch of a revamped government

framework applied to Canadian imports, referred to as CARM (CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management).

“There will be a number of fundamental changes for any Canadian importer,” Van Schie says. “At the end of the day it’s going to be especially beneficial to have a customs broker like SFI that provides a hands-on approach.”

Adds Mitchell, “2023 has really started off with a bang in terms of new opportunities. One thing that continues to set SFI apart is that we try to be patient about finding the right partnerships. The discussions we’re already having this year indicate that SFI is going to continue to add to its success. With every new opportunity, we learn something and we try to use that to improve our capabilities. We want growth that benefits all our customers.”

SFI AT A GLANCE

Years in business: 70

Almost 200,000 sq ft of warehouse and e-Commerce fulfillment space

Cross-border fulfillment strategies to eliminate U.S. duties on shipments to U.S. buyers

Single point of contact for customs clearance anywhere in Canada or the U.S.

Fleet of tractor trailers as well as box trucks with tailgates providing same-day cross-border linehaul

Full-service logistics department capable of arranging truckload, less-thantruckload, as well as ocean and airfreight

Integration capabilities with over 50 top ERP and e-Commerce platforms for data sharing

Duty deferred warehousing in both Canada and the U.S.

myUSaddress personal cross-border shopping service has over 30,000 customers

double-digit growth each of the last 5 years

70+ employees, over 20 Certified Customs Specialists/Licensed Brokers