‘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.