BCBusiness

February 2020 – First Mover

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

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S p e c i a l F e a t u r e One of the largest pressures on the shipping industry is global trade tensions between America and China, and shifting production away from China into Southeast Asia which is impacting trade routes. For container traffic, there has been softening on the west coast and an increase in traffic plying North America's east coast. "We are strategically positioned to benefit from these shifts," Grosman says. "We can service vessels coming into the east coast with our operations in New York and New Jersey, and for vessels calling the west coast we have the advantage of being the shortest distance from China." GCT demonstrates environmental stewardship through the densification of its existing footprints and improving energy efficiency at its terminals, which are Climate Smart and Green Marine certified. GCT Deltaport features two new Megamax cranes in its fleet of 12 high- speed, super post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes. Through equipment upgrades as well as process and design change, the recently completed railyard expansion sustainably increased capacity by over 50%, all within its existing footprint. In 2019, GCT Deltaport welcomed its first ship to the company's Shore Power system, which allows vessels to plug into the terminal's clean electrical power grid and turn off their auxiliary diesel engines while docked. This eliminates up to 95 tonnes of air pollutants per vessel— equivalent to removing 20 vehicles off the road for one year. "We have for a long time been demonstrating responsible stewardship and continue to innovate through the densification of our existing footprints and through improving energy efficiency," Grosman says. "It is certainly a meaningful part of business development and maintaining our competitiveness.." C&D Logistics is a transportation logistics company in Vancouver with more than 20,000 global partners. A driver shortage in 2018—the result of retirements and generational frustration with mandated electronic logs at the United States border—was trying for transportation companies but was C&D's opportunity to reach out to its vast network to help offer solutions. "Recent statistics say for every 13 loads in North America there was approximately one driver during that period of time," says C&D Logistics owner and CEO, Dana Matheson. "A lot of people came to us and asked us to help them find a truck. We called on our partners, and if we couldn't find one, we would steer people towards rail until capacity was tight for them as well." Last year saw a truck and equipment surplus, thanks to NAFTA and the trade dispute with China, but another driver shortage is projected for 2020 when e-logs come to Canada. "The industry is always looking for more drivers and are trying to move people towards that career because freight will keep moving and we need people to move it," Matheson says. C&D Logistics has somebody – a company or a driver – for almost every job, and they take those relationships seriously. "We are obsessive about customer service," Matheson says. "If a customer needs an answer on a shipment, it almost doesn't matter what time of day or night it is. Communication is massive for us, because we are long-term thinkers." Over the past three years, Air Canada Cargo has made significant investments into its air cargo operations, which service customers in more than 200 online or direct C A R G O & L O G I S T I C S

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