Commentary on the hot issues and topics of the Canadian Transportation Industry

The subject of Shipper-Carrier Collaboration and Freight Bids came up in at least three tracks at this week’s Supply Chain Canada Annual Conference, presented by SCL and Canadian Industrial Transportation Association. The subject was discussed at length during a panel discussion entitled, “Shipper-Trucker Relations” led by Lou Smyrlis, Editorial Director, Transportation Media, Business Information Group.

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca One questionable piece of advice sellers are given is not to take “things personally”.  While I understand the sentiment behind it, encouraging sellers to not go down a dark hole, there is something wrong with telling professional sales people, in fact professionals of any type, not to take it personally. 

It’s official. The BC Vintage Truck Museum is open for business as of next weekend. Today was the “soft opening” for the volunteers and sponsors, appreciation for the thousands of hours and two years work they’ve invested in the exhibition. I was glad to see Norm Lynch was invited along with a few other retirees

We’ve just come through a slower than expected first quarter with a great deal of uncertainty about what the next quarter will bring. Lingering downward pressure on rates continues to affect carrier revenues just as it’s time to replace trucks that have gone considerably beyond previous life cycles and are becoming a drain on maintenance

Two weeks ago I wrote about two exciting young companies (PostBidShip and Buytruckload.com) that are applying Innovation and Technology to the automated freight brokerage/freight portal space (http://www.dantranscon.com/index.php/blog/entry/innovation-and-technology-come-to-the-freight-brokerage-industry). Subsequent to that blog, I was made aware of two more interesting companies that have entered this space, QuoteMyTruckload.com and Freightopolis. I contacted each of these companies to

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca How important is price is always a key question, crucial to some, especially to those sales reps and organizations that sell on price. Most studies examining client satisfaction find that price is not as important as some make. Even in today’s climate surveys show that price is not the key

You’re a football coach. Your team has the ball on the opposing 2 yard line. There are 15 seconds left. You need a touchdown to win. That is not the time draw up a play, decide who will run the play, and then find those players on the bench. It’s 3:00 a.m. and your phone

Trucking is a $37-billion industry in Canada. The U.S. trucking industry is about ten times the size of Canada’s trucking industry. In 1998, almost half of the industry’s registered trucks in Canada were heavy-duty vehicles weighing more than 15 000 kg (33 000 lbs.) in gross vehicle weight (GVW). They were used primarily to transport

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca There seems to be wide agreement that at any given time, only a small percentage of your target market is Actively Looking for what your are selling, estimates seem to be about 15%.  A similar percentage, fall into a group I call Passively Looking, leaving about 70% of the target

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca A long time ago, one of my employers had an expert present on the topic of time management and its impact on productivity. As a reader of this blog, you know my views on time management; but I was drawn to a subtext of her presentation, organizational skills, an organized