Written by Kerry Rambalie, Director of Transportation, Canada
Dot Transportation Canada (DTC) began operations in December of 2018, with an April 2019 target to begin service to customers in Southern Ontario.
Setting Up Shop in Canada
We realized that to accomplish our goals, we needed to hire the right people and have the right equipment in place. First, we analyzed customer orders and trends—and subsequently hired three drivers who started in February and into March 2019. Michael Koerssen, Victor Daniel Vilceanu, and Steven Craig were brought on board and put through Dot’s driver training program in Liverpool, NY.
While our drivers were in training, three Volvo day cab tractors and five multi-temp trailers were delivered to Dot Foods Ontario. Currently, the drivers run as city/day-shift drivers, who return to the distribution center (DC) daily—as we do not have overnight runs at this time—and are on a typical four-day schedule. DTC’s service area is roughly about 350 kilometers, or 220 miles, from the Dot facility, which allows us to dispatch and return drivers to the facility without violating the Canadian Driver Hours of Service regulations.
A Growing Operation
As DTC has grown over the past few months, we made the decision to hire Operations Management Trainee (OMT) Arti Chandavarkar to support DTC operations and the flow of information between DTC and our business partners, including Dot Foods Canada. To that end, routing and dispatch functions now reside in Canada, supported by Dot Transportation, Inc. (DTI) in Illinois.
As we move forward in 2019, Phase II will see DTC operations expand into other regions in Canada, servicing Dot customers with the quality service levels that are the cornerstone of DTI. Currently, business leaders at DTC are assessing both Quebec and Alberta as possible next steps in DTC’s growth.
The team at DTC are excited for the possibilities on the horizon and look forward to sharing all the great stories as we continue to grow.
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Are you interested in joining the Dot team, either in the U.S. or Canada? Take a look at our job openings and apply now.
