As a sign of how well things are going, B.S.D. placed a huge order late last year to expand its fleet. “In December, we bought about 40 trailers. Anything that’s five years old, we try to sell it and put new equipment on the road,” explains President and Chief Executive Officer Sam Chandi.

At present, the company has 35 six-axle heavy-haul trailers for large or hefty loads, and roughly 80 tandem trailers, which it leases to own. The six-axle trailers can be converted to four axles via a lift axle setup. The fleet includes vehicles made by Volvo, Peterbilt, Freightliner, and other major manufacturers.

B.S.D.’s heavy-haul and tandem trailers both feature the Roll-Tite system—that is, a rolling tarpaulin that can quickly cover the open deck trailer to protect goods from bad weather or rough road conditions. The tarp can also be quickly uncovered so goods can be unloaded. Tandem trailers also have two sets of side-by-side axles for extra support and stability.

As for relocating the Brampton headquarters and terminal, “We will move the whole location to Milton,” Chandi says. “It was too crowded in Brampton.” Milton is smaller than Brampton and further from Toronto, a huge city with notorious traffic gridlock. The move will shorten drivers’ commute time to work and make it easier for the company to access certain clients. The new facility should be open in the middle of this year.

B.S.D. Linehaul can haul everything from bricks and generators to steel beams, building equipment, produce, and more. Steel and aluminum coil is one of the main wares hauled, with specially equipped trailers to secure these products. Many of these coils originate at facilities run by the ArcelorMittal Dofasco company in Hamilton, Ontario and are then shipped to different locations in the U.S., says Chandi.

The company hauls freight across Canada, the United States, and Mexico, not focusing on any particular region within North America but rather traveling to whatever destination the customer requests. The company is looking to enhance its ability to serve existing markets by opening a new branch in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Strategically located in the Midwest, Indianapolis “is central for where we ship,” says Chandi, who hopes to have the Indiana operation up and running sometime this year.

B.S.D. Linehaul was founded in 2000, by his cousin Baldev Singh Dhot whose initials form the first part of the company name; Chandi was a silent partner in the early days. At first, the company’s business model was based around dry van work—using fully enclosed semi-trailers to haul pallets, loose freight, or boxes. The dry van period did not last for long, however.

“We thought there was too much competition and not enough money, so we started looking at flatbeds, and shifted to flatbed trailers,” Chandi recalls. Along the way, the company was incorporated in 2012 and continued to grow. Dhot decided to retire last year, and in November 2023, Chandi purchased the firm from him. Chandi runs another company called Westlake Transportation Group, which is also based in Brampton and offers logistics and transport services.

Vehicles in the fleet are fitted with advanced software and electronics to improve productivity, efficiency, communications, and safety. The company uses Omnitracs cloud-based fleet management software for logbook monitoring and truck tracing, the Samsara fleet tracking system with cameras and live GPS for tracing and routing, and Fleet Manager software for dispatch duties. These solutions make it easier for the head office to track trucks on the road, ensure that drivers are working within given parameters, and keep on top of scheduled maintenance. In turn, these solutions allow drivers to log information electronically and keep better track of their location and vehicle performance metrics. These same technological tools allow customers to track their shipments.

With its drivers and staff combined, B.S.D. has approximately 180 employees, a huge leap from this time last year when total personnel numbered around 120. The two factors fueling this growth are customer service and employee relations, says Chandi. “We don’t take a lot of customers. We stick with the ones we have and service them,” he states.

Naturally, hiring top-notch drivers is key to maintaining good customer service. If someone wants a job as a driver, B.S.D. carefully scrutinizes their background, taking a look at relevant work experience and their driving record. In addition to checking to see if a driver has accrued any tickets or penalties for speeding or accidents, the company is interested in their behaviour behind the wheel, taking prospective drivers out for a road test.

“We want to see how they perform on the road. How do they treat the equipment? Are they rough on the equipment or are they going to look after it?” says Chandi.

Once a driver is hired, B.S.D. works hard to keep them safe on the road. Drivers are well-trained and well looked after, and encouraged to transport freight in an efficient but safe manner. “We tell the drivers to take it easy, have some distance between the trucks, and if it’s bad weather, just park and go to sleep,” he says.

This mindful approach to hiring is part and parcel of the company’s commitment to quality and service, as demonstrated by its certifications including ISO 9001, SmartWay, C-TPAT (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism), FAST (Free and Secure Trade), and CSA (Customs Self Assessment). These programs streamline cross-border movement for low-risk shipments.

And the industry is taking note of B.S.D.’s skills; the company was named a Top Fleet Employer by Trucking Human Resources Canada in both 2022 and 2023. Based in Ottawa, Trucking HR Canada rates companies on a variety of aspects. “We worked very hard for it,” says Chandi of these back-to-back honours.

Despite these achievements, the company has not forgotten its roots. B.S.D. actively supports charitable initiatives such as toy drives and community organizations such as the Brampton Toronto Kabaddi Club (Kabaddi is a team sport that originated in India) and the Asees Foundation, an Ontario group that supports young people and families through sports, healthy living, mentoring, and other means. “We are happy to help the community,” says Chandi.

Interestingly enough, the surging growth B.S.D. has been experiencing is not the result of an aggressive marketing campaign or flashy promotion. It has a branded fleet, with the company logo on its trucks and trailers—as does Westlake—but other than this display, does minimal marketing. “I don’t really advertise anything,” Chandi admits.

This does not appear to be a problem, given B.S.D.’s upward momentum, which Chandi is eager to maintain. To this end, discussions are underway about adding a new tanker division. The company is researching the feasibility of such a move and has not settled on what the tankers might transport and when this division might be established. The goal, as always, is to “generate revenue and make some profit while keeping drivers safe at the same time,” he says.

And there is another big plan in the works for this far-reaching firm. At some point during the next four to five years, Chandi hopes to take it public. Asked if offering shares of the business on the stock exchange would help grow the company, he offers a confident reply: “Well, definitely,” says the CEO of one of Canada’s fastest-rising transport companies.

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Since its formation in 2018, ModelKite has been able to leverage its cross-border expertise and diverse resource pool in both countries to offer timely and cost-effective truckload, LTL (less than truckload), and intermodal shipping services.

The company’s friendly and professional staff can customize delivery strategies to meet clients’ needs, with options to arrange dedicated fleets or expedited shipments as needed. With access to Dry vans, Flatbeds, and Reefers (refrigerated trucks), and an understanding of customs requirements, ModelKite serves a wide range of clients on both sides of the border, including the food processing, manufacturing, and retail industries.

Products shipped include dry goods, refrigerated and frozen food, steel, construction materials, and raw materials such as pulp.

To learn more about ModelKite, which is poised to emerge as a leader in the fast-paced North American freight transportation business, we spoke with logistics expert and co-owner Ivan Opanasenko, who sometimes goes by what he calls his nickname, Evan, as it approximates the way Ivan is pronounced in his native Ukraine.

Getting started
After emigrating to Canada, Ivan and his brother Andrii spent five years immersing themselves in the transportation industry, with Andrii driving international routes for a New Brunswick-based company, while Ivan worked as a dispatcher for another company.

“All that time I was learning and gaining experience and I had a vision that it would be a good idea for us to open a company together because Andrii understood the road and I understood logistics from the office management perspective,” Ivan tells us.

First on the agenda was choosing a name, one not in use in either Canada or the U.S., would be easy to pronounce and remember, and would reflect the transport business.

The word “Model” came to mind. In the early days of the automotive industry there had been the Model T Ford, and around the time the brothers were forming the company, “EVs were emerging with Elon Musk announcing Model X and Model Y, so I said, ‘that’s a good start, and let’s attach ‘Kite’ because we’re in the freight transportation business, and then we can use MK as part of our invoice numbers,’” Ivan shares.

“When we started, it was just my brother and me working to develop our customer base. We got our first client, and he gave us our first referral when recommending us to the shipping manager of another company, and we continue to get referrals like that and grow our client base.”

Another way ModelKite grew its client base was by finding a niche in the supply chain and leveraging a successful relationship with one client to several others in the chain. For example, ModelKite could be delivering finished packaging materials to a manufacturer, and based on that relationship, could begin to deliver raw materials to the packaging company and/or ship those packaged manufactured goods to retail.

Building business, building staff
As the business developed, ModelKite began recruiting. “It was a challenge to pick the right staff. We want to have a family-oriented environment, treat them well, and train them because we want to keep our people. We won’t hire and fire, hoping to replace them with someone better. We want to push forward together and look at what needs to be done to stay competitive because this is a stressful industry.”

The result? A staff of 25 friendly logistics professionals who are as passionate about customer service as Ivan and Andrii.

To stay competitive, ModelKite invested in state-of-the-art communications technology, which means the staff can maintain close contact with customers, the carriers with which it partners, and the drivers on the road. As in any business, the price point is important but it is customer service that guarantees repeat business and referrals from satisfied customers, something that ModelKite values.

“Our company is proactive in sending information to customers before they ask us,” Ivan says, explaining how at the beginning, one of the company’s main challenges was answering questions about time of delivery or pickup. Now the customer service team checks with the drivers as they depart to get an estimated time of arrival, tracks them and emails the information to the client, and if necessary, updates them via telephone should a truck break down or get stuck in bad weather.

How does it work? Very well
As logistics experts, ModelKite partners with owner operator drivers and national and international carriers who also own fleets of trucks with varying capabilities and acts as a go-to logistics expert for customers who want freight shipped from anywhere to anywhere in North America.

“Here’s an example of how this works,” Ivan says, describing a hypothetical manufacturer in Philadelphia looking to ship their product to Toronto. “But if the shipping agent calls a driver directly and asks, ‘Can you pick up a load tomorrow?’ the driver might say, ‘I don’t have a truck there now, it will be two or three days before I can do it.’ So the shipping agent phones another driver, who says, ‘Yes, next Monday,’ but that means even more delays for getting the product to market and after hours of this, the manufacturer is in despair.

“But if the agent calls a logistics company like us that is a one-stop shop, we have information for thousands of drivers and all major carriers and we get to know quickly who has a truck in Philly right now that allows us to connect all the dots for the client. Plus, it benefits the driver who had delivered goods there but would be returning empty, so it fills that gap.”

Ivan gives another example concerning a regular customer in Maine who ships paper products to Quebec, and how ModelKite can defray the shipping cost for that client by locating freight that needs to be shipped back to Maine, which also benefits the driver.

“We also look after the border details, working with both the customer and the driver, which is another benefit, because we know how U.S. and Canadian border customs work and we can help customers, especially first-time customers, overcome those obstacles.”

Florida milestone
After five years of arranging freight shipments across Canada and the many border crossings into the U.S., the brothers decided the time was right to set up a location within the U.S. since so many of their partners and clients were American.

This is a major milestone as it allows the company to expand and participate in the lucrative coast-to-coast U.S. market while providing the high level of customer service for which it is known and contributing to the economic growth of both countries.

When we spoke with Ivan in early January, he had left his brother Andrii in charge of the Vaughan office and was in Florida, where he had just completed registering the business and was scouting out locations in the Tampa area. Once a suitable location is secured, he’ll be looking to hire up to six American office and logistics personnel in 2024, and more in 2025 if growth permits, as ModelKite leverages the expertise it has developed.

“It’s a big step forward,” he admits, “but we want to be a truly international company.”

The post Flexible Cross-border Transportation Services From the Logistics Experts<p class="company">ModelKite</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.