The 2019 Surface Transportation Summit will focus on the rapidly changing Canadian Freight Industry

The 2019 Surface Transportation Summit will take place at the International Centre in Toronto on October 16. Canada’s leading freight conference will try to make sense of the roller coaster that Canadian shippers and carriers have experienced over the past couple of years.

Josh Nye, Senior Economist, Royal Bank of Canada, will kick off the conference with his assessment of the current state of the Canadian and U.S. economies and share his insights on where they are headed in 2020. Two other panelists, David Ross, Managing Director, Global Transportation & Logistics, Stifel Financial Corp. and Stephen Laskowski, President, Canadian Trucking Alliance & Ontario Trucking Association, will provide their outlook on the state of the freight transportation industry in the U.S. and Canada. Following these presentations, Scott Tilley, President, Tandet Group and Anna Petrova, Supply Chain Director, Canada, Conagra Brands, representatives of a leading shipper and trucking organization, will share their perspectives on where the industry is going.

The next panel will include business leaders from five segments of the Canadian freight industry: small parcel and last mile delivery, LTL and truckload transportation, shipping by rail, fleet equipment leasing and real estate. Lucas Murua, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing, Dicom Transportation Group, Doug Munro, President and owner, M-O Freightworks, Al Boughton, Co-Founder, Trailcon Leasing, Tim Roulston, Director of Sales and Truckload Operations, Intermodal, CN Rail and Mark Cascagnette, President, Managing Partner, Lee & Associates, Toronto will share their thoughts on where their segment of the industry is going.

The always popular Shipper / Carrier Roundtable will feature Taimy Cruz, Director of Logistics, Broadgrain Commodities, Sylvie Messier, Corporate Transportation and Customs Manager, Ipex, Rob Nichols, Managing Director of Domestic Intermodal, CP Rail, Norm Sneyd, Vice President, Business Development, Bison Transport, Imtiaz Kermali, Vice President, eShipper and Joe Lombardo, Director or Freight, Transportation and Logistics, Purolator who will debate some of the most important issues facing transportation professionals in the Canadian freight industry.

A track on Workplace Safety will address several key issues such as Insurance, Loss Prevention, Driver Safety, Best Practices in Safety and Cannabis in the Workplace. This track will include a panel discussion among experts in various aspects of workplace safety. Rob Friday, Managing Principal, Predictive Success, Jaclyn Reive, Associate, Miller Thomson LLP and Yvette Lagrois, President, Ontario Truck Training Academy will discuss this important set of topics.

Many shippers with inefficient practices experienced some painful lessons during 2018. This pain was reflected in capacity shortages, rate increases, or even demarketing by their core carriers. Dave Corcoran, Director, Head of Logistics, Nestle Canada, Jim Peoples, President and COO, Challenger Motor Freight, James Johnstone, Associate Vice-President, Transportation, Giant Tiger Stores and Genevieve Gagnon, President, XTL Transport will share their tips on changes that shippers can make to incentivize carriers to provide them with consistent capacity at competitive rates.

A Best Practices in Freight Management track will focus on opportunities for shippers to derive the best value from their expenditures on freight transportation. Nick Nanos, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain & Wholesale, LCBO, Steve Coombs, Consultant, Justin Baillie, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, Rose Rocket, and Robin Stuart, Sales Leader, BB Services will discuss a range of topics including mode/carrier selection and management, network optimization, rate negotiation strategies, and making effective use of technology.

There is a shortage of qualified drivers across North America. Driver recruitment and retention are among the most important topics being faced by carrier executives. Colin Ruskin, CEO, Driver Engagement, Craig Faucette, Director, Policy & Programs, Trucking HR Canada, Max Farrell, Co-Founder and CEO, Workhound, and Jane Jazrawy, CEO, Carriers Edge will discuss a range of related topics from driver schools to training to compensation.

During the afternoon, six Table Topics Roundtables will be held. These small group discussions and networking sessions will be led by expert moderators. Pre-registration is requested, and all attendees are requested to provide their top two questions in advance. The topics to be discussed include

* Ecommerce in Trucking

* ELD Implementation and Management

* Temperature Control Transportation

* Sales Automation

* Electric and Autonomous Trucking

* Small Carrier Strategies

The moderators will be:

Ecommerce: Daniel Murray, Senior Vice President, American Transportation Research Institute

Effective utilization of ELDs and ELD Data Management: Michael Ahart, VP of Regulatory Affairs, Omnitracs

Temperature Control Transportation: Jonas Hendrickson-Gracie, Market Manager – Domestic Intermodal, CP Rail

Sales Automation / CRM Management: Jessa Jennings, Regional Vice President, Commercial Sales, Salesforce Canada

Small Carrier Strategies: Sud Malhotra, Fleet Manager, Powerbev Inc.

Electric and Autonomous Trucks, Blockchain and other New Technologies: Yves Provencher, Senior Manager – Business Development, the Lion Electric Co.

For over twenty years, Max Valiquette, Head of Planning at Publicis Canada, has been at the forefront of what’s now, what’s new, and what’s next. Anointed by Marketing Magazine as one of Canada’s “most influential Marketers,” Max has worked with some of the biggest companies in the world to help them transform their organizations, their businesses, and their brands. He is an award-winning marketer and market researcher; an author; a broadcaster; and a journalist who relishes engaging with audiences. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called him a “don’t miss” speaker.

Max Valiquette will complete the day with a thought-provoking and insightful presentation on Innovation and Disruption. This will be followed by a reception hosted by The Freight Management Association of Canada. If you are trying to stay up to date on the many of the most important issues in Freight Transportation in Canada, register now for the Surface Transportation Summit on October 16 (www.surfacetransportationsummit.com ).

To stay up to date on Best Practices in Freight Management, follow me on Twitter @DanGoodwill, join the Freight Management Best Practices group on LinkedIn and subscribe to Dan’s Transportation Newspaper (http://paper.li/DanGoodwill/1342211466).