Can anyone offer a position on Contrans

I can only speak to the fact that I used to work at Firm Transportation before and after it was bought by Contrans (now rolled into Cornerstone Logistics in Oakville) and saw Contrans change over time. What are you looking to find out?
 
contrans

Any back dooring, or encouragement "...to take any load as offered... even if customer direct..." all in the spirit of competition? It is for survival, and a 15 year relationship now irrelevant. "The days of a handshake are long gone - this is the new era...". Quite an end to a week for me on Friday...
 
Hmmm...not sure if that would fly at some of the other Contrans companies. They are hell-bent on making sure each company in the groups shows a profit as Contrans itself has to be accountable to investors and so on. When I was there, the only company in the group that had a revenue stream that couldn't have been constant was a school bus transportation company in eastern Ontario. I think the days of Contrans and Transforce are coming to a close. Remember when the company that was the predecessor to Transforce collapsed back around 2000-2001 or so (I think that's when it was)? It's bound to happen again. I've been waiting for it to happen since '08. Not a question of if, but when. When it happens, the pie will be broken up again. The trouble with companies that do M&A (mergers and acquisitions) is that they speed up the demise of not just your competitors (a good thing) but disrupt the industry in general (a bad thing.) Buying up trucking companies, re-branding them and then closing them up when they don't continue to make a profit at a corporate standard is what Transforce does. Contrans doesn't do any re-branding and what they have done with Brookville and Laidlaw has just confused many. It was definitely not business at "any cost" because all orders that had a loss or were about to take a loss had to be justified - each and every one - to Contrans management.
 
Thanks Pablo, thought I was the only one confused with this whole post. What exactly are you trying to say Nike?
 
I worked for two of the Contrans companies and in each I worked with respectable people. Like any company, they are in business to make money but they don't compromise integrity to make it. After the company I was working for got rolled into Brookville Carriers, they offered me a job in Calgary. If I didn't have kids I would have moved in a heartbeat. I still have friends that work there. Even the President drives a truck and delivers loads when he has the time. He is an old time trucker who made some smart investments a long time ago.
 
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