Vitran - Concord ON

Nawk

Nawk

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Nov 10, 2009
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Has anyone used their rail service to western Canada?

How have you found their transit times to the major centers as well and "beyond points"?

What about consistency?

Thanks for any input.
 
I used them quite a lot when I was at Firm/Contrans. It's the more cost-effective service versus their over-the-road LTL division to the west, which is good. The only caution is that your BOL absolutely MUST indicate that it is going by rail via Vitran. I think they still call it Trans-Western Express. If I have one complaint about Vitran, it is about billing. Their billers will sometimes bill shippers/consignees, even in the presence of a confirmation...and don't sometime marry confirmations with dispatch tickets. In fact, you should tell the shipper to mark all over the BOL "Third party billing to (your company)" and do NOT mark prepaid or collect. That cuts down on errors, though not completely. You may be a few days otherwise dealing with their billing department getting it corrected. They are also notorious for not using broker-generated BOL's designed to cut down on said nonsense.

Service will depend on when you pickup. As I recall, a lot of stuff leaves over the weekend and Friday departure should get you into the major cities in decent time which is about a day later than what their over-the-road service would get you for less money. If it leaves on Monday, you'll see delivery Friday in Vancouver or the following Monday, depending on how messed up or how well the rail is.

Hope that helps.
 
We have tried them twice and kicked them out twice, they are famouse for sending a bill for the transportation and then sending another for accessorials making it almost impossible to keep track of exactly what they are billing, it's usually their way and their way only. We have multiple shipments daily to the West and we find that Trans X is the only one that has held it together for service and price. They should be able to tell you what there service percentage is and be pretty accurate.
 
Rates are good, but if you need service to come close to an over the road carrier they are not for you.
Transit times will be at best double what you would expect.
 
whatiship said:
Rates are good, but if you need service to come close to an over the road carrier they are not for you.
Transit times will be at best double what you would expect.
Click to expand...

Sell it for what it is and customers will not be pissed. Too many try the other way and customers are unhappy, savings are there if used correct.
 
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Shakey said:
sell it for what is is and customers will not be pissed, too many try other way and customers are unhappy, savings are there if used correct.
Click to expand...

Well stated Shakey. We do sell it for what it is... Road = Fast and expensive / Rail = Slow and cheap. There just isn't a fast but cheap option these days.

Thanks all.
 
I've dealt with Vitran since the days of Intelrink (so a few years now). Biggest problem I have is thay take no ownership of mistakes, it's always someone else's fault.
Transit times vary greatly with them. If it's fast they say becasue they put it on the road, if it's a week late it's CN's or CP's fault.
 
I have pulled Vitran LTL loads before. My runs were Surrey to Edmonton and Surrey to Calgary.

I noticed some of you were complaining about transit times.

Quite frankly, it's Vitran's warehouse that was causing most of my deliveries to be late.

A load would supposedly be ready for me around 9pm, so I'd get there a little ahead of time. Then I'd wait until 10pm and then be told that the trailer wouldn't be ready that night because more had to be put on. I could come back in the morning and they'd have it ready for me first thing. So I'd arrive at 6am. They wouldn't have touched the trailer yet, and rarely before 9am or 10am, depending on whatever factors that would be influencing the heel-draggers that day. It would usually be ready by 11am though. Most times it would be overloaded, especially in the nose, beyond what I could do to slide my way into legal weights. So, back to the dock and wait another 2 hours or so to have the whole thing reloaded.

Great, now I have to spend the next 12 or so hours getting to Alberta, which during the winter, can be challenging in the extreme. Can we say cook the books?!?

Edmonton was realistic if I was late going there. But Calgary would always bitch and moan about me being late. Worse, Calgary would never have a back haul ready for me as promised, because I was late and they'd already have given it to someone else. So I'd have to wait until the end of their day shift the next day before a new trailer would be ready for me.

Just my 2 cents worth.
 
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