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Celebrating 40 years of leading service to Canada's North!
Delivering for decades
A History of Mid-Arctic Transportation
Co. Ltd
Ray and Lloyd Anderson, sibling co-owners of Matco Transportation Systems, know
Canada's North. In fact, the name Matco comes from Mid-Arctic Transportation Co.
Ltd. as their firm was called when it was incorporated in Norman Wells, NWT, in
1966 to meet the growing need for transport in the Mackenzie River Valley. For the
past 40 years, Matco has provided a vital link to the "south" for businesses, government
departments and families located in communities throughout the Northwest Territories
and Yukon.
Matco characterized by steady growth
and expansion
"When we initially went to Norman Wells," says Ray Anderson, "we
weren't there very long before we saw an urgent need for a local cartage and expediting
company to handle the goods coming in by air. So we started one. When the oil industry
began moving north, we expanded with it and soon had branches in both Norman Wells
and Inuvik. In the early '70s we established a hub in Edmonton but continued expanding
in the North as road construction permitted. We soon opened branches in Yellowknife,
Hay River, Fort Smith and Whitehorse. Calgary was added to the network in 1996."
Today, Matco is a fully integrated transportation services company, providing freight
and courier services, airport ground handling services as well as warehousing and
related transportation expediting services throughout the western provinces, Yukon
and the NWT. Through its affiliation with United Van Lines, Matco also offers household
goods removal services including short and long-term storage at government-approved
warehouses.
"One of the things we've learned over the years," observes Anderson, "is
the importance of establishing ourselves as a diversified moving company. Few moving
firms survive without a broad focus and that's the approach we've taken. We even
do international moving through our Matco International division. We also do a significant
amount of "high value" moving - transporting brand name electronic equipment
and furniture. We are additionally prepared to move machinery and offer the kind
of expertise needed for office and facility relocation."
Matco's service enhanced by current
technology
"We've come quite some distance as a company since the early days of hauling
mail and air freight with one truck in Norman Wells," reflects Ray Anderson.
"Our current fleet shows the diversification and stability that we've worked
hard to establish."
Fifteen tractors, twenty-five trailers, more than 150 containers and over fifty
local vans are now necessary to enable Matco to meet daily demands. Add to this
over 75,000 square feet of warehouse space and the more than one hundred employees
needed to staff the various branches and you begin to gain an appreciation for the
complex logistics involved in running the company.
Place this in the context of the geographical area that Matco covers - more than
one-third of Canada's land mass with a scattered population of around 150,000. And
when you stop to consider that much of Matco's work takes place in the extremely
cold temperatures of the North, it is not difficult to see why a company that has
become a $20 million business employing approximately 250 people depends so heavily
on modern technology to keep running smoothly.
"There is really no way to compare how we run the business today with the way
things were when we first started," comments Anderson. "One of the strengths
of this company is that we learned how to hang in there as a service provider during
the bad times in the North, and there have been plenty of those. But those tough
times served to develop a strength of character in this firm that continues to serve
us well. And, of course, our job has been greatly assisted by the advances of modern
technology."
Good communication with customers and shippers is something that Matco Transportation
highly values. "In this era of satellite communications," says Ray, "each
of our units has a satellite tracking phone so that both shippers and receivers
can be notified immediately if there is going to be any significant delay or problems
with the transportation of goods. Even though I myself don't carry a cell phone,
it's essential for the guys on the job to be able to stay in touch so that there
are no surprises for customers. One of the reasons for Matco's success is that we
have been careful to maintain our presence through the utilization of technology."
The importance of transportation containers
for the North
One of the features of Matco's service that has been essential to the company's
success in dealing with the rigors of hauling goods to and in the North is containerization.
Lloyd Anderson says that Matco, which is the fourth largest carrier for United Van
Lines Canada, first started utilizing containers back in the 1970s. "In our
ground support services, we initially found that containers were very efficient
in transporting goods by rail," he explains. "Marine transportation (barge
traffic) also demanded their use and as more and more roads were opened in the North,
we found they were highly efficient for our units as well. When we affiliated with
United Van Lines, the use of containers became essential in transporting the goods
of several different customers on the same load."
A variety of containers sit in the Matco yard at the Edmonton headquarters. They
offer flexibility in load size, increased security and contribute to less handling
which speeds up the transportation process. "There are now about 200 different
containers available for household goods," Lloyd adds.
Ray Anderson, who has been been a director with United Van Lines since 1995, points
out that Matco has been instrumental in working with airlines in developing containers
for use in transporting and handling air freight. "We participated in the development
of an igloo-shaped container that is frequently used for air freight," he notes.
"In fact, some carriers insist that goods be shipped in those containers."
Matco is not resting on past accomplishments
Although Matco Transportation Systems has been a pioneer in the transportation industry
in Canada's North, the Anderson brothers are quick to affirm that they are not approaching
the future content to merely rest on past accomplishments.
"We are continually making strategic decisions to secure our role in the industry,"
clarifies Ray. "For example, our decision to open a branch in Calgary reflects
our awareness that Calgary is the hub of the oil and gas industry that is taking
off again in the North. We wanted to be there to benefit from that reality plus
the transportation connections that Calgary has with the North - that move was designed
to ultimately increase our sphere of influence."
"Something that we've been focusing on recently," he continues, "is
the importance of extending our market strength through alliances and signed agreements
with other carriers in the industry. For example, we've just done that with Grimshaw
Trucking and Mullen Transportation. By aligning ourselves with their terminals and
facilities, it opens up opportunities for us to further diversify and strengthen
our market mix."
"We'll utilize aspects of Grimshaw's billing system, for example," Anderson
explains. "We'll be a participating carrier on the Yellowknife lane where they
are strong. We're stronger in the Whitehorse-Inuvik lane, so we'll combine our strengths
for mutual benefit. We're finding that, when possible, clients prefer to deal with
one carrier for the duration of a transportation transaction, so by aligning ourselves
with Grimshaw and others, we're preparing ourselves for the future in that regard."
Anderson goes on to say that Matco is also busy shoring up agreements that it has
with various manufacturers for shipping their products to the North. "We've
recently extended an agreement with Xerox to exclusively transport their products
to the NWT and Yukon," he notes. "To facilitate such agreements, Matco
will not only haul, but also install and set-up that kind of equipment. We're committed
to doing more than just hauling the product there - we'll do what a company like
Xerox would do in any place where it has an outlet."
Matco's commitment to Canada's North
is paying off
In light of the current re-interest in the oil and gas opportunities in Canada's
North, Lloyd and Ray Anderson are excited about how they've positioned Matco to
take advantage of the associated opportunities.
"We've seen both the boom and the bust in the North," Ray grins, "and
we've learned the importance of establishing stability by expanding south where
business is more routine. "In this business, you can't hang your hat on just
one pole, but at the same time you can't be so diversified that you fail to specialize.
Back in the mid-'90s, nobody was looking to the North - they were all talking about
the Orient and southeast Asia. The only people talking about the North were diamond
hunters and most people thought they were crazy."
"Today, we're so happy we didn't abandon the North," Anderson triumphs.
"Fort Liard is hot and things are really starting to roll in gas and oil south
of Inuvik. As the opportunities come along, we can honestly tell people that we've
been here for 40 years through thick and thin. We know the North and the challenges
of transporting goods in and out - we've proven ourselves here and there are a host
of satisfied customers who can attest to that fact."
As seen in the Alberta Report, 2001, by Tim Callaway