Transportation Services
Metro Vancouver Transportation
Access the world through Metro Vancouver. Canadian Alliance exists to alleviate logistical stress in the transport of consumer goods in the lower mainland and across the globe. Whether through Air, Ocean, Ground or Intermodal, let us help get your product to market today.
Trustworthy Transportation
Moving product to market with speed is often a delicate task. Over the last two decades, Canadian Alliance has developed efficient, safe, and competitive systems to make transporting product hassle-free for our customers. From Freight Forwarding, to Full Truckload (FTL), or Less than Truckload (LTL), to Last Mile Delivery or Customer Deliveries, Canadian Alliance offers a full slate of high quality services to complement any logistics plan.
Our services include:
- Transportation (raw materials to finished products)
- Overseas or Local Freight
- Commercial and Residential Deliveries
- Air, Ocean, Ground & Intermodal
- Dry Van, Flatbed, Step Deck, 40′ Containers and More
- EDI Monitoring & Reporting
- Freight Forwarding
- Freight Consolidation
- Load Optimization
- POD Management Services
Customer Focused Logistics
From prototyping to last mile delivery, the product supply chain can be fraught with complications. Canadian Alliance values a tech-driven approach in designing collaborative, customer-focused flows to move your product to market with speed. This strategy allows Canadian Alliance to minimize downtime in the transportation supply chain, enabling customers to reach market quickly and ultimately sell more product.
The services we offer include:
- EDI Interface to Customers’ Systems
- Inbound & Outbound Transportation Management
- Order Management, Kitting or Light Assembly
- Pallet Management
- Reverse Logistics
- RF Technology & Bar Coding
- Shrink Wrapping
- Transloading
- Reverse Logistics
- Cross Docking
- Customs Clearance
Transportation By Design
World Class Transportation Logistics
Canadian Alliance Terminals Inc., established in 1999, is a third party logistics management company with one goal: to help our customers reach their goals quickly and efficiently. Whether a client is a seasoned manufacturer looking to expand to a national market or a new producer taking their product to market for the first time, the Canadian Alliance team is equipped to provide unparalleled service to build your logistics plan.
Transportation Expertise
Canadian Alliance is proud to operate as an expert player in the competitive and challenging industry of third party logistics. It’s our pleasure to introduce new customers to the value of third party logistics and to demonstrate how outsourcing transportation coordination to our expert team can save manufacturers time and money en route to market. With the expansion of our warehousing facilities in recent years and our investment in high-tech inventory management systems, Canadian Alliance is able to offer a lengthy roster of services at competitive prices with a range of flexible contracts.
So, what role do third party logistics service providers play in the transportation industry? The answer is simple. In the past, manufacturers often owned their own modes of transportation. Company owned tractor trailers would deliver product to company owned ocean containers and the product would, eventually, arrive at market. But in a globalized economy, it is simply too costly for individual manufacturers to own the extensive infrastructure required to reach a global customer base. That’s where Canadian Alliance comes in as a third party logistics service provider.
We make warehouse space and transportation available to manufacturers looking to scale their output. Offering services from cross docking inventory to building out intermodal transportation plans, Canadian Alliance plies their logistics expertise so our customers can maintain their focus on manufacturing goods for sale.
Challenges Facing Transportation
As Canadian Alliance Transportation Manager Alicia Xu knows, coordinating transportation that prioritizes cost and efficiency is always challenging. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the task has become even more difficult.
“There are a series of serious obstacles facing the transportation industry,” says Xu. “Canadian Alliance is equipped to manage these challenges but for independent manufacturers, the task can be monumental.”
“Among these challenges, the most concerning are the ongoing container shortages, sea freight prices, and growing port congestion,” says Xu.
When the initial weight of the pandemic echoed through global supply chains in 2020, intense demand surges forced the prices of sea containers and freight passage up to record highs. With some carriers, the cost of moving freight between North America and Asia Pacific tripled, even quadrupled in price.
What’s more, even with exorbitant prices in place, there’s a shortage of containers for both land and ocean transportation. “We’re seeing an average wait time of over two years for new containers,” says Xu. For companies seeking to purchase their own containers, this timeline essentially rules this solution out in the medium term. “We’re pleased to be able to assist our customers in moving product in this extremely challenging climate,” says Xu. “It’s not a simple task.”
North American ports are also facing record levels of congestion. For the team at Canadian Alliance, based in Richmond, BC, a short trip to Vancouver’s English Bay quickly reveals a miles-long backlog of vessels waiting to reach the port. “On average, these vessels might wait a week or two before reaching port,” says Xu. “In the last few months, that wait time has doubled.”
This congestion is partially due to an increase in consumer demand, as well as the reduced labour capacity imposed by the social distancing, and surging imports of personal protective equipment required to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. As more consumers place orders online, more manufacturers are shipping smaller orders more frequently but there are fewer employees on the floor to distribute those orders. This tension creates a backlog that only contributes to the increase in freight pricing and the container shortage.
“Our customers trust us to find ways to work around these obstacles,” says Xu. “We’re able to combine a whole portfolio of tools and processes to design efficient and cost-effective transportation plans to help our customers reach and grow their consumer base.”
Canadian Alliance Transportation Services
Many of our customers know Canadian Alliance primarily as a warehouse and distribution specialty provider. This makes sense; our recent expansion to new warehouse facilities makes our inventory management capabilities state of the art. But Canadian Alliance is also pleased to offer robust transportation and logistics services designed to negotiate the very competitive logistics landscape in the lower mainland for you. Whether you’re looking for Freight Forwarding, Full Truckload (FTL), Less than Truckload (LTL), Last Mile Delivery or Customer Deliveries, we can coordinate a range of services to optimize your logistics plan.
Canadian Alliance also offers Freight Consolidation, Transloading, Intermodal Transportation, EDI Transportation, and Reverse Logistics from the final destination of a product to assist in capturing latent value or facilitating proper disposal. Canadian Alliance is equipped to shepherd your goods through a challenging logistics landscape.
Let’s get your product to market.
