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Canadian Flyer

Canadian Flyer

They Call Me CF, Eh
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This is the only place this really has any business going, being related to TFI International truckload carriers.

Highland Transport's Van Division and Roadfast Transportation (formerly TNT Roadfast, operator of both McArthur Express and Concord Transportation OTR lanes) merged very quietly a few months back under the banner of Transport TFI 3 SEC, the holding company for Highland Transport. Operations relocated to Vitran Express in Concord, office relocated to Roadfast in Mississauga. Highland Transport's Intermodal Division has recently relocated to the P&W Intermodal/MTMX Logistics yard at CP Obico in Etobicoke.

Two weeks ago Highland closed the maintenance shop in Concord, which appears to have been returned to Vitran. The following Friday we were informed that Van Division/Roadfast will be merging into Laidlaw Carriers Van of Guelph between now and June 28th. Laidlaw has also absorbed TST Truckload Express and Trans4 Dedicated Logistics since parent company Contrans was bought by TFI.
 
Canadian Flyer said:
This is the only place this really has any business going, being related to TFI International truckload carriers.

Highland Transport's Van Division and Roadfast Transportation (formerly TNT Roadfast, operator of both McArthur Express and Concord Transportation OTR lanes) merged very quietly a few months back under the banner of Transport TFI 3 SEC, the holding company for Highland Transport. Operations relocated to Vitran Express in Concord, office relocated to Roadfast in Mississauga. Highland Transport's Intermodal Division has recently relocated to the P&W Intermodal/MTMX Logistics yard at CP Obico in Etobicoke.
Two weeks ago Highland closed the maintenance shop in Concord, which appears to have been returned to Vitran. The following Friday we were informed that Van Division/Roadfast will be merging into Laidlaw Carriers Van of Guelph between now and June 28th. Laidlaw has also absorbed TST Truckload Express and Trans4 Dedicated Logistics since parent company Contrans was bought by TFI.
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Canadian carriers have been on a spending spree. Day Ross buys A&S Kinard from Celadon, Then Bison buy Celadon’s intermodal business. Then a specialized carrier bought a another specialized carrier in Texas. Looks like they are trying to keep up with TFI.
 
ltltrkr said:
Do you think TFI will buy into the US LTL market ? It would make sense to keep growing
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I think it's a very distinct possibility. Certainly they do not even fear a company that has bankrupted itself as they're not afraid of reorganization, and they aren't afraid of the unions either. Anyone willing to sell for a good price, especially if they have a property portfolio, is fair game to TFI.
 
Update: Roadfast Transportation is officially (and very silently) dead. QuikX Transportation has removed almost all links regarding Roadfast from their webpage, though the links can still be manually accessed. Highland's webpage has not been updated to reflect any changes made since the office and Van Division moved out of Markham and I suspect it probably won't be until we're sucked into Laidlaw.
 
Canadian Flyer said:
Signing on with Halifax-based Clarke Road Transport. Only thing we get to bring with us, as noted in the article, is our benefits. We are otherwise being treated as new hires; no seniority. It sucks, but at least the compensation package is close.
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Sad to see this happen. Drivers seem to get screwed on both sides of the border. Best of luck with the new job.
 
One more update for this thread. Highland Transport will be shut down effective tomorrow, as mentioned above. However, Roadfast Transportation got the lucky strike and have been merged with Laidlaw Carriers Van. New plates, unit numbers and DOT numbers alongside an "Operated by Laidlaw Carriers Van" sticker.

What this tells me (which would never be admitted in public) is that Highland was shut down because we were unionized. Highland owner/operators were represented by the United Steelworkers Local 1976 and had been working under a contract extension since December 31, 2017 when the first contract proposal was turned down. We were not given another offer to vote on at any time after that date, though we were assured that Highland was still negotiating in good faith.

TFI International claims that Highland is being closed due to financial underperformance. An absolute lie as all of our contract customers were valuable and the company was operating with minimal staff and old (but well-maintained, shout out to Rob Turner and the shop guys who were the first casualties) equipment run on a relatively minimal budget. The only justification for this statement is that we Highland operators wouldn't accept the lower rates paid to the nonunion Roadfast operators.

In a year where TFI has set record profits despite a softening market, Roadfast operators were rewarded with a $0.10/mi raise by their merger with Laidlaw. Highland operators lost their union, their jobs, their seniority and were forced to accept a lower (equal at best) base rate than they were already getting.

I enjoyed working at Highland Transport and I wish well to all the people there that were displaced. The company history dates back to 1967, born from Smith Transport spinning off its truckload license. Both companies were a part of CP Trucks alongside CP Express, CP Transport and Canpar Courier. Smith Transport itself was the largest part of the company, covering Quebec and Ontario prior to the CP purchase. Smith was amalgamated with Express and Transport to create CP Express & Transport. CPET, Highland and Canpar worked together until deregulation caused CP to break up and sell off the Trucks division. Highland and Canpar went through a few hands, sharing ownership by accident once prior to both being purchased independently by TFI.

CPET went on to be bought out by the employees when nobody was interested in buying the company. Management and the union rebranded the company Interlink Freight System and fought hard to right what had been a money losing operation. The loss of most of Roadway's regional business when Central Freight Lines was sold and both Coles and Spartan Express were closed crippled Interlink, and on top of some old habits dying hard (stories abound of threats to dock workers who did more than the minimum) the company found itself declaring financial insolvency just three years later.

With the closing of Highland, all that remains of the former CP Trucks is Canpar Courier. Given how closely they're tied to the mostly nonunion Loomis Express (formerly DHL Canada) and what's happened to Highland, I can only hope they don't come to the same fate.
 
What will probably be the final update to this thread now that the dust has settled.

Highland Transport Intermodal Division took over, and was absorbed by, P&W Intermodal. I know this because P&W Intermodal's trucks are being relabeled "Operated by Transport TFI 3 SEC". Highland Intermodal continues to operate, but is effectively dormant as it consists solely of holdovers and doesn't officially exist. The only remaining office staff are the Intermodal Division GM, who is now Operations Manager, and one or two dispatchers. What's left of Highland is pretty much a zombie, still shambling on despite being dead.
 
i see TST Overland and Canadian Freightways have merged operations recently. The companies will now be known as TST-CF Express. Article i read said TST purchased CF. I found that interesting because i thought both were owned by TFI. I would of liked to see the CF name stay alive. I think it would better represent the National brand of the combined units.
 
Yep. What it sounds like they're doing is simply rolling the two entities together, effective tomorrow they will be a seamless operation. Both carriers are owned by TFI, but TFI is a very weird organization. TST is largely independent. They "purchased" Kingsway Transport, the former eastern partner to CF, a year and a half or so ago.

What I suspect will happen at the local level is that TST will be the eastern presence and CF will be the western presence. TST's western operations have been piggybacking off of CF in most locations for years anyway and they've never developed the brand recognition of CF out there. I'm curious who Averitt is going to replace CF with... they've been partners since Consolidated closed.

Clarke Road Transport is going to become a division of Laidlaw Carriers Van in the upcoming month, and I have a funny feeling that there's gonna be yet another name on my door by the time the dust settles on that. Every carrier that's become "a division of Laidlaw Carriers Van" thus far has been absorbed into the Laidlaw brand eventually.
 
Checking Pitt-Ohio's webpage suggests they've been aware of this for a while now. They list Rosenau Transport as their link to the west, Polaris Transportation as their link to Ontario and Groupe Robert as their eastern link. That's a change from just CF and Robert after TST swallowed Kingsway.
 
Canadian Flyer said:
Checking Pitt-Ohio's webpage suggests they've been aware of this for a while now. They list Rosenau Transport as their link to the west, Polaris Transportation as their link to Ontario and Groupe Robert as their eastern link. That's a change from just CF and Robert after TST swallowed Kingsway.
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Has the Kingsway name been retired and blended into TST ? I actually worked years ago for TST Overland at their St Catharines ON terminal which i found out has recently closed in the past year or two.
 
cityman said:
Has the Kingsway name been retired and blended into TST ? I actually worked years ago for TST Overland at their St Catharines ON terminal which i found out has recently closed in the past year or two.
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Kingsway was merged into TST approximately a year and a half ago, yeah. The Kingsway name still appears on trailers and some errant tractors, but all drivers work for TST. QuikX took their place at Interport and at St. Laurent. I park my truck at the Oshawa terminal and Kingsway remains on the sign, but Canpar runs a sort in the empty half of the terminal now.

I hadn't heard that St. Catharines closed. Overland built that place didn't they?
 
Canadian Flyer said:
Kingsway was merged into TST approximately a year and a half ago, yeah. The Kingsway name still appears on trailers and some errant tractors, but all drivers work for TST. QuikX took their place at Interport and at St. Laurent. I park my truck at the Oshawa terminal and Kingsway remains on the sign, but Canpar runs a sort in the empty half of the terminal now.

I hadn't heard that St. Catharines closed. Overland built that place didn't they?
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All companies are reviewing what their operations are now. Even if companies are doing well this was a wake up call to make sure you stay that way. Trucking companies have been closing down b/4 the virus from insurance costs and more with virus now. This could be a record year trucking closures or being bought out and merged in.
 
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