Lloyd Lovett, chief executive officer of Transit King City/Northway, stands beside the designated area for regulated Oak logs at the firm’s Alliston, Ontario, facility.
Alliston, Ontario—Michel Bérard, president of Transit King City/Northway Forwarding Ltd., and Lloyd Lovett, chief executive officer, are appreciative of their customers’ continued support, which they both credit to the company’s success over the past 25 years. That support has helped the company grow to a point where a move to a larger location was needed to keep providing customers with the highest quality services.
“In November, we relocated to Alliston, Ontario, after 25 years at our facility in King City,” Lovett said. “Our move was prompted by the growing demands of our customers for greater capacity. We are proud to announce our move to a larger 25-acre facility, 45 kilometers north of Toronto.”
Transit King City/Northway Forwarding Ltd. is a “One-Stop Transportation Center” specializing in the shipping of hardwood lumber and logs. It is both a domestic and international freight forwarding company.
“We have built a solid and most enviable reputation by offering exporters and importers timely, reliable and very competitive
The company broke ground at the Alliston location in August 2005.
services, covering all aspects of land and sea transportation through the world,” Bérard said.
This new location is central to all major rail heads. Since Toronto is the major container import hub for Canada and parts of the United States, export containers are available to King City at competitive pricing.
With this move, the firm has also acquired a “new” import license for the re-export of regulated Oak logs. This allows the movement of Oak logs from the regulated United States, Michigan and Pennsylvania, without impediments at border crossing for re-export. A quality manual has been created, which includes all of King City’s procedures for handling regulated Oak logs.
“Our yard has been set up with a designated storage area, and designated unload and loading areas for the regulated logs,” Bérard explained. “We are very proud of the effort our team put forth in obtaining this permit.”
King City’s new facility enables the company to fumigate containers in a prompt and efficient manner. In November 2005, Lovett said they could fumigate 15 containers per week, but in the winter months, it became clear that there was a greater need for fumigation, which prompted them to build two new buildings in June of this year, increasing the fu
The docks were excavated for loading kiln-dried lumber.
migation capacity from 15 to 40 containers weekly.
“These two buildings, which are temperature controlled, have been designed strictly for fumigation and have been built with sufficient distance between them to allow fumigation in one and prepare the other building with containers for fumigation, simultaneously. This means that there is a continuous, uninterrupted flow of fumigation,” Lovett said. “We maintain a close working relationship with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Ministry of Environment (MOE), keeping us current with rules and requirements for fumigating. Our new facility satisfies these regulations.”
In addition, the new facility has an 80-foot covered weight scale for all containers loaded in Alliston. This allows King City to load 57,000 pounds—or 26,000 kilos—per container, to maximize container shipments without overloading.
“It is very costly to exceed container capacity on any ocean freight containers,” Lovett explained. “Many people do not realize that if a container exceeds its maximum tare weight, the cargo and liability insurance would be null and void.”
Today’s need is to load different species in a container, which makes it difficult to calculate a correct weight. H
The temperature-controlled fumigation area has a capacity of 15 containers weekly.
owever, the new scale at the Alliston operation allows the company to perform this service in a more reliable and efficient fashion. Also, due to cutbacks on logs that are not always written or specified on the customers’ tally sheets, it is imperative that all containers of logs be weighed to ensure legal loads.
“We have loaded containers of Red Oak from 4,000 board feet to 5,200 board feet in a container, and with Cherry logs, 4,800 to 6,300 board feet,” Lovett said.
“Due to this range, Lovett continued, it is important to ensure that each container leaves the company’s yard with the maximum weight and board footage. The new scale guarantees that happens.”
Transit King City/Northway Forwarding Ltd. offers a full range of transportation services, such as: new importer license; competitive rates; personalized service with a staff of 130 years of combined experience; complete documentation including letters of credit, drafts, etc.; internet B/L release; movements to suit customers’ needs; terminal facilities in Montreal and Toronto; container stuffing lumber and logs; phytosanitary inspections and certificates; and fumigation service to China, Taiwan and Europe.
“We cover the globe, providing first rate service to our ever-expanding client base,” Lovett said. “We
The covered weight scale is 80 feet long, has a capacity of 190,000 pounds and provides a digital printout.
expect that the ever-increasing volume of trade and globalization of markets will surely be even more challenging in the future. We are fully prepared to meet that challenge and continue to provide the best services possible to our clientele.”
Transit King City/Northway Forwarding Ltd. is a member of the National Hardwood Lumber Assoc., the Indiana Hardwood Lumber Assoc., the Penn-York Lumbermen’s Club and the Canadian Lumbermen’s Assoc.
The new fumigation buildings were built to meet an increasing demand, and have a capacity of 25 containers weekly.
This loading area for lumber and logs is 6,000 square feet.
This 30,000-square-foot building is equipped with an outdoor loading dock, has a 10-container capacity and has four inside loading docks.
