Blog & News

Following the March 23 Announcement by Ontario Premier Doug Ford:

Maltacourt Canada Ltd will remain open, operating as an essential business.  We have modified staff working conditions to allow the majority of our employees to work from home, to keep both our staff and customers healthy and safe.  Our staff can all be reached by calling our main switch board and entering an extension number or by waiting for a live operator to patch you through.

We remain a vital link in the supply chain for many other essential services.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Ian Kurt

Chief Financial Officer

As the situation surrounding COVID-19 unfolds, Maltacourt Global Logistics has undertaken precautionary measures.

Maltacourt has developed a Contingency Plan to ensure we offer our customers the same service levels they have enjoyed, as well as keeping our staff safe.  

With immediate effect, we have implemented the following:

• Travel Restrictions – Maltacourt staff will not attend non-client meetings, vendor/supplier meetings, conferences or trade shows. All air travel has been suspended until further notice.
• Facility Visitors – Maltacourt will discontinue all non-client facility visits, until further notice. We encourage our staff to use technology tools available to them to conduct meets as needed.

In addition to these immediate measures, should the need arise, we have prepared a contingency plan to have staff work remotely.  Our offices remain open at this time.  But we will continue to monitor the situation closely.  The situation continues to change rapidly, we will keep our customers informed as things develop.

During these times we continue to encourage everyone to wash their hands frequently, keep social distancing and avoid public areas as much as possible.  Safety of employees, customers, vendors and their families are paramount.  Keep safe.

Maltacourt Global Logistics

Dear Valued Customer,

From CIFFA Bulletin, 2017-08-24

• Pearson Ground Crew Strike Continues after Union Votes 98% against Swissport Contract Offer

The union representing some 700 baggage handlers, cabin cleaners and other ground crew has voted overwhelmingly against a contract offer by Swissport, meaning workers won’t be ending their work stoppage, which has gone on four weeks already.

Teamsters Local 419 says 98 percent of its members voted to reject the deal.

 Members should expect delays at the airport to continue. CIFFA will contact the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) today to express our concerns about the impacts of the strike.

 With information from CBC News.

As report by CIFFA in its Daily Bulletin:

 

In a service update last week to customers, CN advised of recent changes at the Port of Vancouver designed to improve overall service reliability and reduce transit times.

 

Centerm and Vanterm

 

Rail operations

Effective January 2nd, CN now services the waterfront directly and performs all Centerm and Vanterm terminal switching operations for CN customers. Waterfront traffic is now routed through CN’s Thornton Yard instead of the previous routing via CP’s Coquitlam Yard. From the time of the service change, the average rail transit time has been reduced by approximately 24 hours compared with the previous switching/transit plan.

– Centerm: CN is currently spotting and pulling between 6,000 and 8,000′ per day.

– Vanterm: CN is currently spotting and pulling between 11,000 and 12,000′ per day.

– CN reports that it is seeing an improvement in the timely repair of bad order rail equipment no longer going to Coquitlam. Dwell times are significantly reduced.

 

Trucking to support reduced dwell

– To assist with port dwell, CN is currently trucking Western Canada-destined traffic (for Calgary and Edmonton) each day to its Vancouver Intermodal Terminal (VIT) from both terminals.

– Centerm: Commencing last week, to reduce ground counts, DP World is now trucking between 150 and 180 units per day to CN Vancouver Intermodal Terminal.

– Vanterm: GCT is trucking up to 100 units per day to CN’s Vancouver Intermodal Terminal for furtherance to inland destinations

– CN has increased people and equipment around the clock to handle increased truck gate and terminal volumes at VIT.

 

NEW: Use of Additional Rail Capacity at Fraser Surrey Docks (FSD)

 

– CN and FSD have been working together on an operating service plan to add surge capacity to support overall port fluidity with more off-dock trucking.

– CN will commence this week delivering loaded railcars for furtherance via truck to Vanterm, Centerm and Deltaport

– This is a temporary service offering to support the timely evacuation and delivery of pre- and post-Chinese New Year peak volumes.

 

Deltaport

 

– Daily rail operations continue as planned. To supplement overall demand, CN and GCT continue to work closely on a trucking program, with up to 200 trucks per day moving through CN’s Vancouver Intermodal Terminal.

Dear Valued Customer,

 There has been a recent upsurge in container carryings, much of it associated with the Chinese New Year.  As a result, we have begun to experience longer than usual delays at the Vancouver Terminals and with CN and CP Rail. 

Dwell time at the terminals in Vancouver have become a great concern.  They are averaging 5-7 days at the terminal before being loaded onto a rail car.  All ocean carriers and freight forwarders are being equally affected by this spike in volume.  We will do all in our power to keep the containers moving, but you should expect some delays.  If your container has not yet arrived in Vancouver and it is urgent, Express Rail Service (ERS) MAY be an option.  ERS does come at an extra cost though.

 Please discuss with your Maltacourt Import Coordinator.

 We will keep you advised of future changes.

Seasons Greetings to our Customers and our Partners around the World~!!

Maltacourt Canada will be closing at 1700 hrs on Friday December 23^rd and at 1700 hrs on Friday December 30^th.

Our office will be closed on:

December 26^th for Christmas Day

December 27^th for Boxing Day

January 2^nd for New Years Day

We will be operating and fully functional on December 28^th , 29^th, and 30^th.

 

I would like to take this moment on behalf of the Maltacourt Canada family to sincerely thank you for your trust, support, and friendship throughout 2016.

We wish you a Merry Christmas, and all the best in the New Year of 2017.

CN has confirmed that, beginning today, it will switch up to 4,000 ft. daily from Centerm, and continue to truck volume off south shore terminals as needed. This will be in addition to CP’s regularly scheduled switching activity.

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority continues to publish a rail production report daily to keep stakeholders informed. You will note that, beginning with the December 8 report, a “heat map” is included to show daily import rail on-dock footage at a glance. The report can be found here.

from the CIFFA Bulletin (December 9, 2016)

First it was Vanterm and Centerm facing critical delays in terminal operations, due primarily to inefficient rail switching. The cause of these backlogs is not related to rail-equipment availability or long-haul rail issues. This is purely an on-dock switching issue and one that could possibly have been mitigated or avoided by better oversight or transparency among the players. After several weeks, the Inner Harbour terminal switching issues are being addressed, and it is expected that backlogs — which have been averaging more than a week — will be reduced by Christmas.

 Meanwhile, average dwell times at Deltaport have crept up, to between 4 and 5 days from November averages of 2½ to 3½ days, and there are some outlier groups of containers sitting for as many as 8 to 10 days. And so, the third major container terminal joins Vanterm and Centerm with delays. Unlike the Inner Harbour terminals, Deltaport delays are due to factors beyond their control: high winds that have hampered or shut down crane operations, and vessel bunching caused by typhoons at sea.

 Deltaport has advised that it is trucking aggressively and, as of yesterday, is delivering approximately 25,000 to 30,000 feet per day, including trucking to CN VIT / CP VIF to expedite the recovery. As of yesterday, there were:

            –88,000 for CN, with average on-dock dwell of 3.76 days

             -44,000 for CP, with average on-dock dwell of 4.37 days

Visit the Port of Vancouver here and scroll down slightly to read “Container terminal rail performance” under the Rail Metrics heading. To help increase visibility of the intermodal supply chain, the container rail performance update provides a terminal-level summary of the import rail footage on-dock, the estimated planned car supply, and the actual rail car production on a daily basis. The report is updated daily.

 

Regardless of the reasons for the delays and congestion, the impacts are felt by everyone. Importers face delays in receiving their 2016 pre-Christmas merchandise. Combined costs as high as $600 per container for ERS or ETRS service plus gate fees makes expedited service expensive. More trucks are on the road, so emissions and traffic congestion are increased. Vessels are parked at anchor waiting to discharge or load, so exports are also delayed, and already stressed carriers face additional and unanticipated operating expenses. Vessel rotations are affected and knocked off schedule, which will have a carry-on effect as we prepare for an early Chinese New Year at the end of January.

Maltacourt Canada proudly continues to support Doctors Without Borders.  Join us in supporting this tremendously worthy charity!!

 

http://www.msf.ca/