World Grain - March 2012 - 34

FEATURE: CANADA’S LOGISTICAL CHALLENGES

origination including tactics and strategies in order to maximize both customer and farmer service while minimizing supply chain expenditures of the CWB. The Quality Control and Inventory Management section of the department is responsible for the CWB’s quality control and inventory management tactics and strategies in order to maximize both customer and farmer service while minimizing supply chain expenditures of the CWB.” This is clearly no small task. However, in preparation for the changeover from a transportation system driven by a single desk monopoly to a system driven primarily by farmers and three major grain companies — Viterra, Cargill Canada and Richardson Pioneer — the Harper Government has established a Crop Logistics Working Group involving major players in the transportation system, including representatives from crop sectors, such as Western Canadian canola,

lentil and pea growers, that do not come under the control of the CWB. However, the group does not include railways, truckers or steamship lines that are critical links in the logistics chain. In announcing the establishment of the working group, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said: “The Working Group will be a forum for the agriculture value chain to consider the performance of the supply chain for all crops and to exchange views and information on issues arising from the transition to marketing freedom. The facilitation process will bring together shippers, railways and other stakeholders to develop a template service agreement and a streamlined commercial dispute resolution process.” As well, the Working Group will “allow agriculture stakeholders to exchange views about issues and support of the (government’s) Transport Canada facilitation process ﬂowing from the

Rail Freight Service Review.” In the freight service review, the government panel recommended that both major railways adopt a more “customercentric behavior.” However, the panel also recognized that communication between the railways and customers is now more frequent and that “there is a renewed willingness to cooperate, and that rail service is improving in some sectors.” Nevertheless, the panel recommended that facilitators be appointed by Transport Canada to “help stakeholders negotiate some of the details of the commercial approach,” and said the railways should improve their reporting to stakeholders. In conclusion, the report recommends that the upcoming 2015 statutory review of the Canada Transportation Act “include an assessment of the effectiveness of the rail service framework and an evaluation of whether there have been unintended consequences …” In fact, both of Canada’s railways have taken proactive steps in the past year or two to reach agreements with ports and industry customers to improve communications, customer relations and performance. CP Rail has entered into Service Level Agreements with most of its customers, including major ports and terminals that will improve the railway’s productivity, reliability and efﬁciency. Likewise, CN Rail has entered into similar agreements across Canada and the U.S. Claude Mongeau, president and CEO of CN, told the Southeast Freight Conference in Memphis last fall that CN “is taking its Precision Railroading model to the next level, delivering on an agenda of operational and service excellence anchored on supply chain collaboration to improve end-to-end service for our customers.” What the railways have objected to in the government’s Freight Service Review report is the suggestion that government-appointed facilitators are necessary to ensure they are, in fact, improving service to grain producers. While the legislation removing the
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World Grain - March 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of World Grain - March 2012
