Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (May 29/02) - The Northern Transportation Company Ltd. says it is working on ways to improve its cargo service to Kivalliq residents.

The company held a series of meetings in Rankin Inlet earlier this month to discuss possible moves in that direction. President Clifford Abraham says the meetings focused on attempts to streamline operations with companies NTCL partners with.

NTCL, along with the Hudson's Bay Railroad Co. and Gardewine North, have been delivering cargo into the Kivalliq for a number of years.

Abraham says the companies haven't always worked as closely together in the past as they might have.

"We've started a joint initiative to form working groups to look at ways we can improve our quality, delivery and service levels," says Abraham. "We're also looking at our pricing to see what steps we can take to improve our overall service in the region."

Kivalliq customers often complain about having to deal with different companies to place their barge orders and pay their bills.

Abraham says NTCL wants to create one-stop shopping for its customers, including a single point of contact. He says that would include streamlined billing to make the company's system easier for customers to use.

"We did talk about some baby steps we can implement this year towards that goal. Hopefully, by 2003, we'll be able to work up a more comprehensive and sophisticated system that will work better across the board."

Abraham says Gardewine North is also looking at changing its consolidation points for some shipments. It's a move, he says, that would eventually lead to NTCL being able to move goods faster and cut some system costs.

"I want to point out that we are strictly land-and-sea transport.

"Although Canadian North Airlines is owned by the same group as NTCL, the group that met in Rankin earlier this month isn't dealing with any air components."