Start to finish freight service
Det'on Cho Logistics pitches 'one-stop solution' by establishing Vancouver office
Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Monday, February 3, 2014
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Det'on Cho Logistics president Matt Mossman announced the opening of the new office, the company's first outside the North, while attending the Association for Mineral Exploration B.C.'s Mineral Exploration Roundup 2014 trade show last week.
Kirk Sangris scans freight at Det'on Cho Logistics' warehouse at the Yellowknife Airport. The company is extending its reach with a new office in Vancouver. - photo courtesy of Det'on Cho Logistics |
Staffed by Adam Wickstead, a freight-forwarding specialist who has worked in the industry for 25 years, the Vancouver office is designed to provide international and domestic service solutions to clients working in the North, said Mossman.
"We can do air freight or trucking freight in North America, or we can do marine freight from the other side of the world," he said. "We're trying to provide our clients with that one-stop solution for logistics and transportation."
Wickstead brings a large network of southern partners for the company to work with, said Mossman. Many of the company's clients are based in the Vancouver area, as well, he added.
"We have additional resources," said Mossman. "It expands our reach. We now have people that can go visit Adam or set up meetings that are in the Vancouver area and that do business in the North. And we're only a phone call away for people in the North who need to utilize our services.
"They can call our Yellowknife office or our Vancouver office to do freight forwarding, as well."
Established in 2009, Det'on Cho Logistics is a subsidiary of Det'on Cho Corporation, the economic development arm of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. The company specializes in expediting and logistics, freight forwarding and consolidation, and air cargo handling.
The company receives freight for clients, manifests it, inventories it and loads it onto trucks or planes to dispatch it to its sites.
For the past year, the company has had a contract with Shell to serve its aviation bulk plant, which includes aircraft refuelling, expediting and freight consolidation.
The bulk of the freight shipped by Det'on Cho Logistics is equipment parts and construction materials for projects related to the Northern resource development industry.
The company employs 19 people in Yellowknife, including three new staff members hired last month, according to Mossman. Wickstead will be the sole Vancouver-based staff member for the time being, he added.
The company owns more than 2,700 square metres of heated warehouse space on a little more than a hectare at the Yellowknife Airport, as well as a fleet of trucks and loaders. The company will leverage warehouse space as needed from Vancouver-based partners, Mossman said.
"We're waiting for the first phone call to get things moving," he said.
