Economic Development
CargoM UNITES STAKEHOLDERS AROUND COMMON GOALS Cluster promotes Greater Montreal region as trade logistics hub BY BRENT FREDERICK
Sylvie Vachon, Chair of CargoM
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magine an industry where stakeholders – partners and competitors alike – unite around common objectives and take action to benefit the sector as a whole. For the logistics and freight transportation industry in the Greater Montreal region, this collaborative effort has taken shape in the form of CargoM, the Logistics and Transportation Metropolitan Cluster of Montreal. Its members have come together to promote the region as a trade logistics hub. The logistics and transportation industry in the Greater Montreal region represents 122,000 direct and skilled jobs and 6,300 facilities that handle some 142 million tonnes of goods via all types of transportation each year and generates more than $4.3 billion in economic benefits for the greater metropolitan area. Launched in 2013, CargoM now has close to 50 members in the areas of maritime transport and terminals, rail transport, road transport and thirdparty logistics, administrations and shared infrastructures, committees 38
and associations, and educational and research institutions. Its long-term vision is to establish Greater Montreal as a leading intermodal hub that is sought out for its operational and environmental performance and that contributes to the competitiveness of its business partners and the economic development of Greater Montreal and Quebec. One of the driving forces behind the creation of CargoM was the Port of Montreal and its President and CEO, Sylvie Vachon. Montreal is Canada’s second largest port after Vancouver and the leading Canadian container gateway on the East Coast, handling some 1.5 million TEUs annually. “In just three short years, CargoM has succeeded in mobilizing the key players in the freight transportation and logistics sector,” said Vachon, who has served as Chair of CargoM since its inception. “By facilitating interactions among members and exploiting their existing synergies, we are maximizing the region as a freight transportation hub and working to boost productivity, competitiveness and innovation within the industry. “As a group, we will continue to address priority issues to improve accessibility and traffic fluidity in Greater Montreal, raise the international profile of the hub, preserve and enhance its place in the logistics chain, and encourage networking among the industry.” “It is no secret that there is competition among the various modes of transport and within the modes themselves,” says Mathieu Charbonneau, Executive Director of CargoM. “One of our biggest challenges was to bring everyone to
the same table. The collaborative spirit that we have created, having everyone understand the concept of the cluster and that the spinoffs they derive from it will benefit everyone in the long run, has been one our greatest successes.” With a staff of only four, CargoM relies heavily on its working groups, which, for greater impact, have been streamlined to four from six. They cover: 1. Logistics and transport development opportunities; 2. Communication and outreach; 3. Innovation and fluidity; and 4. Human resources. Headed by leading industry executives, these groups are committed to initiating projects, applying and sharing industry best practices and technologies, positioning Montreal as a hub for freight transport, and promoting the attraction and retention of labour in the various sectors of the industry.
Initiatives improving fluidity to the Montreal region Charbonneau says CargoM already has been able to deliver tools to improve fluidity in the region. Among projects in 2016, it: • Purchased 100 electronic devices that collect data from trucks to identify bottlenecks and areas of recurring traffic congestion in order to recommend solutions to improve flow; • Implemented its web-based information sharing system – intermodal logistics, which provides a better understanding of the volume of containers that truckers move in and out of cargo terminals.