The 2019 Surface Transportation Summit took place last week at the International Centre in Toronto. The event was co-hosted by Newcom Inc. and Dan Goodwill and Associates, in partnership with the Ontario Trucking Association, the Freight Management Association of Canada and the CSCMP Toronto Roundtable.   Hundreds of shippers and carriers attended the event to learn from the various presentations and panel discussions and to network with other industry professionals.

Josh Nye, Senior Economist, Royal Bank of Canada, kicked off the day by sharing that the global economy has lost momentum, particularly in the industrial sector. Canadian manufacturing has not declined as fast in the United States. Protectionist trade policies are having an impact and are having a downside risk on the outlook. The yield curve is pointing to a heightened risk of recession in the next year or two. At this point RBC expects slower growth, but not a recession.

To maintain economic growth, the banks have shifted to easing monetary policy. The transport sector has slowed alongside industrial production; confidence has declined recently. A strong labour market has supported income growth and given consumer spending a slight boost. Similarly, business sentiment has taken a hit; firms are still planning to invest but capexes will take a hit. Non-energy exports have lost momentum.

David Ross, Managing Director, Global Transportation & Logistics, Stifel Financial Corp. spoke about the “mini freight recession” in the United States this year. He highlighted that the ISM (Institute for Supply Management) Manufacturing Index has dipped below 50, signaling a contraction in production. Strong employment and consumer sentiment have boosted retail shipping. We will need to monitor this index to see if this signals a downturn in the economy.

The 2019 Surface Transportation Summit will take place at the International Centre in Toronto on October 16. Canada’s leading freight conference will try to make sense of the roller coaster that Canadian shippers and carriers have experienced over the past couple of years.

Josh Nye, Senior Economist, Royal Bank of Canada, will kick off the conference with his assessment of the current state of the Canadian and U.S. economies and share his insights on where they are headed in 2020. Two other panelists, David Ross, Managing Director, Global Transportation & Logistics, Stifel Financial Corp. and Stephen Laskowski, President, Canadian Trucking Alliance & Ontario Trucking Association, will provide their outlook on the state of the freight transportation industry in the U.S. and Canada. Following these presentations, Scott Tilley, President, Tandet Group and Anna Petrova, Supply Chain Director, Canada, Conagra Brands, representatives of a leading shipper and trucking organization, will share their perspectives on where the industry is going.

The next panel will include business leaders from five segments of the Canadian freight industry: small parcel and last mile delivery, LTL and truckload transportation, shipping by rail, fleet equipment leasing and real estate. Lucas Murua, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing, Dicom Transportation Group, Doug Munro, President and owner, M-O Freightworks, Al Boughton, Co-Founder, Trailcon Leasing, Tim Roulston, Director of Sales and Truckload Operations, Intermodal, CN Rail and Mark Cascagnette, President, Managing Partner, Lee & Associates, Toronto will share their thoughts on where their segment of the industry is going.

The always popular Shipper / Carrier Roundtable will feature Taimy Cruz, Director of Logistics, Broadgrain Commodities, Sylvie Messier, Corporate Transportation and Customs Manager, Ipex, Rob Nichols, Managing Director of Domestic Intermodal, CP Rail, Norm Sneyd, Vice President, Business Development, Bison Transport, Imtiaz Kermali, Vice President, eShipper and Joe Lombardo, Director or Freight, Transportation and Logistics, Purolator who will debate some of the most important issues facing transportation professionals in the Canadian freight industry.

The Surface Transportation Summit celebrated its 10th anniversary at the International Centre on October 10. The event addressed the profound changes that have taken hold of the Transportation industry in 2018 and where they will likely lead us in 2019.

Paul Ferley, Assistant Chief Economist, Royal Bank of Canada, kicked off the day by highlighting that the US economy is operating beyond capacity. The U.S. is stimulating an already hot economy with tax cuts and low interest rates. As we look ahead to 2019, he noted that the level of future growth will depend on the actions of economic policy-makers.

Rising oil prices, still accommodative monetary policy and strong U.S. growth have moved the Canadian economy to capacity. The new USMCA (formerly NAFTA) trade agreement has created stability although with tariffs on steel and aluminum, and a president who can act erratically, this could change at any time.

The U.S. Federal Reserve’s objectives will likely be to try to moderate the level of activity. The concern is that President will try to boost an economy that is already over capacity. In Canada, a low dollar coupled with rising oil prices and ongoing increases in interest rates by the Government of Canada are expected to moderate growth.

Ten years ago, my colleagues at Newcom Business Media and Dan Goodwill & Associates set out to create a high quality educational and networking event for Transportation Professionals and Decision-Makers. From humble beginnings, the conference has evolved into Canada’s premier event in the Surface Transportation Industry. The Surface Transportation Summit now attracts hundreds of Logistics executives, Transportation Industry owners and leaders, vendors to this industry, government officials, consultants, educators, and students.

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Summit, the organizers, in partnership with the Freight Management Association of Canada, the Canadian Trucking Alliance and the CSCMP Toronto Roundtable have created an agenda that encompasses the most important issues of the day and assembled an elite group of moderators and panelists to address these topics. As always, the conference will begin with a discussion of the top forces that have shaped the economies and the freight industry in Canada and the United States in 2018 and will power it in 2019. Paul Ferley, Assistant Chief Economist, Royal Bank of Canada, will provide an overview of the direction of the Canadian economy. He will be followed by Walter Spracklin, Managing Director, RBC Capital Markets and David Ross, Research Managing Director, Stifel Financial Corp who will discuss the trucking and rail industries in Canada and the United States. This will be followed by a moderator led discussion with Paul Roach, President & CEO, Belmont Meat Products and Scott Smith, President, JD Smith & Sons who will share their insights on the economic projections for 2019.

The will be followed by an inside look at New Freight Transportation Technologies for Manufacturers, Distributors, and Retailers. In brief interviews, Brian Hodgson, VP, Transportation Strategy, Descartes Systems will provide some thoughts on Shipment Visibility, Dave Brajkovich, Chief Technology Officer, Polaris Transportation Group, and Iliana Oris Valiente, Managing Director, Accenture | Founder at ColliderX Blockchain R&D Hub, will discuss the Blockchain movement, Martin Abadi, Counsel, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP will provide his insights on Connected Trucks and Charles Fallon, Principal, Supply Chain Intelligence will talk about Warehouse Automation.

The Shipper-Carrier Roundtable has always been a popular track. This year Dan Einwechter, Chairman and CEO, Challenger Group of Companies, Tracy Raimondo, Vice President, Logistics, Normandin Transit, John Ferguson, President, Purolator, Andrew Fuller, Assistant Vice President, Domestic Intermodal, CN Rail, Geoffrey Joseph, President & CEO, Joseph Haulage Canada, Martin Pede, Manager Zinc Sales, Hudson Bay Mining and Fiona Renzi-Fantin, VP, Supply Chain, Maple Leaf Foods will debate some of the hot issues facing shippers and carriers in 2018.

Donald Trump. Robotics. Omni-Channel Fulfillment. The New NAFTA. Freight Marketplaces. Autonomous Vehicles. The Internet of Things. Andrew Scheer. Brexit. Climate Change. Last-Mile Delivery. Legalized Marijuana. E-commerce. Emmanuel Macron. The Amazon Effect. Drones. Digital Freight Management. Uber. Clean Energy. This is just a partial list of the major forces shaping the world of Freight Transportation in 2017.

This year's Surface Transportation Summit (www.surfacetransportationsummit.com) will focus on the strategies and tactics that shippers and carriers can employ to address these forces. The event will take place at the International Centre in Toronto on October 11. This is a joint venture between Newcom Business Media and Dan Goodwill & Associates with the support of the Freight Management Association of Canada and the Canadian Trucking Alliance. Northbridge Insurance will be the Gold sponsor, with Navistar, Volvo Trucks and Isaac Instruments, the silver sponsors and Trailer Wizards, the bronze sponsor.

In a year when political and economic alliances, new technologies and environmental policies are changing rapidly, the Summit will provide strategies and tactics to address these forces.  Here is an overview of the agenda and speakers.

The first track is entitled, The Donald Trump Effect and The Economy in 2018: What trends will impact your business? Carlos Gomes, Senior Economist with Scotiabank, will share data on the Key Economic Indicators for 2017 and then provide his insights into the economy in the New Year. John Larkin, one of America’s foremost transportation industry analysts, will share his thoughts on the some of the most important developments in the US transportation industry. Walter Spracklin, Equity Transportation Analyst, RBC Capital Markets, will provide his insights on the Canadian transportation industry.  Sylvie Messier, Corporate Transportation & Customs Manager, IPEX and Doug Munro, President and Owner, Maritime-Ontario Freight Lines Limited will share their thoughts on this topic in a panel discussion.