The Story of Andy Transport
20 Years of Excellence in Transportation Services: The Story of Andy Transport
As Andy Transport celebrates its twentieth anniversary, its story of success is bolstered by grit, determination and unrelenting dedication to people, processes and technology that built one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada.
Andy Transport Inc. is a preeminent transportation company operating throughout North America. Based in Montreal, Quebec, the company has a fleet of over 400 trucks, more than 800 trailers and about 90 support personnel located throughout North America and Europe. This year, Andreea Crisan, the company’s new president and CEO, prior the EVP and COO at Andy, will lead the company into its twentieth year with a bold vision for the future.
No description of Andy Transport, however, would be complete without knowing the story of its journey, beginning with hardscrabble origins and a fascinating sequence of events that led to its present-day success as a formidable global transportation company serving North America and beyond.
Humble Beginnings
The company was founded by Ilie Crisan, who grew up in Romania under the leadership of the communist party of Nicolae Ceausescu. After the 1989 revolution, Romania began to transition to democracy and a market economy, a transition that, without Ilie’s knowledge, will lead to the foundation of Andy Transport.
After the opening of the Romanian borders, Ilie traveled around Europe and took several jobs in the transportation industry. In 2001, he immigrated to Canada to pursue better opportunities for himself, his wife and his 10-year-old daughter, Andreea.
A year later, after viewing a video of a Romanian family living in Vancouver, he was inspired to apply for Canadian immigration to seek a brighter horizon for his daughter and find employment as an ice road truck driver as Ilie had seen on TV.
Despite earning his Class 1 driver’s license shortly after arriving in Canada, he spent about five months unemployed, knocking on doors, most of which were slammed in his face. At the suggestion of a fellow Romanian who worked as a self-employed driver at a firm in Montreal, Ilie met a recruiter who suggested he purchase his own truck.
After scraping together what little money he had, Ilie bought an old white GMC that was not suitable for highway transportation. Yet, he had his own truck and would soon acquire his first driver’s contract. He hit the road in 2001 for his first trip.
By 2008, Andy Transport was a 16-truck owner-operator firm. However, the shipping contract on which the company relied was terminated, leaving Ilie and the company he had formed on the verge of bankruptcy. This left him at a crossroads in his career, but he did not give up his dream of pursuing opportunity and making a living in a new country. His grit sustained him. He was determined to move forward.
At that point, Andy Transport risked it all—Ilie took a crucial step forward and started his own fleet, shifting from a simple subcontractor to an independent, fully operational transportation company.
Developing the Brand: Andy Transport Inc.
Ilie named the company Andy Transport Inc. for his daughter, Andreea, who had been nicknamed “Andy” earlier in her life while still living in Romania.
Ilie had difficulty communicating as Romanian, his first language, was the only language he could speak at the time. Accompanied by Andreea, whom he employed as a translator, Ilie hired a lawyer in Montreal to incorporate the company. Andy Transport officially began operating in 2001.
Within a matter of a few weeks, Ilie attained a loan, a truck and a job as the owner-operator of his newly formed small business. At that time, Andreea was just a child and attended school while helping run the family business. She grew up in the business and would eventually perform many back-office tasks.
Ilie then purchased a second used truck, then a third and, gradually, hired new drivers to operate, mostly in teams, the trucks he had purchased. This was the start of a long progression of events that would transform the business into a large fleet of hundreds of trucks and trailers with several terminals, a maintenance affiliate, other freight facilities and sidings, supported by a team of over 500 people located in Canada and Europe.
The journey to reach this point, however, was not always smooth. In 2008, Canada was in the grips of a major recession. With 16 trucks and 30 drivers on the road, Ilie’s sole customer announced they would no longer tender work to Andy’s trucks. Faced with a choice of bankruptcy or staying on the course, Ilie persisted.
He maintained his business and promised Andreea he would help finance her education, even if it meant losing all the trucks and their apartment. Times were hard; Ilie was forced to take all but five of his trucks out of circulation. Being frugal and cautious, Ilie accumulated enough capital to procure new trailers, rehire drivers and put tractors back on the road. It took about two years to overcome these hardships, but Ilie was unrelenting. He survived the recession and continued with steadfast perseverance.
Andy Transport’s first customers were third-party logistics providers who had shippers as clients. They hired Andy Transport to transport loads. Soon, the company was hired directly by shippers who were impressed with the company’s reliability, service and solid work ethic.
Ilie Crisan began to think about what his company could become. In 2009 when his father visited Canada, they drove together by Salaberry-de-Valleyfield with a stop at another trucking company’s terminal. Waiting and admiring from the car, Ilie’s father encouraged him, saying, “One day, you could have something like this. Look how nice this place is.” At that time, however, purchasing Valleyfield was cost prohibitive.
Fast forward to 2011. Andy Transport owned its first terminal, the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield terminal that Ilie’s father admired, but unfortunately never got to learn of the acquisition. As the company was looking for larger headquarters as the business grew, it established a home base at that very site—which, previously, Ilie could not afford.
Meanwhile, Andreea obtained her law degree in 2013 and eventually would join Andy Transport full time. As the company grew, her tasks diversified and became more complex, enabling her to learn all the ins and outs of running a premier transportation company. She could focus on things such as regulatory compliance and safety, custom clearance, an efficient dispatch service and, of course, a competitive customer service operation to meet the needs and demands of customers.
Over the course of twenty years the company acquired several more terminals and a maintenance center to service its fleet. Andy Transport also launched a warehousing and distribution division in the latter years. They also created an affiliate called Tristan Fleet Management. Andy Transport uses Tristan to maintain its vehicles and assets, as well as those of external fleets.
A major transportation company emerged from this remarkable story of innovation and entrepreneurship coupled with persistence and determination. It would rise to a notable one with a solid fleet of trucks, trailers, people and other assets, serving global customers with transportation and logistics services.
Earlier this year, Andreea assumed the majority ownership and leadership of the firm. She has been with Andy Transport ever since its beginnings and currently serves as its president and CEO.
A Hallmark Culture of Excellence, Innovation, and Opportunity
Andy Transport strives to build a working environment where all employees feel valued and are compensated fairly for their efforts. The company has positioned itself with a robust cost structure and useful resources to be successful in a competitive transportation market.
At the center of Andy Transport’s culture are its employees, who use their influence and personalities to help the company create opportunities for growth and benefits for all. The company is committed to employee growth by allowing employees to change positions and advance their careers as they grow. Leadership is also committed to listening, communicating, negotiating, and getting to know all staff so the firm operates not only as a family but also as a team of winners that pivots with momentum.
Entrepreneurship is also deeply embedded in the company’s culture. Andy Transport encourages an environment where people are valued. Their innovative ideas are welcomed. This helps nurture a spirit of innovation. It provides growth opportunities to people within the organization who possess the drive and willingness to pursue greater challenges.
Andy Transport stands committed to providing customized services with the highest degree of excellence for its customers. Equally, Andy is focused on safety, reliability, transparency and environmental sensitivity. It maintains a corporate vision of raising the standards within the North American transportation industry.
Continuous Improvement in People, Processes, and Technology
Growth and achievement are behind every success story at Andy Transport. Andy has committed to providing customers with full visibility of their shipments. They do this with real-time data needed to make informed and trusted decisions, while remaining agile in the face of any adverse circumstance. Shipment information, vehicle position, arrivals, departures and supporting documentation, seamlessly flow to the shipper in real time. Shippers and logistics providers can quickly activate tracking, notifications for exceptions and be well informed of estimated time of arrival of their deliveries.
In July 2016, the company invested over $1 million in a fully integrated ERP system used today by all its departments. This will contribute to the growth of Andy’s fleet, while developing its personnel, safety standards and opening of new terminals - all essential to expand and improve operations. Concurrently, Andy will consider strategic company acquisitions that might strengthen its position in key markets or allow it to enter new markets.
The firm’s expansive fleet of assets is equipped with the latest technology to help keep drivers safe while offering them great comfort during long trips. In 2016, the firm launched a fleet maintenance affiliate, Tristan Fleet Management, which now operates several maintenance centers across the province and services Andy Transport’s fleet and external fleets.
Since 2018, Andy Transport has modernized its technology to communicate with its trucks. They installed new electronic tablets in all trucks, giving drivers and others in the company access to telemetry, communications and localization. In addition to this investment, all new equipment purchased comprised safety features such as integrated systems, including cameras and radar sensors to detect metal objects and vehicles immobilized in front of trucks, which automatically engage the braking system if the driver cannot react in time.
In addition to all other technology improvements, Andy Transport invested in an e-learning platform to provide online training and development systems for drivers and other personnel. This platform provides personnel direct access to a wide variety of courses from their tablets within the comfort of their cabins. It also allows office personnel to have the same convenience of access to training.
In the future, Andy plans to steer investments to AI and machine-learning solutions.
Personnel safety is at the forefront of the company’s strategy. To support driver and operational safety, Andy Transport has strategically placed safety managers at each terminal. This helps facilitate interactions and exchanges of information between drivers and safety managers.
Andy Transport has grown using its ability to navigate challenging times and economic recessions and steadily gaining market share through well-calculated and bold business decisions. Such decisions include the diversification of its services, fleet outsourcing, partnerships, warehousing and training programs for its employees and others. It offers different modes of transportation, fleet maintenance and repairs and the management of fully serviced transportation terminals.
As a capstone to all its effort, Andy Transport was ranked in the Growth 500 of Canada’s fastest-growing companies for five consecutive years and became a certified Women-Owned Business by WBE Canada.
The company is always looking for ways to further improve its operations, a strategy that has allowed it to achieve sustained growth over the years and also to continue its growth into the future.
So, let’s talk!
To learn more about Andy Transport, visit our website at www.AndyTransport.com or contact us: Phone: 514-667-8500. Email: info@andytransport.com