48
49
CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
I
N THE MID - 9 0 S ,
Juan Lledo
had an inkling towards “being
his own boss” and wanted to create a
trucking company of a different kind:
one that truly cared about customers,
and its drivers. Out of that inkling,
Pemberton Transport was created.
Pemberton Transport has now
been operating for almost 20 years and
is doing just that, and Lledo credits the
company’s success to staying true to
its vision.
“
There was a need for a company
like Pemberton, even though there was
a lot of competition for the company
when it was created,” Lledo recalls.
Now, the company operates out
of a 17,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Burna-
by, B.C. and has a 3,500 sq. ft. second-
ary warehouse in Kelowna, B.C.
Pemberton runs 5-ton trucks,
refrigerated and equipped with lift-
gates facilitating pickups and deliver-
ies at locations without a loading dock
(
these include customers that oper-
ate small stores, restaurants and local
farms). Pemberton’s tractor-trailers are
equipped with tri-temperature trailers
in order to “better meet the needs of
customers by having the flexibility to
maintain different temperatures of dif-
ferent products,” the website states.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Start-up was very tough for
Pemberton, fraught with battles with
trucking regulators. At the time, a new
company was not to take clients from
former companies, and Pemberton did
just that, taking over 300 from a former
business. Pemberton started out with
five people, and Lledo had a strategic
idea for setting a new standard for ser-
vice.
“
That’s what really set us apart in
the beginning, and still does: the ser-
vice we provide,” he notes. The com-
pany has always catered to stores di-
rectly in British Columbia, not to larger
corporations, which has also been part
of the longer term strategy.
The company specializes in cold
PEMBERTON TRANSPORT
