The Toronto Transportation Club this year celebrates its 100th anniversary. Trailcon Leasing’s John Foss is serving as president during this, the club’s milestone year. Editorial director and publisher Lou Smyrlis caught up with Foss recently, to talk about how the organization is planning to celebrate its 100th anniversary, the benefits of belonging and the importance of being inclusive.
In the second part of the series John discusses the club’s uniqueness and its most important changes over the past century the TTC’s historic milestone.
Q. What’s interesting about the TTC is that while most clubs are mode specific, the TTC is open to all modes. Why is that important?
Foss: The history of the Club started with the railways and the local cartage companies. CP in particular was heavily involved and is the reason the annual dinner was held at the Royal York as CP owned it at the time. So the roots are multi mode. And that's also the strength of the Club. We have railways, local cartage, 3PLs, common carriers and a large number of shippers. Carriers bring in shippers as members and shippers bring in carriers. And that creates a lot of support for the club as well.
Q. The TTC is the largest club of its kind in Canada. What relationships do you have with other transportation clubs across the country and in the US?
Foss: It's hard to believe we are larger than clubs such as New York but we are. As for relationships with other clubs, we are trying to rekindle our relationship with the Montreal Club and we've also rekindled our relationships with the clubs in Chicago and New York.
Q. What are the most significant ways in which the club has evolved over the past 100 years?
Foss: What we have done with our board has been an important part of our ongoing evolution. We have a good mix of people on our board who are go-getters and who are committed to seeing the Club continue to succeed and grow.
Q. In a recent newsletter you wrote that the Women in Transportation luncheon has found a permanent home in the TTC roster of events and that you have a feeling you will need to find a much larger venue for next year’s event. Women have only been allowed to join the TTC since 1981. What have they brought to the club?
Foss: Look around transportation today and you see women moving into key management and executive positions and the Club has to be reflective of this reality. Look at TTC's own board of directors and how many are women and also how many of our recent presidents have been women. The inclusion of women into the club has certainly changed the face of the room and it needed to have happened long before it did. We ran the Women in Transportation luncheon for the first time this year and had over 100 turn out. We are moving to a better venue next year and we are expecting to considerably increase the turnout.
