Successful People from Our Neighborhood - Chris Chapin, Vice President at Mutual Transportation
Please, welcome, Chris Chapin, VP of Mutual Transportation, optimistic, fun and upbeat. Working at Mutual Transportation for me was a pleasure, working with Chris - a treat. Unlike many other "bosses", Chris would always back you up, help to resolve any ugly situation and will have you walk out of any stressful encounter smiling. As they say, people will forget what you said or did, but they will remember how you made them feel. Chris will make you feel valued, appreciated and supported.
Chris, even though, I already introduced yourself, lets do it again. Just tell us who you are and what you do, please!
My name is Chris Chapin, I am one of the partners at Mutual Transportation in Oakville. We have been in business since 1995. We are involved in logistics worldwide, we do ocean containers, rail containers and box cars, truckload and LTL throughout North America, including Mexico, both on temperature controlled products and dry products. We have a varied clientele, we do food products, beverages, paper, heavy equipment moves, fresh produce, frozen and fresh sea food. If it can go on a truck we will move it! So, that is what we do in a nutshell.
If it does not go in a truck would you figure something out?
Even if does not go in a truck we can still probably do it on a flatbed. We just actually completed a major move - the biggest one in the company’s history. We moved a piece of heavy equipment that required escorts at front and back, permits for oversize and overweight cargo, all the way from Quebec to Texas. And the freight just to move this product was close to 100K.
Chris, a little about yourself now, where were you born and raised?
I was born in Toronto, ON, grew up in Long Branch, Southern Etobicoke, and went to school in Southern Etobicoke, University out of town.
What was your dream as a child and did it come true?
Well, I don’t recall anything specific that I dreamed about. My one ambition, because my father was a lawyer, I had thought of practicing with him at some point. I worked with him for a few summers, just filing and searching titles on houses and things like that. I found it to be very monotonous. I thought the law wasn’t for me. I actually wrote a test, did well on it and then just decided not to go to the Law School.
Not quite for your personality, right?
Right!
What was your first job?
My first job as a child, because I was still at school - was delivering Globe and Mail. I had to get them delivered before 7 in the morning and then go to school.
How long was it taking you?
Took me about half hour to 45 minutes to do it. I had 2 and a half streets to cover. I also caddied at the Toronto gold club and another paper route, but that was only 1 day a week. I also had different jobs in the food industry, through my high school and university years.
What was your worst job?
The worst one - one summer, near the cottage that we have North of Toronto, I worked at the factory that produced veneer. And they would take trees, that would go on a conveyor from the outside the building. They would turn on the machine that would take bark of it, and then another machine with big blades would cut it into sheets. And we would take the sheet, put them on the pallet, and move them over to the dryer. I would have to pick up the sheets in your arms and put them inside the dryer, at 3 different levels and had the machine filled at all times. It was on the rollers, the sheets would go through the drying machine and then someone on the other end would take them out and put them on pallets.
Were they heavy or just handfuls of splinters?
No, it was small sheets of plywood, may be 18 inches by 3 feet. So you could lift a few at a time, you would feed them into a roller as if you are playing cards - but just big-big cards. And then, there was another machine that would glue them together, so you would have to put 3-4 pieces together and have them go on the machine and at the other end someone would collect it and put it on a pallet. But this process took place in the warehouse and it had to be over 90 degrees every day, because of this huge drying machine.
So, the heat was the worst part?
Yes, and the drying machine was on all the time, even in July and August. But I was still happy to be there, it gave me a paycheque. I worked 11 hours a day and they would still offer overtime on Fridays that I would take. That was the toughest and worst job that I had.
How did you start in transportation industry?
I started in transportation in March of 1979 with an American company that was based out of food terminal. With them I doubled the sales in truckload of produce, but my real direction and what I enjoy the most was interaction with people and the fact that I am still learning on a daily basis. Hearing about all the problems and excuses, on why the freight was delivered and so on.
What I the most challenging part of your job?
Basically, there has been a real rise of crime and fraud in the trucking industry. There are people forging insurance certificates, people posing as legitimate trucking companies and attempting to pick up and steal the freight. That’s been a problem. People double-brokering our freight without our permission is also an issue. However we put some policies in place, where we are very strict on the paperwork that we get from the other companies.
Did you have any freight stolen before?
We did, once.
Was it something valuable?
Yes, 300K. Food product. We also had a load of drinks stolen but it was recovered the next day, freight intact. I guess they though it was alcohol, but it wasn’t.
Could you talk about the conflict resolution? This is a great company to work for, and as stressful as transportation business could be you always manage to stay calm.
Our business at times can be very stressful, because if some people involved in a transaction don’t do what they are supposed to do, things break down, and trucks don’t get released t the border. For example, if we have a customer that is not happy with us, what I am generally trying to do is listen. God gave us one mouth and two ears for a reason, we are supposed to listen more than talk. When I am hearing about the problem I am always carefully taking notes, we always try to the bottom of what happened and always provide the client with a timeline, when we would get back to them with a resolution. Internally, when we have conflicts between employees, we are trying to carefully determine what an issue is and bring everything to a peaceful conclusion. We have some newer people here, but most were working with Mutual for more than 5 years, some were here for over 16-17 years - that speaks about the management style I guess.
Do you prefer telephone or e-mail?
If there is something that can be quickly resolved - e-mail. But when there is an issue, e-mail cannot possibly convey the feelings, it is even better to get in a car and go see a client, just to show him all the proper respect.
What is the best part of the job?
The best part really, personal gratification of starting the business and growing it, and see it succeed through the years, but also seeing other people do well in the company with some assistance, but also their own initiative, developing. And also the longevity of our administrative stuff, they’ve been with us for many years and this is a real testament of success. We are a very easy going company to work for, no one is micromanaged in any way. I know a former employee of ours went to work for another company, not too far from here and he only lasted two weeks, because he was micromanaged, screamed at on the daily basis, it was intolerable.
What is success for you?
Success is not just personal success for me, but also success of other people in the office.
What would you still like to achieve?
I would like to see us grow into another 2-3 offices. May be expand to Western Canada and get stronger in Montreal.
Do you have a funny story you could share?
Probably meeting Marina….
Very funny! You probably have tons of stories!
As I mentioned earlier, I used to live at Long Branch, and there used to be a Bad Boy store at 37th street and Lakeshore. They were there for a few years and then they decided to close the store and move. And on the side of the store they had a huge wooden sigh of the Bad Boy with his hands showing thumbs up in his prisoner’s uniform with black and white stripes. When they moved out they just left the sign on the side, it was may be 8 feet high and may be 2 to 2.5 feet wide. I took it home and put it in my backyard. On the front it was a very friendly looking guy, the Bad Boy, but on the back there was a really mean and nasty face. I put it in my backyard, s that the nice side faced our house, and the nasty face on the back of it was facing my neighbor. My neighbor was an older woman, finally she phoned us a couple of month later and said: Would you please, take this sign down, I can’t stand this mean nasty face looking at me every morning. So my farther made me take it down. But there was a second part to it - we took it up to our cottage and we stood it up in front of the cottage just by our dock. Boats were constantly going by and you could see the people pointing and then talking about it. I met someone later on, who asked me where my cottage was. I said: “Down the lake, right near the end” and he said: “Oh, you mean the Jail Birds?”
How old were you when you put that sign?
Maybe 12-13.
Do you like to travel?
Yes, I do love to travel. I’ve been in Western Europe a couple of times, Mediterranean, North Africa, now I’ve been to the most places in the Caribbean, States, Canada, I’ve taken my kids across Canada, west and east coast, and almost every year we go to Mexico or somewhere in the Caribbean to warm up. I think it is critical to learn about other countries and cultures and let my children learn too.
Where else would you like to go?
I would love to go to New Zealand. I think it is one of the neat places and in the world and generally from what I hear very nice people. And also Australia.
What if aboriginals are still eating people?
That’s ok, they won’t like the taste of me.
What are your hobbies?
I play competitive badminton. I love playing golf. Also, whenever possible I am trying to get up to my cottage on the weekends.
And you built your cottage yourself, right?
Yes, I built a cottage.
Did you plant a tree?
A tree?
Yes, did not you hear Russian saying? A man in his life has to plant a tree, build a house and raise a son.
I guess this is what I did - I planted many trees!
Ok, so you can be officially called “The Man”. You have more than one child as well, right?
My kids, I have 3 of them - the youngest one is 17, she is in high school in Oakville, she is in competitive dance and doing well at school. My son is 21 years old, working with me for the summer. And my eldest daughter is 23, currently leaving in BC, however I believe she is coming back in a few weeks. She wants to be involved in floral business. My wife is from Mexico, I met her here in Toronto and she is still teaching Spanish.
Is there something you are afraid of?
Of course I am afraid something happens to a family member. The health of my family is very important to me. Business wise I guess there is always a fear of having more freight stolen. Not something that will keep me awake at night but still.
What is home for you?
Home for me is Oakville. I’ve been in Oakville for at least 25-26 years. My father is living here in Oakville as well now.
Thank you very much, Chris! And all the best to yourself, your family and your business!
Compliments of Marina Gavrylyuk
Real Estate Agent with Sutton Group Summit Realty
MarinaG.ca
More Success Stories:
Danuta Smiehowski - Head Coach of Olympium Rhythmic Gymnastics Club
Lisa D'Avino - Mortgage Broker
Matin Saliev - Chef
Yevgen Aleksyeyenko - Truck Driver, Owner Operator
Successful people
Chris, even though, I already introduced yourself, lets do it again. Just tell us who you are and what you do, please!
My name is Chris Chapin, I am one of the partners at Mutual Transportation in Oakville. We have been in business since 1995. We are involved in logistics worldwide, we do ocean containers, rail containers and box cars, truckload and LTL throughout North America, including Mexico, both on temperature controlled products and dry products. We have a varied clientele, we do food products, beverages, paper, heavy equipment moves, fresh produce, frozen and fresh sea food. If it can go on a truck we will move it! So, that is what we do in a nutshell.
If it does not go in a truck would you figure something out?
Even if does not go in a truck we can still probably do it on a flatbed. We just actually completed a major move - the biggest one in the company’s history. We moved a piece of heavy equipment that required escorts at front and back, permits for oversize and overweight cargo, all the way from Quebec to Texas. And the freight just to move this product was close to 100K.
Chris, a little about yourself now, where were you born and raised?
I was born in Toronto, ON, grew up in Long Branch, Southern Etobicoke, and went to school in Southern Etobicoke, University out of town.
What was your dream as a child and did it come true?
Well, I don’t recall anything specific that I dreamed about. My one ambition, because my father was a lawyer, I had thought of practicing with him at some point. I worked with him for a few summers, just filing and searching titles on houses and things like that. I found it to be very monotonous. I thought the law wasn’t for me. I actually wrote a test, did well on it and then just decided not to go to the Law School.
Not quite for your personality, right?
Right!
What was your first job?
My first job as a child, because I was still at school - was delivering Globe and Mail. I had to get them delivered before 7 in the morning and then go to school.
How long was it taking you?
Took me about half hour to 45 minutes to do it. I had 2 and a half streets to cover. I also caddied at the Toronto gold club and another paper route, but that was only 1 day a week. I also had different jobs in the food industry, through my high school and university years.
What was your worst job?
The worst one - one summer, near the cottage that we have North of Toronto, I worked at the factory that produced veneer. And they would take trees, that would go on a conveyor from the outside the building. They would turn on the machine that would take bark of it, and then another machine with big blades would cut it into sheets. And we would take the sheet, put them on the pallet, and move them over to the dryer. I would have to pick up the sheets in your arms and put them inside the dryer, at 3 different levels and had the machine filled at all times. It was on the rollers, the sheets would go through the drying machine and then someone on the other end would take them out and put them on pallets.
Were they heavy or just handfuls of splinters?
No, it was small sheets of plywood, may be 18 inches by 3 feet. So you could lift a few at a time, you would feed them into a roller as if you are playing cards - but just big-big cards. And then, there was another machine that would glue them together, so you would have to put 3-4 pieces together and have them go on the machine and at the other end someone would collect it and put it on a pallet. But this process took place in the warehouse and it had to be over 90 degrees every day, because of this huge drying machine.
So, the heat was the worst part?
Yes, and the drying machine was on all the time, even in July and August. But I was still happy to be there, it gave me a paycheque. I worked 11 hours a day and they would still offer overtime on Fridays that I would take. That was the toughest and worst job that I had.
How did you start in transportation industry?
I started in transportation in March of 1979 with an American company that was based out of food terminal. With them I doubled the sales in truckload of produce, but my real direction and what I enjoy the most was interaction with people and the fact that I am still learning on a daily basis. Hearing about all the problems and excuses, on why the freight was delivered and so on.
What I the most challenging part of your job?
Basically, there has been a real rise of crime and fraud in the trucking industry. There are people forging insurance certificates, people posing as legitimate trucking companies and attempting to pick up and steal the freight. That’s been a problem. People double-brokering our freight without our permission is also an issue. However we put some policies in place, where we are very strict on the paperwork that we get from the other companies.
Did you have any freight stolen before?
We did, once.
Was it something valuable?
Yes, 300K. Food product. We also had a load of drinks stolen but it was recovered the next day, freight intact. I guess they though it was alcohol, but it wasn’t.
Could you talk about the conflict resolution? This is a great company to work for, and as stressful as transportation business could be you always manage to stay calm.
Our business at times can be very stressful, because if some people involved in a transaction don’t do what they are supposed to do, things break down, and trucks don’t get released t the border. For example, if we have a customer that is not happy with us, what I am generally trying to do is listen. God gave us one mouth and two ears for a reason, we are supposed to listen more than talk. When I am hearing about the problem I am always carefully taking notes, we always try to the bottom of what happened and always provide the client with a timeline, when we would get back to them with a resolution. Internally, when we have conflicts between employees, we are trying to carefully determine what an issue is and bring everything to a peaceful conclusion. We have some newer people here, but most were working with Mutual for more than 5 years, some were here for over 16-17 years - that speaks about the management style I guess.
Do you prefer telephone or e-mail?
If there is something that can be quickly resolved - e-mail. But when there is an issue, e-mail cannot possibly convey the feelings, it is even better to get in a car and go see a client, just to show him all the proper respect.
What is the best part of the job?
The best part really, personal gratification of starting the business and growing it, and see it succeed through the years, but also seeing other people do well in the company with some assistance, but also their own initiative, developing. And also the longevity of our administrative stuff, they’ve been with us for many years and this is a real testament of success. We are a very easy going company to work for, no one is micromanaged in any way. I know a former employee of ours went to work for another company, not too far from here and he only lasted two weeks, because he was micromanaged, screamed at on the daily basis, it was intolerable.
What is success for you?
Success is not just personal success for me, but also success of other people in the office.
What would you still like to achieve?
I would like to see us grow into another 2-3 offices. May be expand to Western Canada and get stronger in Montreal.
Do you have a funny story you could share?
Probably meeting Marina….
Very funny! You probably have tons of stories!
As I mentioned earlier, I used to live at Long Branch, and there used to be a Bad Boy store at 37th street and Lakeshore. They were there for a few years and then they decided to close the store and move. And on the side of the store they had a huge wooden sigh of the Bad Boy with his hands showing thumbs up in his prisoner’s uniform with black and white stripes. When they moved out they just left the sign on the side, it was may be 8 feet high and may be 2 to 2.5 feet wide. I took it home and put it in my backyard. On the front it was a very friendly looking guy, the Bad Boy, but on the back there was a really mean and nasty face. I put it in my backyard, s that the nice side faced our house, and the nasty face on the back of it was facing my neighbor. My neighbor was an older woman, finally she phoned us a couple of month later and said: Would you please, take this sign down, I can’t stand this mean nasty face looking at me every morning. So my farther made me take it down. But there was a second part to it - we took it up to our cottage and we stood it up in front of the cottage just by our dock. Boats were constantly going by and you could see the people pointing and then talking about it. I met someone later on, who asked me where my cottage was. I said: “Down the lake, right near the end” and he said: “Oh, you mean the Jail Birds?”
How old were you when you put that sign?
Maybe 12-13.
Do you like to travel?
Yes, I do love to travel. I’ve been in Western Europe a couple of times, Mediterranean, North Africa, now I’ve been to the most places in the Caribbean, States, Canada, I’ve taken my kids across Canada, west and east coast, and almost every year we go to Mexico or somewhere in the Caribbean to warm up. I think it is critical to learn about other countries and cultures and let my children learn too.
Where else would you like to go?
I would love to go to New Zealand. I think it is one of the neat places and in the world and generally from what I hear very nice people. And also Australia.
What if aboriginals are still eating people?
That’s ok, they won’t like the taste of me.
What are your hobbies?
I play competitive badminton. I love playing golf. Also, whenever possible I am trying to get up to my cottage on the weekends.
And you built your cottage yourself, right?
Yes, I built a cottage.
Did you plant a tree?
A tree?
Yes, did not you hear Russian saying? A man in his life has to plant a tree, build a house and raise a son.
I guess this is what I did - I planted many trees!
Ok, so you can be officially called “The Man”. You have more than one child as well, right?
My kids, I have 3 of them - the youngest one is 17, she is in high school in Oakville, she is in competitive dance and doing well at school. My son is 21 years old, working with me for the summer. And my eldest daughter is 23, currently leaving in BC, however I believe she is coming back in a few weeks. She wants to be involved in floral business. My wife is from Mexico, I met her here in Toronto and she is still teaching Spanish.
Is there something you are afraid of?
Of course I am afraid something happens to a family member. The health of my family is very important to me. Business wise I guess there is always a fear of having more freight stolen. Not something that will keep me awake at night but still.
What is home for you?
Home for me is Oakville. I’ve been in Oakville for at least 25-26 years. My father is living here in Oakville as well now.
Thank you very much, Chris! And all the best to yourself, your family and your business!
Compliments of Marina Gavrylyuk
Real Estate Agent with Sutton Group Summit Realty
MarinaG.ca
More Success Stories:
Danuta Smiehowski - Head Coach of Olympium Rhythmic Gymnastics Club
Lisa D'Avino - Mortgage Broker
Matin Saliev - Chef
Yevgen Aleksyeyenko - Truck Driver, Owner Operator
Successful people