Purolator CEO John Ferguson discusses how businesses can adapt their supply chains to navigate tariff uncertainty through data intelligence, flexible infrastructure, and strategic partnerships.
John Ferguson, President and CEO of Purolator Inc., Canada's leading integrated freight, package and logistics solutions provider, emphasizes that the critical question he hears most often from CEOs in 2026 is how to mitigate risk and navigate tariff uncertainty .
Purolator has been helping business leaders ship to and from Canada since the original Canada-U.S. free trade agreement in the late 1980s, and its experience was battle-tested during the pandemic. Today, the company's team supplies customers with ongoing business intelligence monitoring to evaluate supply chain health and make tariff-related adjustments.
Classic supply chain analysis and decision criteria are taking a backseat to the fluctuating impact of tariffs, which overshadows all other considerations including cost of transportation, real estate, inventory carrying costs, and finding the most efficient path from origin to shelf. The new tariff reality means a supply chain must be built to withstand and flex around major shocks. Adaptability is the new supply chain superpower, and all leaders should constantly evaluate how to build more flexibility into their systems.
This requires hypervigilance around scanning supply chain tremors, and setting up artificial intelligence and digitized monitoring, inspection, and analysis can be incredibly useful for teams tasked with evaluating ongoing supply chain strength. For Purolator customers, this advanced scanning and tracking is made possible through the company's timely February 2025 acquisition of Livingston, a leading North American customs broker and international trade service firm.
While on the surface the acquisition may seem like a lucky bet given the tariff announcements that followed, it actually represents years of advance work by Purolator's teams focused on building more flexibility into services. Through these sophisticated systems, Purolator helps businesses manage logistics and customs records around steel, aluminum, imports from China, and other global leaders, while also supporting organizations seeking to access new markets.
At Purolator, the team is often among the first to identify and act on early signals that eventually reshape supply chains. Over the past two years, Purolator data shows more than 30 percent of international customers have come specifically to navigate the complexity of reconfiguring their supply chains. For many leaders, that means mitigating tariff-related risks and impacts by re-engineering supply chains from China to countries such as Vietnam or moving to local distribution. Two examples illustrate this in practice.
In 2024, operational data began showing a clear and growing pattern: North American businesses were diversifying supply chains out of China and other Asian markets in favor of options closer to home, particularly Mexico. The volume signals were subtle at first, but the direction was unmistakable.
Rather than wait for the trend to peak, Purolator acted by building a consolidated trade lane between Mexico and Canada that removed long transit times, improved tracking and visibility, solved for long-standing language barriers, and reduced cost. When U.S. tariffs arrived in 2025 and businesses urgently needed new supply chain routes, customers using that lane already had options. According to the Government of Canada, Canada-Mexico trade is steadily growing, and nearly every sector benefits from this partnership.
Acting on a tariff signal for a customer under pressure demonstrates the need for speed. A global manufacturer of components supporting semiconductors, electric vehicles, aerospace, and data centres needed a way to move product without absorbing punishing tariffs on shipments transiting through or shipping from the U.S. Working closely with the customer, Purolator supported the nearshoring of manufacturing with a bonded solution for consolidated freight and courier shipments from Mexico direct to Canada.
This solution bypassed both U.S. tariffs and retaliatory Canadian tariffs while providing enhanced tracking and visibility throughout the journey. That kind of bespoke, engineered solution is only possible when a logistics partner understands a customer's supply chain well enough to hear where the friction is and has the network depth to reroute around it.
Companies do not need to ship 250 million packages a year as Purolator does to build an adaptive and resilient supply chain, but they do need to build one deliberately. Three principles have guided Purolator's approach and apply equally to organizations of any size.
First, treat logistics and operations data as business intelligence, not just operational reporting. Volume shifts, route requests, and customer questions are signals about where the market is heading.
Second, invest in flexible infrastructure that can pivot quickly, such as multimodal transportation options and diversified supplier networks. Third, collaborate with partners who have deep expertise in customs and trade compliance to navigate complex regulations. By following these principles, businesses can turn uncertainty into opportunity and build supply chains that thrive despite tariff upheavals
Supply Chain Resilience Tariff Uncertainty Logistics Technology Nearshoring Trade Compliance
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