Tom Nuelle Visits Armstrong Moving of Canada Through LACMA Next
International Operations Specialist Tom Nuelle got a firsthand look at fellow LAMCA agent, Armstrong Moving in Canada!
Hilldrup was thrilled to have our very own Tom Nuelle, International Operations Specialist, participate in the Latin American and Caribbean Movers Association’s (LACMA) Next exchange program!
The LACMA Next Exchange program offers LACMA members with professionals under the age of 40 the opportunity to visit and experience a behind-the-scenes look at the operations of a fellow LACMA agent. The program aims to strengthen international relations and provide a platform for networking and cross-cultural understanding. Tom, who has been a part of Hilldrup’s international operations since 2016, was connected with Armstrong Moving of Canada who has been a long-standing and valued agent-partner of ours!
During Tom’s four-day visit to Canada and the Armstrong organization there was plenty of opportunities to learn more about the industry, their company and, of course, take in what Canada has to offer – from food to ice hockey!
As the first LACMA Next Exchange trainee of 2025, here is a full recap of Tom’s visit and experience from his perspective:
Day 1: Touring Toronto, Welcome by Angelo and Armstrong’s Fine Arts Department
I arrived a few days early so I could explore downtown Toronto before my stay in Mississauga, which is about 30 minutes away by train. Some of the highlights the city had to offer were enjoying a famous pea-meal bacon sandwich at the St. Lawrence Market (over 200 years old!), sampling local beers at a lakefront Brew Pub, visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame Museum, experiencing the huge rivalry between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens and the world class Art Gallery of Toronto Museum.
My full immersion week began by visiting Director of International, Angelo Lepore who gave me an initial tour of all departments, introducing me to everyone. As the cliché goes, it’s always nice putting a face to a name, and I was able to finally meet several of the Armstrong team members whom I’ve worked with over the years.
Monday afternoon was spent with Alexa’s Fine Arts department. This impressive team handles storing and moving large and small collections of anything in the art world, from the largest of art museums to someone willing to pay for their granddaughter’s finger painting. They have a specialized state of the art warehouse dedicated to not only securely storing, but also to hosting small viewing and cataloging events. They often move large exhibitions of historic paintings and sculptures for the Art Gallery Museum, that I had taken a private tour of the day before, so my newly acquired “expertise” of their famous pieces certainly impressed their team!
Day 2 and 3: Accounting, International Trade and Quality Care
Tuesday morning was spent with the Peter in the accounting department. Peter and I joked about being thankful the accounting content was first thing in the morning, otherwise it may have put me to sleep, but it was very interesting to see how they operate. He showed me several process improvements they had successfully implemented over the last few years which smoothed the interaction between move coordinators and the accounting staff.
The afternoon was spent with Dan with the International Trade team. This is the team that I’ve worked with for many years, and it was great to meet them in person. As our day-to-day responsibilities were so familiar, much of the time was spent reviewing their moving system which also turned out to be quite similar to our own. One of their features that I was particularly impressed with was automatic timestamps for various FIDI requirements. Another interesting topic was the Canadian customs clearance process, where the importer personally visits the Canadian customs office adjacent to the airport to clear their goods directly. The Armstrong warehouse is bonded, so once a shipment arrives it heads straight for it. Upon arrival, the warehouse team generates a form which is given to the importer by the coordinator. The importer then must visit the customs office on their own, no Armstrong employee can go with them, and they must present their paperwork to the customs official on a first come first serve basis.
The weather so far had been surprisingly pleasant, but the famous Canadian chill had hit when I arrived at their warehouse bright and early Wednesday morning. Thankfully, most of the time was spent in Babu’s and Adam’s offices discussing the crew scheduling / dispatching procedures, documentation control and the domestic van line operations. I may have learned the most from these gentlemen, having little to no personal experience with the domestic side of the business. The last portion of the warehouse visit was spent with Peter, who is in turn visiting [Hilldrup’s] Stafford headquarters[BD1] . I assisted him with supervising and documenting a domestic shipment from Connecticut that was unloading into their warehouse.
The afternoon was spent with Angelo reviewing the Armstrong Quality Care program. This focused on several data driven quality control tools and how they implement them into their daily work. This ranged from assigning crews to specific clients to keeping their own internal survey data should an account or client report back with something different. Their packing and delivery quality control visits and claims management closed out the presentation.
Day 4: Inside Air Canada, Including Transporting Bulls!
Thursday morning was spent with Alex from IT. He reviewed their compliance and security measures which were very similar to our own. He proudly shared a recent hired-hacker result as well as their IT server protection. Thursday afternoon was spent touring the Air Canada cargo warehouse. “Cathedral of Storage” might be a better term for it – it was absolutely enormous! We were on the floor being shown everything from when a trucker delivers outbound cargo to them, the Xray screening process, how they organize cargo on the floor based on destination, the palletization + casing, and the reverse procedure for inbound cargo. The content was not limited to just household goods. I never thought I’d see a truckload of live bulls being prepared for a plane ride, but I can now cross that off my list!
Thank you for sharing these incredible details with us, Tom, and thank you to everyone at Armstrong Moving and LACMA Next who made this opportunity possible!
“The entire experience with the Armstrong team was educational, engaging, and memorable,” shared Tom Nuelle. “Everyone in the building from Dale Armstrong and Rod Speers to Dan and Ryan on the coordination floor down to Peter in the warehouse delivered on…Canadian friendliness and hospitality.”
The visit wasn’t all work and no play – Tom visited the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario during his time in Canada.
Learning about Armstrong Moving’s pristine warehousing and international capabilities in person was a highlight of the LACMA Next Exchange Program. We’re honored to be a partner-agent of Armstrong’s to deliver the same level of quality and service to customers – whether they’re moving from the U.S. to Canada or vice versa!
From seeing the full lifecycle of international shipments from receiving to warehousing and delivery, Tom’s visit to Armstrong Moving in Canada was an incredible professional experience.
We’re so grateful for our friends at Armstrong Moving for their hospitality and friendliness as we learned more about their operations as fellow LACMA members!
