Just about every B.C.-bound truck along Washington’s I-5 freeway corridor is contracted to Interline Motor Freight Inc., delivering cargo to major local retail outlets and warehouses.
Harmon Bal started the business after learning the ropes as a 10-year-old in and out of his father Hardev Bal’s now-shuttered trucking business.
Interline does not own any trucks – the 101 trucks are all independently owner-operated – but it has grown to be B.C.’s largest intermodal trucking company in little over three years as it facilitates their movement from Seattle to Tacoma, through a new U.S. division, and through to B.C.
“There’s a lot more money to be made in the States,” said Bal. “There’s a lot more business.”
Interline’s revenues are in the $9 million to $10 million range from its Canadian operations, with overall revenues expected to increase significantly when the U.S. numbers are crunched.
Bal is steering his trucking business to bigger things – Interline has become the preferred carrier for Union Pacific Railway, the largest U.S. railway – but he is also growing his television-production business, Asian Connections Entertainment Inc., which he started a decade ago when he was 18 years old.
Asian Connections commands more than 50 hours of programming a month on Shaw cable television.
There’s also a half-hour English current-affairs magazine show twice weekly.
“I owe a lot of my success to my parents,” said Bal, who attended St. John’s, a private high school, before completing a bachelor of technology degree at Kwantlen University College.
Perseverance is another key.
“If I start something, I finish it,” said Bal. “I will make sure it is done. That’s one thing that I really, really am proud of, that if I want to achieve something I will make sure I achieve it no matter how much hard work it takes.” •
