Canadian Industry Spotlight: BlackBerry Radar
Blog by Emily Atkins
Being Canadian: BlackBerry Radar
The 2025 trade climate is putting the pressure on to source Canadian, whether at the grocery store or in business procurement. That’s why we are going to highlight world-class, homegrown options in the logistics space with a series of blogs.
To kick off, we’re starting with a Canadian classic, BlackBerry Radar. It’s a spinoff of the beloved smartphone innovator BlackBerry and got its start in 2016 in an effort to diversify away from being only a phone provider. The company makes and sells tracking devices and monitoring services for transportation and logistics equipment including trailers, intermodal containers & chassis, equipment, railcars and more.
We chatted with Shannon Hamilton, vice president of sales of Blackberry Radar about being Canadian in 2025.
What it means to be Canadian
Hamilton underlined the uniquely Canadian character of what the company does as a Canadian headquartered company. “That's important because when we design and test our devices, they're really built for the Canadian environment…our batteries have been tested in the cold of the Canadian winter. There are things about being Canadian and operating in Canada that I'm going to say manufacturers outside of Canada take for granted,” she said.
She also pointed out the company’s long history of working with educational institutions to help develop Canadian engineering talent. “We support the local schools by doing co-ops with our software and hardware engineers to give them the opportunity to work on projects whether in cybersecurity or Internet of Things (IoT),” she noted.
The company’s 40-year legacy of building secure telecommunications devices stems from the earliest BlackBerry years, she said, and it still holds true today. The company was, and is, known for providing secure, rugged devices. That security has not changed, Hamilton, said, and it’s found both in software and hardware being produced now.
Innovation is at the company’s core, she said. “We are innovating to make information actionable. Pushing the boundaries of connecting with other sensors and things that we can do with the information to extend the usage of it is the innovation that we are constantly bringing forward.”
Still producing great products
But there’s also some work to be done to remind people that BlackBerry is still providing those same sought-after products and services. “We still have software engineering teams out of Ottawa, hardware teams out of Waterloo, and are still in the same campus and head office that we had in our heyday. We're using all that experience and telecommunications and secure communications to bring the best, most rugged, reliable devices to the transportation market,” she said.
“You can still look to a Canadian-based company for the experience and the history that we're leveraging to bring all of that expertise to a very important segment of our Canadian economy – transportation, logistics and supply chain.”
Hamilton pointed out that this legacy is not just within the company but extends to suppliers as well. “We utilize the same companies that helped build the phones that we're using today to build our devices. We've been lucky to have had a very stable and reliable supply chain that has allowed us to always have product available for our customers,” she said.
Buying Canadian or buying because it’s Canadian
Hamilton said customers at the moment are not as interested in buying because the product is Canadian as they are in the fact that BlackBerry Radar’s product is tough and rugged. “You're making a big investment and often people have tried things that haven't worked because the battery has died when it's too cold,” she said. “That's usually one of the things that that we hear a lot of.”
However, she acknowledges that the durability is a product of its Canadian provenance. “You don't have to worry about the resilient part of it because we get it.”
She did note that contractual terms, principally being able to sell in Canadian dollars is a big competitive advantage right now. “Offering Canadian contracts when the U.S. dollar is almost at like a 40% premium right now could make a big difference. Even just being able to negotiate a contract in the currency of the country that you're doing business in is important and it's something that we do to support Canadian businesses,” she concluded.
Join the conversation on Canada’s Logistics Community forum!
Emily Atkins
President
Emily Atkins Group
Emily Atkins is president of Emily Atkins Group and was editor of Inside Logistics from 2002 to 2024. She has lived and worked around the world as a journalist and writer for hire, with experience in several sectors besides supply chain, including automotive, insurance and waste management. Based in Southern Ontario, when she’s not researching or writing a story she can be found on her bike, in a kayak, singing in the band or at the wheel of her race car. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyatkinsgroup/