MONTREAL — On a narrow mountain pass, Robert Transport driver Mario Fortin comes across an overturned truck blocking his way.

“There’s a truck, a six-wheeler, on its side. It can’t move and I can’t get through,” he says. “But I have the right equipment and materials, and enough logistics skills to help get the truck back on its wheels.”

In a few hours he’s on his way again.

Believe it or not, this is not an uncommon situation for Mario. Incidents like this — rare in Canada — happen all the time in Haiti where Mario is currently volunteering as a humanitarian worker with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). 

"When we got to the village, we saw that the patients were in very rough shape. They would have died without our help. It feels so good to be able to help,” he tells Today’s Trucking from his Haitian outpost. “Something like that happens every day. Every day."

And every day, Mario faces new supply chain challenges as he crisscrosses the country from trouble spot to trouble spot.

“I’m doing everything that isn’t medical,” he explains. “I’m making sure all the supplies are where they’re supposed to be working on all the logistics issues from finding drinking water, to arranging chlorination, to getting rid of medical and human waste… you name it. I’m a generalist. I’m doing everything and nothing in particular.”
 

It’s a far cry from his career in Quebec, which pays a lot better he admits with a laugh, but doesn’t offer the kind of personal gratification that humanitarian work does.

He was working out of the Boucherville head office in January 2010 when the Haitian earthquake caused its devastation. He was allowed to go right away, no questions asked.

“I am so grateful to the people at Robert Transport who give me a job when I’m in Canada give me the freedom also to go on these missions,” he says.

A few months later, in the summer of 2010 he left again to assist medical missions in Cameroon and Chad. And late in the fall, he returned to Haiti.

“It was always the same,” he says. “‘Whenever you come back, Mario, there’s a truck waiting for you.’"

Of course there’s a reason Robert Transport is so flexible with him. He brings 25 years of driving experience, and the business acumen that comes from having owned his own transport company. He sold it and started volunteering with MSF when his first marriage ended.

“I always wanted to do this," he says. "But sometimes life is too busy. Only when I was free of obligations did it become possible."

Maria Ordonez, the MSF recruiter who coordinates Mario’s trips, says his skills are essential in disaster areas.

“We need supply chain people and logisticians who can do a little bit of everything. They’re in charge of a group of people, a float of vehicles, making sure that everybody gets where they’re supposed to go, and comes back safe,” she says.

His stories are fascinating, like how he manages to get drinking water for 45,000 people out of a muddy river. Or how he fixes urgently needed equipment with minimal tools.

“It’s just go-go-go, seven days a week. It never stops,” he says. “You have to push yourself because, in the end, it’s about saving lives. If you’re not at your best, people die.

"You don’t count the hours or stop when you’re tired. And it’s a great, great feeling when you’re done. I want to continue this as long as I am able.”

— Allan Janssen