12 Apr 2024
Some high-growth companies are like big freightliners cruising down the interstate in high gear.
But Austin-based Arrive Logistics moves even faster than that.
The three-year-old company is a rising star in freight brokerage, where its agents specialize in getting products and supplies from one place to another on behalf of thousands of clients.
The company has risen quickly to 73rd place among independent freight brokers in an industry with more than 15,000 competitors. It projects it will reach $120 million in revenue this year, more than triple the level of two years ago. The company, with about 300 employees, is actively recruiting more workers to help fuel its growth.
Arrive Logistics ranked No. 3 among midsized employers in the Austin American-Statesman’s 2017 Top Workplaces of Greater Austin project.
Among the reasons for Arrive Logistics’ growth is its success in and training of smart and motivated workers that find new clients and solve shipping problems for them. One of those young workers is 23-year-old Seiji Osawa, who joined the company a year ago fresh out of the University of Michigan. He works as a national account executive involved in both winning new clients and ensuring that they are well-served.
Osawa says the pace of the business and the teamwork he gets from fellow employees and managers makes his job enjoyable.
“It appeals to me,” he said. “You are not going to come into a dull moment or a monotonous desk job where you do the same thing every day.”
He describes himself and his co-workers as competitive, but collaborative, high-energy “go-getters.”
“The people around me are committed and passionate about what they do and passionate about the others around them,” Osawa said. “There is a team mentality here.”
Arrive works hard to attract more young, energetic workers like Osawa to help propel its growth.
That puts pressure on job recruiter Bianca Ramos to find more smart, high-energy employees.
“My favorite company value is being bold,” she said. “This company is full of bold people. We are risk takers and innovators and hard workers. And we are people who have the courage to step out of our comfort zones and become something. We have that buzz going on. People here want to shake up the industry and they are excited. It is cool to be a part of something like that.”
Ramos, who joined the company in early 2016, considers herself one of the old hands. At age 29, she says she is definitely older than most co-workers.
Part of what keeps Ramos on the job is what she calls FOMO: the “fear of missing out.”
“I have to stay because I need to see what is going to be happening to this company. We are on a journey or an adventure together,” she said.
Osawa credits the company’s continuing investment in information systems technology and its new employee training program with giving him the tools to succeed.
“Logistics is inherently complicated. It is a trick industry,” he said. “Our (information system) gives me the transparency to see where my shipments are. So technology is really important to bring more value to to your customer.
“It takes a forward-thinking company to invest in technology and intensive training of employees.”
Al Lagunas, an account executive, describes one client call he took late in the afternoon. A company in Pennsylvania wanted him to find a way to move a shipment of products to Missouri and have it arrive by noon the next day.
Lagunas quickly summoned help from a few nearby co-workers and together they found a shipping solution. The shipment was delivered on time.
“We have a fast reaction time and great teamwork,” Lagunas said. “And we are going to figure these things out.”
Original article posted on: www.mystatesman.com
