The expert spent more than 22 years at Mainfreight. He joined the company as part of the Owens acquisition in 2003 (one of New Zealand's largest trucking firms). He was then offered to move to the US as part of the company’s Air & Ocean division (2011). He then became President of Americas - US, Canada, Mexico, Chili - in 2015.
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The first challenge was explaining who we are to customers. Not many people had heard of Mainfreight, and I assume that's still the case. It was strange for me because everyone knew Mainfreight in New Zealand. Not many people knew it was a global company, but they certainly knew it as a business. So, the first challenge was explaining who we are. Then, it was about proving ourselves and getting a chance. Usually, this was done through rates. In this business, you try not to sell rates but service. You try to convince customers that we're a better company and that we'll do more for them. But at the end of the day, especially in the early days, we had to offer the right rate to attract customers, prove our value, and then try to increase the margin.
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Our approach is about offering a point of difference, a unique selling proposition. For us, that revolves around our team. We have always been clear that we may not be the cheapest option, and we don't aim to be.
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Carriers enjoy dealing with Mainfreight because we're not a large German forwarder. We ensure there's a real person behind the phone and email for the customer. We tailor our reporting to the customer's needs. Essentially, we strive to do everything that our larger competitors don't. We found that customers who switched to us from larger competitors didn't appreciate being just another cog in their machine. They were forced to fit into a pre-existing box. We, on the other hand, were happy to create a bespoke solution for the customer, and we were nimble enough to do so.
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The expert spent more than 22 years at Mainfreight. He joined the company as part of the Owens acquisition in 2003 (one of New Zealand's largest trucking firms). He was then offered to move to the US as part of the company’s Air & Ocean division (2011). He then became President of Americas - US, Canada, Mexico, Chili - in 2015.
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