Nearshore Services: A Success Story

Since 2015, Lean Solutions Group has had a successful partnership with ARL Logistics, one of the largest intermodal drayage companies in the U.S. and Canada, helping them scale their business seamlessly and meet their company objectives through logistics staffing solutions.  

Having satisfied clients is our number one priority. We work hard to create long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships and generate value for our clients and employees in Latin America. A true testament to this is our incredible partnership with ARL Logistics.  

We sat down with the Executive Vice-President of ARL, Jordan Reber, to talk about the strategic partnership they’ve built with us, how it all began, how it works, the fantastic team they have in Colombia, and the overall benefits of working with Lean. Continue reading for the highlights of our conversation with Jordan.

Or listen to the full interview here below!

ARL positions with LSG

Lean Solutions Group helps companies drive business growth through talented professionals in various industries. In the transportation and logistics industry, there are essential tasks that can be time-consuming and repetitive, and that’s where our team jumps in, making our clients’ productivity go through the roof.  

“So, we always have more people at entry-level positions. And that's part of our training program. But also, it's the easiest way to get people used to using our systems. So, you look at track and trace, load building, scheduling, on the logistics side. On the transport side, it's just very administrative type task to our safety department or billing department.” ‍

Career growth opportunities

Even though most of our positions are entry-level and operative, our incredible clients always encourage growth through experience and training, helping their employees stay motivated and excel in their career paths.  

“They're all processes that have a very defined documented SOP, is this is how you bill this customer every single time every single week and let them get to the repetitions to learn the technology. Because then from there, the people that show the drive and energy, or that want to do more, that there’s opportunities to either go cross-train or take a next step up to supervisor-type positions.”

Creating better opportunities for employees is one of the biggest priorities of our clients and for us at Lean.  

“As we keep training and getting these people down here more experienced, I think our leadership development program that we use up in the States, we can do more of that here.  Lean does some of that, but we want to do it kind of the ARL way as well, to give them every opportunity that we have and sky's the limit.”

The added value of the LSG team

The talent

At LSG, we take recruitment and onboarding seriously. That’s why we have created a robust process that ensures only the best talent gets hired for our clients—professionals that are motivated, goal-driven, hard workers, and eager to become part of something big.  

“What I would highlight most about my team at LSG is just the commitment and the desire of the people that have been with us since the beginning. And now their ability to sell that to the next group. And saying, like, look, guys, this is where we came from. And it was four people sitting in a room in a different building here in Barranquilla, working for these crazy people in Pittsburgh that are telling us about all these things we're going to be doing, but I knew they couldn't see it. And they trusted me though, and they didn't need to trust me. But they did. […] But they are truly family to us.”

Opportunity to change lives

Changing lives is one of the biggest satisfactions our clients often mention. For employees in Colombia, working for an established U.S.-based company is a major accomplishment that fills them with honor and motivation, and helps them move forward and thrive.  

“My management team couldn't do this without them (employees). And the buy-in that they have. And look, we've helped change their lives just as much as they helped change ours. So, it's mutual respect. I think that keeps us going.”

A reliable like-minded management team

Successful businesses always have strong leadership teams behind them. Creating a strong bond between our management team and your clients is essential to our process, helping our customers increase their trust in our company.  

"I've always loved the closeness to Robert Cadena (LSG’s CEO), from the beginning. When we first came down in 2015, Ron and I met with David Bell, Robert Cadena, Jeff Maser, and instantly just hit it off. It's just like, we are very similar, in a lot of ways: entrepreneurs, trying to do a lot of good but want to grow businesses, and don’t like to stand still, want to move forward.”

But to drive a business of such grand scales forward, it’s critical to count on a management team that understands the industry and is eager to provide the best services to our clients.  

“Robert (LSG’s CEO) has got strong leaders all around the offices, we deal directly with everybody else […] So, I think the ability for Lean to keep finding other managers that have become leaders, is obviously why, I don't know how many employees now, like 5000 plus in all these different cities.”

Scaling seamlessly

At Lean, we are eager to see our clients grow, and through our proven business model, scaling becomes a seamless process.  

“I came to this office, and this was originally a five-year plan. We built this office, and we’re a year and a half in, and I don’t have any seats left. So obviously, I'm like, hey, which walls are going to knock down which, you know, the customers next door, are they willing to move over? […] I'd rather have my people in a bigger space that we can grow into. And once it gets a little tight, let's expand it again.”

Achieving goals with LSG

We are all about helping our clients achieve their goals and become extraordinary. With their team here in Colombia working on those essential tasks, they can focus on making the best out of their services.  

“I definitely think LSG has helped us achieve our business goals. And my main goal when I started ARL Logistics, was to do something different. […] And as things morphed over the years, we were part of a heavy growth brokerage that kind of lost sight of the people. It was all about the numbers and not about the people. And when I met Ron Faherty, I told him, I'm going to do it my way this time. This is the second part of my career. I'm very involved with the people. I've made a lot of great connections. […] And so, the Colombian side of it, when this was introduced to us, gave me the ability to say this is the way that I'm going to do brokerage different.”

Focus on your core business

“I saw a lot of people in the States get burned out because they were trying to do everything, they were trying to do sales, they were trying to deal with the carriers, they were dealing with the issues and at the same time, they were building loads, setting up carriers, tracking down PODs. And so, like your best salespeople are calling to track a truck?”

It’s no secret that in many cases, employees must take care of tasks that are not part of their job description, which at the end of the day, doesn’t allow them to provide the company with their fullest potential. With Lean, your employees can focus on what they do best, increasing their productivity and obtaining better results for your company.  

“My original idea was, let me teach the Colombians to do all this administrative work or any part of the process that we could document, have that all done there so that the salespeople don't have to do that. They'll still deal with the issues, but they're better equipped to deal with the issues because they're not worried about a hundred other things that they still have to do that day.”

Going the extra mile

Colombians are known to be hard workers, people that go the extra mile, always looking for a way to improve their skillset to provide high-quality services and enhance their career path.  

“Our Colombian team, they were too good and talented to be doing that (operative tasks). So, it's like, you guys should hire some people and train them how to do that work so you don't have to do it anymore […] People always ask me, they assume we just do like track and trace and load build down here. And I'm like, no, I have multiple layers in Colombia.”

Creating long-lasting, beneficial relationships with our clients is one of our main objectives. Thanks to our incredible team of talented professionals, our flexible business model, the closeness to our management team, and the seamless scalability of our services, we can provide the best experience for our clients to grow and thrive.  

Want to leverage the Lean benefits and create a mutually beneficial relationship through hiring the right talent for your teams? Contact us!

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