My OFS, Jamie, sent me this link last week. It’s a news article from the American Journal of Transportation, and it mentions Onlinejobs.ph as one of the websites last-mile carriers use to help them with their labor shortage.
https://ajot.com/news/last-mile-carriers-look-to-overseas-help-in-the-face-of-tight-jobs-market
Last-mile carriers are the trucks and vans that bring everything we buy from ships and trains to the stores and your door.
I didn’t know that last-mile carriers even used VAs or OFS until recently when we saw quite an increase in this industry. But with the pandemic worsening their staffing issues, some of them looked to the Philippines for help.
Turns out it was a great fit because a lot of the skills Filipino VAs have are things that they could use in their business. Skills like:
- Customer service
- Calendar management
- Email management
- Administrative support
- Online marketing
I liked the article because it emphasized that training is needed, and it’s going to be a steep learning curve if the worker you hire has no experience.
Jamie talked to a VA for a last-mile carrier. He’s an experienced virtual assistant, so he didn’t have a hard time learning the ropes of the business. But he needed training on US geography to dispatch drivers and track and trace packages. Now he can navigate across California.
I want to know if other industries out there use Filipino workers that I don’t know about. We’ve done case studies on e-commerce, finance, web development, SEO, and real estate. If you have a different kind of business and you have a Filipino team working for you, I’d love to hear from you.