A trained team + A happy team = A productive team

The experience

Responsive, dedicated, and a true partnership — that’s how K&L Freight Management describes working with Rapido Solutions. Initially drawn to the industry experience of co-founders Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza, K&L Freight needed a custom, nearshore team to support their business operations. And fast. Building a nearshore team is no easy feat, but with Rapido’s help, K&L Freight was in good hands. 

K&L Freight needed a fully trained, ‘ready-to-go’ team based in Guadalajara dedicated to them exclusively to perform roles starting with track and trace. The imperative: someone to train and manage their team away from home. They also needed help navigating the process of hiring a nearshore team — from taxes to payroll, legal, and more. In fact, K&L Freight was investigating building their own team and office in Mexico but it became clear that working with Rapido was more beneficial because of Rapido’s expertise handling legal and HR compliance requirements for them. 

They looked to Rapido for training, hiring talent, and managing the details. Rapido gave the K&L Freight team full transparency into the process of hiring and setting up the team, and they took care of the tax and legal requirements. All employees attended a thorough training session that provided a baseline of the industry, enabling the team to “hit the ground running” like K&L Freight needed them to.

The Rapido HR and Account Management teams worked to develop relationships with the new K&L Freight team in order to benchmark performance, identify improvements in their working relationship, and maximize the team’s success. 

KPIs are set and clearly communicated. The track and trace KPIs include maintaining an exception and expectation list, documenting incidents/mistakes that could have resulted in a claim, and conducting 1:1 surveys. KPIs for carrier roles include number of offers, phone calls, loads booked, and net revenue — the same as the internal US based reps at K&L Freight. 

“By allowing us to come and visit Guadalajara as well as sending employees to Chicago, we have been able to continue to extend our culture and make the Guadalajara team feel like members of K&L Freight.”

  - Bridget Messina (Palcko), Senior Vice President, Operations, K&L Freight Management

Equal part success 

In order to ensure maximum success, the K&L Freight team has some advice for others with the same challenge: Managers in the US should invest their time and resources into developing their nearshore Rapido team and make them feel like a part of the culture. Working closely with the Rapido account manager will help get the most out of the Rapido nearshore experience and out of the team! It takes effort from both sides to make it successful.

The future 

The Rapido team is always very responsive to any questions the K&L Freight team has and they have continuously added new roles and employees over the past 18 months.  Rapido finds the right candidates and understands competitive wages for the roles needed. K&L Freight is looking forward to continuing to build the team in Guadalajara with the assistance of Rapido. 

K&L Freight’s future goal is to grow more of the same roles and to increase volume at the same time. They are looking to further expand their cross-border growth and are counting on Rapido’s involvement in that growth. They look to Rapido for help with hiring, but also as a backup support for understanding Mexico law, technology, and other local requirements. K&L Freight categorizes their relationship with their nearshore team as highly personal — they view them as more than just employees. 

“My advice is to treat your nearshore team like your own employees. Have regular 1:1s with the team — the more they feel a part of the US-based organization the harder they will work and the more productive they will be.”

  - Bridget Messina (Palcko), Senior Vice President, Operations, K&L Freight Management