Muataz Alsafi, Chief Development Officer (CDO) at TruKKer in a chat with People Matters spoke about the effects of Covid on logistics and the supply chain. According to him, the pandemic made everyone realise the significance of the industry and its contribution to the growth of the economy.

There has been a rapid shift in the workplace.  How have you repositioned yourself amid the changing culture?

TruKKer’s journey started in 2016 out of foreseeing new possibilities for the legacy and tech-ignoring land freight market in the Middle East. The way we rewired the industry stems from our in-house data sciences capabilities that spotted actionable insights across any supply chain, mainly its touchpoints. Our passing through the Covid times proved to be unique in terms of making more actionable decisions drawing upon our data pool and the gleaned insights. We were already expanding - and now we’re operational in 10 countries across three continents.

It offered us great room to diversify our talent with a workforce that comes from multicultural backgrounds. And when you look at challenges with a new lens, you perceive them with a more open and dynamic point of view. We were able to get into all of that and manage it in a way that helped record growth and to be sustainable. So, adopting changes in terms of technological advancement and customers’ needs are important elements, but being sustainable is another element. These are the two things we are committed to which actually helped us sail the boat through the rough sea.

Employees’ expectations—of their job experience and of their leaders—witnessed a dramatic shift in the recent past. Being a start-up, how are you strategising your talent management policy?

It is a must to agree that talent is one of the important assets for any company and taking care of their expectations is a primary task of an organisation. However, dealing with and managing people’s expectations is not an easy task. Strong two-way communication is needed as everyone has their way of interaction. From smooth onboarding to meeting people’s expectations on why they joined us it is our job to ensure everything to the workforce.

Besides, as a startup we also expect our people to be adaptive, agile, resilient, and progressive. Knowing employees’ expectations and vice-versa help our team to look into the needs of our people as our idea is to retain our workforce.

Compensation is not the only factor that motivates employees to change their job. What according to you are other factors that make employees look for a new job?

 The current environment is very exciting. Ripe for disruption, the land freight arena is amidst sea changes - right from operations to supply chain augmentation. TruKKer, from day one, has been on the forefront of revolutionising on all fronts. Aggressive market entries, industry-first innovations, and a tightly-knit ops culture are now pushing us toward the next phase - an IPO.

And as we set foot on each market, we’re gained more than expected - the most worthy of all is our 500+ workforce. Our people and communities are at the heart of our business and innovation - and our technology helps us care for them in the best way. Apart from onboarding local talent and truckers into our network, we also have hands-on programs that course correct for the rest of their journey into the modern freight world. The result is a dependable and agile workforce that is more of a doer than just a thinker.

We have always believed in the spirit of diversification, and we have always proved right. Nevertheless, the rapid shift in workplace culture redefined compensation and it is not always related to money or something tangible. Apart from monetary benefits, people are also looking for recognition, respect, inclusion, and soft power to stay motivated in the workplace.

Covid-19 badly disrupted the logistics and transportation sector. How did this disruption impact competitiveness, economic growth, and job creation?

During the Covid when everything came to a standstill logistics had to function. The pandemic made everyone realise the value and importance of logistics and supply chains. It turned out to be an important element and every organisation has to pay close attention to it. The global health pandemic brought logistics and supply chains and their contribution to the forefront of business and direct impact on economies. If logistics gets disrupted it will immediately impact economies. It is true that Covid has brought many challenges, but also brought accountability to the logistics sector. Otherwise, maybe people were in the impression that's it is just limited to loading and unloading things or moving from one place to another.

That said there’s one more thing. Our transformative approaches also helped TruKKer serve the driver communities and vendors - now almost more than 10,000 drivers make 70% of their earnings from our platform. Our load board buzzes with freshly listed loads so drivers have less idling and more hauls. During the pandemic, we were the lifeblood of the region’s most complex and essential land supply chains.

From the same platform, they seek, bid and win loads, get paid beforehand, and our support agents shadow their trip 24/7. Be it any clearance issue, breakdown, or any hold-ups - they have real-time assistance.

What is your policy to turn adversity into opportunity after Covid battered the logistics and transportation sector?

With a presence in three continents and nine countries, turning adversity into opportunity is an essential element for us. We need to understand the different requirements of the various countries where we are operating. As an organisation, we need to adapt to the changes and respond to them accordingly.

Our operations in diverse countries exposed us to new things and pushed TruKKer to offer new products. For example, we offered instant freight pricing to all our regions to cut off undue operation blockers and most importantly additional uncertainties. Our platform capabilities became more defined and action-biased with more data-led maneuvers. Foretelling of market signals, supply chain control, asset visibility, and stakeholder management - we took everything up a notch. So that whenever a truck moves it doesn’t cause additional dependencies but aims for a sound execution of goals and ambitions.

What are the strategies that logistics and transportation companies must prioritise in a post-Covid world?

There are a couple of things that should be prioritised and companies should start with human or people assets first. Customer satisfaction is another important aspect that needs to be taken care of by logistics companies. Technology which is an enabling element is another area where the utmost focus is required. Technology is very important to make us agile. So, enabling technology faster should be ensured.

The last thing which is also important is the ‘mindset of growth’, and just be prepared for disruptive technology such as electric trucks. Green and sustainable logistics, and impact on the community must be taken care of.