About US
MFS Origins
A Familiar Story
Our founding member, Edward Lockridge, was introduced to the transportation industry in 2010 while working for a mid-sized brokerage based in Ontario, CA. In 2013, Edward started his own brokerage in the same area and quickly started to add clientele and a built a traditional office-based team.
Eventually, the company reached a crossroads where additional help was needed to continue the rapid growth, but capital was limited. After almost a year of planning and research, Edward was able to successfully hire, train, and integrate offshore staff with his domestic team. It was evident that this was a solution that was needed in the market and in February of 2016, Edward started My Freight Staff.
Our Leadership Team
Edward Lockridge
Chairman & CEO
10+ years in freight transportation
2013 – 2017 Successful Brokerage Owner
Grant Crawford
Board of Directors
Current Priority1 CFO
Previous Emerge TMS President
Roadrunner Transportation President
Ali Torres
Customer Service Manager
With 8+ years of customer service management and a passion for growth; Ali is an invaluable piece of our growing team!
Caleb Spilchen
V.P. Business Development
Caleb boasts 10+ years of sales management experience along with 12+ years experience in managing remote teams.
Luana Garcia
Accounting Manager
Luana’s accounting background has been instrumental to our growth. Her attention to detail is second to none.
Bernice H
Recruiting Manager
Bernice started her career as a VA working for U.S. based companies. She now uses her experience to help us source top tier talent!
Nilma D
VA Support Manager
Nilma is extremely passionate about the well being of our active VAs. She ensures ongoing support within her team.
What We’re About
We understand that in order for our service to continue to grow, our clients need to be able to count on us. Our Mission, Vision, and Values all re-enforce this concept.
Mission
Our mission is to allow small and mid-sized freight transportation companies to build and maintain qualified and productive freight teams in situations where they may not otherwise be able to. We want our Virtual Assistants to be able to integrate with any existing freight team to fill in any tedious operational gaps to allow your core staff to focus on high-level customer Service, Process Efficiency, and Revenue Growth. Reduce the time you spend working in your business to spend more time working on your business!
Vision
My Freight Staff aims to be a household name in Freight transportation. In the very near future, we see our service positioned as a welcome norm for all leading transportation companies. Whether our VAs are performing those tedious data entry tasks or facilitating the movement of a fleet of trucks, our VAs will be utilized in various scenarios to help growing companies manage cost while at the same time maintaining top level customer service standards
Values
The typical nature of business is evolving before our eyes. Every day, more transportation companies are transitioning away from the rows of people in a call center pushing data business model to a new, more flexible model. We take pride in our ability to give a fighting chance to small and midsized companies that struggle with adapting to these rapid changes and even more pride in the fact that we can provide high level opportunities to the right candidates regardless of their location in the world. The transportation industry drives the U.S. economy and every step that we take is aimed at making it easier for freight professionals to do their job effectively.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will my VA also work for other companies?
Each of our plans include a dedicated virtual assistant (VA). You’ll work with your VA on a one-to-one basis, continually submitting tasks directly to this person. Your VA will grow to know you, your work, and your preferences all while learning to anticipate your needs without you having to repeat yourself.
How do I know the VA is going to be capable of doing the job?
Our VAs are trained and tested on essential freight transportation functions and only those that prove their ability are made available to you. Also, most of our VAs are college educated and have relatable experience that help them easily adapt to freight transportation functions.
Can I have Someone Work in My Office?
Unfortunately, we only have virtual assistants at this point. We could not offer the rates that we do if the candidate was working in your office.
Are there any annual contracts involved?
Since most of our Clients are small and mid-sized companies, We don’t do any annual contract but we do have a 3-month lock in period. This helps companies that may not be financially ready to take on an additional worker think twice before starting. It also helps us to attract the best virtual assistants since they know we offer long term work. Overall, it helps us ensure that we can provide you with only the best workers
Will my VA be working on the weekend?
You can adjust a VA’s schedule to any consecutive 5 day period that you desire during any 4 or 8 hour period depending on your plan. We are confident that one of our qualified Virtual assistants will be able to meet your needs
Does my VA have experience working in the freight industry?
Not many VAs have experience in the freight industry, HOWEVER, most of them have relatable experience and have passed our freight transportation training course with a 75% total average or greater. We are confident that they can quickly perform for any freight company.
I just signed up! What can I expect, next?
First, welcome aboard! Your Client Success Manager will reach out to you within 24 hours of signing up. Next, you’ll complete a form that will help your CSM better understand of your personal preferences and working style. Afterwards, you’ll hop on an quick onboarding call with your CSM and your VA to discuss your needs to ensure that the two of you hit the ground running!
Do my hours roll over?
As a monthly membership service, our clients subscribe to us for the ability to retain a trained virtual assistant. While each plan offers a different level of service, as a membership subscription our plan hours do not rollover, and your membership fees are not tied to time specifically. You can however move back to part time service if it is not practical for you to use full time service any longer
Will my VA be working on holidays?
Most of our VA’s observe major U.S. and national holidays. In select cases you can still reserve your Virtual assistant for any of these holidays at 2 times the rate per hour.
- New Years Day
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Thanksgiving
- Day After Thanksgiving
- Christmas Eve
- Christmas Day
- Additionally, your assistant will work a half day on the Wednesday preceding Thanksgiving and on December 30th.
Can my VA handle personal scheduling?
Absolutely. Your VA can coordinate meetings, schedule appointments, and manage your Calendar with ease. Simply share and grant your VA access to manage your calendar. It’s that simple!
You may need to provide added training on certain apps used for these processes.
Can my VA make purchases on my behalf?
Yes! Your VA can place orders, make purchases, and schedule payments safely and securely. You can read more about our security measures and policies here. To share credit card information, passwords, and other sensitive data, simply have your VA collect your information over the phone. This way, we can ensure your information remains safe. At My Freight Staff, we are committed to the security of your account!
Can my VA make outbound phone calls for me?
Sure thing. Your VA is happy to contact shippers, carriers, and brokers on behalf of your company. Note: this will be on the phone system you provide. If you have questions about how your VA can make calls take a look at our post about VOIP System.
Can my VA accept in-bound calls as well?
Yes! Your VA can accept calls using the same VoIP system that they use to make calls. There is very little difference between your VA’s phone and your phone and your clients wont know the difference.
Can my VA keep my inbox organized?
They can! Delegating your inbox to your VA to read, send, and delete messages on your behalf is a great way to stay on top of email and keep your inbox tidy.
How do I know that my VA is actually working?
When it comes to prospecting, you would need to use a Voice over IP phone system and all of them allow you to pull reports on how many calls were made each day. You can even have the calls recorded so that you can confirm the quality of each call. For operations, It’s very easy to see that orders are being quoted, emails are being answered, tracking updates are being provided, etc. MFS also keeps track of each VAs work progress although we can’t see your personal information.
Why should my company use a Virtual Assistant Instead of a physical Employee?
Most of the larger transportation companies already use virtual workers to reduce their payroll costs by more than half. This allows them to offer more competitive pricing and makes it very difficult for small and midsized companies to compete with them. Using an MFS virtual assistant allows you to build a more productive team while at the same time reducing costs. That gives you a major advantage over your competition.
How are you able to bill me only $7 per hour
Our Virtual Assistants are sourced outside of the U.S. and thus you are not subject to the same minimum wage laws when using our service. Even better, we pay our virtual assistants 2-3 times more than the average wage in their respective country ensuring that all MFS Virtual Assistants can easily take care of their families and are motivated to grow with your company.
In what country are your virtual assistants based?
We have virtual assistants based all over the world. We base these locations on the internet infrastructure, wage laws, formal education, and the strength of the English Language.
How is their English? / I'm worried about the English and the accents.
Before candidates go into our training, they are interviewed internally and if their English does not meet our minimum requirements, the don’t move forward. Also, the first quiz in training tests English skills and they must pass in order to proceed. You can log in on our website and see videos of each candidate to confirm for yourself how strong our VAs English is.
Once my VA finds a lead do they give them to other people also?
Any lead that your VA obtains is yours! You can have your VA follow up further on the leads or you can elect to take the lead and work it on your own. Your lead, your rules.
How do the payments work?
Basically, any hours that are completed from the first of the month to the 15th are billed on the 16th. Any hours that are completed from the 16th to the end of the month are billed on the first of the following month. Payments are made by credit card or ACH depending on your preference.
Do Prospecting VAs actually follow-up and close deals?
A prospecting VAs official job is to take a cold list and make the cold calls to sort out the warm and hot leads for you. This includes following up with leads to get them into that warm and hot group. However, our VAs receive $100 for any leads that they source that become new shipping customers. That being said, most of our VAs end up closing their own leads to make more money.
How does the Commission work for a Prospecting VA?
If your VA finds you a lead or qualifies a lead that ends up becoming a shipping customer, they receive a commission of $100. After the $100 is paid on that particular customer, you never have to pay commission for that customer again. This keeps our VAs motivated to find you NEW shippers which stimulates the growth of your company.
Hire a Trained VA For Your Team
and join hundreds of companies that have already saved up to 75% in payroll costs with our innovative process