We are back in the Sarajevo office for the 12th week of the On The Road show. Our very own Mahir Numanovic is a special guest together with our presenter Vedad. Mahir joined our team in November 2020, and in this episode, he shared some interesting stories about himself, the work he does, and the future he envisions for BHX.
But first a little bit about Mahir…
Mahir was born in Brcko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a city in northern Bosnia on the river Sava, it is the 9th biggest city in Bosnia with a population of just under 40,000 people. Mahir shares a great love for his home, but ever since he started high school he has been continually away from home, moving first to Tuzla and later to Sarajevo in search of opportunity and to pursue his interests in IT.
Mahir spoke about his favorite hobby, video games. Telling Vedad that the video game series Stalker piqued his interest in the Chernobyl disaster and that it’s something he likes to explore.
Mahir also shared with us his interest in traveling around the country, seeking natural beauty and feeding his cultural curiosity and fascination for history. “I want to visit as many places, I want to travel in Bosnia and outside of Bosnia as well!”
Working in all areas and being a “complete player”
For those working with us Mahir will almost certainly be a familiar name as he has seen almost every role of the job we do. Mahir has excellently done work in operations, solving problems for our drivers and providing top-notch customer service for our customers. Other than that he has also shown to be an incredible dispatcher, oftentimes saving the day, as Vedad remarks, for many of our drivers. Whether it be by booking an amazing long distance load, or moving our drivers strategically to better areas or after prolonged waiting times. His secret, he says, is the enthusiasm and the love for the job he does.
Mahir also reminisced about some of his most memorable loads, telling us about the time he booked a record-breaking load in terms of load pay. It was a shipment going to Prince Edward Island, Canada. After speaking to the driver and explaining the difficulties associated with such a long trip, especially going to a remote part of the country he was excited and confident he could get it. And he did! Another load he is especially proud of was when he booked one of our drivers who waited for a very long time after delivering in Washington state, in the end he managed to book them on a trip going all the way to Montreal, QC. He says that it was a tough situation for the driver to wait for such a long time and he was glad he could help out with such a long load after it.
The direction of the company and the industry
A big topic currently in the world, but especially in the world of logistics are the rising gas prices. Our industry is directly shaken by such rising costs for our drivers and Vedad and Mahir dedicated a big part of the episode discussing it. Mahir noted that the increase in gas prices seems to be slowing down and expressed his hopes for a fall of the prices back to the usual rates. He also explained that while the gas prices have been rising the load prices have risen as well but not to the same level, leaving the brunt of the costs on the drivers. He says it’s a situation that is difficult but not unmanageable. “We will lose in some areas but win in others.” Nothing how in the last couple months we have seen a high increase in prices for international USA to Canada loads. But that still leaves out some of our drivers who cannot or wish not to go outside the USA.
Mahir explained that he was positive about the advancements and improvements we have made on our end. The launch of the app has been a real revolution for BHX employees and drivers. It allows us to understand and more closely identify the best possible load opportunities for our drivers. Mahir also had some advice regarding the app usage for our drivers, saying how, the best possible use of the app would be to go over the app preferences after every load and edit them accordingly.
To check out the full episode and hear more from Vedad and Mahir head to our YouTube channel!