Logistics industry losing manpower to call centers

CEBU, Philippines — The attractive salary packages offered by the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies resulted to a shortage in manpower in other sectors such as the logistics industry in the Philippines.

“We are now (facing a) shortage in manpower. They would rather go and work for call centers,” said Doris P. Torres, Philippine Multimodal Transport and Logistics, Association, Inc., (PMTLAI) director, and chairman for training and development.

This concern pushed the group to seek help from the Technical Educational and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to promote the freight and forwarding certification program to improve the number of professionals in the industry.

At present the 221 members of the logistics and forwarding sector in the country is having difficulty to entice people to work for their respective companies.

“Talo kami sa call centers. That’s why we came up with the National Certification Program in partnership with TESDA,” Torres lamented.

Most of the professionals who are now involved or employed with logistics and forwarding operations are those who are degree holders in marketing, business administration, and customs administration, among others.

In the recent years, Torres said only few fresh graduates are interested to work with the sector due to the more attractive take-home pay offered the call center companies.

The challenge now is on how to constantly provide the new entrants with training to align their skills with the requirement of the industry.

Aside from BPO companies, the logistic sector is also struggling with the perennial threats of brain drain.

Those that have already established their feet on the logistics industry are also being pirated by multinational companies abroad like Middle East, America and China.