Becoming a Chapman Freeborn OBC broker

Kasey Lam is a working “boots-on-the-ground” Broker/Operations Manager for Chapman Freeborn OBC. His past experience as the business owner of a logistic company has prepared him well. For almost three years, he has been a working broker, who continues to prepare and complete On Board Courier (OBC) missions on a daily basis. To learn how the Chapman Freeborn OBC global operations connect for 24/7 service, Lam was able to train in Hong Kong for a month and then spent another month training in Cologne, Germany. He got to see first-hand, how customers can receive a quote as quickly as possible, no matter where in the world they are based. All current jobs are consistently passed to the next office time zone as each new day dawns.

As a result of his experience, Lam has trained nearly everyone in the Los Angeles office for Chapman Freeborn OBC. Right now, Helen, a new broker has completed the required online training for HR, corporate culture, compliance, required documents, etc. Day-to-day, she’s learning airport codes, aircraft capacities and operations. After 12 weeks or so, she’ll begin contacting customers on her own, learning what their needs are and following the jobs through to delivery.

Simply put, Chapman Freeborn OBC Brokers are logistic specialists, who analyze a situation and solve the puzzle. Whatever the puzzle is – one courier/one shipment or four couriers and multiple box shipments – whatever the customer needs to get from A to B, this team has the resources to get it done.

At the moment, due to Covid 19, the OBC broker’s job is more complex. There are currently limited numbers of direct or non-stop flights. Countries are at varying degrees of ‘open’ and the requirements for courier visas, identification and documents are fluid. The first step in fulfilling an OBC request is to select the right courier for the job. Considerations include:

• Where are they located?
• Which country are they going to?
• Do they have a current visa to enter that country?
• Are they fluent in the local language?

Typically, a new Chapman Freeborn OBC broker in LA will have a 9 month training period. Lam will continue to be a mentor to them, whenever they need advice. Once trained, the brokers go into a rotation for “on duty” roster. Due to the nature of the business, the broker on duty will work weekends and odd hours responding to incoming inquiries.

They maintain 24/7 access to the global inquiries, quotes and all of the OBC jobs in progress. For example, an OBC job from Asia to the US can cover two days. Each element of job is tracked and communicated to the customer every step of the way. Milestones include pick-up, export, long-haul flight, and flight arrival. As the courier lands, the job’s activity may shift to one of three global operations offices to continue monitoring. In this way, communication is in touch all the way through to the shipment’s delivery confirmation.

While there are lots of moving parts to the OBC puzzle, our brokers are always up for the job.