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Here are the seven Eastern European countries that have become hubs for outsourced freight talent.
Happy Friday Eve. On Monday, we released our FreightCaviar documentary on Serbia, and it got us thinking—this is the perfect time to highlight the Eastern European countries that have become hubs for outsourced freight talent.
I remember sitting at my desk at Trek Freight Services, the first brokerage I worked for, back in late 2015. I was chatting with a carrier dispatcher over G-Chat when they mentioned they were based in Serbia.
My immediate reaction was, "Woah, that's cool." I had some Serbian friends growing up and thought, I need to visit there one day.
Fast forward to last March, and I finally got the chance to tie that curiosity into work. We created a FreightCaviar documentary about Serbia's freight scene, which we just released.
Since that first encounter with an overseas dispatcher in Eastern Europe back in 2015, I’ve noticed a growing trend—many dispatchers are spread across that part of the continent. As FreightCaviar gained followers on Instagram, I could see where many of them were based, further confirming this.
Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to visit many of these countries, and I wanted to share a list of the Eastern European countries that, in my experience, are key hubs for outsourcing in the freight industry.
Before we dive into that, a word from our main sponsor today, Trinity Logistics.
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Based on FreightCaviar's Instagram follower demographics, these countries rank as the most popular for outsourcing freight talent, particularly dispatchers, listed from most to least popular:
Of the top seven countries, I’ve visited six, created freight documentaries about three (Serbia, Lithuania, and Macedonia), and lived in two (Ukraine and Poland).
Let’s take a closer look at some of the content we’ve created about the countries I’ve visited.
In addition to our documentary, we also have a podcast and blog with Aleks Bates about outsourcing in Serbia. Check out some photos from our trip here.
Kaja Kusińska
Paul-Bernard Jaroslawski
Before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, it topped the list of Eastern European countries for outsourced freight talent. Since then, many workers have left Ukraine, with many relocating to Poland, where I’m based. This shift likely explains why Poland is now on the list.
From 2017 to 2020, I lived in Kyiv, Ukraine, where I helped grow the office of a U.S.-based freight brokerage. I’ve shared some of my experiences in this blog on FreightCaviar.
Paul-Bernard Jaroslawski
Boris Panov, one of the industry’s top meme creators, is from Macedonia. While the country is officially called North Macedonia, locals simply refer to themselves as Macedonian (a political topic we’ll skip for now).
I visited Boris in his hometown of Stip in May 2022. During the trip, we filmed a podcast, created a short documentary, and wrote an article.
Paul-Bernard Jaroslawski
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Moldova, a landlocked country between Ukraine and Romania, is considered one of the poorest in Europe.
I had planned to visit Moldova in November to film a documentary, but family circumstances prevented me. However, I plan to make the trip this year.
Many large carriers in the Chicagoland area have owners with Lithuanian roots, including HMD Trucking, Unlimited Carrier, Triton Logistics, Cadence Premier, and GTS. All of them also have offices in Lithuania, along with many others.
I’ve visited Lithuania twice to visit carriers—once in 2019 and again in August 2023.
Watch our short documentary here or read our blog here.
Adriana Pulley
Many Bosnians living in St. Louis, MO, and Louisville, KY, work in trucking and have outsourced jobs to their home country.
I first visited Bosnia while backpacking in 2016, but I plan to return this year to visit Omer Ramusevic, who appeared in our Serbian documentary.
Although I live in Poland, I haven’t created much content about the outsourced freight scene here yet—it’s on my to-do list.
However, we do have a FreightCaviar sponsor (AmeriPol Staffing) based in Rzeszow that provides outsourcing for U.S. logistics companies. I visited them just two days ago.
Paul-Bernard Jaroslawski
That’s a look at the Eastern European countries serving as outsourcing hubs for the U.S.
In a future newsletter, we’ll also spotlight some Central Asian countries involved in outsourcing.
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