Mainfreight

Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics

Life at Mainfreight

We’re Global

Mainfreight is a truly global business. As a business, we began our life in 1978 in Auckland, New Zealand. Since then we have grown to 331 branches across 26 countries and we don’t plan on stopping. Our vision is to have Mainfreight trucks and team on every continent – painting the world blue.

Culture

Our unique family and philosophy make Mainfreight who we are. This culture is our most treasured asset and is at the heart of our past, our present and our future. We promote our people from within and encourage our team to make mistakes, just never the same mistake twice. Our team regard each other as a family and share mealtimes. At the same time, we are focused on performance — every branch reports weekly results that are available for all team members to see.

100 Year Vision

Rather than quick wins or short-term gains, Mainfreight’s strategies, decisions and actions today are guided by a desire to create a strong, iconic and enduring business. This long-term vision guides us a business and determines our decisions and actions every day including how we approach the recruitment and training of new team members and customer and supplier relationships.

Our Pathways

As a Mainfreight Team Member, you’ll be working in one of the world’s most exciting, diverse, and fast-paced industries. Global supply chain logistics is booming worldwide – and a role with Mainfreight gets you right amongst it.

At Mainfreight we ensure we give you the support you need to succeed as you start your supply chain journey. Our Cadetships give high school graduates the opportunity to learn on the job, while gaining nationally recognised qualifications. For those that have completed university, we also have our Mainfreight Development Program. You can learn more about these programs by visiting our Opportunities Page.

Environmental Sustainability

We meet our environmental responsibilities head-on, actively seeking ways to leave the lightest-possible imprint on the planet.

We utilise rail where possible and have also introduced electric vehicles into our fleet of local trucks. Our facilities are equipped with solar panels and rainwater harvesting technology – allowing us to not only power our sites, but also run some of them almost completely off grid.

Technology

As our global network continues to expand, we are continually coming up with smart and efficient ways to ensure our technology services are capable of matching our global supply chain expansion. We are committed to upgrading our technology and our online capabilities to give our customers a complete and customised look at wherever their freight is around the world. Our people are a big part of this process and we encourage them to challenge our processes and systems and make suggestions of better and more efficient ways for us to be doing things.

Safety

Safety at Mainfreight is paramount in everything we do. We are committed to ensure that our team and contractors go home safe each and every day, and that our business operations promote positive safety for our customers and in our communities.

We have robust training programs, which includes a national training team, with the purpose to educate our team and contractors in our safe systems and practices. Safety is the foundation of our culture.

Books In Homes

In line with Mainfreight’s 100-year vision, we are committed to helping develop the leaders of tomorrow. Mainfreight is proud of its continuing relationship with Book In Homes Australia. Literacy is widely recognised as one of the most important foundations for success in school and later life. The Book In Homes program ensures crucial early literacy engagement for families and children living in remote and low socio-economic circumstance across Australia.

Opportunities

Leadership is a mindset here

If you’ve got what it takes, we can help you develop leadership skills. We’re a business that recognises merit, more than time in the job, so if you can prove yourself, don’t expect to stay in the same role for long. Ask our team and they’ll tell you that being part of the Mainfreight family means there’s no limit to where your career can go and how fast you can get there.

We’re in a dynamic industry, helping customers manage their global logistics in the smartest, fastest, smoothest possible way. That means you not only learn fast – you get the freedom to make decisions that make a real difference to this business.

Sitting on the sideline is not an option. You get to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in, right from day one. You won’t be on your own though, the team around you is on your side. They genuinely want to see you make a go of it.

Your success is their success.

School Leavers

Listen, learn and make your mark

No matter how old you are, if you’ve got the right attitude and are willing to listen and learn, there’s nothing stopping you from going all the way to the top.

If you’re about to leave school – or have had a bit of time in the workforce, there are plenty of options with Mainfreight.  All our school leavers and graduates start out learning the business on the floor. That means you could be loading freight, driving forklifts, wrapping pallets, labelling freight  – and often working shifts.

One thing’s for sure; you’ll have every opportunity to learn about our business if you’re prepared to work hard, ask questions and listen.  The team you work with are keen to see you succeed and they’ll give you all the help you need to understand the business and how you can get ahead.

We have a promote from within philosophy, so once you become part of the Mainfreight family, your career could take you anywhere!

Cadetships

Mainfreight offers two cadetships for those who want to pursue full time work straight out of high school – while gaining a nationally recognised qualification.

Our cadetships are designed so that all your assessment, training and study is completed on site, during your work hours. This ensures that you are supported by not only your team and managers, but also our dedicated training team.

The Supply Chain Cadetship spans 12 months and gives you the opportunity to experience working in all areas of our freight operations. This hands-on learning will see you not only gain your Certificate III in Supply Chain Operations, but also your forklift license. Upon completion, will you have gained firsthand experience in the coalface of our business. Where you go next in Mainfreight is up to you!

The Driver Cadetship is our specialist pathway for those who want to become a professional truck driver. Over the 2.5 year cadetship, you will experience the operations side of the business while gaining the safety skills and knowledge required to operate a medium and heavy rigid vehicle. At the culmination of your cadetship, you will have a Certificate III in Supply Chain Operations, a Certificate III in Driving Operations, a forklift license, and a Heavy Rigid License. This will set you up to either become a company driver for Mainfreight, or for you to even purchase your own vehicle and become a Mainfreight Owner Driver.

After School Work

We also hire students for our 4pm-9pm shifts, starting out in a freight-checker role. If you’ve got what it takes, there may be opportunities for holiday and weekend work, with potential to secure a full-time role once you finish school.

Graduates

We’ll help you grow wings

Mainfreight graduates know that sitting on the sideline is not an option. You get to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in, right from day one. That means having the freedom to make decisions, contribute ideas and make a difference.

When you work here it’s not a case of ‘doing your time’. Work hard, prove you’ve got what it takes and we’ll help you develop the professional and life skills to take on any role in this business, anywhere in the world. Because we grow our own people and promote from within our global talent pool, anything, anywhere is possible here.

You won’t be on your own though. The team around you have stood in your shoes and are on your side. They genuinely want to see you make a go of it. Your success is our success.

If you’ve got what it takes, you can fully expect to get all the professional and personal development you need to quickly step up. We’ll invest in developing  you as an individual ­ not you as a product. So you can go on to lead our business forward. How far you go and how fast, is up to you.

So if you’re looking for a graduate role that can keep up with your hunger to learn, determination to progress and eventually run the show, let’s talk.

MF Australia Graduate Story - Jason

MF Australia Graduate Story - Bronte

MF Australia Graduate Story - Blake

Our People

Meet Sander

Sander Vreeberg always had a desire to work abroad. When Mainfreight acquired the Dutch logistics business he was part of, that desire quickly became a reality.

How did your career with Mainfreight get started and where?

I started working for Wim Bosman, a Dutch Logistics company in the Netherlands, which was later acquired by Mainfreight in 2011.

How did you end up in Australia?

I’ve always had the ambition to work abroad. When Mainfreight came into the picture, this quickly became a reality. At the time there was a Global Exchange program which I put my hand up for. This gave me the experience of working and living in Brisbane for a year. My wife and I loved our time in Australia and were lucky enough to have Mainfreight support us in making a permanent move back to Australia – this time ending up in Melbourne.

What have the opportunities meant to you personally and professionally?

Personally I have grown a lot. I’ve learnt that if you want to go places, you need to get out of your comfort zone. My personal growth is making me more valuable to the business which in turn, allows me to progress my career. If you told me five years ago that I’d be where I am now, I wouldn’t have believed you.

How has it been adapting to the Mainfreight culture in a new country?

The culture was a lot more embedded in the Australian business then it was in the Netherlands at that time, as we were transitioning from Wim Bosman to Mainfreight. Luckily for me the Mainfreight culture is a good fit with my personality, so it wasn’t difficult to adapt.  I can still be a stubborn Dutchy sometimes and am learning all the time!

Would you do it again if the opportunity came along?

Yes, I wouldn’t even have to think about it.

What advice would you give to someone thinking about joining Mainfreight?

Think about whether there’s a good fit between your personal beliefs and Mainfreight’s values and culture. Some of the Mainfreight values might not make sense straight away, but chances are are, over time you’ll see they’re there for a good reason (like I said, I’m still learning).

If there is a good fit, anything is possible, just make it happen!

Global supply chain logistics…

…put simply, we partner with our customers to provide the full spectrum of international air and ocean, warehousing and domestic transport business to business services. These products pull together to deliver the best supply chain solutions for customers.

We have teams that focus specifically on different areas of the supply chain:

Air & Ocean

• Air and seafreight
• Import and export
• Customs clearance
• Perishables
• Trade facilitation

Warehousing

• Pick and pack
• Hazardous substances
• Inventory management
• Food grade warehousing
• Container unpacks and devanning

Transport

• Nationwide and metro
• Dangerous goods
• Full truck load and intermodal
• Wharf cartage

Supply Chain

• Global visibility
• Project logistics
• Supply chain analysis
• EDI business solutions

We’re a business that’s as much about problem-solving for our customers as we are about physically moving their freight. Today our business revolves around clever thinking, smart technologies, international logistics and above all, people.

Creating more leaders, not followers…

We hire people for their personality, intelligence and guts – and we give them the freedom to be who they really are.

The same goes for our development framework. It’s about developing you as an individual – not a cookie-cutter version of who we think you should be. It’s about helping you build a set of professional and life skills that will equip you to take on any role in this business, anywhere in the world.

We are focused on developing leadership competencies in everybody. Here, leadership is a mindset rather than a ladder to climb. Ask our team and they’ll tell you that being part of the Mainfreight family means there’s no limit to where your career can go and how fast you can get there. We’re a business that recognises merit, not time in the job so if you’ve got what it takes, don’t expect to stay in the same role for long.

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