Rising to the Occasion

A knack for transport seems to run in the blood.

Entrepreneur, Sophia Lafkas, has been heavily involved in the industry for years, and for her, there really wasn’t much choice in the matter.

Transport was a major and constant presence in her life by virtue of the family she came from, who had built and run their own prominent container haulage business – AST Services – out of Port Botany in New South Wales for 30 years.

Sophia followed this beaten path early on, entering the family business as a 14-year-old in the mid-2000s.

She would work during school holidays under the tutelage of her grandmother, who was entrenched in the business’ financial operations.

This initial exposure ignited a keen interest within Sophia for operations, numbers and problem-solving.

She nurtured this interest by studying accounting in university, before coming back to AST Services with a much more embedded finance role.

“When I came back to the family business after my studies, I started working through its finances pretty much right away,” she says.

“It began with learning all the types of account filing, before invoicing all the jobs the company took on. It was a real crash course in operations — how to manage the workload, book jobs on my own, and everything in between.”

But of course, she rose to the occasion.

Commencing the role of Finance Manager after her grandmother passed away in 2018, Sophia was thrown into the deep end as AST Services was in the midst of acquiring another business.

This was followed by its own acquisition made by QUBE in late 2021, a process Sophia was indispensable to.

“I facilitated the sale to QUBE, and it was a great experience,” she recalls. “I really got to understand the fun part of the negotiation and enjoyed being in the middle of the communication between the companies.”

This event helped her realise that the keen interest she had for transport finances and problem solving was a passion.

Following the acquisition of AST Services, Sophia planned to offer freelance bookkeeping services within the industry.

But this was quickly put on hold when she found herself with an opportunity to establish a transport enterprise of her own. Naturally, she jumped at it. And she hasn’t looked back.

What eventuated was The Perfect Recruit, a labour hire business which she established in Sydney over four years ago.

The business has rapidly expanded since – now also providing its services in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth – with plans to break into Adelaide in the near future.

The Perfect Recruit connects drivers with transport fleets in need of manpower and offers a healthy mix of independent contractors who bring their own trucks and sometimes trailers to the job, as well as drivers looking to be substituted into customer fleets to operate equipment.

Roughly 80 drivers in the company are matched with the job best suited for them based on the length of the job with the help of its unique selling point in the market: a nationwide database of fleet operators and their vacancies.

The Perfect Recruit’s prominence and connectedness within the industry has been the result of relentless work, a grind that Sophia learned on the job.

“Consistency is a mindset I’ve learned, especially with marketing,” she says.

“Everything from cold-calling new clients, to enacting our LinkedIn strategy for over a year. We’ve put in this consistent work and are seeing a lot of traction. My name is starting to pop up a lot in the industry now. We’re even having companies approach us for work which is amazing given how much we relied on word-of-mouth for business when we first started.

“This consistency gets my name out there, generates revenue, and builds my reputation in the space. People think ‘truck drivers’ and they think ‘Sophia’, or vice versa. It’s awesome.”

The resultant traction undergirds Sophia’s already-sharp market sense and passion for the space. In her fast-paced role, every day is a learning experience, and she loves it.

“I like the sense of owning what I’m doing,” she says.

“There’s a passion in me seeing the numbers of a business, seeing where things work and don’t work operationally, and then collaborating to find a solution. Obviously in transport, margins are very slim, and it’s not always viable to stay in the green.”

Solutions come, as Sophia has learned from her own venture, in many different forms.

“Sometimes you need to put yourself in a bit of a loss to then make more in the long run,” she adds.

“I love being able to crack that code.”

The transport industry’s demand for unique solutions is further heightened by its capricious nature — a nature that Sophia decidedly thrives in.

“One thing I’ve learned is that running a business can be particularly volatile,” she says.

“You can be doing very well with many clients one minute and then experience a major dip the next. Transport as an industry is also so volatile already. Especially container transport, where the slightest weather impact will close ports, and has major flow-on effects to the consumer.”

The inherent volatility contributes to the breakneck pace of transport leaving small windows of time to accomplish a task according to Sophia.

“That’s what I love — the pressure to get things done,” she says.

“I love being on my toes all the time, and that’s reflected in the business I operate.”

Sophia’s seasoned experience and successful business venture in the transport industry have earned her a spot as a finalist for the Young Gunnette Award, which recognises the achievements of up-and-coming women in the transport and logistics industry and is presented by Transport Women Australia Limited (TWAL).

For Sophia, the nomination was an unexpected honour.

“Being nominated for the Young Gunnette Award feels really good,” she shares.

“I’m so grateful that I’ve even had the opportunity to be a finalist, regardless of the outcome. I’m sure there are a lot of other women in the industry who embody this award. I never really thought that I’d be a finalist for something like this.”

While Sophia is excited for this nomination to bring more exposure to her booming business, she’s also used it as a moment to reflect on her own journey through the transport sector as a woman, and what it means for her to come through it as a success.

“When I first started this business, I remember shying away from finding clients on my own in the male-dominated space,” she says.

“I was quite nervous with the notion of cold calling as a woman. People always used to give a certain energy, like they didn’t think I knew what I was talking about because I was a woman, and looked a bit younger than I might have been. But I’ve just worked really hard to change this narrative. I’m a woman in the industry with a lot of experience, and I’ve shown that now. People know it.”