Three to five specialist freight forwarding hires a year, for roughly the cost of one internal HR salary. Most operators never sit down and calculate it.
Here's the comparison worth running honestly.
An internal HR manager is a fixed cost on salary. Annualise a recruiter engagement against that number and the per-hire economics shift fast as placement volume rises. Three placements, four, five. The math moves in your favor the more you actually hire.
But cost is only half of it. What the number covers matters more.
➡️ Network depth compresses search time. A specialist recruiter already knows who in the freight forwarding market is quietly open to a move. Internal HR is working from resumes and applicants who raised their hand.
➡️ A recruiter operates on both sides of that wall. The best commercial talent isn't sending you their resume. They're producing at a competing firm right now, and another forwarder's loss becomes your gain if that person can be persuaded to move.
➡️ Placement quality is part of what you're buying, not just speed. The cost of a slow or wrong commercial hire is real, and it shows up long after the seat is filled.
Running this comparison once, honestly, is what separates operators who control their hiring cost from those who react to it.
Run the numbers before you default to headcount.