What Do Transportation And Logistics Professionals Do?

Your transportation and logistics job descriptions detail the supply chain functions and how they fit in your logistics and distribution culture. Distribution, warehousing, and logistics management company’s need to ensure their workforce consists of the best mix of experience and skills to ensure transportation activities are effective and meet any safety and legal requirements.

Depending on the company type and size, logistics employees oversee:

• Supply chain management and the order cycle
• Transport costs, schedules, and delivery times
• Inventory management of goods and raw materials
• Business development
• Service automation
• Health and safety
• Inventory and stock auditing
• Transporting goods or people to their destinations safely
• Loading and unloading finished goods
• Moving products or equipment in and out of storage

Transportation And Logistics Role

The duties of the transport department are completed by specialists in roles titled as:

• Logistics Coordinators
• Transport Manager
• Cabin Crew
• Delivery Driver

Transportation And Logistics Responsibilities And Duties

Transportation duties are the must-do and high-priority responsibilities of the role. These are the job aspects that you will likely govern the individual’s performance on, and as you can imagine, ensuring finished goods or people get to their destinations safely and on time and reducing transport costs will probably be top of the list.

Transportation management and transportation specialist responsibilities and primary duties might include:

• Planning routes and allocating truck drivers
• Answering customer queries/ensure customer satisfaction
• Monitoring stock levels (in larger units and warehousing)
• Arranging training for drivers and junior staff
• Performing safety checks on vehicles and storage equipment
• Loading and unloading goods (Warehouse Workers)
• Processing shipments
• General business development
• Scheduling transportation services for smooth operations
• Inventory management
• Ensuring logistics operations conform to industry regulations
• Maintaining working knowledge of standards

These duties are pretty generic, but you can make the job’s duties more engaging and meaningful by saying how the responsibility should be accomplished. For example, ‘You will oversee supply chain management by implementing transportation policies, managing logistics staff, and allocating resources and equipment.’

Transportation And Logistics Skills

To ensure your company meets its strategic objectives and complies with best practices and legal requirements, you need to hire supply chain staff with the right skills.

To complete their essential tasks, transport and logistics workers need hard and soft skills, and companies should prioritise hiring individuals with:

• Interpersonal skills and communication skills
• Customer services skills/handling customer complaints
• Employee management (Transport Manager/Logistics Coordinators)
• Specialist business sector or industry knowledge
• Geography and location knowledge
• Data analysis
• Organisation
• An innovation and solutions-orientated mindset
• Accountability
• Time management
• Team-working
• Polite
• Numeracy
• Problem-solving skills
• Active listening
• Trustworthiness
• Negotiating skills/Negotiation skills
• Target driven
• Adaptable
• Leadership
• Strategic thinking
• Business administration
• Physical fitness for longer shifts/working hours

Transportation And Logistics Qualifications And Education

The qualifications and education depend on the role and level of seniority but might include:

• An Associate Degree or Bachelor’s Degree in Transportation, Logistics, or Business Administration
• Pre-entry Postgraduate Qualification
• Extensive knowledge of legal requirements
• HGV license
• Forklift license
• Proficiency using logistics software
• GCSEs or a High School Diploma

Required Transportation And Logistics Experience And Training

Supply chain operations staff may not need work experience at a junior level. Senior logistics staff might have completed a Supply Chain Practitioner Advanced Apprenticeship or hold Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport accredited certifications.

Transportation And Logistics Job Description FAQs

Here we answer your questions on transportation roles and job descriptions.

WHAT DOES A TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS PERSON DO?

Transportation and logistics industry jobs are specialised roles that range from driving transportation vehicles to managing transport operations or providing transportation customer care. Companies may hire personnel to create routes and schedules, maintain vehicles, or manage inventory.

WHAT ARE THE TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS ROLES AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT ROLES?

The roles we see posted on job boards by companies and individuals responsible for posting job ads include logistics coordinator, inventory manager, transport manager, driver, and warehouse staff.

WHAT IS A LOGISTICS MANAGER AND TRANSPORT MANAGER RESPONSIBLE FOR?

A transport and logistics manager will manage and coordinate staff, ensure customers receive excellent service, manage and reduce costs, provide training resources, and manage storage levels.

WHAT QUALIFICATIONS SHOULD A LOGISTICS MANAGER HAVE?

In larger units and companies, a logistics management position may be filled by an individual with a pre-entry Postgraduate Qualification, HND, or Degree in Logistics or Supply Chain Management.

HOW DO I HIRE A TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS PERSON?

Job advertising for transportation and logistics will vary depending on the company sector, positions, and skills you need. Your company will need to implement a hiring strategy that encompasses advertising on general and specialist transport and logistics job boards, social media, and word-of-mouth referrals.

Your hiring strategy might also include having a presence at industry conferences and online with career, resources, and certification bodies.

Vital elements that will affect hiring success include writing an effective job description and selecting the correct job title. Elements to include in the job description include training, qualifications, and other aspects of specialised roles. You should also state if you are hiring for temporary, permanent, or self-employment positions.

Flat fee recruitment solutions continue to deliver the best results when hiring a logistics manager, transport manager, driver, or customer support staff.

WHAT IS A TRANSPORTATION JOB DESCRIPTION?

A transportation job description is a document that sets out the role’s duties, tasks, and skills. Putting these in black and white is crucial and will help you find the right match for a position that directly affects efficiency, profit, growth, and customer experience.

The job description should be transparent and clearly set out who you are, who you want, what they will do, and why a potential candidate might want to work for you. It helps tremendously to use language and jargon that engages your audience.

When you get all of this right and include the best words to use when writing transportation job descriptions, you will get job applications from qualified candidates that closely match your ideal person profile.

HOW DO I WRITE A TRANSPORT PERSON JOB DESCRIPTION?

When writing a job description, either for a transportation job advert or an internal job specification, you need to focus on 5 main criteria:

1. What are the key jobs, tasks, and duties required for a transportation position
2. Consider all the job responsibilities required for a transportation role
3. What skills the person must have for the job
4. What personality traits the person must have to work in transportation services
5. Appropriate and relevant education and qualifications

These five criteria should help you build a picture of your ideal candidate. Good questions to consider that will help you write a concise transportation job description that stands apart from others (essential in the current competitive job market), and attract the best candidates, include:

• What value does this role bring to your company?
• How does the role align with your company culture, values, and mission?
• How does this role differ from other company positions?
• How is this role similar to other company positions?
• What are the minimum skills or transferable skills?
• What are examples of your transportation activities and business goals?

Suppose you are not hands-on in the transport department or highly familiar with the company’s transportation services. In that case, it can help to interview one of your experienced drivers or transport management staff to gain a greater understanding.

A word about jargon: The phrase ‘jargon’ has good and bad connotations, and if it isn’t carefully considered, it may deter candidates from applying. Ask yourself if words and phrases are company-exclusive or industry recognised.

Furthermore, if you are hiring for senior-level supply chain management positions, you might expect candidates to have a greater vocabulary and understanding of logistics jargon. However, if you are hiring for junior-level jobs, consider being as straightforward and transparent as possible.

WHAT TRANSPORTATION TASKS SHOULD I INCLUDE IN A JOB DESCRIPTION?

The tasks of a transportation specialist or logistics manager are any other activities that they complete on a regular or occasional basis. These are usually subsidiary tasks such as ordering raw materials in warehousing roles or completing company paperwork.

It is tempting to leave some of the more ‘boring’ tasks out to make your vacancy sound more attractive, but this can lead to trouble down the road as you may recruit a transportation specialist that is not a perfect match. If you hire the wrong candidate, your business, team, and customers may suffer. The employee might leave your company, and you are back to square one, requiring another investment in recruitment and training.

If you get to the end of the process outlined here and find that your job description is too long and concise has gone out the window, it is time to review your first draft. To bring things back into line, you should delete unnecessary phrases and fluff, remove prepositional phrases, focus on what is role critical, and refrain from putting your entire ‘about us’ page in your content.

HOW DO I ENGAGE TRANSPORTATION CANDIDATES?

As a final note for employers and recruiters, it is crucial to remember that while a job description is about what and who you want, describing this alone will not create an inbox full of eager candidates willing to comply. A job advert must go beyond the duties, skills, education, qualifications, traits, and tasks that you want and communicate the position’s value to job seekers.

Your business should convey its employee value propositions to engage candidates, highlighting both monetary and other benefits. Benefits that will entice qualified job seekers to apply might include:

• Stating the transportation position’s average salary range rather than saying ‘competitive salary’
• Focusing on work-life balance
• Flexibility in work location and when hours are completed (work from home, on the road, or hybrid office and remote)
• Many opportunities for training
• Career development opportunities
• The quality of services
• How company values align with those of customers and employees