Share this
Five Career-Boosting Tips for Transportation Managers
by jpallmerine
It’s hard to write a job description for the typical transportation manager job because no two days — much less entire shipping operations — are ever the same. That said, there is always one thing that stays the same, and that is it’s your job to “get ship done”.
Remember how supply chains got all the attention (both good and bad) during the pandemic? Fortunately, many companies remember logistics’ role in surviving those exceptional times. That’s great, but how can you, as an individual, continue to set yourself apart and build your career as a high performer in the field?
Here are five areas we suggest transportation managers strive for improvement to get ahead in their careers.
1. Drive Service Performance: Above all else, managers like you need to ensure the delivery service performance your company provides takes care of what customers need, and nothing less. Building strong partner relationships and leveraging the best of what technology can offer are two priorities for every successful transportation manager.
2. Show Savings: A close second on the list of priorities for managers is driving cost savings. Shipping is often the single largest line-item expense for companies and rates can be very cyclical. This means cost management is an ongoing battle for transportation managers. Having processes and technology that ensure market-competitive rates is always valuable.
3. Use Analytics: Shipping creates a lot of useful data, but the hard part is knowing what to do with it. If you’re new to analytics, start with tracking and improving on essential KPI’s like cost per mile or cost per pound. Download our Historical FTL Market Rates Calculator to show if you were at, below, or above market rates, and for which lanes for the last three months. Quantifying savings and service improvements is always better than only being able to offer anecdotal evidence of changes you’ve made.
4. Communicate: Because shipping is so central to what’s happening in most manufacturing and retail companies, it’s important to be sure information and data (such as shipment eta’s and documentation) are moving to other connected areas including customers and suppliers that are part of your supply chain.
5. Embrace Technology: Today you can find various low-cost, easy-to-implement technologies to accomplish things like finding lower rates and more reliable carriers. Don’t waste your time on unnecessary manual processes that extend the timeline of getting your freight moved from point A to point B. Embracing technology in your career can make it easier to measure costs against your benchmarks, provide freight reporting to leadership, and give you one centralized location to manage your work - all while reducing the time spent on doing so.
Lastly, transportation managers must ensure you’re getting the credit you deserve. Share your successes by communicating, and don’t be humble on what you’ve accomplished. Many managers fall short by failing to ensure that leadership and stakeholders know all the good things going on in the logistics operation.
If you’re looking for a way that can easily, and quickly bring these five tips to life check out Loadsmart’s freight management platform, ShipperGuide. ShipperGuide is a multimodal platform that provides shippers with end-to-end visibility and can help optimize your business, resulting in a reduction in costs & time spent on shipping operations.
ShipperGuide will empower you to improve compliance & optimize your logistics, by its advanced analytics & reporting features. With a centralized environment to gather valuable insights, you gain a competitive edge in your logistics operations, and in your logistics career.
Share this
- Blog (87)
- Market Trends (83)
- Shipper (83)
- Enterprise Shipper (68)
- Carrier (66)
- News (56)
- Data Insights (50)
- Thought Leadership (43)
- SMB Shipper (38)
- Our Partners (34)
- Product Updates (29)
- Warehouse (28)
- Mode Optimization (25)
- ShipperGuide TMS (22)
- Mid-Market Shipper (17)
- Opendock (14)
- Case Study (11)
- Loadsmart (11)
- Brokerage Services (10)
- Managed Transportation (7)
- Video (7)
- FreightIntel AI (5)
- Instant Execution (4)
- Asset (3)
- Award (3)
- Food and Beverage (3)
- Freight Management (3)
- eBook (3)
- Podcast (2)
- Logistics Solutions (1)
- Paper Packaging (1)
- Retail (1)
- Transportation Management System (1)
- October 2024 (3)
- September 2024 (11)
- August 2024 (5)
- July 2024 (5)
- June 2024 (9)
- May 2024 (7)
- April 2024 (6)
- March 2024 (2)
- February 2024 (2)
- January 2024 (5)
- December 2023 (6)
- November 2023 (2)
- October 2023 (12)
- September 2023 (5)
- August 2023 (3)
- July 2023 (4)
- June 2023 (10)
- May 2023 (5)
- April 2023 (5)
- March 2023 (7)
- February 2023 (5)
- January 2023 (7)
- December 2022 (4)
- November 2022 (13)
- October 2022 (4)
- September 2022 (7)
- August 2022 (11)
- July 2022 (6)
- June 2022 (5)
- May 2022 (2)
- April 2022 (4)
- March 2022 (6)
- February 2022 (7)
- January 2022 (9)
- December 2021 (3)
- November 2021 (5)
- October 2021 (7)
- September 2021 (2)
- August 2021 (2)
- July 2021 (4)
- June 2021 (6)
- May 2021 (6)
- April 2021 (5)
- March 2021 (8)
- February 2021 (3)
- January 2021 (3)
- December 2020 (7)
- November 2020 (9)
- October 2020 (7)
- September 2020 (6)
- August 2020 (10)
- July 2020 (8)
- June 2020 (3)
- May 2020 (1)
- April 2020 (2)
- March 2020 (2)
- February 2020 (1)
- January 2020 (1)
- November 2019 (2)
- October 2019 (1)
- September 2019 (2)
- August 2019 (3)
- July 2019 (2)
- June 2019 (2)
- May 2019 (3)
- March 2019 (1)
- February 2019 (3)
- December 2018 (1)
- November 2018 (2)
- October 2018 (1)
- September 2018 (2)
- August 2018 (1)
- July 2018 (1)
- June 2018 (3)
- May 2018 (4)
- April 2018 (1)
- February 2018 (1)
- January 2018 (4)
- November 2017 (1)
- October 2017 (2)
- June 2017 (1)
- May 2017 (2)
- April 2017 (1)
- February 2017 (1)
- January 2017 (2)
- October 2016 (1)
- August 2016 (1)
- July 2016 (2)
- June 2016 (1)
- March 2016 (1)
- January 2016 (1)
- December 2015 (3)
- November 2015 (2)
- October 2015 (6)
- July 2015 (1)
- June 2015 (1)
- April 2015 (2)
- March 2015 (13)
- February 2015 (17)
- January 2015 (15)
- December 2014 (35)
- November 2014 (26)
- October 2014 (60)
- September 2014 (2)