Freight Manager
When you’re the freight manager at a large supply chain operation, it can almost be like running your own logistics business. As well as overseeing teams that ensure fleets are staffed, well maintained and legally compliant, you might also be negotiating deals with third party carriers and logistics hubs, and you will be keeping a close eye on the department’s incoming revenues and outgoing costs, to better balance the books and keep the business profitable.
Freight manager jobs can also be quite specific when it comes to regions and modes of transportation. The typical rail freight manager and road freight manager will have distinct skill sets, responsibilities and abilities, but both will be very different to someone who deals port to port with shipping companies. What they all have in common is a deep understanding of how time pressure and transport capacities go to make freight management an exact science, with as little room for manoeuvre as a supertanker in the Suez Canal.
The skills required
The budgetary oversight of the department or company you are managing will be in your hands. Therefore, you’ll need to be a person who not only understands how finances work in the freight industry, but also how to do it efficiently and to root out areas that are underperforming and replace them with more cost effective solutions.
As freight manager, you’ll also be overseeing a potentially complex team of drivers, warehouse staff, brokers, legal experts and contract specialists who will need to work like clockwork to keep your freight moving to where it’s meant to be. You’ll need to be confident in your decisions and able to communicate them to the whole team to see your strategic vision to completion.
Freight Manager Jobs in Lisburn
Lisburn is a city whose centre is 7.5 miles (12 km) south west of the centre of Belfast. It is Northern Ireland’s newest city, gaining city status in 2002 for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. The city is historically noted for its links with the linen industry, and now has a museum dedicated to the craft. To Lisburn’s north west are the banks of Lough Neagh, which at 151 square miles (392 sq km) is the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles by surface area (Lake Windermere, England’s largest, is only about 5.5 square miles in area!). The city is connected to Belfast by the M1 motorway. It is also on the railway line from Belfast to Dublin, and trains can be taken from the city centre to both capitals.
Although the population of Lisburn is roughly 70,000, it is part of The Dublin-Belfast Corridor, which is home to 3 million people. The population of the whole of Northern Ireland is just under 2 million. Close to three quarters of a million people live in the Belfast area, which means that about a third of the population is concentrated in this small area on the country’s east. The city’s population is growing steadily, and indeed the local government is attempting to boost Lisburn’s population with a set of schemes it is putting in place.
With its growing population and excellent links to Belfast and Dublin, Freight Manager positions do come up in Lisburn or its neighbouring areas relatively frequently. Northern Ireland as a whole has seen more prosperity over the past decade or so, and it’s now considered a good place to invest, which can only be good news for the logistics, supply chain and procurement industries.
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Freight managers needed nationwide
Every supply chain operation needs efficiency, so a good manager is like gold dust to any logistics operation. There’s a thriving market for anyone with the talent, and businesses offer attractive packages to the right candidates.
If you’re a freight manager with good experience, you are in demand right now, so please register your details via the link below. We can then match you up with some of the biggest and best supply chain companies in the world.
Companies that are looking for freight managers need to know they’re getting the cream of the crop when it comes to candidates. At Cast UK we only deal with managerial and executive-level freight managers, so we can whittle down an experienced shortlist for you to choose from. Call us on 0333 121 3345 to talk about specialist recruitment or get in touch here.
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