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 Rhondda
Rhondda is often known as the Rhondda Valley, and is a collection of mining villages that played a major part in South Wales’s economic prosperity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The coal in the valley was plentiful but difficult to reach, so it required massive investment if it was to become economically viable, and remained largely untapped until the mid-1800s, when just such an effort was undertaken.
Rhondda is located 15 miles (25 km) north west of Cardiff and 20 miles (32 km) east of Swansea, from which ports the coal could readily be shipped around the nation and the world to fuel the Industrial Revolution. This led to a huge growth in population in the area, which went from less than a thousand in the 1851 census to 17,000 twenty years later and 160,000 by 1921. However the decline in coal mining thereafter also led to a decline in population, which now stands at around 60,000.
Commercially, the modern Rhondda Valley is dominated by smaller businesses and local retail areas, with moderate amounts of manufacturing going on. The picturesque appearance of the mountains and hills makes it a desirable place to live for workers from Swansea, Newport and Cardiff who prefer to retreat away from the frenetic pace of the city. The topography of the area means it’s less than ideal for locating logistics or supply chain operations. The valley is served by A road and B roads, with the M4 passing the Welsh coast’s cities the only motorway for miles around. If you’re looking for Freight Manager jobs in Rhondda, it might be worth searching in these cities, although it’s not unknown for such positions to become available.
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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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