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 Barnsley
Barnsley is a town of about 75,000 population in South Yorkshire. Roughly speaking it would be the centre point of a circle that passed though Leeds, Sheffield, Doncaster and Huddersfield, each of which is about 14 miles (25 km) away. To its south west is the beautiful Peak District National Park. Barnsley is served by the M1 running north-south, as well as the Sheffield to Leeds railway.
Barnsley was originally a market town and also traveller’s rest location for people moving to and from Leeds and Sheffield, but the discovery of coal and the Industrial Revolution turned it into a powerhouse of productivity. The Barnsley Canal was completed at the start of the nineteenth century, and although it was closed in the mid-20th century (partly due to subsidence from mining, ironically), there is a campaign to get it fixed, dredged and reopened for recreation. Much of the heavy industry has now gone, although one of its specialisms, glassmaking, remains active. A glassblower and a miner appear on Barnsley’s coat of arms.
The town has given us a number of famous people, particularly in sport. Cricket without Dickie Bird and Darren Gough would not be quite the same, and football was made a little more colourful by Mick McCarthey. Perhaps the most famous child of Barnsley, though, is chat show host to the stars of the 70s and 80s, Michael Parkinson.
While Barnsley’s industrial base is a shadow of its former self, it is still possible to find Freight Manager positions in the town. It has a sizeable population and serves a wide area, with no other major settlements closer than the cities of Sheffield and Leeds.
Popular locations
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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