Logistics Operations Manager

Position Purpose

Lead Logistics Operations across Truckload, LTL, and Import/Export and establish the daily discipline required for accurate shipment execution, proactive communication, and clear accountability. This role owns workload allocation, team performance, customer escalations, process adherence, coaching, and continuous improvement across modes. The manager should lead the operation rather than carry a routine full customer book.

Core Accountabilities

• Lead and coach the Load Planner, Logistics Operator I, Logistics Operators II, and the representatives responsible for Import/Export and LTL.
• Assign and balance daily work across Truckload, LTL, and Import/Export based on transaction volume, shipment complexity, active workload, open exceptions, customer priorities, and employee capacity.
• Establish and enforce standards for responsiveness, accuracy, proactive communication, documentation, and escalation.
• Own mode-appropriate team KPIs, customer scorecards, quality audits, staffing coverage, and corrective-action follow-through across Truckload, LTL, and Import/Export.
• Serve as the escalation point for urgent service failures, repeat process gaps, and high-impact customer issues.
• Maintain and improve SOPs, customer work instructions, account ownership records, and cross-training plans.
• Partner with Sales, Carrier Procurement, Accounting, Billing, and leadership on onboarding, execution risks, and customer performance.
• Identify recurring failure patterns and implement practical process changes that reduce errors and avoidable manual work.

Typical Daily Responsibilities

• Conduct a short daily workload review and assign the Operator I flex role before work begins.
• Review open exceptions, late or at-risk shipments, unanswered customer requests, and overdue next actions.
• Audit TMS notes, order accuracy, customer updates, and end-of-day handoffs.
• Coach in real time, document recurring performance concerns, and recognize strong execution.
• Coordinate coverage for absences, volume spikes, new accounts, and priority customers across Truckload, LTL, and Import/Export.
• Provide leadership with concise reporting on service, workload, risks, and actions by mode.
• Review mode-specific workload and service risks with the Import/Export and LTL representatives without forcing those lower-transaction workflows into truckload-only processes or metrics.

Decision Rights and Escalation

• May reassign work, change daily flex coverage, set escalation priority, and require corrective action within approved policies.
• Escalates commercial, legal, claims, credit, major customer-risk, and staffing decisions to the appropriate leader or function.
• Does not allow unclear ownership to persist; when ownership is disputed, the manager assigns it immediately and documents the handoff.

Role Boundaries

• The manager is accountable for operating control, not for personally absorbing all difficult work.
• Routine execution remains with the assigned role unless the manager explicitly reassigns ownership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant experience.
• Three to five years of supervisory or management experience; truckload brokerage or 3PL experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to coach performance, manage urgent exceptions, and create operational accountability.
• Strong written and verbal communication, organization, problem solving, and analytical judgment.
• Working proficiency with a transportation management system and Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
• Working knowledge of LTL and international freight operations, or demonstrated ability to lead experienced specialists across multiple transportation modes.

Measures of Success

• Order-entry accuracy and TMS documentation quality.
• Customer response time and proactive update compliance.
• On-time pickup and delivery performance and tracking compliance.
• Exception aging, escalation quality, and reduction in preventable repeat failures.

• Team productivity, cross-training readiness, SOP adherence, and customer escalation trends.
• Service reliability, documentation quality, and escalation management for LTL and Import/Export activity using mode-appropriate standards.