Details:
- Salary: £28,000 - 35,000 - Annum
- Job Type: Permanent
- Job Status: Full-Time
- Salary Per: Annum
- Location: OL1 Oldham Greater Manchester
- Date: 2 days ago
Description:
Transport Planner – Role Overview
Purpose of the Role
The purpose of the Transport Planner role is to reduce transport risk by planning and committing deliveries effectively while balancing customer service, operational efficiency and profitability.
The role requires someone who is proactive where possible but resilient enough to adapt quickly when plans inevitably change.
Working Hours
Contracted hours: 08:00–16:30.
Typically start at 07:00 to prepare the operation before the business becomes busy.
Daily Responsibilities
Check completed deliveries and outstanding work.
Update the transport planning spreadsheet.
Review emails and new transport requests.
Plan and allocate deliveries.
Assign company vehicles and subcontract hauliers.
Calculate departure and loading times.
Liaise with customers, site contacts and internal departments.
Resolve transport issues and continuously re-plan work as priorities change.
Typically plan between 2–12 deliveries per day.
Planning Responsibilities
Allocate vehicles based on vehicle type, site restrictions, driver hours, shipment size, cost and customer requirements.
Agree loading times with the loading team.
Calculate travel times using mileage, postcodes and previous experience.
Book subcontract hauliers using agreed supplier rates.
Communication
Daily communication with:
Yard Manager
Loaders
Production Supervisors
Project Managers
Customers
Site Contacts
Hauliers
Typically 10–20 phone calls and around 50 emails per day.
Building strong working relationships internally and externally is a key part of the role.
Common Operational Challenges
* Sites not being ready.
* Late vehicles.
* Traffic delays.
* Delayed collections.
* Missing paperwork.
* Customer requests to move deliveries, often requiring the entire day's plan to be reorganised.
Decision Making
Responsible for making most day-to-day operational decisions independently. Significant commercial costs or exceptional decisions are escalated to the Transport Manager.
Systems Used
* Microsoft Excel – transport planning and scheduling.
* Microsoft Outlook – customer and internal communication.
Knowledge Required
* Commercial vehicle types.
* HIAB and specialist transport requirements.
* Driver hours regulations.
* Site restrictions.
* Customer delivery requirements.
* Route planning.
* General transport operations.
* Supporting day-to-day compliance with transport requirements.
Problem Solving
* Honest and proactive communication.
* Root cause analysis.
* Re-planning deliveries.
* Preventing repeat issues where possible.
Key Skills
* Organisation
* Attention to detail
* Communication
* Relationship building
* Problem solving
* Microsoft Excel
* Adaptability
* Remaining calm under pressure
Success in this role depends heavily on developing trusted relationships with colleagues, customers and subcontractors