Logistics Manager Job Description

A Logistics Manager owns the plan for getting goods from where they are to where they need to be, at a cost the business can live with. In the transportation industry that person may work for a trucking company, a freight brokerage, a third-party logistics provider (3PL), a parcel carrier or a shipper's own distribution network. The common thread is accountability: when freight is late, damaged, stuck at a port or over budget, the logistics manager is the one who explains why and fixes it.

O*NET defines the parent occupation as planning, directing or coordinating "transportation, storage, or distribution activities in accordance with organizational policies and applicable government laws or regulations," and its definition states plainly that it includes logistics managers. Other titles in the same group include distribution center manager, fleet manager and global transportation manager, which gives a sense of how wide the job can run.

Carriers and freight

Most days start with the transportation picture. The manager and the coordination team look at what is tendered, what was rejected, which loads are running late and which customers need a call. Behind that daily view sits the carrier program: which truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), intermodal, ocean and parcel providers handle which lanes, at what rates and under what service terms. The annual or semiannual freight bid is the big set piece. It starts with a lane file, moves through carrier responses and award modeling, and ends with rates loaded into the transportation management system (TMS).

Warehouses and inventory

Where the role includes storage, the logistics manager works with distribution center leaders on slotting, replenishment, labor plans and space. A decision to hold more inventory near customers cuts transit time but adds storage cost, and the manager is expected to put numbers on that trade.

Customs and compliance

BLS notes that supply chain and logistics managers may verify compliance with customs procedures. For an importer or a 3PL that handles cross-border freight, that means working with licensed customs brokers on entries, tariff classification, duties and paperwork, and knowing when a rule change will hit the cost of a shipment. Domestic freight brings its own checks, from carrier insurance and operating authority to hazardous materials documentation.

People and money

The manager hires and coaches coordinators, dispatchers and analysts, sets priorities when the dock is backed up, and covers escalations at night or on weekends when a system fails. On the money side, the job means building a freight and storage budget, forecasting spend, explaining variances to finance and finding savings through mode shifts, consolidation or better carrier terms. A good logistics manager can explain a cost-per-shipment change to the CFO and a missed delivery window to a customer in the same afternoon.

Education

BLS lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education for Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers, the occupation that includes logistics managers, and adds that some employers prefer or require a bachelor's degree. As a rough guide, a degree in supply chain management, logistics, business administration, industrial engineering or operations research is the usual academic preparation for a candidate aiming at a 3PL, a large carrier or a corporate shipper. A master's degree or MBA tends to matter later, for director-level jobs that carry profit-and-loss responsibility or network design work.

Experience

BLS lists 5 years or more of related work experience as typical for this occupation. As a rough guide, logistics managers usually come up through one of three tracks:

• Coordination and brokerage: load planner, logistics coordinator, carrier sales or freight broker agent, which builds rate and carrier knowledge.
• Warehouse operations: shift lead or warehouse supervisor, which builds labor planning, safety and inventory control experience.
• Analysis: logistics or transportation analyst, which builds freight cost modeling, bid analysis and reporting skills.

As a rough guide, a strong application for a first management job shows supervision, a budget the candidate has owned or influenced, and at least one carrier negotiation or bid the candidate led.

Certifications

BLS notes that some employers require or prefer specific certifications, licenses or both for this occupation. Credentials that logistics managers pursue include:

• CLTD (Certified in Logistics, Transportation and Distribution) from the Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM).
• CSCP (Certified Supply Chain Professional), also from ASCM, for managers whose scope reaches into planning and sourcing.
• SCPro from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP).
• Customs broker license from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, for managers who run import compliance in-house or at a brokerage.

Tools

O*NET lists transportation management system (TMS) software and warehouse management system software among the technologies used in the occupation. In practice that means working fluency in a TMS such as Oracle Transportation Management, Blue Yonder or MercuryGate, a warehouse system, an ERP for freight accruals, spreadsheets for bid and budget models, and a dashboard tool such as Power BI or Tableau. Knowing Incoterms, freight claims procedure and the basics of carrier contracts rounds out the toolkit.

Skills worth building

Negotiation with carriers, clear writing for executives, calm handling of a disruption, and the ability to coach a team through peak season all carry weight in this job. So does the patience to read a freight invoice line by line and catch accessorial charges that should not be there.

Projected demand

BLS projects employment of Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers, the occupation that includes logistics managers, to grow 6 percent from 2025 to 2035, which it rates as faster than the average for all occupations. BLS projects about 18,300 openings a year on average for the occupation over that decade, many of them from workers who retire or move into other roles. BLS counted about 228,100 jobs in the occupation in 2025.

Freight conditions in late 2026

The Logistics Managers' Index (LMI), a joint project of researchers at Arizona State University, Colorado State University, the University of Nevada, Reno, Florida Atlantic University and Rutgers University supported by CSCMP, read 70.7 for October 2026. Any LMI reading above 50.0 indicates that logistics is expanding, and the October figure was the second-highest reading in four years, behind June's 71.1. The report showed both warehousing capacity and transportation capacity contracting. Less spare warehouse space and fewer open trucks are exactly the conditions a logistics manager has to plan around when booking holiday freight and defending a budget.

Customs rules have changed

Cross-border work changed after Executive Order 14324, "Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment For All Countries," which the President signed on July 30, 2025. A June 24, 2026 CBP interim final rule in the Federal Register states that the de minimis exemption had been suspended since at least Aug. 29, 2025, and that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted July 4, 2025, terminated the exemption effective July 1, 2027. A February 20, 2026 order, E.O. 14388, continued the suspension and stated that CBP should continue to inspect such goods and collect applicable duties, taxes and fees on them. For logistics managers at e-commerce shippers, parcel carriers and 3PLs, small parcels now carry customs costs and paperwork that belong in the freight plan.

Where AI fits

A 2026 Census Bureau working paper using the Business Trends and Outlook Survey's AI supplement found that 18% of firms used AI in a business function during the reference period of November 2025 to January 2026. The paper reports much lower adoption in sectors that rely on physical output, naming transportation and warehousing among them. Where AI does reach a logistics office, it can apply to rate analysis, exception alerts, document handling and demand forecasting. Software of that kind can change how a coordination team spends its hours, but it does not sign carrier contracts or answer to a customer when a shipment misses.

Advancement

Logistics managers who add network design, procurement or finance experience move into director of logistics, supply chain director and vice president of operations roles. Others move to the 3PL side to run accounts or to the software side as solution consultants for TMS and warehouse system vendors.

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am applying for the Logistics Manager opening on your transportation team. For the past four years I have led inbound and outbound freight for a regional building-products distributor, managing six coordinators across two distribution centers and a carrier base that covers truckload, LTL and flatbed lanes in eleven states.

My proudest work has been rebuilding how we buy freight. In my first month, freight was booked mostly by phone and the routing guide was a spreadsheet nobody trusted. I rebuilt the guide inside our TMS, ran our first formal lane bid, and set up quarterly scorecard reviews with our top carriers. Tender rejections dropped, and our customer service team stopped fielding daily calls about missing trucks.

I also took on import work last year when our company began sourcing fixtures overseas. I learned the entry process with our customs broker, built a checklist for commercial invoices and packing lists, and set a weekly review of shipments on the water so the warehouse knew what was coming. That experience is a big reason I am drawn to your role, which lists cross-border freight as a growing part of the job.

On the people side, I hire for curiosity and train for the system. Two of my coordinators have moved into analyst and supervisor roles, and I run a short onboarding plan that pairs each new hire with a senior teammate for their first month.

I hold the CLTD credential from ASCM and am comfortable building freight budgets, defending them in monthly reviews and explaining variances in plain terms. I would welcome a conversation about how I could help your team keep freight moving and costs in line.

Sincerely, Jordan Avery