Transport Planner

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.