Transport Planning Manager

Location: Ballymena

Salary: Negotiable, depending on experience and background

Hours: Full-time, Permanent (Monday to Friday with participation in a shared Saturday morning rota)

Brook Street Recruitment is working on behalf of our client in Ballymena to hire an experienced Transport Manager to join their team.

As Transport Planning Manager, you will lead the transport planning operation, ensuring the efficient delivery and collection of freight across Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. This is a hands-on leadership role where you'll inspire and develop a team of planners while ensuring vehicles, trailers and drivers are utilised to their full potential. You'll be responsible for maintaining exceptional service levels, improving operational performance and identifying opportunities to make the planning function even more efficient.

Working closely with colleagues across the business, you'll play a pivotal role in keeping operations running smoothly while delivering an outstanding experience for customers.

• Lead, motivate and develop the transport planning team, creating a high-performing and collaborative working environment.
• Oversee the daily planning of deliveries and collections, ensuring work is allocated efficiently across drivers, vehicles and trailers.
• Monitor live transport operations, proactively managing delays, vehicle breakdowns, missed sailings and changing customer requirements.
• Provide guidance and support to planners, ensuring clear communication with drivers throughout the day.
• Build strong relationships with customers by managing escalated service issues and providing timely, accurate updates.
• Maximise fleet utilisation while reviewing future workloads and identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and profitability.
• Ensure all transport information, rates, ferry bookings and operational data are accurately maintained within Qargo, customer portals and internal systems.
• Work collaboratively with Distribution, the workshop and other departments to ensure a seamless transport operation.
• Coordinate closely with the garage to plan vehicle availability around servicing, PMIs, brake testing and maintenance schedules.
• Monitor and report on key operational KPIs including service performance, fleet utilisation, empty mileage, ferry efficiency, planning accuracy and subcontractor usage.
• Drive continuous improvement by identifying operational efficiencies, streamlining processes and implementing best practices.
• Coach, mentor and support team members through regular feedback, performance management and ongoing development.
• Ensure full compliance with Drivers' Hours legislation, tachograph regulations, the Working Time Directive and company policies.
• Support recruitment, onboarding and training to build a consistent, high-performing planning team.
• Promote a culture of accountability, teamwork, professionalism and outstanding customer service.

You’ll be an experienced transport planning professional with proven leadership experience and the confidence to make decisions in a busy operational environment. You’ll also bring:

• Previous experience managing or supervising a transport planning team.
• Strong knowledge of transport operations across the UK and Ireland, including full-load, groupage and time-critical deliveries.
• Excellent understanding of Drivers' Hours legislation, tachograph regulations and the Working Time Directive.
• Strong commercial awareness with the ability to balance customer service and operational efficiency.
• Outstanding communication and people management skills, with experience developing and motivating teams.
• Confidence using Transport Management Systems (including Qargo or similar), tracking systems, customer portals and KPI reporting tools.
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Outlook and Microsoft Teams.
• A Transport Manager CPC qualification would be advantageous but is not essential.

Joining this successful family-run business means becoming part of a supportive team where your contribution is recognised and your career can continue to develop. Benefits include:

• Competitive salary (negotiable depending on experience and background)
• Company pension
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Employee discount scheme
• On-site parking
• Long-term career opportunities within a growing business
• Supportive management team and ongoing professional development

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