Traffic & Transportation Manager - Bernhardt Furniture

Traffic & Transportation Manager - Bernhardt Furniture

Traffic & Transportation Manager Bernhardt Furniture

Traffic & Transportation Manager at Bernhardt Furniture
Bernhardt Furniture Company is seeking an experienced and highly motivated Traffic & Transportation Manager to lead outbound transportation planning and execution across our North American distribution network. This position is responsible for managing daily shipment planning, carrier relationships, customer delivery performance, freight cost management, and transportation process improvements. The Traffic & Transportation Manager will work closely with Customer Service, Sales, Manufacturing, Distribution, and Transportation partners to ensure customer orders are shipped efficiently, accurately, and on time.

The ideal candidate will possess strong transportation planning experience, excellent organizational and analytical skills, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced manufacturing and distribution environment.

Key Responsibilities
Transportation Planning & Execution

• Manage daily outbound shipment planning for customer orders throughout North America.
• Develop efficient load plans that maximize equipment utilization while meeting customer delivery requirements.
• Coordinate shipments with distribution centers, manufacturing facilities, carriers, and customer service teams.
• Monitor open orders, backlogs, and transportation capacity to ensure timely shipment execution.
• Proactively manage transportation exceptions and resolve delivery service issues.
• Optimize routing and mode selection to balance service performance and transportation costs.
• Ensure compliance with customer routing guides and shipping requirements.

Customer Order Management

• Partner with Customer Service and Sales teams to prioritize and schedule customer orders.
• Coordinate shipment schedules to meet customer requested delivery dates.
• Communicate shipment status and transportation challenges to internal stakeholders.
• Support retail, residential, designer, and commercial customer delivery requirements.
• Monitor order ageing and coordinate corrective actions to improve service levels.

Carrier Management

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with contract carriers, brokers, parcel providers, and transportation partners.
• Monitor carrier performance metrics, including on-time pickup and delivery, claims, and service reliability.
• Participate in transportation procurement activities and carrier review meetings.
• Assist with freight audit, invoice reconciliation, and cost recovery efforts.
• Support carrier onboarding, scorecards, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Transportation Analytics & Continuous Improvement

• Analyze key transportation performance indicators, including:
  • On-time shipping performance
  • Freight spend
  • Load utilization
  • Carrier performance
  • Delivery exceptions
  • Customer service metrics
• Develop reports and dashboards to support operational decision-making.
• Identify and implement opportunities to reduce transportation costs and improve efficiency.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives across transportation operations.
• Partner with internal teams to improve shipment visibility, order flow, and transportation processes.
• Additional Responsibilities
• Provide support for export shipment coordination as needed.
• Maintain transportation documentation, procedures, and operational best practices.
• Participate in special projects and other duties as assigned
• Required
• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Logistics, Business Administration, Transportation, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• 5+ years of transportation, logistics, traffic, or supply chain experience.
• Experience managing outbound transportation operations in a manufacturing, distribution, or retail environment.
• Strong knowledge of truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), parcel, intermodal, and dedicated transportation operations.
• Experience working with transportation management systems (TMS), ERP systems, and Microsoft Excel.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and relationship management abilities.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Preferred
• Furniture, manufacturing, consumer products, or distribution industry experience.
• Experience with transportation analytics and reporting tools such as Power BI.
• Experience managing carrier contracts and transportation providers.
• Knowledge of freight audit and payment processes.
• Experience with transportation network optimization and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Key Competencies
• Transportation Planning & Optimization
• Order Management
• Carrier Relationship Management
• Customer Service Excellence
• Data Analysis & Reporting
• Problem Solving
• Process Improvement
• Communication & Collaboration

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