Transport Planner

Location

Manchester, UK

Middle-mile Transportation

Full-time

On-site role; shift flexibility may be required depending on operational needs.

The Transport Planner – Manchester is responsible for planning daily transport routes, allocating vehicles, forecasting transport requirements based on volume, and optimising vehicle utilisation and cost efficiency for the Manchester operation. This role supports the transport operation by ensuring routes are achievable, cost‑effective, compliant, and aligned with customer and business requirements.

• Plan daily transport routes based on order volume, delivery requirements, cut‑off times, vehicle availability, driver availability, and operational priorities.
• Arrange vehicle allocation and dispatch plans to ensure sufficient transport capacity is available for daily operations.
• Use volume forecasts, historical data, peak plans, and operational trends to estimate vehicle demand and support capacity planning.
• Optimise route planning to improve vehicle utilisation, reduce empty mileage, control transport cost, and maximise operational efficiency.
• Analyse transport cost, route performance, vehicle fill rate, mileage, drop density, driver hours, and delivery productivity to identify improvement opportunities.
• Work closely with transport operations, warehouse teams, sortation teams, drivers, DSPs, subcontractors, and 3PL carriers to ensure routes are executable and aligned with site operations.
• Adjust transport plans in response to volume changes, customer requirements, traffic conditions, vehicle availability, driver availability, and operational disruptions.
• Support daily vehicle dispatch by providing clear route plans, vehicle requirements, driver allocation plans, and delivery instructions to the operations team.
• Monitor planned versus actual route performance, including departure time, arrival time, delivery completion, failed deliveries, mileage, cost, and vehicle utilisation.
• Identify risks in transport plans, including insufficient capacity, inefficient routes, overloading risk, under‑utilised vehicles, unrealistic delivery windows, or non‑compliant driver schedules.
• Ensure transport plans are aligned with driver hours rules, Working Time Directive requirements, vehicle capacity limits, and relevant operational compliance requirements.
• Prepare daily and weekly planning reports, including volume forecast, vehicle requirement, cost analysis, route performance, utilisation rate, and improvement actions.
• Support peak season planning, new customer onboarding, new route design, network expansion, and transport process improvement projects.
• Maintain accurate planning records, including route plans, vehicle allocation, forecast assumptions, cost data, delivery requirements, and operational changes.

• Bachelor’s degree or above in Logistics, Supply Chain, Transport Management, Business, Operations Management, Data Analysis, or a related discipline is preferred. Candidates with strong relevant transport planning or logistics experience may also be considered without a degree.
• Minimum 3 years of experience in transport planning, route planning, logistics planning, dispatch planning, fleet planning, parcel delivery, e‑commerce logistics, 3PL, or distribution operations.
• Good understanding of transport planning, vehicle allocation, route optimisation, delivery scheduling, vehicle utilisation, and cost control.
• Experience using volume forecasts, operational data, route data, or cost data to support transport planning decisions.
• Basic understanding of UK transport compliance requirements, including driver hours, Working Time Directive, vehicle capacity, and overloading risks.
• Strong analytical…