Bulk Transportation Planner - Beachwood, OH
About The Position
The Bulk Transportation Planner reports to the Bulk Load Planning Team Lead and is responsible for day-to-day planning, scheduling, tracking, and successful completion of outbound bulk shipments within an assigned geographic region. The role works with Customer Support, Sales, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and bulk carriers to align customer demand with raw-material and finished-goods availability, manufacturing capabilities, carrier capacity, and specialized equipment requirements. It uses sales forecasts, customer inventory data, telemetry-based tools, and transportation-capacity information to anticipate demand and address potential service constraints. The position focuses on optimizing outbound bulk lanes to improve asset utilization, manage transportation costs, and provide safe, reliable, on-time customer service. It is based in the Beachwood, Ohio office, with minimal to no travel required. Standard office hours for most roles are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; employees should consult their supervisor about the specific hours required to support business operations.
Requirements
- High school diploma or equivalent required.
- At least 3–5 years of transportation logistics experience.
- Ability to manage multiple time-sensitive shipments, changing priorities, and operational constraints in a fast-paced environment.
- Strong planning, analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and decision-making skills.
- Effective written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to build productive relationships across internal teams and external partners.
- The position is based in the Beachwood, Ohio office.
- Employees are expected to perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation.
Nice To Haves
- Bachelor’s degree in logistics, supply chain, business, operations, or a related field.
- Five or more years of transportation logistics experience.
- Experience in bulk liquid transportation, tank-truck operations, chemical manufacturing, construction chemicals, or concrete admixtures.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications.
- Experience with ERP, transportation-management, order-management, telemetry, or shipment-tracking systems.
- Familiarity with transportation cost drivers, carrier performance management, specialized bulk equipment, and applicable safety and regulatory requirements.
Responsibilities
- Plan and schedule outbound bulk shipments according to customer requirements, inventory and production availability, manufacturing capabilities, carrier capacity, and specialized equipment needs.
- Review open orders, sales forecasts, requested delivery dates, customer inventory levels, and telemetry information to create daily and forward-looking transportation plans.
- Assign and sequence shipments to improve routing efficiency, equipment utilization, driver productivity, and transportation cost while meeting customer commitments.
- Manage shipments from initial planning through loading, transit, delivery, and completion confirmation, maintaining accurate information in applicable systems.
- Monitor carrier acceptance, capacity fulfillment, equipment positioning, loading progress, shipment status, pickup and delivery performance, responsiveness, and compliance with operating requirements.
- Proactively resolve or escalate capacity shortages, production delays, equipment conflicts, missed appointments, and other service risks, and communicate recovery plans to affected stakeholders.
- Coordinate the availability and positioning of tank trailers, tractors, drivers, and other specialized bulk-delivery equipment in the assigned region.
- Work with carriers and internal stakeholders to anticipate capacity and asset needs based on forecasted volume, customer inventory, seasonal demand, planned outages, and new business requirements.
- Identify equipment shortages, imbalances, idle assets, and underutilized capacity, and recommend scheduling or repositioning actions.
- Serve as the day-to-day operational contact for assigned bulk carriers, communicating forecasted needs, shipment requirements, capacity expectations, and schedule changes.
- Address routine carrier issues and document recurring capacity or service gaps for escalation, corrective action, and carrier performance reviews.
- Partner with Customer Support, Sales, Finance, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain to understand customer priorities, demand forecasts, order changes, production schedules, inventory availability, loading capacity, and operational constraints.
- Optimize shipment planning to reduce empty miles, unnecessary asset repositioning, premium freight, and avoidable accessorial costs while improving equipment utilization.
- Recommend and support improvements to transportation systems, scheduling practices, carrier processes, customer requirements, and cross-functional workflows.
- Ensure carriers receive accurate product, equipment, delivery-site, and customer-specific handling instructions.
- Immediately escalate safety incidents, spills, contamination concerns, equipment failures, product-quality issues, and suspected compliance concerns.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Education Level
High school or GED
