Corporate Traffic Manager

Most weeks tend to involve carrier negotiations, route optimization, performance reviews, and the steady cadence of incident handling — sitting with carriers on rate negotiations, reviewing on-time performance, working through claims on damaged freight, coordinating with sales operations on customer commitments. You're often the operational owner of how product moves between the company and its customers or suppliers.

The friction tends to be the variability of freight markets — capacity, fuel, and equipment availability shift quarterly, and traffic managers absorb the operational consequences. Variance across employers is wide: at large shippers (CPG, retail, manufacturing) traffic is a structured function with TMS systems; at smaller shippers it may roll into broader supply-chain or distribution work.

This work tends to suit people who are comfortable with carrier negotiations and patient with operational complexity. CSCP, CPLP, and APICS credentials anchor advancement. The trade-off is the always-on rhythm — freight in motion doesn't observe business hours, and disruptions surface across time zones.