Freight Rate Clerk
Maintaining freight-rate records and supporting rate operations in transportation, you keep the rate tables current — loading new tariffs, updating contract rates, supporting pricing inquiries from sales and operations teams.
What it's like to be a Freight Rate Clerk
A typical day tends to revolve around rate maintenance, customer-rate inquiries, and the steady administrative work that supports pricing operations — applying tariff updates, loading negotiated contract rates into the TMS, supporting sales reps with rate quotes, fielding operations questions when a shipment doesn't price as expected. Rate currency, response time on inquiries, and accuracy of loaded rates are the operating measures.
The friction often lies in the complexity of transportation pricing — tariff structures, fuel-surcharge programs, accessorial charges, and customer-specific contracts produce a dense rate environment. Variance across employers is real: LTL carriers run formal tariff publications; truckload pricing tends to be more contract-driven; parcel runs highly systematized.
This work tends to fit folks who enjoy structured data and find pleasure in the small accuracy of clean rate tables. Transportation-specific software certifications anchor advancement. The trade-off is invisibility when rates are right and the high visibility of mispriced shipments that affect customer relationships.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
How this category is changing
Skills & Requirements
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