Logistics Coordinator resume example

• Entry level

  Logistics coordinator starting out after a year as a shipping clerk at a regional manufacturer. Books 40 LTL shipments a week in the TMS, prepares bills of lading and freight class details, schedules carrier appointments and tracks every load to delivery. Business degree with a supply chain concentration. Detail-focused, comfortable with Excel and ready to learn ocean and air freight.

• Mid level

  Logistics coordinator with five years in import and domestic freight for a consumer products company. Handles 150 shipments a week across ocean, intermodal and LTL, prepares customs documents with the broker and keeps on-time delivery above 96%. Recovered 6% of annual freight spend through invoice audit and accessorial disputes. CLTD certified.

• Senior

  Senior logistics coordinator and team lead with ten years at forwarders and shippers, running a desk of 4 coordinators that moves 9,000 shipments a year. Owns carrier scorecards, routing guides and the exception process for ocean, air and domestic freight. Holds the NCBFAA Certified Customs Specialist and current hazmat and dangerous goods training.

• "Coordinated shipments" with no volume or mode

  Fix: Say how many shipments you handle a week, in which modes, across which lanes or countries. "Booked 120 LTL and 25 truckload shipments a week from 3 plants to 400 customers" lets a reader picture your desk. Without it, a coordinator who handles five shipments reads the same as one who handles five hundred.

• Hiding the exceptions you handled

  Fix: Things go wrong every day in this job, and solving them is the skill. Add bullets on late pickups you recovered, customs holds you cleared, damage claims you filed and won, and rerouting during port or weather delays. Give the result, such as the order still arriving on time or the claim paid in full.

• Leaving out the paperwork accuracy

  Fix: A wrong weight, freight class or HTS code can cost a reweigh fee or a customs delay. Show the documents you prepare and how accurate they are: "prepared 900 commercial invoices and packing lists a year with no customs penalties." If you hold hazmat or dangerous goods training, list it here too.

• Naming the TMS without saying what you did in it

  Fix: "Proficient in TMS" is weak. Say what you did: tendered loads, set up carrier rates, built routing guides, ran on-time reports, or matched invoices to shipments. Add the system name if the posting uses the same one, and any EDI or carrier portal work.

Match these against the job posting you are applying to: the free resume checker shows which keywords your resume is missing.

• Booked and tracked 150 shipments a week across LTL, truckload and intermodal, holding on-time delivery at 96.5% for a full year.
• Recovered 6% of annual freight spend by auditing carrier invoices against rate confirmations and disputing incorrect accessorials.
• Consolidated 30 weekly LTL shipments to the West Coast into 8 truckloads, cutting cost per pallet on that lane by 22%.
• Cleared 14 ocean containers held by customs in one quarter by working with the broker to correct invoices and HTS codes within 48 hours.
• Cut detention charges 55% in six months by scheduling dock appointments for every inbound load and sending carriers live updates.
• Prepared 1,100 commercial invoices, packing lists and certificates of origin a year with no customs penalties or fines.
• Filed 45 freight damage claims in a year with photos, delivery receipts and invoices, recovering 91% of the claimed value.
• Rerouted 60 time-critical orders through an alternate port during a terminal backlog, keeping 52 of them on the original delivery date.
• Built a weekly carrier scorecard in Excel from TMS data, moving 20% of volume to the three carriers with the best on-time record.
• Booked 300 hazmat shipments a year by ground and air with correct shipping papers, labels and placards, with no rejections at pickup.

• Lead with the modes and lanes in the posting

  An import desk wants ocean, ISF and broker work. A plant shipping desk wants LTL, truckload and appointment scheduling. A forwarder may want air and dangerous goods. Put the posting's modes in your headline, move the job that matches to the top and keep systems the posting names near the start of your skills. Tailor your logistics resume to the posting

• Tell one exception story in the cover letter

  Logistics managers hire people who stay calm when a shipment goes sideways. Use your cover letter for one short story: what went wrong, what you did in the first hour and how it ended. Then add your weekly volume, your modes and the systems you have used. Keep it to three short paragraphs. Write a logistics coordinator cover letter

• Practice the shipment scenario questions

  Expect questions such as: a truck misses pickup on a must-ship order, a container is held by customs, a carrier bills a charge you did not approve, or a customer calls about a damaged delivery. Answer with who you call first, what document you check and how you would stop it happening again. Know your Incoterms basics. Prepare for logistics coordinator interviews

• Check your resume against the posting's terms

  Logistics postings mix acronyms and full terms, such as LTL or less-than-truckload, ISF or 10+2, and OTIF. A keyword matcher shows which of the posting's terms are missing from your resume. Add the ones you have actually worked with, in both forms where it reads naturally. Match your resume to a logistics posting