Transport planner jobs and cover

A transport planner decides which vehicle and driver carry which load, in what order and by which route. The planner takes the day’s orders and collections, allocates them to vehicles and drivers, and builds routes that fit the customers’ delivery windows and the drivers’ hours. The plan reaches the drivers before the shift starts, and the planner reworks it as the day changes.

The day rarely follows the plan. A collection runs late, a vehicle breaks down, a customer cancels a drop or moves a time, or a driver runs short of hours. The planner deals with each one, rings the people involved and keeps the customer informed. A good planner sees the problem before the driver rings.

Planners work with a transport management system and with telematics, which show where vehicles are and how much driving time is left. They also keep the records: what was planned, what happened and why, for the invoice and for any query later.

Skills England’s Level 2 Traffic operator apprenticeship standard describes work that includes confirming that proposed routes comply with the drivers’ hours rules, the working time rules and the allowable driving times, and talking to drivers at the start and the end of the shift. Traffic planner is one of the job titles it lists.

Clients look for experience of planning fleets like theirs, whether that is artics, rigids, vans or multi-drop rounds, and for experience of the system they use. The booking names any qualification the client wants.

A planner needs a working knowledge of the drivers’ hours rules, because every plan has to fit inside them. The rules set daily and weekly driving limits, breaks and rest periods, and the tachograph records whether the plan was kept.

Customer handling counts as much as routing. The planner is the voice of the transport office to customers, drivers and the warehouse, and often the first person to hear that something has gone wrong.

On the training side, Skills England lists the Level 2 Traffic operator apprenticeship, and CILT offers a Level 3 Practitioner Certificate in Logistics, Supply Chain and Operations Management, which it describes as suited to people moving into a first supervisory or coordination role. The Transport Manager CPC is a separate qualification, covered in the questions below.

For most lorries over 3.5 tonnes, which GOV.UK calls the assimilated rules, the main limits are 9 hours of driving in a day, which can go up to 10 hours twice a week, 56 hours in a week and 90 hours in any two weeks. A driver takes breaks totalling at least 45 minutes after no more than 4 hours 30 minutes of driving, and 11 hours of rest every day, which can be cut to 9 hours 3 times between weekly rests.

Goods vehicles under 3.5 tonnes and vehicles that are exempt from the main rules come under the GB domestic rules instead, which limit driving to 10 hours a day and time on duty to 11 hours. The limits belong to the driver, whichever employer the hours were worked for, so the planner has to know what a driver has already done that day and that week.

Temporary cover is paid by the hour, and permanent roles are salaried. The rate depends on the size of the fleet, the system and the client. We do not publish rates on this site.

The National Living Wage is the legal floor for workers aged 21 and over, and no booking pays below the legal minimum wage. You are told the rate before you accept a booking.