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Brokerage Carrier Operations Specialist - 2nd Shift

Forward Air Corp
  • Chicago, IL
  • $70,000–$80,000 Per Year
5 days ago

Job Description

Brokerage Carrier Operations Specialist

Compensation: $70,000 - 80,000 Annually

Shift: 2nd Shift (3:00 PM-11:00 PM)

The Brokerage Carrier Operations Specialist is responsible for securing carrier capacity, recovering service exceptions, and ensuring seamless transportation execution during critical evening operating hours. This role serves as the primary operational liaison between carrier partners, stations, customer-facing teams, and internal stakeholders. They proactively manage open freight opportunities, address carrier-related disruptions, and maintain shipment visibility to support service commitments. This role plays a critical part in ensuring freight moves efficiently and customer expectations are consistently met.

Responsibilities

  • Manage and secure carrier capacity for all remaining open loads prior to the end of the business day, ensuring timely and cost-effective coverage.
  • Proactively identify, manage, and recover late, at-risk, or bounced loads to minimize service disruptions and protect customer commitments.
  • Serve as the primary evening point of contact for stations, account teams, customers, and facilities regarding critical shipment activity.
  • Source, qualify, and engage carrier partners to support transportation coverage needs and market demands.
  • Negotiate transactional freight rates while balancing capacity availability, service expectations, and profitability objectives.
  • Verify carrier compliance requirements and ensure adherence to company policies and transportation standards.
  • Monitor active shipments throughout the shift and maintain accurate load status visibility within transportation management systems.
  • Coordinate pickup and delivery appointments and communicate schedule changes to appropriate stakeholders.
  • Investigate and resolve shipment exceptions, delays, service failures, and other transportation challenges with urgency and professionalism.
  • Maintain continuous communication with carrier dispatchers, drivers, stations, and internal partners to facilitate successful freight movement.
  • Collaborate closely with first-shift operations, account management, and support teams to ensure effective handoffs and continuity of service.
  • Document carrier interactions, load activity, issue resolution efforts, and operational updates in designated systems.
  • Support customer service objectives by providing timely shipment updates and managing escalations when necessary.
  • Contribute to process improvement initiatives that enhance carrier performance, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
  • All other duties as assigned to meet evolving business needs.

Qualifications

  • Education: Bachelor''s degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Business Administration, Transportation, or a related field preferred; equivalent industry experience may be considered.
  • Certification/Licensure: No certification required; transportation and logistics industry certifications are a plus.
  • One to two years of experience in freight brokerage, carrier sales, transportation operations, logistics coordination, or a related field preferred.
  • Demonstrated ability to negotiate rates, secure carrier capacity, and build productive carrier relationships.
  • Strong verbal and written communication skills with the ability to effectively interact with internal stakeholders, customers, carriers, drivers, and dispatch personnel.
  • Proven problem-solving skills with the ability to make sound decisions in time-sensitive and high-pressure situations.
  • Ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously while maintaining accuracy, organization, and attention to detail.
  • Strong sense of urgency, accountability, and ownership in a fast-paced operational environment.
  • Experience utilizing transportation management systems (TMS), load boards, shipment tracking tools, and other logistics technology platforms preferred.
  • Flexibility to work a scheduled second-shift schedule and support business needs during critical operational periods.
  • Demonstrated discretion and confidentiality in handling and protecting sensitive information.
  • Technical: Proficient with common office technologies, including Windows PCs, Microsoft O365 (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and web conferencing (Teams, Zoom, Webex, etc.)
  • Environment: Comfort commuting to/from and working in a 100% on-site setting (listed in this posting), with travel for related meetings/events.

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Numbers & Facts

LocationChicago, IL
IndustryTransport and Storage - Materials
Salary$70,000–$80,000 Per Year
Company Size2,500 to 4,999 employees
Year Founded1981
Websitehttps://www.forwardair.com/content/careers-0

About Company

Since 1990, Forward Air has been a leading provider of ground transportation and related logistics services to the North American air freight and expedited LTL market. We offer surface shipping on an accelerated “time-definite” basis, delivering cargo at a specific time, but under less time-sensitive situations – supplying you with a cost effective, reliable alternative to air transportation. We work with companies of all sizes to develop tangible advantages and build the best products to meet your specific needs. Forward Air presents to the wholesale transportation community (logistics companies, freight forwarders, integrated air cargo carriers, passenger/ cargo airlines, and non-traditional shippers), a single-source provider that can deliver more supply chain services and a superior menu of choices. Throughout the years we have added supplementary lines to our linehaul service, such as full truckload operations (Truckload Services), final-mile coverage (Complete® Cartage), and an Airline Logistics program, and we will continue to expand our services to meet the changing needs and growth of our customer base.

Forward Air is structured to optimize both savings and service to our customers. Direct partnerships with owner-operators and other surface transportation providers, enable us to remain cost-competitive. The Forward Air network is designed with over 90 facilities located at or near major U.S. and Canadian airports, 12 regional sort centers and over 300 beyond points (secondary airports provided through our Complete Cartage service), creating one of the most comprehensive linehaul networks in the industry.

The foundation product for Forward Air is our expedited linehaul service, offering consistent and reliable transit and on-time, damage-free deliveries. By locating terminals on or near airports and maintaining a scheduled transportation network, we are able to arrange for convenient and consistent service with broad geographic coverage. Shipments of varying sizes (TL/LTL) are received at our terminals and transported by contracted service providers either (1) on a direct truck to the destination terminal, (2) through our Columbus, Ohio central sorting hub, or (3) through one of our 12 regional hubs, where they are unloaded, sorted, and reloaded in rapid fashion. After reloading the shipments, our contracted service providers deliver them to the destination city for early morning recovery. Through our Forward Air Complete® cartage service, customers also can have shipments picked up from the shipper, delivered to the final consignee, or transferred at the airport, simplifying the freight management processes. These options allow us to maximize handling efficiency of each shipment while minimizing freight loss and damage, improving transit times over traditional ground transportation.

Skills

  • Brokerageunmatched
  • Business Administrationunmatched
  • Business Supportunmatched
  • Cargo/Freightunmatched
  • Communication Skillsunmatched
  • Customer Relationsunmatched
  • Customer Satisfactionunmatched
  • Customer Support/Serviceunmatched
  • Detail Orientedunmatched
  • Information/Data Security (InfoSec)unmatched
  • Loading/Unloadingunmatched
  • Logisticsunmatched
  • Maintain Complianceunmatched
  • Microsoft Excelunmatched
  • Microsoft Outlookunmatched
  • Microsoft PowerPointunmatched
  • Microsoft Product Familyunmatched
  • Microsoft Windows Operating Systemunmatched
  • Microsoft Wordunmatched
  • Multitaskingunmatched
  • Negotiation Skillsunmatched
  • Operations Managementunmatched
  • Presentation/Verbal Skillsunmatched
  • Problem Solving Skillsunmatched
  • Process Improvementunmatched
  • Profit & Lossunmatched
  • Regulatory Complianceunmatched
  • Riskunmatched
  • Salesunmatched
  • Sales Managementunmatched
  • Supply Chain Managementunmatched
  • Systems Maintenanceunmatched
  • Time Managementunmatched
  • Transportation and Logisticsunmatched
  • Web Conferencingunmatched
  • WebExunmatched
  • Writing Skillsunmatched

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