Regional Traffic Planner
(Female, Age 29) from Hatfield, PA
This is a REAL-LIFE job profile written by a Female aged 29 who works as a Regional Traffic Planner in Hatfield, PA. We have removed all names and personal information in order to protect privacy. This professional kindly spent a bit of their time to complete one of our job profile surveys so that prospective job seekers like you could read their insights. Please excuse any punctuation or grammatical errors in this profile.
At a Glance
Current Job
Basic data on your current job
| Job Title | Regional Traffic Planner |
|---|---|
| Salary | $48,000 |
| Other Compensation | None Set |
| Hours/Week | 40 |
| Company Size | (not answered) |
| Location | Hatfield, PA |
| Years Experience | 3 years |
Career Ratings
Opinions on your CAREER overall (i.e. not just your current job)
| Years in Career | 0 |
|---|---|
| Education | (not answered) |
| Income Rating | 0 / 10 |
| Interest Rating | 0 / 10 |
| Work-Life Rating | 0 / 10 |
| Fulfilment Rating | 0 / 10 |
Current job Q&A
Describe the type of organization you work for.
The company makes building material products…shingles, siding, deck, rail, insulation, etc. They have approximately 7000 employees throughout the U.S.
Describe your job role and responsibilities.
I set up the outbound transportation for 3 of the plants for our siding group. I contact the carriers each day to get all of our loads covered that are shipping to our customers. I handle anything associated with the outbound transportation (returns, late shipments, etc.)
Please list an additional benefits (beyond compensation) that you receive.
401K, 2 weeks vacation, 10 paid holidays (including 1 personal day), sick time as needed, Cigna health insurance, pension plan, overtime
Do you feel you are under/over or well/fairly compensated at your current position?
under compensated
Does your job entail you working with others on a daily basis? Is this something you like/dislike about your job? Please explain.
I work with my co-workers periodically. I do have a lot of contact with shipping and customer service at the plants. I also call the different carriers throughout the day.
Do you work collaboratively with supervisors/managers?
Yes
Do you work collaboratively with your co-workers?
Yes
Describe your work location (e.g., office, home, theatre, in the field) and what you like/dislike about working in it.
Yes, we have projects we need to work on as a group.
Please rate each of the following aspects of your current job on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest/best):
Income: 1
Benefits: 3
Hours: 2
Co-Workers: 4
Supervisors: 5
Job Title: 8
Level of Responsibility: 7
The Actual Work: 6
A day in the life of…
Please describe a typical workday for you in your current job:
| 5am to 6am | |
| 6am to 7am | |
| 7am to 8am | Arrive at 7:30, log on to computer, read emails and answer anything that needs answered right away |
| 8am to 9am | Finish up any work outstanding from the previous day. There are some invoices that need coding so I coded all of the invoices and put them in the box that goes to accounts payable. I had a couple of emails related to invoices, so I looked at the loads for each invoice and confirmed whether or not the carrier had a legitimate invoice. |
| 9am to 10am | I have a meeting with a co-worker to discuss an upcoming trip to one of our facilities. We talk about a process we are working on and what we need to complete while we are at the plant we are going to visit. This meeting lasts about 30 minutes. After that I reveiwed a continuous improvement project I am working. It is to create a process for all co-workers to follow when going out of the office. |
| 10am to 11am | Work on first plant’s schedule. Pull the schedule, enter each order number into our staging system computer program. Figure out which carriers to use based on cost. Email the carriers to make sure they can take the loads. |
| 11am to 12pm | After carriers confirm they can take loads, I build the loads (just export them in the system by pressing a button). I have to email each carrier a dispatch sheet, and I create a ship schedule with the p/u times for each load. This is emailed to the plant. |
| 12pm to 1pm | Lunch break from 12 PM – 1 PM |
| 1pm to 2pm | I have a couple of reports to run. One is to get all of the order #’s for the next week out of one plant…I email shipping so they can see what we have and they can pull up orders or push back orders to make sure we are shipping all orders to the same location on the same day. I also have to run a report that shows all of our late deliveries for the past week. This is done in MS Access. I take the data and create a pareto chart so we can see what reasons have the highest % for late deliveries. |
| 2pm to 3pm | Now I work on another plant. This one is a little more time consuming because there are more orders and I have to put different stops together to use up as much room in each truck as possible. I use the same steps though and get an okay from each carrier before building the loads. |
| 3pm to 4pm | Again I will email dispatch sheets to each carrier and send out a p/u times schedule to the plant. My final plant is now ready and I work on them. They have the same steps but they don’t have too many loads. They don’t generally take quite as long to work on. I use the same steps…enter the orders in our staging system and contact the carriers. |
| 4pm to 5pm | Once these orders are set up I email the carriers dispatch sheets and give the plant a p/u times schedule. I go through emails again to make sure everything is taken care of and there are no problems. I leave around 5 PM when everything is complete. |
| 5pm to 6pm | |
| 6pm to 7pm | |
| 7pm to 8pm | |
| 8pm to 9pm | |
| 9pm to 10pm | |
| 10pm to 11pm | |
| 11pm to 12am |
Table of Contents
How you got your job
How did you get your current job?
I found my current job on Monster.com.
What was the application process?
Submitted resume online.
Did you have to interview for your current job? If yes, what did the interview process entail?
Yes, I completed a phone interview with the HR screener. Then I completed a phone interview with the hiring manager. After that I came in and had an face-to-face interview with the hiring manager, then with his boss, and finally with the head HR person.
If you can remember, what questions were you asked during the interview?
It has been quite awhile and I don’t remember.
Do you feel your employer properly prepared you for your job? Explain.
Yes, they had me sit with different co-workers to be trained for the job. That was all I really needed.
Was there training for your current position? If yes, what did it entail?
There was no real specific training. My co-workers sat with me and showed me how to use the different systems.
Do you feel your educational background prepared you for your job? Explain.
I do believe my educational background helped me. I understand logistics therefore I uunderstand the whole process from the time an order is placed to the time I get the load shipped out.
If applicable, do you feel your internship experience helped you prepare for your job?
N/A
If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
I would recommend going to college and getting a degree in business logistics or supply chain management.
What skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a position like yours?
Good customer service skills, good communication skills, and good time management skills. You deal with shipping and customer service and carriers all of the time. You need good customer service skills to deal with them appropriately. You must have good communication skills because you are making sure the carriers know what loads they are taking. You need to communicate with customer service so they know when there is a problem. In this job you have to complete certain schedules each day. You need good time management skills to make sure everything is taken care of before you leave each day.
Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
I don’t think that you necessarily need to go to college to do this job, but I know you probably wouldn’t get hired without a college education. I do believe you need good on the job training to do the job. And you need experience whether it is from education or previous jobs in dealing with customers, and handling urgent situations and just understanding how the business world works in general.
What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
Pay attention to your co-workers and your training. Take everything seriously. Work your hardest and make sure you answer any email or voicemail in a timely manner.
Long-term career plans
Is your current employment part of your overall career plan? Why or why not?
Yes it is. I want to move into a production or demand planning position in the future and this position is helping me understand one part of the whole supply chain.
What are your current career goals?
I want to move into a production/demand planning position in the next year to two years. After that I am not sure.
Is there anything else you would like to share about your career?
Logistics is a good field and there are many different options and paths you can take.
Prior work history
Please list your most recent jobs prior to this current job:
| Title | Length | Salary | Description | |
| Prior Job 1 | Systems Analyst | 2.5 years | 43000 | Updated inventory reports on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Maintainted database |
| Prior Job 2 | material planner/order management | 1 year | 37000 | Updated new parts database, handled repair orders, set up RMAs. |
Educational background
Please list your educational background:
High School GPA:3.7
| GPA | School | Degree | |
| College (Undergraduate) or Technical/Vocational |
2.9 | Penn State | Business Logistics |
| Graduate or Professional (Masters or Doctorate) |
3.8 | Penn State | Business Administration |
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