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Frequently Asked Questions - Transport Management
What is transport management?
The process of ensuring that passengers and freight are provided with the services they need and are delivered to the right place, at the right time, after the highest possible quality journey and at the right price.
Who employs professional transport managers?
- National and local government
- Passenger transport companies - road, rail, air and sea
- Freight transport companies - road, rail, air, sea and inland waterways
- Travel and tourist companies
- Coal, oil, steel, gas and electricity companies
- Seaports, airports and The Post Office
- Breweries, supermarkets, clothing and food manufacturers
- Car fleet operators and courier services
- The Armed Services
- Consultancies
What types of opportunities exist for transport managers?
- Planning
- Customer services
- Engineering
- Research and development
- Operations and fleet management
- Information technology
- Industrial design
- Analyst
- Health and safety
- Environmental
What skills and personal qualities are required?
- Ability to 'get on' with people from all walks of life
- Analytical and/or IT skills at various levels
- Ability to work at all hours of the day and night - it is a 365-day-a-year industry
- Languages - particularly in travel and tourism
- Ability to work well in teams
- Ability to work under widely varying levels of pressure and develop a blend of management skills
- The ability to take responsibility - often at quite a young age
What qualifications are required?
- Good all-round GCSEs followed by A Levels - especially those including an introduction to the business world, numerical and analytical skills plus modern languages
- A good quality degree in any subject will help - there are specialist transport/distribution degrees available. However, degree-level entry is not the only way into the industry
- Many companies encourage employees to gain additional professional qualifications to enhance their career prospects. Professional and post-graduate qualifications are available at a number of colleges, universities, etc and can be studied on a full-time, part-time or distance learning basis. This includes the range of professional qualifications offered by The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in the UK to MSc level
What's the starting salary?
- For graduate trainees the starting salary would be around £15,000, dependent upon company size and location
- There are many non-graduate opportunities but these salaries are more difficult to gauge and would vary according to age, experience, qualifications, company size and location
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