Top 12 Transportation Coordinator Skills to Put on Your Resume

In the fast-shifting world of logistics and transportation, a sharp resume can do heavy lifting. The right skills, loud and clear, help a transportation coordinator stand out and get hired faster.

Transportation Coordinator Skills

1. Logistics Management
2. Route Optimization
3. SAP TM
4. Oracle Transportation Management
5. Supply Chain Coordination
6. Freight Brokerage
7. DOT Regulations
8. GPS Tracking
9. Excel Proficiency
10. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
11. JIT Delivery
12. WMS (Warehouse Management Systems)

1. Logistics Management

Logistics management covers planning, executing, and controlling the efficient movement and storage of goods, services, and information from origin to destination. For a transportation coordinator, it’s the backbone of daily flow—orders, modes, carriers, timing—held together with cost control and service reliability.

Why It's Important

It keeps freight moving on time, trims waste, balances cost with service, and protects customer commitments. When logistics runs clean, everything else gets easier.

How to Improve Logistics Management Skills

Want smoother moves and fewer surprises? Try this:

1. Adopt the right tech: A capable Transportation Management System (TMS) for planning, tracking, rating, and settlements saves hours and reduces errors.

2. Smarter routing: Use route models that factor traffic, capacity, time windows, and service levels—then test and tune weekly.

3. Tight communication: Driver updates, dock coordination, and customer notifications in one shared channel. No siloed information.

4. Customer transparency: Status alerts and self-serve tracking reduce fire drills and keep relationships calm.

5. Data-driven tweaks: Review KPIs like on-time performance, cost per mile, claims, and dwell. Act fast on outliers.

6. Train and retrain: Tools change. Regulations shift. Keep skills current with short, frequent refreshers.

Stack these habits and reliability climbs.

How to Display Logistics Management Skills on Your Resume

2. Route Optimization

Route optimization finds the most efficient sequence and paths for pickups and deliveries, accounting for time windows, road conditions, driver hours, vehicle capacities, and costs. Less distance, fewer delays, happier customers.

Why It's Important

It slashes fuel spend and miles, protects on-time delivery, and squeezes more work from the same fleet. That’s margin.

How to Improve Route Optimization Skills

Turn the screws on efficiency:

1. Use dynamic routing: Real-time data—traffic, weather, incidents—should feed your plans, not just yesterday’s averages.

2. Learn from history: Analyze past routes for repeat bottlenecks, chronic late stops, and messy sequences. Fix patterns, not one-offs.

3. Adjust live: Monitor routes as they run. Reroute when conditions shift. Small mid-day pivots pay off.

4. Ask drivers: Field feedback beats map theory. Bake their insights into constraints and templates.

5. Refresh skills: New tools appear, algorithms improve. Run periodic training so the team keeps pace.

Better routes, better days.

How to Display Route Optimization Skills on Your Resume

3. SAP TM

SAP Transportation Management streamlines planning, execution, freight costing, and settlement across modes. It supports carrier selection, tendering, visibility, and compliance in one ecosystem.

Why It's Important

It consolidates orders, optimizes loads, automates rating, and produces auditable cost control. One source of truth across planning and finance.

How to Improve SAP TM Skills

Get more from the platform:

1. Level up knowledge: Keep up with new releases, Fiori apps, and configuration options; document playbooks for common scenarios.

2. Automate where it counts: Use optimization profiles, carrier selection rules, and automated tendering to cut keystrokes.

3. Clean master data: Lanes, rates, calendars, equipment—bad data sinks good plans. Govern it.

4. Measure and iterate: Track KPIs in embedded analytics or SAP BTP dashboards; refine constraints and strategies based on outcomes.

5. Collaborate: Connect with carriers via logistics networks or portals to reduce email churn and improve confirmation speed.

6. Extend smartly: Use SAP Business Technology Platform to build light extensions and integrations without hacking core.

7. Close the loop: Gather user feedback, prioritize fixes, and release improvements in small, frequent waves.

Precision in setup equals precision in execution.

How to Display SAP TM Skills on Your Resume

4. Oracle Transportation Management

Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) brings planning, execution, freight audit, and payment under one roof, supporting global and domestic moves with strong optimization and cost control.

Why It's Important

It cuts spend through consolidation and carrier selection, boosts service with better plans and visibility, and accelerates decision-making with robust analytics.

How to Improve Oracle Transportation Management Skills

Make OTM work harder:

1. Stay current: Upgrade routinely to unlock new optimizers, UI improvements, and security patches.

2. Train the crew: Role-based training for planners, auditors, and carriers shortens ramp-up time and reduces mistakes.

3. Streamline processes: Map your plan-to-pay workflow; remove duplicate steps; standardize exceptions handling.

4. Integrate well: Connect ERP, WMS, and external rate sources so data flows once, accurately.

5. Use advanced features: Fleet management, 3D load configuration, bulk planning—turn them on where they fit.

6. Mine the data: Build dashboards for cost per shipment, tender acceptance, on-time rates, and dwell to drive action.

7. Learn with peers: Engage the OTM user community and SIGs to swap patterns that work in the real world.

Small configuration tweaks often unlock big results.

How to Display Oracle Transportation Management Skills on Your Resume

5. Supply Chain Coordination

Coordination synchronizes suppliers, carriers, warehouses, and customers so goods move without friction. It’s calendars, constraints, and communication in concert.

Why It's Important

Good coordination shrinks delays, curbs cost, and keeps promises. Bad coordination multiplies headaches.

How to Improve Supply Chain Coordination Skills

Bring the network together:

1. One conversation hub: Centralize updates with tools like Teams or Slack so decisions happen fast.

2. Shared workboards: Use task boards (Trello, Asana, or similar) so every party sees status without chasing emails.

3. End-to-end visibility: GPS, telematics, and RFID feed real-time ETAs and proof-of-delivery. Less guessing.

4. Integrated systems: Connect SCM, TMS, and WMS to cut data re-entry and timing gaps.

5. Supplier cadence: Regular check-ins, clear SLAs, and quick corrective action keep flow steady.

6. Analytics: Use BI tools to spot bottlenecks, volatile lanes, and chronic exceptions.

7. Continuous improvement: Lean and Six Sigma methods help trim waste and stabilize processes.

Clarity wins; noise loses.

How to Display Supply Chain Coordination Skills on Your Resume

6. Freight Brokerage

Freight brokerage connects shippers with carriers, balancing price, service, and capacity without owning the trucks. It’s matchmaking under pressure.

Why It's Important

Brokers unlock capacity fast, find fair rates in volatile markets, and keep freight moving when networks get tight.

How to Improve Freight Brokerage Skills

Sharpen the brokerage engine:

1. Leverage a TMS: Centralize quotes, tenders, tracking, and settlements. Fewer clicks, more coverage.

2. Build carrier loyalty: Pay on time, communicate clearly, and offer consistent lanes. Trust lowers your spot risk.

3. Smarter load matching: Use digital boards and matching tools; filter by lane history, performance, and equipment.

4. Uncompromising service: Proactive updates, fast problem-solving, clean paperwork. Reputation compounds.

5. Keep learning: Follow market indices, attend association trainings, and maintain certifications.

Relationships and responsiveness carry the day.

How to Display Freight Brokerage Skills on Your Resume

7. DOT Regulations

DOT regulations set the rules for safe, compliant transportation—vehicle maintenance, driver hours, safety programs, hazmat handling, and recordkeeping.

Why It's Important

Compliance avoids fines and accidents, protects your CSA scores, and keeps fleets roadworthy. Safety isn’t optional.

How to Improve DOT Regulations Skills

Make compliance practical:

1. Ongoing training: Refresh drivers and staff on Hours of Service, ELD use, inspections, and incident procedures.

2. Tech for proof: Use ELDs, DVIR tools, and telematics to track hours, inspections, and safety events automatically.

3. Preventive maintenance: PM schedules and checklists reduce roadside failures and violations.

4. Safety culture: Safety meetings, coaching, and incentives for clean driving records build good habits.

5. Internal audits: Mock reviews and file checks (driver quals, logs, maintenance) keep you audit-ready.

6. Watch the rulebook: Monitor FMCSA and NHTSA updates; adapt policies quickly when changes drop.

Document everything. If it isn’t recorded, it didn’t happen.

How to Display DOT Regulations Skills on Your Resume

8. GPS Tracking

GPS tracking pinpoints vehicle locations in real time. Dispatch sees where assets are, where they’re headed, and whether they’ll make the window.

Why It's Important

It trims idle time, improves ETAs, strengthens security, and supports smarter route adjustments. Visibility is leverage.

How to Improve GPS Tracking Skills

Dial in reliability:

1. Quality hardware: Use modern, accurate trackers from reputable vendors like Garmin or TomTom.

2. Robust software: Pick platforms with live maps, geofencing, alerting, and analytics—and keep them updated.

3. Network resilience: Ensure strong connectivity and redundancy so data keeps flowing.

4. Regular upkeep: Firmware updates, device checks, and clean installs prevent gaps.

5. Training: Teach teams how to read signals, escalate exceptions, and act on insights.

6. Driver input: Create a simple channel to report device or signal issues quickly.

Accurate dots on the map, fewer blind spots on the day.

How to Display GPS Tracking Skills on Your Resume

9. Excel Proficiency

Excel proficiency means building schedules, analyzing routes, tracking shipments, reconciling costs, and telling clear stories with data—fast and clean.

Why It's Important

It’s the everyday toolkit for planning, auditing, and reporting. When Excel hums, operations follow suit.

How to Improve Excel Proficiency Skills

Level up where it matters most:

1. Core fluency: Sorting, filtering, conditional formatting, data validation—make accuracy the default.

2. Modern lookups: Favor XLOOKUP and INDEX + MATCH over legacy lookups; master dynamic arrays (FILTER, UNIQUE, SORT).

3. Pivots and Power Query: Build pivot tables for quick insights; use Power Query to clean and combine data at scale.

4. Dashboards: Crisp charts, slicers, and sparklines to track OTIF, dwell, cost per mile, and tender acceptance.

5. Automation: Record macros, learn basic VBA, or use Office Scripts to kill repetitive tasks.

6. Practice on real sets: Use historical loads, lane costs, and accessorials to solve practical problems.

7. Keep current: New functions roll out often in Microsoft 365—adopt them early.

Speed and accuracy—two edges of the same blade.

How to Display Excel Proficiency Skills on Your Resume

10. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)

EDI automates document exchange—tenders, shipment statuses, invoices—between shippers, carriers, and customers using agreed standards. Fewer keystrokes, fewer mistakes.

Why It's Important

It accelerates transactions, reduces manual entry errors, and creates consistent, traceable communication throughout the shipment lifecycle.

How to Improve EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) Skills

Make EDI sturdy and smooth:

1. Integrate with TMS: Real-time tendering, status updates, and freight bills should flow straight into your system.

2. Standards discipline: Align on ANSI X12 or EDIFACT versions and maps; maintain documentation religiously.

3. Automate validation: Enforce schema checks and business rules to catch errors before they propagate.

4. Partner onboarding: Use repeatable playbooks for testing, certifying, and going live with new partners.

5. Monitor and alert: Set up dashboards and alerts for failed transactions, delays, and unusual volumes.

6. Train the team: Teach ops how to interpret EDI codes and resolve common exceptions without waiting on IT.

7. Security: Protect sensitive data in transit and at rest; rotate keys and enforce strict access controls.

Quiet EDI is good EDI—no noise, just flow.

How to Display EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) Skills on Your Resume

11. JIT Delivery

Just-In-Time delivery gets goods to the dock exactly when needed, minimizing storage and inventory carrying costs. Precision timing, no fluff.

Why It's Important

It cuts inventory buffers, frees cash, and supports lean operations—if your timing is trustworthy.

How to Improve JIT Delivery Skills

Make timing your ally:

1. Sharper routing: Sequence stops with time windows front and center; lock in realistic buffers.
2. Live tracking: Use GPS and status milestones to course-correct before a miss becomes a problem.
3. Partner alignment: Share forecasts and delivery calendars with suppliers; confirm dock readiness early.
4. Inventory signals: Integrate order points with transportation plans so replenishment and dispatch act as one.
5. Continuous improvement: Kaizen the exceptions—map root causes and remove them ruthlessly.

JIT works when everyone runs on the same clock.

How to Display JIT Delivery Skills on Your Resume

12. WMS (Warehouse Management Systems)

A WMS orchestrates warehouse operations—receiving, putaway, picking, packing, and shipping—so inventory stays accurate and orders move quickly. Transportation coordination thrives when the warehouse feeds clean data and tight turn times.

Why It's Important

It reduces mis-picks, shrinks cycle time, and sharpens dock scheduling. Better fulfillment, better transportation.

How to Improve WMS (Warehouse Management Systems) Skills

Turn the warehouse into a reliable engine:

1. Integrate systems: Link WMS with TMS, ERP, and CRM so orders, inventory, and shipments stay aligned.

2. Automate wisely: Barcode and RFID scanning, directed picking, and label printing reduce human error.

3. Use analytics: Monitor pick rates, dock-to-stock, order cycle time, and inventory accuracy; act on trends.

4. Train continuously: Short, focused sessions on new features and SOPs keep throughput steady.

5. Improve relentlessly: Review slotting, layout, and pick paths; remove travel waste and congestion.

6. Plan for growth: Choose a WMS that scales; flexible workflows prevent costly rework later.

7. Lean on vendors and peers: Strong support and user communities (Blue Yonder, Manhattan, Körber—formerly HighJump) accelerate problem-solving.

When the WMS hums, trucks don’t wait.

How to Display WMS (Warehouse Management Systems) Skills on Your Resume