Commercial Manager – Container Transport
We are looking for an experienced Commercial Manager with a strong background in the UK container transport industry to take ownership of our commercial strategy, customer relationships, pricing and new business opportunities.
This is not simply a sales role.
We are looking for someone who understands the commercial realities of container haulage – rates, mileage, empty running, port costs, driver utilisation and, critically, the importance of securing work that can be combined effectively with other jobs.
The successful candidate will already have strong relationships within the container industry, particularly with freight forwarders, shipping lines, and other major users of container transport.
Key ResponsibilitiesPricing & Tariff Management
- Take ownership of customer tariffs across the business.
- Conduct structured annual reviews of all customer rates.
- Identify customers and lanes requiring earlier commercial review where costs or operating conditions change.
- Ensure fuel surcharge, VBS, DVS, tolls and other variable operating costs are appropriately recovered.
- Own and coordinate customer quotations, tenders and RFQs.
- Ensure new business is priced commercially rather than simply won on volume.
- Benchmark rates and maintain an understanding of market pricing and competitor activity.
Customer Profitability & Performance
- Monitor customer volumes, revenue and commercial performance.
- Analyse revenue per job, revenue per mile and profitability by customer, depot and lane.
- Identify customers, lanes and traffic flows that are underperforming commercially.
- Recommend rate increases, changes to operating arrangements or, where necessary, exiting commercially unattractive work.
- Monitor agreed customer volumes against actual volumes and investigate significant changes.
- Identify opportunities to increase volumes and share of wallet with profitable existing customers.
Commercial & Operational Strategy
A major part of this role will be understanding that not all volume is good volume.
The Commercial Manager will work closely with our operational teams to understand where additional work is required and target customers and traffic that complement our existing operation.
This will include:
- Understanding existing container flows across the business.
- Identifying opportunities to combine jobs and reduce empty running.
- Targeting complementary import/export and port/depot traffic.
- Understanding where individual depots require additional volume.
- Helping determine which customers and opportunities the business should prioritise.
- Ensuring commercial decisions support fleet utilisation and driver productivity.
The ability to understand how two apparently separate transport movements can work together commercially is essential.
Customer Relationship Management
- Act as a senior commercial contact for key customers.
- Conduct regular customer visits and structured account reviews.
- Build strong long-term relationships with existing customers.
- Develop new relationships across the freight forwarding and shipping-line community.
- Identify customer issues before they result in lost volume.
- Negotiate rate increases and commercial changes professionally and confidently.
- Maintain a strong understanding of customers' future volume requirements and supply-chain plans.
New Business
- Develop and maintain a targeted commercial pipeline.
- Identify potential customers that complement our existing transport network.
- Lead major tenders and commercial negotiations.
- Work with operations before committing to significant new volumes.
- Evaluate opportunities based on margin, operational fit and combinability, rather than revenue alone.
Commercial Reporting
Provide management with clear monthly visibility of:
- Customer volumes and volume trends.
- Revenue and commercial performance.
- Revenue per mile and other relevant commercial KPIs.
- Customer profitability.
- Rate reviews completed and outstanding.
- Customers requiring commercial intervention.
- New business pipeline.
- Tenders and quotations.
- Lost or declining business.
- Significant commercial risks and opportunities.
Experience Required
Container transport industry experience is essential.
Applicants must have:
- Previous experience in a Commercial Manager, Senior Commercial or similar role within the container transport industry.
- An established network and existing relationships with freight forwarders, shipping lines and/or major container customers.
- Strong knowledge of UK container haulage and the major UK ports.
- A strong understanding of container transport pricing and operating costs.
- The ability to understand fleet utilisation, empty running and job combination.
- Experience negotiating customer tariffs and commercial agreements.
- Experience managing tenders and significant customer quotations.
- Strong commercial and analytical skills.
- The confidence to negotiate at senior level and challenge commercially unsustainable business.
What We're Looking For
We want someone who understands that a successful commercial department isn't measured purely by how much new revenue it wins.
The right person will constantly be asking:
Is this the right work?
Does the rate make sense?
Can we combine it with our existing work?
Does it improve fleet utilisation?
Is this a customer we should be growing with?
Where should we be focusing our trucks and commercial effort?
This is a senior and influential role with the opportunity to directly shape the customer portfolio and commercial direction of a substantial UK container transport operation.
Pay: £60,000.00-£75,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company car
- Company pension
- Free parking
- On-site parking
- Private medical insurance
Experience:
- Logistics: 5 years (required)
Work Location: In person
