Transport Planning and Projects Manager

Overview:
12 months fixed-term contract
Reporting to The Distribution Operations Manager, the Transport Planning and Projects Manager is responsible for the Transport Planning team who create the national distribution plan balancing customer requirments with transport resources.
You will manage the transport planners to deliver efficient and effective route planning across the UK for over 350 customers a day, up to 300 routes a week.
You will be ionvolved in transport projects such as scenario modelling and influencing the future of the apetito delivery network.
Compliance monitoring is also an important part of this role, to ensure apetito adheres to operator licencing undertakings.
The Transport Planning and Projects Manager is a key point of contact in the logistics team and is a champion of employee and customer engagement.
Who we are
We're the leading food producer for the health and social care sector, providing delicious, nutritious and sustainable meals for people at home or in care. Our customers rely on us delivering reliably to feed their patients, service users and pupils so this is a critical part of our logistics operation.
We're also the parent company of Wiltshire Farm Foods, the UK's premier home-delivery service for ready-made meals.
Through our wide range of well-presented, nutritious meals to suit every taste and dietary need, we aim to make a real difference to lives of elderly and vulnerable people in care.
We're proud to be a Living Wage employer and member of the Ethical Trading Initiative. We support British food and farming and operate a successful programme of waste reduction and resource efficiency across our whole business.
In addition to your salary you will receive a comprehensive training program, 33 days annual leave holiday entitlement and the ability to buy additional annual leave, retail discounts, free car parking, subsidised staff restaurant, free turkey (or voucher) at Christmas and much more!
Responsibilities:
Organise the planning team, delegate tasks and deal with day to day staffing issues as necessary to ensure the transport operation runs smoothly, performance levels are maintained and customer service requirements are met
If working in planning function, responsible for routing vehicles across the network in compliance with legal constraints i.e. vehicle weights, WTD, as well as customer requirements.
Work collaboratively with all internal and external stakeholders in order to gather feedback and key information to enhance operational performance and proactively identify and mitigate any current or future potential issues.
Coordinate and plan project activities, ensuring collaboration with other project stakeholders to implement agreed changes efficiently
Lead, develop and motivate direct reports so that they deliver or exceed their objectives and KPI's, identify future potential and develop in line with business needs.
Support and implement ways in which reduce cost and optimise performance
Extract and utilise accurate data from systems to build and distribute relevant reporting to ensure relevent communication with stakeholders
On call duties 1 week in every 6 dealing with out of hours calls
Qualifications:
Essential:
Experience in:
Route planning or scheduling
Routing and tracking systems
Managing a team
Transport Manager Certificate of Professional Competence
Full understanding of Working Time Directive, Drivers Hours and Operators licensing compliance
Numerate and literate
Able to work well under pressure
Good people and communication skills
Strong organisation skills, able to manage multiple conflicting deadlines.
Problem solving skills
Able to manage complex customer requirements.
Desirable:
Project management experience
3PL background
Personal Qualities:
Able to work in a fast pace environment
Self Motivated
Customer focused and empathetic
Flexible and adaptable
Enjoys working with people
Good team player
Approachable, trustworthy and fair; can gain the respect of others