Export Logistics Coordinator
Document jockey routing frozen fries and seed potatoes onto ocean containers
The container leaves the plant fine. What I'm paid for is everything that goes wrong between the plant and the buyer's mouth.
Books ocean containers (40-foot reefer high-cubes mostly), arranges drayage from plant to port, files SLI and AES documentation, manages phyto certificates for seed exports, coordinates with freight forwarders and customs brokers, and chases vessel rolls when a sailing gets bumped. Owns the handoff from US plant floor to foreign port.
Desks at major exporters (Simplot, Lamb Weston, McCain) and at freight forwarders. Port-adjacent in Long Beach, Oakland, Tacoma, Seattle, Houston, Savannah. Some inland near plants in Idaho and the Columbia Basin coordinating intermodal to the coast.
A vessel roll that pushes delivery two weeks and triggers a contract penalty. Reefer container plug-in failures at port that thaw a load. Mexican customs holding a phyto cert for clarification while the truck idles at Otay Mesa. The Japanese buyer who specs cut length to the millimeter and rejects a container over a sampling tray.
A clean booking — container loaded on time, on the vessel, temp log clean, arrival in Yokohama matched to the customer's processing schedule. A new market opening (Philippines QSR expansion) without a single rejected container in the first quarter.
INTTRA or CargoWise for ocean booking, Descartes or e2open for trade docs, AES Direct for export filing, ACE for US customs, GLOBALG.A.P. and USDA-APHIS phytosanitary certificate workflows, INCOTERMS 2020 reference always within arm's reach, WhatsApp groups with forwarders in three time zones.
Frozen exports run year-round but spike Q1 for Lunar New Year fill in Asia and Q3 for back-to-school QSR demand abroad. Seed potato exports are tight November-February (Northern Hemisphere lift, Southern Hemisphere plant). Fresh exports peak right after US harvest, October-December. Ocean rate season (May-October contract renewals) is when the strategic moves happen.
Career path
Often international business or supply chain degree, sometimes a 2-year logistics certificate, occasionally a customs broker license (Licensed Customs Broker exam) for the higher end. Many start at a freight forwarder (Expeditors, Kuehne+Nagel, CH Robinson Global Forwarding) on the export desk for 2-3 years, then move in-house at a processor. Fluency in Spanish helps for Mexico lanes, Japanese or Tagalog for Pacific lanes.
Salaried with bonus tied to on-time export percentage and reduction in detention/demurrage spend. Forwarder-side roles sometimes carry commission on booked TEUs. Plant-side roles are more stable, less commission.
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