Manager Trainee – Transportation Operations

Job Description

Manager Trainee | J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.

The Tone:
This is a full-time, learning-focused management trainee position within J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc., a leading transportation services company. The role is designed for individuals eager to develop essential management skills within a dynamic logistics environment. This position is crucial for ensuring the safe and timely movement of freight, maintaining customer satisfaction, and ensuring compliance with essential regulations across various operational shifts, including nights and weekends.

The TL;DR
• Role: Manager Trainee
• Type: Full-time
• Location: In-person, various account locations with potential for regional relocation

• Mission: Learn to manage driver operations, optimize freight movement, deliver excellent customer service, and ensure compliance with company and DOT regulations.

What You’ll Actually Do
• Driver Relations: Learn to build and maintain strong professional relationships with drivers and external carriers to maximize productivity and minimize personnel turnover.
• Operational Optimization: Become proficient in maximizing fleet efficiency and profitability, making recommendations for continuous improvement, and preparing customer-specific reports.
• Resource Management: Gain knowledge on how to manage inventory, company assets, customer pools, and effectively assign drivers to balance equipment across various markets.
• Administrative Oversight: Learn to perform various administrative duties, including payroll processing, budget management, driver counseling, accident reviews, financial analysis, and creating operational reports.
• Safety and Compliance: Learn to maintain the company’s safety culture, enforce policies, ensure DOT compliance, and plan, route, and monitor freight for safe, on-time delivery while managing exceptions.

The Must-Haves
• Background: This is an entry-level management role requiring a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Transportation/Logistics, Supply Chain, or a related field.
• Experience: Alternatively, a High School Diploma or GED is accepted with at least one year of experience in management, transportation/logistics, business administration, account management, or equivalent military experience. A fundamental requirement includes willingness to travel to various account, customer, and company event locations as needed, and the flexibility to work across multiple shifts, including nights and/or weekends. Additionally, willingness to regionally relocate dependent on account assignment is essential for this position.
• Skills: The role demands the ability to learn and apply principles of load assignment, freight movement planning, and monitoring to ensure timely service. It requires developing skills in DOT compliance and maintaining company safety standards. Further essential skills include cultivating strong customer service, managing driver relationships, performing administrative tasks such as payroll, budget management, driver counseling, and foundational financial analysis.
• Bonus: Preferred qualifications include prior experience managing a team, strong aptitude for anticipating and resolving conflicts, robust analytical abilities to make productive decisions, adaptability to dynamic environments, and the capability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with clients, vendors, and internal peers.