Capacity Planning Supervisor

Capacity Planning Supervisor, Ground

Multiple shifts are available, including day, evening/night, and weekend shifts.

General Description

The Capacity Planning Supervisor, Ground leads the Capacity Planning Specialist team and is accountable for one outcome above all others: every shipment has a qualified carrier under it in time to meet the pickup window. The Supervisor owns assignment of carriers from a pool of qualified and vetted partners to ensure security, quality of service, appointment adherence, and dispatch standards that ensure highly reliable and secure service. The role also owns the cost side of the file after delivery ensuring final carrier charges are confirmed within the required window so billing is never waiting on capacity. The Supervisor serves as the first escalation tier for the planners.

Essential Job Functions

Coverage Assurance & Board Oversight

• Own the open shipments board across the shift every shipment assigned to a planner and every load covered ahead of its pickup window.
• Hold the team to the target of carrier confirmation through appointment creation and Aljex update within 3060 minutes of assignment.
• Rebalance work across planners when volume spikes, a lane proves hard to cover, or an absence creates a gap.
• Exercise decision authority on difficult coverage: when to pay above target rate, when to re-source, and when to raise the shipment for a service decision rather than absorb the cost.
• Ensure no uncovered load is carried past shift handover without an explicit escalation and a named owner.

Carrier Management & Rate Discipline

• Approve rate exceptions above the defined threshold and hold the team to buy-rate discipline so margin is protected on every file.
• Manage carrier performance against on-time pickup, on-time delivery, tracking compliance, and claims history; conduct performance conversations and remove carriers that do not improve.
• Build capacity ahead of known demand in recurring lanes rather than sourcing reactively each time volume appears.
• Manage committed or dedicated capacity arrangements where the program uses them, including utilization against commitment.
• Maintain carrier relationships that hold up when the network is tight the point at which a relationship is worth what was invested in it.

Appointment & Dispatch Governance

• Set and enforce the standard for Open Dock appointment creation and for mirroring appointments and reference numbers into Aljex.
• Verify MacroPoint sync is confirmed on every shipment before pickup, and pursue tracking compliance with carriers that fail to connect.
• Hold dispatch and "Arrived PU" milestone discipline so downstream status including the Loading trigger fires on accurate data.
• Coordinate with the Operations Supervisor and Account Operations Supervisor when consolidation changes committed capacity or appointments already in flight.
• Ensure appointment changes are reflected in Aljex and communicated to the Outbound Specialist for the corresponding TMF correction.

Cost Confirmation & Margin Control

• Ensure final carrier charges are audited and confirmed in Aljex within 24 hours of Delivered status, and that the final carrier charge note is posted so billing is never blocked by capacity.
• Review accessorial, detention, and layover trends and challenge patterns rather than approving them file by file.
• Resolve carrier rate and charge disputes, approving settlements within delegated authority and escalating beyond it.
• Own cost-side data quality in Aljex so what is confirmed matches what will be invoiced by the carrier.
• Report margin performance by lane and by carrier, and act on lanes that are consistently uneconomic.

Escalation & Exception Ownership

• Act as the first escalation tier for the planning team decide what sits within shift authority and route what does not.
• Route escalations to the correct owner: execution and file issues to the Operations Supervisor, customer commitments and date changes to the Account Operations Supervisor, systemic and tooling gaps to the Program Manager.
• Escalate security concerns involving carrier, driver, equipment, or chain of custody to the GSOC Security Team and management immediately.
• Hold escalations to a clear standard: separate verified fact from inference, judgment, and allegation, particularly in carrier disputes and claims.
• Follow carrier service failures to corrective action rather than to a note on the file.

People Leadership & Development

• Supervise, coach, and develop the Capacity Planning Specialists, with regular one-to-one feedback tied to real coverage decisions.
• Onboard new planners and certify competency on Aljex, Open Dock, HVHR Procedures, and MacroPoint before they cover shipments independently.
• Coach negotiation directly rate conversations, holding a carrier to a commitment, and knowing when to walk away from a quote.
• Cross-train planners across lanes and regions so coverage does not depend on one person's carrier relationships.
• Own shift scheduling and staffing for continuous coverage, including absence management and peak-period planning.
• Manage performance directly and fairly, and build a team culture of directness and kindness where a planner flags an uncoverable load early rather than late.

Capacity Planning & Continuous Improvement

• Forecast expected demand against available capacity by lane, and plan for peaks, seasonality, and known program events.
• Report capacity KPIs coverage cycle time, cost per load, carrier on-time performance, tracking compliance, and margin with cause behind the variance.
• Use Power BI and system reporting to identify structural problems: lanes that are chronically short, carriers that fail on the same pattern, rates drifting from plan.
• Partner with the Program Manager on tooling and integration improvements, including rate reference limitations and appointment tool defects.
• Convert recurring failures into updated SOPs, carrier scorecards, and coverage playbooks so improvements outlast the current team.

Physical Requirements

• Talking, hearing and using hands to operate a computer keyboard, mouse and other computer components
• Vision abilities required by this job include close vision and the ability to adjust focus

• Occasional travel may be required for carrier meetings or site visits.

Preferred Skills

• Experience building and managing a vetted or dedicated carrier pool for a high-value or security-sensitive program.
• Experience running carrier scorecards, performance reviews, and structured corrective action.
• Familiarity with dock scheduling platforms and real-time visibility tools (Open Dock, MacroPoint, Tive).
• Working knowledge of Power BI or comparable tools for building and interpreting capacity and cost dashboards.
• Exposure to procurement events, rate benchmarking, or bid support for ground lanes.
• Understanding of cross-border capacity requirements and specialized equipment handling.

Education & Experience

• Associate's or bachelor's degree in logistics, supply chain, business, or a related field; equivalent operational experience considered.
• 57 years of experience in carrier procurement, truckload brokerage, dispatch, or capacity management, including at least 13 years leading or supervising a team.
• Demonstrated ability to secure capacity in a tight market and to negotiate rates without giving away margin.
• Hands-on experience with a brokerage or transportation management system; direct experience with Descartes Aljex strongly preferred.
• Working knowledge of US domestic ground freight modes (FTL, LTL, intermodal), equipment types, transit times, and hours-of-service constraints.
• Solid understanding of carrier qualification and compliance requirements, including authority, insurance, safety rating, and claims handling.
• Commercial judgment on cost versus service, and the discipline to escalate rather than quietly absorb a bad decision.
• Data literacy sufficient to build a cost and coverage narrative and defend it to program leadership.
• Availability to support a 24/7 operation, including escalation coverage outside standard hours.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Excel, Outlook) and Microsoft Teams.

Certifications and Licenses

• Professional certification may be required in some areas.

Why Should You Work for Crane?

At Crane, we believe in providing our employees with excellent benefits at a Great Place to Work.

We offer:

• Quarterly Incentive Plan
• 136 hours of Paid Time Off which equals 17 days for the year, that can be used for Sick Time or for Personal Use
• Excellent Medical,