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Cargo and Freight Agents

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Expedite and route movement of incoming and outgoing cargo and freight shipments in airline, train, and trucking terminals and shipping docks. Take orders from customers and arrange pickup of freight and cargo for delivery to loading platform. Prepare and examine bills of lading to determine shipping charges and tariffs.

Related: Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors Customs Brokers Freight Forwarders Postal Service Clerks Shipping, Receiving, & Inventory Clerks

Industries: Transportation & Storage

Summary
Details

Estimate freight or postal rates and record shipment costs and weights.
Inspect and count items received and check them against invoices or other documents, recording shortages and rejecting damaged goods.
Install straps, braces, and padding to loads to prevent shifting or damage during shipment.
Enter shipping information into a computer by hand or by a hand-held scanner that reads bar codes on goods.
Track delivery progress of shipments.
Negotiate and arrange transport of goods with shipping or freight companies.
Check import or export documentation to determine cargo contents and use tariff coding system to classify goods according to fee or tariff group.
Maintain a supply of packing materials.
Route received goods to first available flight or to appropriate storage areas or departments, using forklifts, hand trucks, or other equipment.
Prepare manifests showing numbers of airplane passengers and baggage, mail, and freight weights, transmitting data to destinations.
Direct delivery trucks to shipping doors or designated marshaling areas and help load and unload goods safely.
Open cargo containers and unwrap contents, using steel cutters, crowbars, or other hand tools.
Arrange insurance coverage for goods.
Retrieve stored items and trace lost shipments as necessary.
Contact vendors or claims adjustment departments to resolve shipment problems or contact service depots to arrange for repairs.
Advise clients on transportation and payment methods.
Notify consignees, passengers, or customers of freight or baggage arrival and arrange for delivery.
Assemble containers and crates used to transport items, such as machines or vehicles.
Direct delivery trucks to shipping doors or designated marshaling areas and help load and unload goods safely.
Attach address labels, identification codes, and shipping instructions to containers.
Determine method of shipment and prepare bills of lading, invoices, and other shipping documents.
Negotiate and arrange transport of goods with shipping or freight companies.
Keep records of all goods shipped, received, and stored.
Coordinate and supervise activities of workers engaged in packing and shipping merchandise.
Direct or participate in cargo loading to ensure completeness of load and even distribution of weight.
Pack goods for shipping, using tools such as staplers, strapping machines, and hammers.
Inspect and count items received and check them against invoices or other documents, recording shortages and rejecting damaged goods.
Direct or participate in cargo loading to ensure completeness of load and even distribution of weight.

Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.

Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.

Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.

Education

High school diploma or equivalent

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

Less than 1 month on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

55140/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

26.51/hr

Currently Employed

2,880

Yearly Projected Openings

350

Conventional: People interested in this work like activities that include data, detail, and regular routines. They do well at jobs that need:

Attention to Detail
Dependability
Integrity

Air conditioners
Aircraft pushback or tow tractors
Cargo trucks
Desktop computers
Forklifts
Ground power units for aircraft
Hammers
Hand trucks or accessories
Laser fax machine
Laser printers
Metal cutters
Pry bars
Radio frequency scanners
Staple guns
Two way radios
Wheel chocks
Wrapping machinery

Data base user interface and query software
Electronic mail software
Enterprise resource planning ERP software
Internet browser software
Inventory management software
Mobile location based services software
Office suite software
Operating system software
Presentation software
Procurement software
Spreadsheet software
Word processing software

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

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Cargo and Freight Agents

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