Cargo and Freight Agents
Office and Administrative Support
Customer orders come in, freight is booked for pickup to the loading platform, and a shipment method is chosen before bills of lading, invoices, and related papers are prepared. Time goes to negotiating transport, estimating rates, recording weights and costs, and keeping an account of goods shipped, received, and stored, plus tracking deliveries and tracing anything that goes missing. Airline, train, and trucking terminals and shipping docks are the usual setting; customers are told when freight arrives and advised on transport and payment. Suits people who like matching documents to real cargo and working through problems with carriers and clients under time pressure.
Typical education: Bachelor’s Degree (4-year)
Annual Median Wage in Field (2025)
$52'260
Median Wage Market Position
$52'260
What you might do
- Arrange transport of goods with freight companies
- Prepare bills of lading and shipping invoices
- Track shipments from pickup through delivery
- Estimate freight rates and record shipment costs
- Advise clients on shipping and payment options
- Trace lost freight and retrieve stored cargo
Skills that matter
- Arranging pickup and routing of freight
- Preparing bills of lading for charges
- Tracking delivery progress of shipments
- Estimating freight rates and weights
- Tracing lost shipments at the terminal
- Notifying customers when freight arrives
AI & the future of this role
Shipment tracking, document prep, and order coordination tend to live in systems that scheduling and paperwork tools may streamline further. Exception handling when freight goes wrong still needs human judgment, but routine expediting looks increasingly exposed.
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Includes O*NET® 30.3 Database information by USDOL/ETA under CC BY 4.0; modified by LostInCareer. Wage/outlook from BLS. Attribution details