Transportation equipment is large-scale equipment that includes containers, trucks, tractors, trailers, cranes, portable ramps, lifting equipment, and loading or unloading systems. Often, such equipment cannot safely travel on or navigate certain roads, bridges, overpasses, overhead power lines, etc.
Transportation route and crew schedulers work out safe pathways from point to point, and prepare schedules for transportation equipment and operators, using computer software and other methods. They are responsible for assigning personnel to appropriate equipment, selecting transport routes that can handle the equipment and product loads, and scheduling work shifts. They also keep records of their organization’s equipment and personnel to make sure everything runs smoothly and efficiently.
A transportation route and crew scheduler’s duties include:
- Organize and monitor workloads and task lists
- Keep track of available equipment, vehicles and crew
- Create, map and adjust routes and schedules to ensure transport equipment meets required size, turning radius or load / weight restrictions of the routes, and all necessary tasks are completed efficiently and on time
- Assign crews to equipment and vehicles, including pilot vehicles where necessary
- Arrange for police to block off roads or redirect other traffic, where necessary
- Schedule crews to move or remove roadside or overhead obstacles, such as light poles, where necessary
- Distribute routes and schedules for use by operators and passengers
- Monitor progress and adapt routes and schedules to weather, traffic, obstructions, equipment failures and other complicating factors
- Communicate with and provide support for crew
- Coordinate, schedule and create purchase orders for delivery and return of equipment and vehicles
- Obtain quotes from transport vendors
- Perform recordkeeping and maintain daily traffic logs
- Monitor and analyze schedule adherence and passenger or freight loads to improve future scheduling
