What’s a Route Manager’s role?

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A route manager works for an organization that is involved in regular travel, such as a transportation or delivery company. Route manager duties involve coordinating vehicles, personnel, and cargo at a given location. This location can be a small region, such as a postal delivery area, or it can span continents, such as air routes. Route managers are sometimes part of a network of route managers, each specializing in a separate location or service. Sometimes the term route manager is also applied to the driver or delivery person covering a certain local area.

Modern transport and delivery companies are world-wide equipment that must be able to deliver cargo or passengers to any of the millions of possible destinations around the world. Other organizations, such as postal and waste management services, must make daily or weekly trips to all addresses in a given area. The travel schedule for this service is called a route, and for efficiency, many organizations will determine permanent routes as part of official policy. For example, an air route might include regular travel between two distant cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, while a postal route might involve all addresses in a single zip code.

The route manager is responsible for coordinating travel for one or several routes. This requires detailed knowledge of many factors, including available vehicles and personnel, local and national regulations, and company policy. An air route manager, for example, must ensure that the crew on an international flight includes bilingual personnel and that crew members are not overburdened by repeated long flights. Such requirements are governed by aviation law and company policy and may vary depending on the route.

The route manager for a company involved in local travel such as taxis or package delivery will focus on different subjects. He or she can be aware of lead times, current road construction projects, and which vehicles are unavailable due to maintenance. Local and national laws may determine not only the requirements for delivery vehicles and drivers, but also the delivery times and what types of materials can be transported.

Sometimes route manager is also used as a charge for drivers on these local routes. These drivers are responsible for all deliveries or pickups within a certain geographic area. They can determine the best travel methods based on their own knowledge of an area, or they can work with supervisors or dispatchers. Unlike some delivery jobs, which are notoriously low-paying and menial, the salaries and benefits for this type of route manager can be competitive and form the foundation of a long-term career.

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