What does a logistics coordinator do?
A logistics coordinator plans, schedules, and tracks shipments end-to-end—matching orders to carriers, monitoring inventory movements, resolving exceptions, and ensuring on-time, in-full (OTIF) delivery at the lowest viable cost. They liaise with warehouses, carriers/3PLs, customs, sales, and customers while keeping data accurate in the TMS/WMS.
What are the key skills to assess while looking for a logistics coordinator?
- Planning & Prioritization: Route building, load consolidation, capacity balancing.
- Systems Fluency: Hands-on experience with TMS/WMS, EDI/ASN, spreadsheets, dashboards.
- Carrier & Vendor Management: Sourcing, tendering, SLAs, rate negotiation.
- Problem Solving: Rapid recovery from delays, damages, stockouts, and documentation issues.
- Regulatory Know-How: Incoterms, HS codes, customs paperwork, compliance.
- Communication: Clear updates to sales, customers, and warehouse teams; escalation judgment.
- Data Accuracy & QA: Reconciliation of BOLs, invoices, inventory transfers; audit discipline.
- Cost Control Mindset: Accessorial management, mode optimization, budget adherence.
What are the KPIs for a logistics coordinator?
- OTIF (On-Time In-Full) %: Core service metric for delivery reliability.
- On-Time Pickup/Delivery %: Punctuality across legs.
- Perfect Order Rate: Error-free orders (right item, qty, place, time, docs).
- Tender Acceptance Rate: Carriers accepting first tender; signals capacity/relationship health.
- Dwell Time / Dock-to-Stock: Warehouse flow efficiency.
- Cost per Shipment / per Pound: Spend efficiency by lane/mode.
- Accessorial Cost %: Detention, layover, redelivery—tracked and reduced.
- Damage/Claims Rate: Quality of handling and packaging.
- Inventory Accuracy % / Cycle Count Variance: Integrity of stock records.
- Invoice Match Rate: Clean match of PO–BOL–invoice to prevent chargebacks.
- Lead Time & Variability: Speed and predictability of fulfillment.
- Carrier Scorecard: Composite of service, cost, and compliance.
How will these questions help?
These logistics coordinator interview questions map directly to day-to-day realities—capacity swings, exception handling, and data integrity—so you can verify practical skills, not just resumes.
- Predict Performance: Tie answers to KPIs (OTIF, dwell, cost per shipment) to forecast impact.
- Reduce Risk: Surface gaps in compliance, documentation, or carrier management before hiring.
- Lower Costs: Identify candidates who optimize modes, curb accessorials, and improve tender acceptance.
- Improve CX: Hire coordinators who communicate proactively and recover schedules fast, protecting customer promise dates.
