Freight Forwarder CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a freight forwarder with about nine years: import documentation first, then sea freight import operations, now a senior forwarder handling a named book of accounts. The person and the companies are invented. Take the structure and put your own modes, lanes, file counts and systems into it.

Forwarding hires are usually made by a branch or operations manager who needs a desk covered next month. They read for four things.

• Modes and direction. Sea freight export is a different desk from air import. Say exactly what you have run and in which direction, because they are staffing a specific gap.
• System. CargoWise is the most common in the UK market, but Descartes, Magaya and in-house systems all count. Name yours in the personal statement, not on the last line.
• Compliance. Customs declarations on CDS, dangerous goods, sanctions and denied party screening, letters of credit. Mistakes here cost real money, so evidence of a clean record is worth a lot.
• Lanes and accounts. Which trade lanes and what kind of shippers. A forwarder who has run Asia-to-Felixstowe clothing imports is not automatically ready for a project cargo desk.

“Two CVs say "handled import and export shipments". The third says 130 files a month, sea freight FCL out of Ningbo and Busan, CargoWise, zero late customs declarations on 3,400 shipments. I call the third one that afternoon. Volume, mode, system, compliance record. That is the whole screen.”

Three or four lines: years, modes and direction, volume, system, then compliance or qualifications. Use a personal statement if you have forwarding experience and a career objective only if you are moving in from another field.

A job description lists duties. A CV bullet says how much, how fast and how clean. Same tasks, rewritten so a manager can price your desk.

Group the list so a manager can match it to the open desk. Operations, compliance, systems, then the commercial side.

Operations:

• Sea freight FCL and LCL booking, consolidation and co-loading
• Air export and import, consolidations, uplift and flight booking
• European road freight (groupage and full loads), and port haulage
• House and master bills of lading, air waybills, delivery orders, arrival notices
• Container and equipment management, free time, demurrage and detention
• Door-to-door routing, transloading and warehouse coordination
• Cargo insurance placement and claims handling

Compliance and documentation:

• Incoterms 2020 and where risk and cost transfer
• Import declarations on CDS and customs status checks
• Export declarations on CDS and proof of export
• Commodity code classification support, duty and import VAT estimates
• Letters of credit, document checking and presentation
• Dangerous goods under IATA DGR, IMDG and ADR
• Denied party and sanctions screening
• Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) awareness and security procedures

Systems and commercial:

• CargoWise One, Descartes, Magaya, port community systems such as Destin8, carrier EDI
• Excel at a working level: lookups, pivot tables, rate sheet comparison
• Rate negotiation and quoting, file margin management
• Account management and weekly customer reporting
• Written English clear enough for a customer email at 11pm
• A second language, if you have one, with the lanes it helps on

There is no licence to be a freight forwarder employee in the UK, but there are accreditations your employer holds and qualifications you can hold personally. Be precise about which is which.

• BIFA training courses, from introductory forwarding to customs and dangerous goods modules. They are held by individuals and well known in the UK market.
• Customs training, such as courses from the Institute of Export & International Trade. The UK has no customs broker licence; agents act as direct or indirect representatives for the trader, so say what you declared and in which system rather than claiming a licence.
• AEO status and BIFA membership. These belong to the company, not to you. Write "worked for an AEO-authorised forwarder", never "AEO certified" next to your own name.
• IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations training, with the category and the expiry. This one is checked.
• IATA and FIATA diplomas in freight forwarding, recognised internationally and worth listing.
• CargoWise certification, if you have completed the modules.
• A degree in supply chain, logistics or international business helps early on and matters less after five years.

• One page up to about eight years, two pages after that or if you are applying for a management role.
• UK conventions: no photo, no date of birth, no marital status. If you are using an overseas CV template, strip those out.
• Put a Systems line under your personal statement: CargoWise One, Descartes, CDS. Recruiters search on the system name.
• Keep a Volumes line or work volumes into every bullet. Files a month, containers a week, TEUs a year.
• Name lanes and commodity types, not client names, unless you are sure you may name a client.

Mirror the advert's vocabulary so an applicant tracking system finds you: freight forwarding, NVOCC, FCL, LCL, air export, sea freight import, Incoterms, CDS, customs clearance, import declaration, export declaration, house bill of lading, master bill of lading, air waybill, commodity code, port haulage, demurrage, detention, consolidation, CargoWise, AEO, denied party screening, letter of credit. Use both the abbreviation and the full phrase the first time so either search hits.