We recruit air, sea and road forwarders for Basingstoke and the South East, screened on the trade lanes and modes they have handled.
Forwarding is judged on margin, accuracy and the customer's next booking. We recruit people who protect all three.
Basingstoke draws on the South East's deep logistics labour market, strung along the motorway corridors that feed London and the coast. Across the South East, forwarders serve importers and exporters shipping through the M25, M3, M4, M20 and M23, Gatwick Airport and the ports at Southampton, Portsmouth and Dover.
Air freight, ocean freight, road groupage and customs brokerage need different specialists. We recruit each one differently.
Forwarding demand across the South East follows retail and grocery distribution, port and Channel logistics, aerospace and FMCG supply chains and regional 3PLs.
From junior operators to branch and business development managers.
Good forwarders keep customers booking. We ask how they handled a delayed or held shipment.
Many forwarders are well known to their customers. We approach them discreetly.
For a new branch or trade desk we can recruit the manager and the team together.
Indicative permanent salaries in Basingstoke run from around £26k for clerks up to £55k+ for branch managers.
Forwarding pay in the South East moves with mode, seniority and customs responsibility: customs specialists and branch managers usually earn more. Figures are indicative, not a guarantee.
We arrange interviews and any technical test, then brief each candidate beforehand.
We ask about any restrictions in a candidate's current contract before an offer is made.
We help settle salary, commission and start date so the offer is accepted first time.
Customers notice when their forwarder keeps changing. Continuity keeps them booking.
Forwarders who leave early often cite workload, weak systems or no route to account management. We raise all three first.
A strong forwarding brief covers:
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We check the modes, lanes and systems they have worked, the customs declarations they have handled and their right to work.
Yes. We recruit customs compliance specialists and declarations agents for importers, exporters and brokers.
Yes. We recruit forwarding BDMs and ask about the business they have won, not just the targets they were set.
Yes. We can recruit the branch manager and the operators together so the branch trades from day one.
Yes. For branch manager roles we run a discreet search and approach people who are not on the market.
Freight forwarding recruitment elsewhere in the South East:
Other specialisms in Basingstoke:
See our national Freight Forwarding Recruitment page, or all logistics recruitment in Basingstoke.
A short brief is enough to start: the modes, the systems and the start date.