Logistics company org chart example
A regional carrier with its own warehouse, drawn the way the work actually flows: dispatch runs the day, supervisors run the people, and safety reports around operations rather than through it.
How a logistics company is usually structured
Operations is the company. Under the operations director sit the two halves of the business — transport and the warehouse — and customer service, which in logistics belongs with operations because every call is about a shipment. Finance, HR and safety report to the managing director instead, and for safety that placement is deliberate.
Transport has an unusual shape: dispatch directs the drivers' day but doesn't manage them. Drivers report to a driver supervisor for pay, performance and hours; they take their instructions from whoever is on the dispatch desk. That is a dotted line from dispatch to the driver supervisor, and pretending it's a solid one is the most common mistake on a transport chart. Owner-operators — contractors with their own truck — sit in the same pool and are drawn as contractors.
The warehouse is organised by shift and flow: inbound and outbound supervisors, each with a crew of associates and forklift operators stacked beneath. Fleet maintenance reports to the transport manager, because the trucks belong to transport, though in bigger carriers it becomes its own department.
Typical titles by level
The vocabulary these charts use, from the top down. Titles vary by country and by company; the levels don't.
| Level | Titles you'll see |
|---|---|
| Leadership | Managing Director or General Manager; Operations Director; at larger carriers a Director of Transport and a Director of Warehousing |
| Managers | Transport Manager, Warehouse or DC Manager, Fleet Manager, Safety & Compliance Manager, Customer Service Manager, Finance & Admin Manager |
| Supervisors | Dispatch Supervisor, Driver Supervisor, Shift Supervisor (Inbound, Outbound, Nights), Yard Supervisor, Lead Driver |
| Front line | Dispatcher, Route Driver, Linehaul Driver, Owner-Operator, Forklift Operator, Warehouse Associate, Picker/Packer, Fleet Mechanic, Inventory Controller, Customer Service Rep, Billing Clerk, Driver Recruiter |
Where these charts go wrong
Charts here go wrong when they are drawn by depot or shift, so the fleet mechanic who serves all three appears three times; when contractors are left off because 'they're not staff', which hides a third of the fleet; and when dispatch is drawn as the drivers' manager, which is how a dispatcher ends up handling a grievance at 2 a.m.
Questions people ask
- Do drivers report to dispatch?
- Day to day, yes; on the org chart, no. Dispatch assigns the work, but hiring, training, pay and discipline belong to a driver supervisor or transport manager. Draw drivers under their supervisor, and a dotted line from dispatch to show who directs them.
- How do I show owner-operators and contract drivers?
- Put them in the driver pool with their employment type set to contractor; they draw with the same card and a different marking. Leaving them off understates the fleet, which is exactly what a customer or an insurer will ask about.
- How many drivers per dispatcher?
- Fifteen to twenty-five trucks per dispatcher is typical for regional and local work; long-haul planning can stretch further because the plan changes less often. Supervisors of drivers commonly have 20 to 30 direct reports, which is why the driver rows are stacked.
- Where does the warehouse sit if it's a 3PL?
- Under operations, beside transport, exactly as here — but a 3PL usually adds an account or client-services layer, one manager per major customer, and often draws the warehouse by customer rather than by shift. If you run both, chart the shift structure and put client managers in customer service.
Other industries
- ManufacturingTwo shifts, and quality kept out of production's line.
- ConstructionOffice and field, meeting on every project.
- Software startupSquads under a CTO; product managers on a dotted line.
- NonprofitThe board on top, programmes beside the money.
- Medical practiceA clinical line and a business line, crossing at nursing.
- SchoolDepartments led by teachers who also manage.
- HotelSix divisions around one general manager.
- Marketing agencyDisciplines own people; pods own the work.
- Security & facilities servicesSites stacked under supervisors; a 24-hour control room.
- Sales teamRegions for closers, a team for openers, RevOps beside them.
Or start from a structure — functional, divisional, matrix or flat — or from your own spreadsheet.
Make it yours
Download the spreadsheet, replace the names, import it — the chart redraws itself. Or start empty and drag people until it's true. Building is free at any size.