A cargo agent is one of the most important parties involved in ocean freight. This agent advises on different relevant destination charges. He/she pays taxes, tariffs, and duties on behalf of the cargo owner. The cargo agent monitors the movement of the goods and cooperates with the port authorities during goods inspection. Plus, he/she keeps and presents the necessary documents like the packing list, commercial invoice, etc., to the customs authority.
Since a cargo agent handles import, export, and cross trades shipments, he or she needs strategic skills, , management skills, business skills, networking skills, multitasking skills, and logistics skills. You must secure at least a high school diploma to work as a cargo agent. Most of these agents, however, learn about their duties informally, through training. A cargo agent earns an average of $28,473 annually, and that is $14 per hour.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a cargo agent. For example, did you know that they make an average of $13.69 an hour? That's $28,473 a year!
There are certain skills that many cargo agents have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, detail oriented and math skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a cargo agent, we found that a lot of resumes listed 17.6% of cargo agents included security procedures, while 16.8% of resumes included data entry, and 7.3% of resumes included international shipments. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the cargo agent job title. But what industry to start with? Most cargo agents actually find jobs in the transportation and professional industries.
If you're interested in becoming a cargo agent, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 18.2% of cargo agents have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.3% of cargo agents have master's degrees. Even though some cargo agents have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a cargo agent. When we researched the most common majors for a cargo agent, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on cargo agent resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a cargo agent. In fact, many cargo agent jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many cargo agents also have previous career experience in roles such as ramp agent or customer service representative.
