Freight Forwarder vs. Broker

A freight forwarder arranges the shipping of freight for customers, while a broker or freight broker coordinates the connection between shippers and carriers but does not handle freight directly.

How To Become A Freight Forwarder: What It Is and Career Path

What is a freight forwarder and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a freight forwarder. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.37 an hour? That's $38,215 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -3% and produce -38,100 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreFreight ForwarderUS Average

Salary

3.0

Avg. Salary $38,215

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.6

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.80%

Asian 18.03%

Black or African American 6.07%

Hispanic or Latino 23.59%

Unknown 6.99%

White 44.51%

Gender

female 44.87%

male 55.13%

Age - 41.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41.5

Stress level

6.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.0

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.5

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a freight forwarder

Explore freight forwarder education requirements

Most common freight forwarder degrees

Bachelor's

48.1 %

Associate

23.3 %

High School Diploma

16.5 %

Start to develop specific freight forwarder skills

Skills	Percentages
Supply Chain	23.28%
Customer Service	18.06%
Booking	14.00%
Import Export	7.65%
Delivery Orders	6.25%

Complete relevant freight forwarder training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New freight forwarders learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a freight forwarder based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real freight forwarder resumes.

Research freight forwarder duties and responsibilities

Maintain relationships with customs brokers and freight forwarders and assist in reviewing such service providers.
Book material RO/RO, LCL, and FCL loads on ocean line carrier for international delivery.
Maintain TSA clearance in order to ship freight on passenger airlines.
Use LogiSuite to create airway bills & TSA documents for cargo exports.

Prepare your freight forwarder resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your freight forwarder resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a freight forwarder resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable freight forwarder resume templates

Build a professional freight forwarder resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your freight forwarder resume.