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

What is a freight inspector 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 inspector. For example, did you know that they make an average of $22.38 an hour? That's $46,541 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -3% and produce -17,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreFreight InspectorUS Average

Salary

3.6

Avg. Salary $46,541

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.1

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.61%

Asian 7.69%

Black or African American 12.16%

Hispanic or Latino 16.98%

Unknown 7.20%

White 55.36%

Gender

female 22.73%

male 77.27%

Age - 50

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 - 50

Stress level

7.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.9

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a freight inspector

Explore freight inspector education requirements

Most common freight inspector degrees

Bachelor's

45.5 %

Associate

30.3 %

High School Diploma

21.2 %

Start to develop specific freight inspector skills

Skills	Percentages
Inspection Reports	100.00%

Complete relevant freight inspector training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New freight inspectors 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 inspector based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real freight inspector resumes.

Research freight inspector duties and responsibilities

Grind ends of new or worn rails to attain smooth joints, using portable grinders.
Work in inbound train yardinspecting cars for AAR and FRA defects as well as making super light repairs.
Conduct dimensional and visual inspections procedures on CMM machines to ensure geometrical characteristics of the product are in specification.
Assign responsibilities include ISO 9001-2000 management representative and lead internal auditor.

Prepare your freight inspector resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your freight inspector 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 inspector 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 inspector resume templates

Build a professional freight inspector 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 inspector resume.