Job Opportunity: Transport & Fleet Supervisor
Location: Bicester (Office Based)
Reports to: Head of Distribution and Warehousing
Salary: £36k to £40k DOE
About Bentley Designs
Bentley Designs is a second-generation, family-owned business with four decades of experience supplying quality furniture to customers across the UK and Ireland. Our in-house warehousing and distribution operation plays a vital role in our business model, ensuring customers receive a reliable, professional delivery service.
The Role
We are looking to appoint a Transport Fleet Supervisor on a permanent basis to support our transport and distribution operation during a period of change. This is a hands-on, operational role responsible for overseeing day-to-day fleet activity (class 1 & 2), ensuring legal compliance, maintaining high safety standards and supporting smooth delivery performance across the business. This position will also cover the Warehouse Manager in their absence.
Key Responsibilities
Transport Operations & Fleet Management
- Oversee the day-to-day running of the transport function, ensuring all dispatched orders are planned, scheduled and tracked effectively.
- Ensure full compliance with UK transport legislation, including driver hours, Working Time Directive and Operator Licence obligations.
- Ensure all fleet vehicles are maintained, serviced and meet legal and safety requirements.
- Act as the first point of contact for drivers, providing guidance and support as required.
- Support route planning activity, working closely with the Transport Co-Ordinator and providing cover during absence.
- Plan and oversee the demountable box refurbishment and maintenance programme.
- Assist Warehouse Manager with movement of demountable boxes.
Team & Departmental Support
- Oversee and support drivers and transport administrators, monitoring performance, carrying out disciplinaries and escalating issues where necessary.
- Liaise regularly with the Head of Distribution and Warehousing, flagging risks, issues or operational concerns.
- Carry out driver appraisals and assessments, including the monitoring of off-loading at customer premises.
- Provide cover for transport administration duties during holiday or sickness periods.
Warehouse Cover
- Ensure daily warehouse activities are completed during warehouse manager’s absence/annual leave
- Oversee warehouse team and delegate to team leaders
- Be a key holder responsible for the unlocking and locking of the warehouse
- Monitor H & S in the absence of theWarehouse Manager
Compliance, Safety & Continuous Improvement
- Oversee transport-related health and safety compliance, reviewing and updating processes where required.
- Monitor and implement changes to customs requirements for EU and Northern Ireland shipments.
- Proactively identify operational issues, potential risks and opportunities for improvement.
- Support cost-control initiatives across transport operations, both operationally and administratively.
Reporting & External Liaison
- Raise and monitor service level agreements with external carriers, particularly Irish transport partners.
- Resolve transport-related queries and complaints in a professional and timely manner.
- Analyse historical delivery and customer turnover data, sharing findings and recommendations with management where appropriate.
What We’re Looking For
- Experience in planning, scheduling and monitoring day-to-day transport operations.
- Strong working knowledge of UK transport legislation and compliance requirements.
- Experience overseeing fleet vehicles, drivers and transport administration activity.
- Confident problem-solver with the ability to assess issues and understand the wider impact on delivery schedules.
- Strong organisational and communication skills, with the ability to work calmly under pressure.
- High attention to detail and a proactive, hands-on approach.
- Experience using route-planning software such as Paragon or Maxoptra is an advantage.
- Comfortable working closely with warehouse, operations and transport teams in a fast-paced environment.
Why Join Us?
This role offers an opportunity to step into a well-established transport operation and make a meaningful impact. You’ll work closely with experienced colleagues, have clear responsibility and autonomy, and play a key role in keeping our delivery service running smoothly as we transition our ERP system to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and our routing software from Paragon to Maxoptra.