First-Line Supervisors of Transportation and Material Moving Workers Salary

Bureau of Labor Statistics title: First-Line Supervisors of Transportation and Material Moving Workers, Except Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors

The median first-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers salary in the United States is $62,890 per year ($30.23/hour). Salaries range from $43,360 at the entry level to $96,150+ for the top 10% of earners. There are 623,640 first-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers jobs nationwide. Employment is projected to grow 3.7% through 2034.

Last updated: June 2026 Β· Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Median Salary
$62,890
per year
Hourly Rate
$30.23
per hour
Employment
623,640
jobs in the U.S.

Salary Distribution

10th percentile
$43,360
25th percentile
$50,070
Median
$62,890
75th percentile
$78,160
90th percentile
$96,150

Job Growth (2024-2034)

+3.7%
As fast as average

Annual Openings

61,300
jobs/year (growth + replacements)

Education Required

High school diploma or equivalent
+ Less than 5 years experience

First-Line Supervisors of Transportation and Material Moving Workers Career Guide

Interview questions, resume templates, and a career ladder written specifically for first-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workerss.

Warehouse, dispatch, and fleet supervisors run the floor where trucks, forklifts, packages, and drivers meet. It is a metric-heavy job β€” units per hour, on-time-departure, safety incident rate, and dock-to-stock cycle time drive daily decisions. BLS median is $62,890 with p10 at $43,360 (entry warehouse team leads in low cost-of-living metros) and p90 at $96,150 (senior night-shift supervisors at UPS, FedEx Ground hubs, or Amazon sortation centers with shift differential and peak-season overtime). 623,640 people hold this role nationally. Advancement paths run into Operations Manager, then Site / GM, with the strongest pay in parcel, e-commerce fulfillment, and third-party logistics.

Core Skills Hiring Managers Screen For

Shift execution and labor planning
Build the plan for a 100-300 associate shift β€” pick the right headcount by process path (inbound, outbound, sort, load), stage flex labor for spikes, and hit the departure schedule without overtime overruns.
Safety leadership (OSHA + DOT)
Own daily stand-ups, PIT (powered industrial truck) audits, lockout/tagout, hours-of-service compliance for drivers, and near-miss investigations. Recordable incident rate is the number that gets you fired or promoted.
WMS / TMS / dispatch systems
Fluent in a warehouse or transportation management system β€” Manhattan, SAP EWM, Blue Yonder, JDA, Descartes, or the Amazon internal stack. Read the labor tracking dashboards live and reallocate people mid-shift.
Performance management and coaching
Deliver daily huddle feedback, run written coaching for rate misses, escalate to PIP or termination, and defend decisions to HR. High-turnover environments (60-100% annual attrition in some hubs) require constant hiring and coaching in parallel.
Root-cause analysis and continuous improvement
Run 5-Whys on defect spikes, missed OTD (on-time-departure), or safety events. Kaizen and Lean Six Sigma Yellow / Green Belt training is common at UPS, FedEx, and Amazon.
Dispatch and route management
For fleet supervisors β€” sequence loads, manage driver call-outs, adjust routes for weather or accidents, and interface with customer service on service failures.
Cross-functional partnership
Work with HR on hiring and discipline, maintenance on equipment downtime, quality on defects, and IT / engineering on system outages. Escalation posture is judged constantly.

How to Become a First-Line Supervisors of Transportation and Material Moving Workers

  1. 1
    Start as a package handler, warehouse associate, or driver
    $16-24/hr. Every parcel and e-commerce operation prefers to promote from within β€” 12-24 months on the floor is the standard on-ramp. Learn the process paths and the equipment before you try to lead.
  2. 2
    Get promoted to team lead / process assistant / working supervisor
    $22-30/hr. Own a pod, a sort aisle, or a small dispatch desk. This is the tryout β€” recordkeeping, safety walks, and first-line coaching before you're salaried.
  3. 3
    Move into a salaried First-Line Supervisor / Operations Supervisor seat
    $50-75k base + shift differential + peak bonus. Own a full shift or process path with 50-200 direct associates. At UPS, FedEx Ground, and Amazon this is the true entry point into the management ladder.
  4. 4
    Add a certification: OSHA 30, PIT trainer, Six Sigma Yellow/Green Belt
    Most sites will pay for these. OSHA 30 is table stakes, PIT trainer credentials add $2-5k in premium, and Six Sigma Green Belt is expected before Operations Manager promotion.
  5. 5
    Promote to Sr Supervisor β†’ Operations Manager β†’ Sr Ops Manager β†’ Site / GM
    $85-165k+ base plus bonus and RSUs at Amazon. UPS Center Manager and FedEx Hub Manager roles land in the same range. Most people never leave the operations track; those who do move into supply chain planning, network design, or corporate ops.

Career Progression

Working Supervisor / Team Lead / Process Assistant
1-3 yrs$45-58k (base + shift differential; often hourly at $22-28/hr)
  • β€’Lead a pod or process path of 15-40 associates on a single shift
  • β€’Run daily stand-ups, safety talks, and rate coaching
  • β€’Cover the salaried supervisor on vacation or peak surge
  • β€’Assist with hiring interviews and 30/60/90 day new-hire follow-ups
Next: First-Line Supervisor / Operations Supervisor at 2-4 years once you own a shift end-to-end.
First-Line Supervisor / Operations Supervisor
3-7 yrs$58-78k base + $3-8k shift differential + peak bonus
  • β€’Own a full shift (50-200 associates) or a process path (inbound, outbound, sort, load, dispatch)
  • β€’Hit daily UPH (units per hour), OTD, safety, and quality targets
  • β€’Perform written coachings, PIPs, and terminations with HR alignment
  • β€’Own PIT and safety compliance for your area; investigate incidents
Next: Sr Supervisor or Operations Manager at 5-10 years β€” usually contingent on a 12-24 month rotation across multiple process paths.
Sr Supervisor / Assistant Operations Manager
6-10 yrs$78-96k base + $8-15k bonus
  • β€’Own a large shift (200-400 associates) or two process paths
  • β€’Coach 3-6 First-Line Supervisors on performance, safety, and people
  • β€’Own the labor plan, weekly volume forecast, and flex staffing
  • β€’Lead a peak-season war room or a network initiative rollout
Next: Operations Manager at 8-12 years.
Operations Manager / Center Manager / Hub Manager
8-15 yrs$95-135k base + $15-30k bonus + RSUs at Amazon
  • β€’Own an entire site or a major department (300-1,500 associates)
  • β€’Manage a P&L, capital plan, and safety scorecard
  • β€’Lead 4-10 salaried supervisors and 20-50 leads
  • β€’Interface with corporate on network initiatives, DEA / DOT audits, customer escalations
Next: Sr Ops Manager / Site GM at 12-18 years, or lateral to network design / supply chain planning.
Sr Ops Manager / Site GM / Regional Director
15+ yrs$135-215k+ base + $30-75k bonus + significant RSUs
  • β€’Own multi-site operations (2-10 buildings) or a network region
  • β€’Lead 10-30 salaried managers; total headcount 1,500-8,000 associates
  • β€’Own the annual operating plan, capital budget, and executive reviews
  • β€’Interface with customers on strategic accounts and with corporate on M&A / network expansion
Next: VP Operations, VP Supply Chain, or Chief Operations Officer at large parcel and e-commerce companies.

Interview Questions & Answers

5 free questions below. Career Kit unlocks 17 total plus resume bullets for every level.

Q1. Walk me through how you'd run a shift where you're down 15% on labor to plan.situational
First move: recalculate the labor plan against actual volume, not planned volume β€” a call-out morning is often paired with lighter volume, and you need to know if you're actually short before you cut process paths. Second: reallocate flex associates to critical paths (outbound load, sort primary) at the expense of non-critical paths (returns, problem-solve). Third: talk to your peer supervisor on the adjacent shift about a hot handoff or a 30-minute overlap. Fourth: call for volunteer overtime with the process-path leads before you unilaterally hold people. At UPS and FedEx Ground this is a daily reality β€” the supervisors who stay calm and use the labor tracker in real time hit their OTD; the ones who freeze miss departures.
Q2. Tell me about a safety incident you had to investigate.behavioral
Use STAR. Situation: name the specific incident type (near-miss with a forklift, associate slip-and-fall, driver backing incident) and the severity classification. Task: complete the incident report, root-cause the event, and prevent recurrence. Action: interview the associate and any witnesses within 24 hours, pull the camera footage, walk the site with a safety partner, document the top three contributing factors (behavior, condition, process), and drive corrective actions with owners and due dates. Result: quantify β€” 'no recurrence in 18 months on that process path' or 'DART rate dropped from 4.1 to 2.6 in Q3.' Interviewers at Amazon, UPS, and FedEx screen hard for candidates who lead with the person, then the process, then the paperwork.
Q3. How do you coach an associate who's consistently missing rate?situational
Rate misses have three root causes and the coaching is different for each. If it's skill (they don't know the process well enough), you re-train β€” pair them with a top performer, have them shadow, then observe and correct. If it's will (they know how but they're not trying), you deliver a documented verbal coaching, then written, then final written, then termination β€” with HR aligned. If it's fit (the process path is wrong for them physically or cognitively), you offer a lateral to a different path before you go to the written track. Never skip straight to written on the first miss β€” you'll lose the associate and the arbitration if it goes to a labor dispute. At Amazon and Walmart Transportation, documented conversations at 30/60/90 days are the standard operating rhythm.
Q4. Describe a time you missed a departure. What happened?behavioral
Own it directly. Situation: name the shift, the volume, and the OTD number you missed. Task: recover the customer commitment and prevent recurrence. Action: describe what you saw in the moment β€” was it a labor issue, a WMS outage, a trailer arrival problem, a peer-shift handoff failure β€” and what you did in the last 30 minutes to save loads. Then describe the post-mortem: 5-Whys, corrective actions with owners, and what changed. Result: 'OTD recovered to 98.4% the following week' or 'we redesigned the trailer stage flow and haven't missed on that lane in 90 days.' Interviewers hate 'we always hit OTD' β€” every operator misses; they want to hear you learn.
Q5. Why supervisor and not driver / associate for the long term?closer
The honest answer that resonates: you like the people-leadership piece and the operations puzzle more than the individual work. You want to influence outcomes at the pod or shift level, not just the load level. You want a career with a path β€” team lead β†’ supervisor β†’ ops manager β†’ GM β€” and a comp curve that goes past what an hourly cap allows. Avoid the answer 'because it pays more' as the first reason β€” hiring managers screen for people who want to lead people. Naming a specific ops manager or GM you've watched and admired at your current site signals you understand what the job actually looks like.

Resume Template β€” First-Line Supervisor / Operations Supervisor (3-7 yrs)

Copy these bullets into your resume as a starting point. Career Kit includes bullets for every level of the ladder.

First-Line Supervisor / Operations Supervisor (3-7 yrs)
  • β–ΈSupervised 145 associates across outbound and sort process paths on a night shift at [FedEx Ground / Amazon FC / UPS Center]; delivered 99.2% OTD on 62k packages/night average.
  • β–ΈReduced recordable incident rate 40% year-over-year (4.2 β†’ 2.5) by rebuilding daily safety huddle format and driving PIT recertification for 100% of powered-equipment operators.
  • β–ΈCut voluntary attrition on my shift from 82% to 54% by launching a 30/60/90 day check-in cadence with all new hires; recognized as top-quartile supervisor in the district.
  • β–ΈOSHA 30, PIT trainer, Six Sigma Yellow Belt. Associate degree in Supply Chain Management, [college].

What Gets You Rejected

  • βœ—Cannot cite specific safety metrics they moved (DART, TRIR, near-miss frequency) β€” hiring managers screen out candidates who can't quantify their safety record.
  • βœ—Blames labor, weather, or the peer shift for every miss β€” operators need to own outcomes, not narrate them.
  • βœ—Never fired anyone or ran a PIP β€” supervisors who won't have hard conversations get eaten alive in a high-turnover environment.
  • βœ—No fluency in the WMS/TMS labor tracker or dispatch dashboard β€” you have to lead with data, not gut.
  • βœ—Poor peak-season track record β€” Nov/Dec/Jan performance separates the top quartile from everyone else at UPS, FedEx, and Amazon.

Salary Negotiation Levers

  • βœ“Shift differential β€” night shift and weekend shifts pay a 10-20% premium; twilight and preload shifts at UPS often stack.
  • βœ“Peak-season retention bonus β€” UPS, FedEx Ground, and Amazon pay $1,500-6,000 to supervisors who stay through peak.
  • βœ“Metro premium β€” LA, Bay Area, NYC, Seattle, and DC pay 15-30% above national median for the same role.
  • βœ“PIT trainer + OSHA 30 + Six Sigma Green Belt stack β€” often worth $3-8k in offer premium.
  • βœ“Amazon Level 5 Ops Manager offers include meaningful RSUs (Restricted Stock Units) β€” negotiate the grant, not just base.
  • βœ“Sign-on bonus of $5-15k is standard for lateral moves from a competitor at supervisor level, especially in tight labor markets.
  • βœ“Bilingual English/Spanish supervisors in warehouse-dense metros can command a 5-10% premium; many sites pay a formal language differential.

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  • βœ“ 30–60–90 day plan for your first role
  • βœ“ Cover letter templates specific to this occupation
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First-Line Supervisors of Transportation and Material Moving Workers Salary by State

Best Cities (cost-adjusted) β†’

Salary Map β€” Click a state for details

$52K
$74Kβ–  No data

Top Paying States

Washington
$74K
+18%
Maryland
$74K
+18%
Rhode Island
$73K
+16%
Wyoming
$71K
+12%
Minnesota
$68K
+9%
New Jersey
$68K
+8%
New York
$67K
+7%
Massachusetts
$66K
+4%
California
$66K
+4%
Connecticut
$65K
+4%
Vertical line = national median. Click a state for full details.
StateMedianvs. National
Washington$74,250+18.1%
Maryland$74,070+17.8%
Rhode Island$72,750+15.7%
Wyoming$70,590+12.2%
Minnesota$68,430+8.8%
New Jersey$67,980+8.1%
New York$67,300+7.0%
Massachusetts$65,570+4.3%
California$65,550+4.2%
Connecticut$65,440+4.1%
1–10 of 51

First-Line Supervisors of Transportation and Material Moving Workers Salary by Metro Area

Metro AreaMedianvs. National
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA$76,390+21.5%
Casper, WY$76,290+21.3%
Walla Walla, WA$75,800+20.5%
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD$75,460+20.0%
Longview-Kelso, WA$75,270+19.7%
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA$74,240+18.0%
Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA$74,230+18.0%
Stockton-Lodi, CA$73,970+17.6%
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA$73,950+17.6%
Hanford-Corcoran, CA$72,670+15.6%
1–10 of 396
Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Data reflects the most recent annual survey.
How does this compare to pro athletes?
A first-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers earning $62,890/year would need 948 years to match Stephen Curry's NBA salary, or 1018 yearsto match Patrick Mahomes' NFL contract.
See all sports & celebrity salaries β†’
πŸ“ˆ See how first-line supervisors of transportation and material moving workers salaries have changed over the past decade.
View First-Line Supervisors of Transportation and Material Moving Workers salary trend (2011–2024) β†’