Plan how goods get from a factory to a shelf, and fix it when a shipment goes missing.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$61,000
First job
$45,000
Senior or supervisor
$93,000
Job Bank's national median is $29.49 an hour, about $61,000 a year at full-time hours. Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal have the most jobs and the highest rates, because that is where the ports, airports and distribution hubs are.
$21 to $25 an hour
Roughly $45,000 to $52,000 a year full time
Most people start as a shipping clerk, customer service representative or junior coordinator and move up within two years.
About $93,000 and up
Senior coordinator, logistics supervisor, distribution manager
Coordinators who earn a professional designation and take on planning or procurement work move into six figures at larger companies.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a one year college certificate in supply chain or logistics. The high end is the more common two year college diploma at a higher tuition school. A four year business degree is another route but it is not required and it is not what gets you the first job. Professional designations come later in your career and employers often pay for them.
A two-year college diploma is the normal entry ticket. A degree helps for corporate roles but is not what gets you your first job.
Health, dental and vision
Standard at mid-size and large employers.
Stable, year-round demand
Every physical product needs someone to move it.
Hybrid work
More common here than in most transport jobs, though you still need to be near the warehouse some days.
Tuition support
Many employers pay for the professional designation courses.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A short college programme plus one real job is enough. Nothing here is licensed.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12 with math and English. Nothing unusual is required.
College programme
1 to 2 years
A one-year certificate or two-year diploma in supply chain, logistics or business at a college such as Conestoga, Seneca, Centennial, the British Columbia Institute of Technology or a regional polytechnic.
Co-op or first job
During or right after school
Shipping clerk, inventory clerk, customer service or junior coordinator at a warehouse, freight forwarder or manufacturer.
Coordinator role
After 1 to 2 years
You own a set of shipments, carriers or customers, and the problems that come with them.
Designation and specialization
3 to 5 years, part time
Part-time study for a supply chain or logistics designation while you work, then a move into planning, procurement or management.
Math
Costs, margins, volumes and lead times.
Business studies
Directly relevant, and it gets you into college programmes.
Computer studies
Spreadsheets and inventory systems are the actual tools.
Geography
Trade routes, ports and border crossings become daily vocabulary.
Anyone can hold the title logistics coordinator. No licence, no exam, no protected designation. The goods, however, are heavily regulated: customs declarations, dangerous goods documentation, food and drug import rules, and the federal hours of service rules that limit what you can ask of a trucking carrier. Getting a document wrong can hold a container at the border for weeks and cost your employer real money, which is why experience is valued so much here.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Supply Chain Management Professional
Supply Chain Canada's main designation, aimed at people moving into leadership. Earned through modules, workshops and accredited academic routes.
Certified logistics professional
The Canadian Institute of Traffic and Transportation designation, built from a suite of core and elective courses taken part time.
Customs and trade compliance training
Imports and exports are where coordinators become hard to replace.
Data skills
Spreadsheet modelling and basic analytics turn a coordinator into a planner, which is a pay grade up.
Warehouse floor experience
Even a summer picking orders teaches you what your instructions actually mean downstream.
A second language
French for Quebec operations, Mandarin or Spanish for overseas suppliers.
Forklift ticket
Cheap, quick, and it gets you a warehouse job while you study.
Patience on the phone
Chasing a carrier for a delivery update is most of some days.
Logistics coordinators work in roughly three worlds. In-house, planning freight for a manufacturer or retailer, which is steady and business-hours. Freight forwarding, arranging ocean and air shipments for many clients, which is faster and more international. Third-party logistics providers, running warehousing and distribution for other companies, which sits in between. The title looks identical on all three job postings, so ask what the company actually does before you take the job.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
You start with the exception list: what did not arrive, what is stuck, what is about to run out. Then you book carriers, raise shipping documents, confirm customs paperwork, and update the people waiting on each order. Afternoons are usually planning next week's shipments and arguing about freight rates. When a container is held at the border or a truck misses a delivery window, you are the person who tells the customer and finds the workaround. Mostly desk work, with regular trips down to the warehouse floor.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Before 2020 almost nobody outside the industry used the words supply chain. Shortages of everything from lumber to microchips put logistics coordinators on the evening news and pushed hiring up sharply.
Supply Chain Canada's Supply Chain Management Professional designation is built for people already in the field, with modules, workshops and accredited academic routes rather than a full-time degree.
Customs paperwork is unforgiving. A wrong tariff code or a missing certificate can strand a shipment at a port, with storage charges accruing every day, which is why experienced coordinators are paid for accuracy over speed.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.