Plan how goods get from a factory to a shelf, and fix it when a shipment goes missing.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $61,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $45,000 at the lower end to about $93,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
1 to 3 years after high school, on the usual route.
$4,000 to $18,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$61,000
Lower end
$45,000
Upper end
$93,000
Job Bank's national median is $29.49 an hour, about $61,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($21.63) and upper end ($44.79) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group. Most people start as a shipping clerk, customer service representative or junior coordinator.
$34.61 an hour
The median in Alberta, about $72,000 a year
Newfoundland and Labrador is next at $33.88, and Manitoba is the lowest at $25.76. Coordinators who earn a professional designation and take on planning or procurement work can move up to supervisor and manager jobs.
Roughly, all in
$4,000 to $18,000
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 program 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 program
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 programs.
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.
In Quebec the college route is a 3 year DEC (Diploma of College Studies) right after Secondary V, or a shorter AEC (Attestation of College Studies) for adults.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
No specific high school courses are required, only general college admission.
DEC in Operations and Supply Chain Management (410.A1)
3 years
3 years, 2,445 hours, in French. It replaced the Transport Logistics DEC (410.A0). Offered at André-Laurendeau, Drummondville, Garneau, Lionel-Groulx, Trois-Rivières, Collège Universel and the Institut maritime du Québec.
Paid work terms
Inside the 3 years
At Cégep de Trois-Rivières the program includes two paid work terms and a final internship. A DEC to bachelor's route with UQTR (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières) adds a degree in one year.
Or an AEC as an adult
About 1 to 2 years
Shorter programs for people who have been out of school at least a year, or sponsored by an employer or Emploi-Québec. See the list below.
First job
Varies
Graduates start as logistics technicians or coordinators, dispatchers, customs clearance technicians or planners, at carriers, warehouses, manufacturers, freight forwarders and customs brokers.
Champlain College Saint-Lambert, in English
Specialist in Transportation and Logistics AEC (Attestation of College Studies, LCA.DS): 1,185 hours over 12 months, weekdays on site, with a 135 hour internship. You must be functionally bilingual.
Cégep Garneau, Quebec City, in French
Gestion du transport et logistique (transport management and logistics) AEC: 870 hours, online with live classes on weekdays, ending with a 180 hour internship.
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 can turn a coordinator into a planner.
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.
Most Ontario college supply chain diplomas, at Fanshawe, Durham and Centennial among others, admit anyone who has the required Grade 12 courses. There is no competitive average to beat.
Job Bank counted about 33,400 logistics coordinators and related workers in Canada in 2023, and 29% of them were 50 or older.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Logistics first, then the rest of the field. See every career in transport.
Last checked October 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. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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