Traffic Management

Your AFSC translates into a cluster of freight, logistics, and movement-coordination roles. Salary figures below are BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 national medians. Treat them as midpoints, not ceilings, because clearances, port-city geography, and HAZMAT credentials push offers higher.

Logisticians (O*NET 13-1081.00) had a median wage of $80,880. This is the closest one-to-one civilian match for the planning and routing side of your work, and BLS projects faster-than-average growth as supply chains keep professionalizing.

Cargo and Freight Agents (O*NET 43-5011.00) had a median wage of $49,440 and are the direct civilian version of building shipping documents, booking carriers, and tracing freight. This is often the fastest door to walk through right after separation while you stack credentials.

Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers (O*NET 11-3071.00) had a median wage of $102,010. Veterans who ran a traffic management office or supervised a movement section step toward this level once they pair experience with a logistics certification.

Freight forwarding, third-party logistics (3PL), and import-export brokerage are the industries that hire hardest for this profile. The market is geographically concentrated around ports, inland intermodal hubs, and major distribution corridors, so Los Angeles/Long Beach, Memphis, Chicago, Dallas, Savannah, and the New York/New Jersey port complex carry the deepest demand. Demand is steadier than driver-side transportation jobs because documentation and compliance work does not disappear in a soft freight market. For broader context, read our guides on military to logistics management careers and seasonal six-figure logistics jobs for veterans. Veterans from Navy Logistics Specialist and Army 88N Transportation Management Coordinator backgrounds compete for the same roles, so your resume has to make the HAZMAT and customs specifics obvious. Build it with our military resume builder or start your resume now.

Federal transportation offices exist at nearly every installation and across DoD, DLA, GSA, and the civil agencies, and they hire people who already speak the Defense Transportation System. Your 2T0X1 experience lines up with several General Schedule series, and Veterans' Preference plus a documented compliance record makes you competitive at entry and journeyman grades.

GS-2130 Traffic Management is the textbook landing series. It covers managing the movement of freight, personal property, and passengers by all modes, the exact scope of your AFSC. Candidates with solid documentation and rate-computation experience commonly qualify at GS-7 and GS-9, and supervisory traffic management work reaches GS-11 and above.

GS-2150 Transportation Operations covers the broader operation and coordination of transportation systems and is a natural fit for veterans who worked the movement-planning and carrier-coordination side. GS-0346 Logistics Management is the path for those who want to broaden into integrated logistics and supply-chain program work, often at GS-9 through GS-12.

Adjacent series widen your options: GS-2030 Distribution Facilities and Storage Management, GS-2010 Inventory Management, and GS-2050 Supply Cataloging reward the property and stock-control exposure traffic managers pick up, while GS-1101 General Business and Industry and GS-1102 Contracting open up the carrier-agreement and acquisition side for veterans who handled transportation accounts. To qualify you must mirror the OPM qualification standards for each series in your resume language. Read how veterans move from contractor to federal employee, then build a federal-format resume with our federal resume builder or get started here. Veterans targeting the same GS series include Marine Corps 0431 Logistics/Embarkation Specialists.

If you are staying in freight, logistics, or transportation, your terminology already matches what employers use. Freight forwarders know CMOS-equivalent systems, IATA, and 49 CFR. This section is for 2T0X1 veterans targeting careers outside transportation, where your acronyms and systems mean nothing until you translate them into business language.

The fix is to name the outcome, the scale, and the standard rather than the system. See our 50 military terms translated to civilian language glossary and the Air Force specific EPR/OPR to civilian resume guide for the full method.

A few before-and-after examples for non-transportation roles:

• Before: "Processed HAZMAT shipments IAW 49 CFR and IATA using CMOS." After: "Certified regulated-goods shipments against federal and international compliance standards, maintaining a zero-violation record across 1,200+ shipments annually."
• Before: "Booked freight and passenger movements through DTS and managed a TWCF account." After: "Coordinated multi-modal logistics and managed a six-figure transportation budget, optimizing carrier selection to reduce cost per shipment."
• Before: "Cleared inbound cargo through customs." After: "Managed regulatory documentation and customs clearance for international shipments, preventing costly holds and demurrage."

Translate the work once and it carries into compliance, procurement, operations, and analyst roles. Our military resume builder turns AFSC duties into civilian-readable bullets, or you can build your resume now.