Fleet & Transport Supervisor in Bicester

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 the Warehouse 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.