Airfreight Operations Apprentice - Cardiff

DHL International GmbH; Cardiff; On-site; GBP 21,000 - 25,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading logistics provider in Cardiff is seeking an Airfreight Operations Apprentice to support the administration of air transportation processes and enhance customer relationships. The role involves managing shipments, compliance with regulations, and ensuring quality service delivery. Candidates should have 5 GCSEs, strong communication skills, and the ability to follow processes effectively. This position offers competitive salary, benefits, and development opportunities.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Generous holiday entitlement

Pension scheme with life assurance

Access to employee assistance programme

Voluntary benefits package including gym membership

Qualifications

• Strong communication skills in both written and spoken form.
• Ability to follow established procedures and instructions.
• Interpersonal skills in relationship management and influencing.

Responsibilities

• Develop relationships with allocated customers.
• Process orders and transport arrangements.
• Ensure compliance with export/import regulations.
• Provide customer support and handle inquiries.

Skills

Clear and concise communication skills

Ability to follow processes

Ability to support a culture of continuous improvement

Inter-personal skills

Education

5 GCSEs including Maths and English

Job description

Who is DHL Global Forwarding?

DHL Global Forwarding (DGF) is part of the DHL Group. While the DHL Group employs more than 580,000 people globally, DGF has around 31,000 freight forwarding experts in more than 190 countries around the world, with around 1,000 of us based in the UK across 15 Sites. As the experts in Freight Forwarding since 1815, we are the global specialists in Air, Ocean and Rail Freight.

You name it, we’ve shipped it - from brown bears to aircraft engines, to lifesaving medicines and luxury cars! We are also proud to partner with some of the well‑known global sporting series, movie franchises and music tours.

Our people are at the heart of what we do, and we’re committed to helping our Forwarders to realise their full potential, supported by our own development journey - Certified International Forwarder (CIF).

Our Values

Every day we are guided by our values: Passion, Entrepreneurship, Excellence and Teamwork.

We are extremely passionate about our people and what we do, which is why DHL Global Forwarding is recognised as a Top Employer and a Great Place to Work, because we are specialists in providing Excellence, Simply Delivered.

In addition to our values, we promote an open and honest feedback culture based on Respect & Results, whereby our employees embrace diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, while ensuring that we never compromise our integrity and compliance.

Role Overview

As an Airfreight Operations Apprentice you will work alongside around 170 colleagues based throughout the UK to support the administration of processes and activities to deliver goods across the customers global supply chain: utilising air transportation, maximizing profitability and optimizing business and human assets in line with business strategy and objectives.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develops relationship with allocated customers
• Accepts all orders (from customer or overseas office) and processes such.
• Creates and confirms transport order to ensure pickup of the shipment at origin.
• Process all booking to carriers and issues HAWB instructions.
• Runs all checks on HAWB prior to acceptance/print of HAWB.
• Completes all Export/Import HMRC Requirements.
• Fully ensures compliance with varying countries security needs, AMS/ACI etc.,
• Prepares, controls and distributes all required Import/Export documents to counterparts (carriers, consignee, supplier) complying with regulations and internal procedures.
• Checks responses from counterparts and finalizes validation of required documents.
• Proactively informs customer on shipment status, exceptions and provides intermediate updates on incident solution.
• Provides spot quotations and closes contract.
• Performs up and cross‑selling (inbound calls) for existing customers and passes on leads to Sales.
• Takes and handles customer inquiries, e.g. Track and Trace.
• Takes customer requests with regard to Go Green topics and informs Country Go Green Head.
• Reviews reports (generated by the Performance Reporting & Exception Specialist) and sends them to the customer.
• Takes and registers all customer complaints and drives solution of customer complaints by solving it directly or assigning tasks to other function.
• Acts as first contact point for customer claims
• Participates in joint Sales visits if necessary.
• Fully complies with GCCS input guidelines with root cause input and corrective action closure.
• Completes all financial input relating to job files (billing/cost provisions/printing of billing, invoice to customers and posting/distribution of same with required back up).
• Manages and controls Workflow on daily basis.
• Take ownership of all account queries both customer and carrier and their conclusion.
• Ensure that all customer enquiries are responded to promptly and professionally.
• Escalates issues if required
• Ensures that all interactions are compliant with DPDHL Code of Conduct and other compliance requirements e.g. anti‑corruption
• Contribute to the First Choice continuous improvement program

Skills and Experience:

• 5 GCSEs including Maths and English
• Clear and concise communication skills (written and spoken)
• Ability to follow processes
• Ability to support a culture of continuous improvement
• Inter-personal skills - Influencing, communication, relationship management, cultural awareness and ability to work across teams

Benefits:

• A competitive salary
• Generous holiday entitlement
• Pension scheme which includes life assurance
• Access to professional employee assistance and wellbeing programme
• A competitive package of voluntary benefits including retail, entertainment, gym membership, cycle to work scheme, contribution to eye care costs, and many more discounts
• Training and Development opportunities with a strong focus on internal promotion

Please note:

Due to the nature of our business we are regulated by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority), therefore it is compulsory for all applicants once offered employment to provide a full 5 year employment history. Additional to this we are required to carry out a Criminal Record Check.

What’s Next?

If you would like to be considered for this position, then please apply via our careers website with a copy of your CV outlining your experience to date and suitability for the role.

DHL is the leading globalbrand in the logistics industry. Our DHL divisions offer an unrivalled portfolio of logistics services ranging from national and international parcel delivery, e‑commerce shipping and fulfilment solutions, international express, road, air and ocean transport to industrial supply chain management. DHL connects people and businesses securely and reliably, enabling global sustainable trade flows.

Our culture is focused on personal commitment – to our customers, to each other, to our communities and to the environment. We reward excellent work and we nurture the talents of our employees. This enables you as an employee to develop your expertise and your career in different areas or divisions – and even in other countries.

We are committed to creating a workplace that ensures mutual respect and is focused on results. We hire talented people from all backgrounds – irrespective of gender, disability, nationality, ethnicity, social background, religion and beliefs, age or sexual orientation and identity. Diversity enriches our workplace, drives our success, and helps us deliver excellence