Film Career · Transportation
Transportation Coordinator
Transportation · Teamsters
- Union
- Teamsters
- Day rate
- ~$4,000/wk
- Experience
- 6–11 yrs
What does a Transportation Coordinator do?
The transportation coordinator runs the production's fleet: trucks, trailers, vans, and the drivers who move a small city every day. Picture cars, base camp layout, and shuttle logistics all route through transpo, with a transportation captain managing the drivers day to day.
What does a Transportation Coordinator make?
- About $4,000 a week at Local 399 scale, up to $6,500-$8,000+ with negotiated overscale on major features, roughly $150K-$300K+ a year.
- One of the highest-paid below-the-line roles: long engagements from prep through wrap, over-scale deals, and the department's overtime drive total pay.
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
On the job
- Plan and manage the fleet that moves the entire production
- Hire drivers and run them through the transportation captain
- Design base camp layouts and daily movement logistics
- Oversee picture car logistics with the picture car coordinator
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You can plan and dispatch a whole production's vehicles and drivers
- You can manage a transport budget and logistics
Soft skills
- You are a logistics master
- You stay calm coordinating dozens of vehicles and people
Career progression
The Teamster ladder runs driver, then captain, then coordinator. Coordinators carry deep market knowledge: permits, yards, vendors, and the local's roster. The chair is one of production's most operationally critical and least publicly known.
A typical path, from entry to the top of the craft. Times are rough and vary by market, luck, and how steadily the work comes.
- Teamster Driver (Picture Car Driver)· 3-6 yrs
~$70K–$150K+/yr
- Transportation Captain· 3-5 yrs
~$70K–$300K+/yr
- Transportation Coordinatoryou are here· peak of the craft
~$150K–$300K+/yr
How do you become a Transportation Coordinator?
Join the transportation department as a driver with the licenses your market's work demands, then show captain-level reliability. In Teamster markets the local's roster is the hiring pool, so establish yourself inside it.
On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by Teamsters contracts.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.
For productions
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