Job architecture example for logistics: weighing drivers, warehouse and planning (2026)

In logistics the heavy work is not always where the salary is. A warehouse operative and a driver do physically demanding work under tough conditions, while a planner in the office with more calm has a comparable or higher wage. As soon as pay transparency asks you to explain why, that gap becomes something you have to account for.

This article shows how you do that. We take a fictional but realistic logistics provider with five roles and build a job architecture around it step by step. The general explanation of the method is in the base example using an installation company. Here the focus is the logistics question: how do you weigh physically demanding work fairly against office work?

What a job architecture in logistics answers

The EU pay transparency directive requires you to base pay on objective, gender-neutral factors and to determine "work of equal value" on four criteria:

• Knowledge and skills (education, licences, certifications)
• Effort (physical load, pace, concentration)
• Responsibility (for the load, planning, people, safety)
• Working conditions (outdoors, irregular hours, weather)

A collective agreement such as road haulage already fixes a lot, but many logistics companies combine roles that fall under different regimes or use their own scales. A job architecture brings those roles into one consistent whole, so the heavy work does not get underweighted.

The example: a logistics provider with five roles

Picture a company of about 80 people: warehouse, transport and planning. Five core roles:

• Warehouse Operative picks and processes orders following set processes.
• Truck Driver runs trips independently, loads and unloads, with client contact.
• Transport Planner builds a watertight schedule under time pressure.
• Warehouse Supervisor leads a warehouse shift and safeguards the KPIs.
• Logistics Manager holds end responsibility for the operation, budget and staff.

Everyone intuitively knows the manager sits higher than the warehouse operative. The question is where the driver sits relative to the planner and the supervisor, and whether you can explain why the driver's tough conditions count.

Step 1: weighing the four factors

We give each role a score from 1 (low) to 5 (high).

Role	Knowledge and skills	Effort	Responsibility	Working conditions
Warehouse Operative	2	4	2	3
Transport Planner	3	3	3	2
Truck Driver	3	4	3	4
Warehouse Supervisor	4	3	4	3
Logistics Manager	4	4	5	2

Note the warehouse operative and the planner. The operative scores high on effort and working conditions (physical, standing, lifting), the planner on knowledge and independence. Different work, but the weight comes out the same. And note the driver: irregular hours, weather, loading and unloading lift the working-conditions score. This is exactly the kind of difference the directive wants you to make explicit, instead of letting "the driver works harder" disappear behind "the planner has an office job".

Step 2: from weighting to job groups

Add up the scores and you get a ranking. Roles with a comparable total go into the same group, even when the work differs.

Role	Total weight	Job group
Warehouse Operative	11	Group A
Transport Planner	11	Group A
Truck Driver	14	Group B
Warehouse Supervisor	14	Group B
Logistics Manager	15	Group C

Here is where it gets interesting. The warehouse operative and the planner land on the same total and end up in the same group, while their daily work differs completely. That is not a mistake, it is the core of equal value: different work, comparable weight, so comparable pay. And the driver climbs, through the tough conditions, to the same level as the supervisor, even though that is a supervisory role. This is how you avoid exactly the trap the directive wants to close: physically demanding work structurally placed below an office job.

Step 3: the salary bands around it

Only now do the amounts come in. Each job group gets a band with a floor and a ceiling, with deliberate overlap.

Job group	Roles	Salary band (gross per month)
Group A	Warehouse Operative, transport planner	2,200 to 2,900 euro
Group B	Truck Driver, warehouse supervisor	2,900 to 3,900 euro
Group C	Logistics manager	4,200 to 5,800 euro

These amounts are an illustrative example, not advice for your company. You substantiate the band level with sources such as the CBS wage structure survey, WageIndicator and the applicable collective agreement. What matters is the structure: the warehouse operative and the planner fall within the same band, despite entirely different work, because their weight is comparable.

What this example shows

1. Heavy work counts when you weigh it. Working conditions is a full factor, and it lifts the driver to the same level as a supervisor.
2. Different work can be of equal value. The warehouse operative and the planner do entirely different work but sit in the same band.
3. The band is your answer to information requests. When someone asks why a colleague with very different work earns the same, you have a method instead of a gut feeling.

See this logistics example interactively

This whole job architecture is online as a clickable example: the roles, the weighting per role and the salary bands, exactly as above. Take a look, or have your own first role weighed for free with no obligation.

See the logistics job architecture  or  weigh your first role for free

Frequently asked questions

We fall under a collective agreement. Do we still need a job architecture?
Often yes. An agreement does not always cover every role you have, and the duty to make pay explainable on objective factors applies regardless. A job architecture brings your roles into one consistent whole.

Does physical load really count?
Yes. Working conditions is one of the four legal factors. A driver with irregular hours and loading work scores higher on it than an office role, and you may let that count in the weighting.

Can I copy the amounts from this example?
No. The amounts above are illustrative and apply to a fictional company. You take over the method, not the numbers. What a job architecture costs is covered in the general example.