April 2016 – As diversified as it gets!

Since the 1st. Of August 2015 I am an apprentice at Universal Transport, and I am trained in the profession of a Businessperson for Forwarding and Logistics Services.

The company is said to be a high calibre in the heavy lift sector with its 25 subsidiaries in eight countries – and that also becomes apparent in the daily work. Inter alia we are dealing with large well-known customers, and we are communicating with colleagues all over Europe on a daily basis.

Generally speaking, it is due to my grandfather that I came up with the idea to learn this profession.  Since he took me with him in his lorry already in my childhood. In the course of the years I developed a certain interest to this

professional field, and I have always wondered, from where my grandfather knew, when and where he had to drive to and who steered the events in the background.

More than a year ago I applied at Universal Transport. As part of an intern-ship I was able to gather some initial impressions. After that I was sure that the occupational training for this profession is the right one for me.  

At the beginning of my apprenticeship I spent two months in the sales office. My tasks there were customer inquiry processing, the preparation of offers for them, and to keep direct contact with them by phone or via e-mail.

After that, also for two months, I worked for the Berlin subsidiary. There I gained  insights into disposition and supported the colleagues in route planning. The special feature of the location of Berlin is, inter alia, the execution of transports of rail vehicles all over Europe. Universal Transport provides Europe’s largest fleet for this industry. Thus,  the transport of tramways to London belongs to the daily business like the transport of a subway wagon within Germany.

At that time I was already thinking, it can’t get more diversified. But then there was the highlight: for three days I was the co-pilot on a Universal Transport lorry. The order comprised the transport of a tramway of a length of more than 43 metres! By now I am back in Paderborn and stabilise the knowledge gained in Berlin in the Disposition department of the Paderborn subsidiary.