Apprentice switches from office to truck cab at night

At a. hartrodt, apprentices can experience project logistics at first hand. Ferhat Altindas was given this opportunity in October during an assignment outside of core working hours – which gave him a real thrill. The prospective Management Assistant for Freight Forwarding and Logistics Services was allowed to sit in the driver's cab during a night-time heavy load transport for an international machine manufacturer. "It was my first time in a truck and it was definitely exciting to experience something outside of my day-to-day work," reports the 23-year-old. "We try to give all interested apprentices an insight into practical handling," says Alexandra Fethke, Manager Sea Freight Projects at a. hartrodt in Hamburg.

Heavy load transport from Pfronten to the port of Hamburg

Alexandra Fethke's team has specialist expertise in "everything that is too big and too heavy for standardized container transport". The division regularly takes on board an apprentice with prior knowledge at the end of their second year of training: "Ferhat applied for project accompaniment well in advance," says the manager. An upcoming heavy load transport from Pfronten on the German-Austrian border to the port of Hamburg was therefore a perfect fit.

Dimensions of the crate are the most impressive

For the customer's shipments, a. hartrodt Deutschland cooperates with the long-standing transport partner Max Wild. "Ferhat was allowed to join the truck at 1:30 a.m. from a highway service station near Bremen to the Tollerort Container Terminal," says Alexandra Fethke. The apprentice was most impressed by the dimensions of the 6 x 4.65 x 4.15-metre, 39-tonne crate with the portal of a milling machine: "In the rear-view mirror, I really only saw the crate." He was also fascinated by the close radio contact with the escort vehicle, which warned of dangers or bottlenecks and thus provided great assistance to the driver. In the a. hartrodt team, Ferhat Altindas was intensively involved in the elaborate detailed work for the shipment to Shanghai in China.

After his overnight assignment, the Hamburg native didn't get to sleep until 9 a.m.: "Before going to bed, I kept my report booklet and wrote a text for the intranet." He inherited this "special attitude to work" from his parents.