Enablers

Without logistics, the world stops. And to keep logistics moving the industry needs people to transport, consign, plan, support and much more. Here, we introduce some of the people who at BLG ensure on a daily basis that their customers’ goods transports reach their destination.

“Whatever happens, I don’t lose my cool. Good planning helps prevent problems.”

Boubacar Bah

Professional driver

Driving the A27 freeway in the morning, an hour to go till Bremerhaven. The traffic is flowing; in his truck, Boubacar Bah, 25, is making good headway. Fully loaded, his vehicle weighs in at 40 metric tons; today, he is transporting brand new electric cars. In Bremerhaven, these will be reloaded onto container ships for their onward journey to all four corners of the globe. As a professional driver, Bah is an important link in this global supply chain. His job is to ensure that the cars get from factory to ship without having to be driven far. “Which is important,” says Bah, “because if I’m in America and I buy a new car from Germany, as the customer I want to be the first to drive it a longer distance.”

Bah came to Germany from the West African state of Guinea in 2016. He had two big goals in his pocket: “To find a new home in Germany – and to become a professional driver.” He made his home in Eastern Westphalia and, as a soccer fan, his heart beats for Borussia Dortmund. Boubacar Bah spent the first one and a half years working in a sawmill and taking language courses to quickly get his German up to speed. In 2019, he applied for an apprenticeship at BLG to become a professional driver for car transports. As an apprentice, he not only learned how to drive a truck for piggyback transport of cars, but also how to load and unload it unaided. This responsible activity is part of the job, as is dealing with all manner of paperwork, maintenance and care of the truck, as well as a good rapport with customers.

Dream job: truck driver

Bah undertook his first tours together with an experienced colleague. Since 2022, he has been on the road alone. Thanks to his apprenticeship at BLG LOGISTICS, Bah was able to fulfill his dream of becoming a professional driver after just six years. How does that feel? “Amazing! It’s the best thing that could have happened to me.” He loves being on the road in his truck, “in my own little world,” as he says. Mondays through Fridays he is on tour, sleeping in the vehicle, “which was only strange the first night.” When he’s driving he listens to an information radio station, “because I’m interested in the news and listening helps me improve my German without having to study.” His greatest strength? “Patience.” That’s definitely an advantage when you’re stuck in traffic or finding a parking space for the night turns out to be difficult, he adds. “Whatever happens, I don’t lose my cool,” says Bah. Good time management is vital, he says, especially as customers rightly expect reliable and punctual logistics service. His maxim: “Good planning helps prevent problems.”

Another hour on the A27 and Boubacar Bah and his 40-ton truck will have reached the car terminal in Bremerhaven. Then comes an exciting part of his job: with meticulous precision driving the new vehicles off their transporter to their transshipment point. “With larger cars, it’s sometimes a tight, inch-by-inch maneuver,” he says. But this does not faze him. “At moments like that, I’m cool as a cucumber.” And anyway, he says, that’s what he’s been trained for. “Once learned, never forgotten.”

“I get enormous satisfaction out of looking for ways to do things even better.”

Lennart Koch

Operational Manager

As many as 75,000 pairs of shoes a day – that’s a number that commands respect from even the most avid shoe collector. The customer, a German organic shoe manufacturer, has long become a global brand, so the logistics for the products also has to be global and a precise fit. In the Magdeburg region, BLG is responsible for making sure this is the case. As Operational Manager, Lennart Koch, 28, is in charge of outgoing goods at the new logistics center in Osterweddingen. He heads up a team of almost 100 people and his job is to commission and optimize the logistics processes in close cooperation with the shift supervisors. “I get enormous satisfaction out of looking for ways to do things even better.”

Koch comes from Bremen, where he studied logistics, joined BLG as a student trainee, wrote his Master’s thesis there and began his career in logistics with the company. As a young project manager, he gained a wide range of experience at a number of BLG locations. Then, in spring 2022, there followed a very special assignment: from March to May, Koch worked as a logistics expert in Rome, where he was deployed on behalf of BLG for the United Nations World Food Programme. “We organized the transportation of hundreds of thousands of metric tons of aid to Ukraine, especially to regions that were inaccessible to other relief programs.” The work was also very enriching for him personally, says Koch: “We were an international team in which no one felt out of place, because we were all working toward a common goal, namely to help the people ravaged by the war.”

From sailing ship to logistics center

Koch has always been passionate about travel, inspired by his great-grandfather, who circumnavigated Cape Horn as a sailor on a sailing ship. At the age of 15, Koch himself went on a youth sailing trip on the legendary ship “Alexander von Humboldt,” and shortly afterwards he became part of the regular crew of the three-master with the distinctive green sails. “I love voyaging and mastering challenges together with others,” he says. For someone like him, logistics is the ideal career choice, he adds: “The market is growing, the industry is transforming and becoming more and more important on a global scale.”

The call to the Magdeburg region came in September 2022: in Osterweddingen, the new logistics center for the shoe manufacturer was due to go into operation. The pace of the project reflects the agility of the industry, says Koch: “So as not to lose any time, the new center has been integrated into an existing facility since the beginning of 2022 – with conversion and commissioning taking place in parallel.” The ramp-up schedule has certainly been ambitious, he says: “Our job is to keep reorganizing the space depending on the status of the conversion and to set processes in motion.”

For a passionate logistics expert like Koch, who likes nothing better than to optimize things, this is the perfect job: “It’s about project management and technology, but above all it’s about getting the employees on board with you.” His secret as a manager? “Breaking down hierarchical barriers in communication, in other words, talking to everyone as equals, whether they are forklift drivers or packers or the site manager.”

“Employee morale is high and the work is varied.”

Francesco Albrecht

“Troubleshooter”

If you ask Francesco Albrecht what his job at BLG entails, he’ll tell you confidently: “I solve problems,” adding with a smile: “I’m a troubleshooter.” The 31-year-old works as an industrial employee for BLG at the European distribution center in Koblenz, where the company is responsible for the logistics of sweet and savory baked goods manufacturer Griesson – de Beukelaer. Albrecht’s expertise is always called for when a truck approaches the Koblenz logistics hub for loading or unloading and the driver encounters problems during registration. “Registration at the terminal is digital,” says Albrecht, “and problems aren’t uncommon. When that happens, I’m on hand to help avoid delays.”

Francesco Albrecht joined BLG six years ago, initially working as an untrained temporary employee and forklift operator. Two and a half years ago, he accepted the offer of a permanent position – a decision he has not regretted for a single second. “Employee morale is high and the work is varied,” he says. Above all, he enjoys making a real difference in his job: “A driver faces a problem, calls me – and we find a solution together. I get a lot of satisfaction out of my job because I can offer very practical assistance and know that what I do helps to keep logistics moving.”

The appeal of variety

He came to BLG purely by chance, on contract from the temporary employment agency. “But I immediately felt at home here, especially because the activities were interesting,” Albrecht says. The size of the Koblenz distribution center, with a warehouse area of 15,000 square meters, impressed him just as much as the technical equipment with temperature-controlled and fully automated high-bay warehouses, and the latest generation of lift trucks, known as high-speed forklifts. “Operating those was real fun,” Albrecht says. After just a few weeks, he was given the opportunity to stand in for his predecessor, who was on sick leave, in the troubleshooter role. When the position became vacant and was offered to him, he did not hesitate. “Every day is different, I like that,” he says – and clearly takes pride in what he and his colleagues accomplish at the distribution center. “We organize transshipment of the goods all over the world. That’s pretty cool.”