My first full week in Berlin was extremely eventful. Fortunately, I have my hour long train rides each way to unwind and relax. I still can’t believe that the train is empty when I get on, fills up as it goes through the city, and is practically empty by the time I get to my stop. It is surreal to commute through the entire city everyday. The primary benefit is that I have already seen most of Berlin through the window of a train.
The week went by fairly quickly. I only worked three days (Monday – Wednesday) because Thursday was a holiday and I was given Friday off. This worked out great for me, I was able to explore Berlin on Thursday then take train and visit Amsterdam with my group. I was even able to meet up with a friend of mine from Elementary school who is completing his masters degree in Rotterdam, another city in the Netherlands.
My internship got off to a very slow start. After completing my excruciatingly long commute I spent most of Monday getting to know my colleagues. My boss had just returned from vacation and was in meetings all day. It took a few hours for him to have some free time to speak with me. There are 3 other interns who will be joining me by the end of next week. Until then my boss wasn’t really sure of what my project would be. I basically just got to know how everything operates within the company.
On Wednesday I had the extreme fortune to spend the day in the field. I began the day with our dispatch an fleet teams, finalizing the days schedules and routes before shadowing one of our drivers throughout his day. The company I am interning for, tree Logistics is one of Amazons service partners in Berlin. We operate out of a two Amazon distribution warehouses. The one I was at is the largest in Europe. Witnessing tens of thousands of packages being sorted and sent out to with the fleet was incredible. The scale is unimaginable if you do not see it up close. After helping the driver I was shadowing load his van we began his route. I stayed most of the day and We completed about 70 stops delivering at least 90 packages. Amazons system is time limited so we tried to speed through it as quickly as possible.
I gained a lot of insight into the way drivers operate, how they interact with our dispatch and fleet teams, and how difficult and physical their job is. It was an exhausting and rewarding experience. The insights I gained from the drivers was helpful and I gave me some ideas for potential projects I could complete during my internship. When I returned to our headquarters at the end of Wednesdays I met one of the other interns. He is a masters student studying Business innovation in Berlin. He completed his undergraduate degree in India. I think I could learn a lot from him.
Hopefully I get a better understanding of what my internship will be when I return. I know that I will be working closely with both the fleet management and dispatch teams. However, I am not exactly sure what they will have me doing.
Regarding time management, since it was a short week and I do not have a clearly defined project yet I don’t know exactly what I will be doing. In general, creating a list of tasks that need to be completed and prioritizing them is a sure way for me to be successful. I will have a better understanding of this by the end of the week. Due to the specifics of my industry arrival and departure times are flexible. For example, the main dispatch team typically arrives in the office around 7 am and leaves at 3pm. They then pass the responsibilities to a skeleton crew that is in the office until the entire fleet return by 9 pm. Similarly, the Fleet manager has to be in the office early in the morning to inspect the vans. Other arrive in the office at 10am but leave around 6 or 7 pm. I have to be in the office early but that may change as my responsibilities evolve.
The start of my internship has been promising. The industry is fascinating and is something I am interested in even though I am patricianly interested in the last mile portion of the supply chain.