Posted on 25 May 2020
Meet Leona, Fleet Coordinator at Stolt Tank Containers
Leona Kralova works at Stolt Tank Containers’ Rotterdam office where she makes sure our food and chemical tank containers are in the right place at the right time, correctly prepared for their next cargo. It’s an essential function for enabling successful supply chain management.
“In the Fleet Department, it’s our responsibility to make sure there’s sufficient, appropriately prepared inventory positioned in the regions we handle from the Rotterdam office (Benelux, North and South Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and the Baltics), to serve upcoming bookings. This involves a lot of planning, communication, arranging transport for empties and handling Bill of Lading instructions.
“It’s like figuring out a constantly shifting jigsaw, which is a challenge I really enjoy. I also love being the hub of communication between our depot, sales and technical teams, our customers and our vendors. It’s very gratifying to be in touch with all these people on a daily basis, figuring out how to match all the different requirements with what we can provide.”
Fulfilling career
Leona has been working for Stolt Tank Containers since 2008, having moved to the Netherlands from her native Czech Republic, where she gained her first experience working in logistics.
“I started at Stolt as an Operations Coordinator, dealing with import/export customers. Six months later I was accepted into the Fleet Department where I feel I’ve really found my calling. We are a small team – just myself and my manager – but I am incredibly proud of what we achieve between us. These days, a lot of customers are asking for things such as having special modifications made to tanks and for information about black lists etc. We embrace these requests among many diverse challenges. Solving them is fulfilling, as we know we’re making a difference to our customers’ businesses by completely satisfying their needs and helping their supply chain management.
Technical knowledge
“During my time here I’ve acquired a broad range of basic technical knowledge, which is really valuable in my job as I’m able to recognise when customers are likely to need specific modifications to tanks. This is important for planning, as modifications can sometimes take a while and it’s necessary to get the right information to depot staff in good time for them to complete the work.
The personal touch
“I love the fact that, while Stolt Tank Containers is striving forward with technological improvements, we are still such a human-based organisation. We’re not just sitting here facelessly managing automated requests, we’re regularly in touch with all customers, staff and vendors involved, working together to figure out the best solutions. And there is an amazing number of different nationalities represented by the people working on the floor. It’s a fantastic dynamism and energy, which really reflects our global operations.”
“It’s like figuring out a constantly shifting jigsaw, which is a challenge I really enjoy. I also love being the hub of communication between our depot, sales and technical teams, our customers and our vendors. It’s very gratifying to be in touch with all these people on a daily basis, figuring out how to match all the different requirements with what we can provide.”
Fulfilling career
Leona has been working for Stolt Tank Containers since 2008, having moved to the Netherlands from her native Czech Republic, where she gained her first experience working in logistics. “I started at Stolt as an Operations Coordinator, dealing with import/export customers. Six months later I was accepted into the Fleet Department where I feel I’ve really found my calling. We are a small team – just myself and my manager – but I am incredibly proud of what we achieve between us. These days, a lot of customers are asking for things such as having special modifications made to tanks and for information about black lists etc. We embrace these requests among many diverse challenges. Solving them is fulfilling, as we know we’re making a difference to our customers’ businesses by completely satisfying their needs and helping their supply chain management.