From Hobby to Profession

When Stephan Behrendt returns from his shift on the LEJ apron, he can't quite get his mind off freight containers used to transport shipments. Not because he dreams of work, but because Stephan is building his own apron at home.

Stephan has been working as a ramp agent at the LEJ hub since 2021 and loads containers onto cargo aircraft "I'm actually a trained property agent. I lost my job due to coronavirus and was looking for a fresh start in my career. That's why I applied to the LEJ Hub."

Three years later, he is still enthusiastic. "I think it's great to be so close to the aircraft, especially when we're loading unusual consignments such as luxury cars or chicks. Who can say that about their job?" laughs Stephan. Even as a child, Stephan was enthusiastic about technology, building motorised wheelbarrows and repairing televisions. Then came model making. His favourite thing to build was aeroplanes. The largest was a biplane over two metres tall.

Since his training for his work on the LEJ apron, the DHL Hub in Leipzig has also been a model for his projects. "I rebuilt a pallet for my trainer. Then we moved on to a miniature tugs, which we use to transport the containers." Miniature containers then became his construction projects. "When I go through the hub with a tape measure to check the size of them, my colleagues always have to smile, of course."

"I've even had the DHL Group brand team confirm that I'm allowed to rebuild our freight containers in this way."It takes him about a week to build a container."It's a great way for me to balance out my everyday life, sometimes I work five hours in my workshop."Stephan sometimes has to improvise in order to build the containers as accurately as possible."In the beginning, for example, I used shoelaces for the brackets."

Stephan's passion is also appreciated by his colleagues, most recently the Load Control team, which coordinates the loading of aircraft at the hub. "In a documentary about our LEJ hub, I saw that they had set up small paper containers in their office and I thought my containers would fit in there too."

"It's really great to see the passion behind it. We also have colleagues in our team who build their own works of art using 3D printers in their free time. The container will definitely have a special place," promises Matthias Weinert, Director Network Control Centre.