Maddie Braun is a supply chain management and marketing major with a minor in economics.

This summer I had the amazing opportunity to intern at Transplace. Transplace is a 3PL in Rogers, Arkansas, with other locations across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. I found this internship on Handshake last fall. I chose to intern at Transplace because of the great reputation the company has at the University of Arkansas. My sophomore year, the Senior Vice President of Transplace, Mark McEntire, spoke in my Supply Chain Management Leadership class with Donnie Williams. I loved everything Mark had to say about the supply chain industry and Transplace. When I saw the Transplace Internship on Handshake, I knew I had to apply.

During my time at Transplace, I had many daily and weekly tasks. I worked on the Saputo account and supported the Customer Service Specialists and Logistic Specialists. One of my tasks was to send out the backlog every day. The backlog shows loads that are past their scheduled pickup or delivery appointment. My job was to email the carrier that was on each load and figure out why the status had not been updated. Another job I had was entering detentions. Detentions are for when truck drivers are still at the warehouse past their appointment time waiting to get loaded or unloaded. The first two hours are free, but after two hours, the driver receives $1 per minute. Carriers would email me to enter the detentions. I had to either approve or deny detentions based on if the in/out times the carrier sent me were the same as what was in the transportation management system (TMS). I also worked on a couple of reports for my General Manager, Sidney King. One report I would send Sidney every Monday was a Tender Rejection Report for one specific carrier. The specific carrier was the primary carrier on multiple lanes. The report looked at each time that specific carrier would reject a load tendered to them that was on one of those lanes. Another report I would send every Monday and Friday was the Loads Without Invoices Report. I sorted all the data in a pivot table. I then would email carriers their specific report of loads they had not sent invoices in for. I also had a project I worked on the whole summer. My project was over MacroPoint, which provides real-time visibility to carriers, customers, and Transplace on where trucks are at with their loads. My job was to figure out why some of the check call status updates were being ignored. Through my project, I learned about the importance of making connections with other people to hear all the insights they have about a particular topic. I also learned more about data analysis and how much you can learn when you know what to look for in an Excel sheet that has thousands of rows in it. These are just a few of the many things I learned throughout the summer.

This internship gave me so much insight into the supply chain industry. I was able to get hands on experience working on the front lines of supply chain, working with carriers. I learned more than I could have ever imagined, and I now have a much deeper understanding of the industry. I learned how fast paced the industry is and how new situations and circumstances arise every day. There is never a boring day at work—I experienced something new everyday!

Something I really love about Transplace is the number of people who were so willing to meet with me and have a conversation about what they do. My mentor, Krissy Glass, gave me so many opportunities to speak with many different people within Transplace. She was also a great resource for advice and tips. Krissy is someone I really look up to and have a ton of respect for. Another person who really made my experience was my General Manager, Sidney King. Sidney gave me so many opportunities to work directly with carriers and see front line operations. In my weekly meetings with Sidney, he gave me amazing advice about everything from Transplace, the supply chain industry in general, school, leadership, plus so much more. Walt Quinn was my mentor for my project. Walt was the best I could have asked for. He provided me so many people to speak with and opened so many opportunities for me to learn about MacroPoint. Walt helped me understand everything I was discovering and pushed me in the next direction to continue my research. Another person I met with was Barry Gasaway, Vice President of Lean Six Sigma. Barry is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and has so much knowledge on the topic. I loved hearing about his daily tasks and the idea of reducing waste and increasing efficiency in the workplace. I cannot write this and not mention the other interns I worked with. Something I thought was unique was each of us worked on very different things the whole summer. I loved hearing about their experiences every day. I could go on and on about all the amazing people that I have met through Transplace.

I cannot believe my internship with Transplace is already over! The ten weeks flew by so fast. I learned more than I ever thought possible. I am so grateful for all of the people who enabled my experience to be such a positive one. I am excited to start my senior year at the University of Arkansas and be able to apply all my new knowledge to my classes.