The interview with a staff member of the Müller-Guttenbrunn Group is a fix element in the MGG News-Letters. This time we interviewed Martina Bremböck. This joyous young lady is not only responsible for the weighing terminal, she is more generally the very first point of contact with Müller-Guttenbrunn and Metall Recycling Mü-Gu in Amstetten.
Hello Mrs. Bremböck! You sit here right at the entrance of the main building at Müller-Guttenbrunn and you have a perfect overview of the entrance to the factory site. It is probably impossible to pass by you unnoticed. Especially not for truck drivers …
Bremböck: Indeed and that’s a good thing. All trucks must ultimately be weighed – no matter whether they bring cargo or arrive empty to be loaded on site. All trucks must be weighed in and out – at the weighing terminal just in front of my work place – this is my role.
How does it work to weigh a large truck?
Martina Bremböck: I start the process by checking of the number plate and whether the documents complete and correct. Then it is controlled whether whether the truck is properly positioned on the weighing scale. But really, the actual weighing process is quick and easy – just a mouseclick on the computer. Then I will send the truck-driver with his truck to the place where the discharging or loading takes place and inform the colleagues of the production, so that these colleagues can make all preparations.
Before the truck departs, there will probably a weighing process again?
Martina Bremböck: Exactly. Here it is important to check whether the driver got out of the truck. The conditions at the weighing-out must be exactly the same as at the weighing-in. Control and accuracy are very important …
… as well as the communication?
Martina Bremböck: Definitely! Sometimes it is challenging to communicate with the foreign drivers. Luckily, there are international hand signals for the weighing processs – which almost everyone seems to understand. Otherwise you have to simply make a drawing or make other signs. I have to make many telephone calls with many colleagues. The cooperation with other departments is crucial. With the amount of trucks it is necessary to be concise, quick and at the same time clear with the person on the other end of the line what needs to be done and what is at stake, so that everything runs fast and efficiently.
With the weighing there also is a measurement of radioactivity. How often does it happen that the alarm is triggered?
Martina Bremböck: Since the system is very sensitive, the alarm frequently goes off – especially if the weather is warm and humid. However and fortunately, in most of the cases the alarm is triggered by natural radiation only. The radioactivity measurement system is also often triggered when a truck is driving onto the scale with too much speed. And mostly this happens on Fridays a quarter of an hour before closing time when no one can be reached. At first I was there but a little nervous, but now I know how to deal with it.
What do you do in such a case?
Martina Bremböck: I initially contact our internal radiation protection officer. If the measuring system goes off after a second measurement, a manual measurement takes place. But it only happened once that there really was a case that something radioactive was loaded. In such a case, then our radiation experts will notify Radiation Protection Centre in Seibersdorf.
How many trucks do pass by your weighing terminal per day?
Martina Bremböck: This obviously varies from day to day. On average, there are about 120 lorries a day. This results in total of 240 weighing operations – weigh-in and weigh-out. But there are also days during which this number of weighing operations can be 400 times. Since many of the trucks arrive regularly, meanwhile I know now many of these license plates by heart. But the license plate of my own car…..I would not know. Isn’t that funny?
Indeed, interesting to see what one remembers and what is not. You are taking care of the weighing terminal since 2010. I am sure that you will have some interesting anecdotes…
Martina Bremböck: One such moment was only recently. One truck driver managed to park his trailer transversely on the weighing bridge so that it could not move anymore. Until now, I still do not know how he did it, after all we have heavy concrete barriers left and right of the scale. And also another day I can still remember very well. Since the weighing bridge was down, we had to divert our weighing activities to our internal weighing bridge that we operate next to a container at the other end of the site. So, I sat there alone with the phone, communicating with a colleague in front of a computer in the main building to register the weighing in our systems. At some point in time I urgently needed to visit a toilet – and unfortunately there is none in the container. So I had to ask a colleague to be a human barrier in front of the scale whilst I hurried back and forth to the toilet.
Fortunately that was a real exception! However, the care of the weighing terminal does not seem to be your only task – your work space shows in large letters „CASHIER“.
Martina Bremböck: Indeed, I have quite a number of additional all-round activities. In addition to the “Cashier” activities for the direct transactions and customers, I am at the same time the company receptionist. And from time to time it is necessary to keep visitors busy before I can send them further to their meeting. And in addition, there is also the telephone switchboard that I operate. That implies for me, to connect calls, make notes and sharing these with the numerous colleagues. On my workplace, true multitasking is required in some moments, but that’s what I really enjoy. I like it when there is action. I prefer action than days that pass by like “chewing gum”.
In these moments it is especially important to stay calm. You are known to be a happy character – does this help in stressful situations?
Martina Bremböck: Absolutely, I prefer to take things with a lot of humor. It certainly does not make sense to get nervous and short tempered in stressful situations. That does not help anyone. It also helps if some truck drivers are getting nervous and organize a concert of their truck horns. Especially then it is important to stay calm and always be ready for a joke…….then they all relax and the situation will calm down by itself.
Multitasking is generally called for more and more …
Martina Bremböck: That is not at all different here. The workplace is on top of this also increasingly dominated by electronics. I think op new technologies that they might be very useful, but I continue to be a friend of a piece of paper. Therefore, I always my little paper note pad and my post-it block for my notes. I have never had to go through the experience that striking technique, left me not being able to do something. And…..I also prefer to read a paper book instead of reading on the tablet.
Reading is a good hint. Please introduce the private person Martina Bremböck a bit closer to our readership.
Martina Bremböck: I am married and we have built a house in Neumarkt. We also have a dog – a German mastiff named „Hello“. She keeps us busy alright! Our big hobby is American Barbecue – in other words the real upper-class grilling. We have three grills, two carbon grill and a smoker and everything that belongs to a hobby like this. My husband and I are also members at the USCC Crazy Eagles, an Austrian club for fans of American cars. We own a 89-er Pontiac Firebird. And we also own a Pontiac Trans AM, built in 1973, which would have to be restored. As we constructed our own home ourselves, this has not happened yet.
In that case we wish you and your husband soon enough time for it – and of course, we wish you a very long summer to regularly be able to fire up your grill. Thanks for the really interesting conversation.
