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Lindsay Cole

Lindsay Cole
Walla Walla, Washington
Heitco Transportation, LLC
Scholarship Won: TCA Scholarship - $2,000

One of my first jobs in high school was working at Heitco Transportation, as they were understaffed and needed some help in the office.  I spent many hours reconstructing their filing system, calculating driver’s mileage, and making copies of driver logs and receipts.  Sitting in the office hearing the dispatchers' conversations and holding the trucking paperwork in my hands gave me a whole new outlook on the trucking industry.  I never before realized how much an impact one minor thing (such as an increase in gas prices) could have on the whole company.

As I work toward my degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington, I find myself relating the concepts I am learning about back to the trucking industry.  For example, I sit in my accounting classes and think about the budgets that the trucking companies must come up with in order to seal the bid but also have enough of a cushion in case something goes wrong with the load.

Someday I plan on using my business degree and the knowledge I have accumulated from working at small companies such as Heitco Transportation in order to open my own small business.  I am proud of my father for being a small business owner and I can only hope that I will one day be able to follow in his footsteps.  Maybe I will even use his trucks to haul my products.