DKV BeNeLux You drive, we care
By the turn of the century, Schavemaker Transport b.v. chose to use DKV Mobility’s toll services. Established in Beverwijk, the Netherlands, the business was in need of a provider to help them settling their varying toll charges all over Europe. If there is one word by which the relation between the parties has been characterised ever since, it is ‘trust’, says Harm van Dorst, fleet manager at Schavemaker. “Our twenty years of working together signify that things go well.”
The firm started in 1966 in Assendelft, the Netherlands. “At the time our trucks were planned in from the kitchen table, but our business soon turned too big for this,” says Van Dorst. By now, Schavemaker Transport operates a huge 245-truck fleet of its own and another sixty to seventy charter transports. The company has branches in several countries and towns as well.
“Our main transport activity is steel rolls for Tata,” says Van Dorst, “within the Germany-Belgium-Netherlands triangle.” The circumstance that this Netherlands-based business also has branches in Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and the Slovak Republic suggests a rather modest view of his position. “Indeed we also operate all over Europe, and for many other customers as well. For this reason our former fleet department colleague approached DKV Mobility. What we wanted was to get a better overview by accommodating all our tolls transactions with one and the same provider. It just works better that way.” Later on, DKV Mobility was also invited to include fuel cards in Schavemaker’s service portfolio.
Schavemaker is no stranger to complete, all-in solutions since the company itself aims to provide them to its own customers. Apart from road transport, Schavemaker also arranges its customers’ logistics from its Beverwijk plant, while over the years the company has established a rail connection between Poland and the Dutch Moerdijk area, with its own distribution centres at either end of the line. “In fact, the only thing we still lack is a plane,” laughs Van Dorst. “Well, so far that is.” Schavemaker outsources various road transport services to DKV Mobility. Near-obvious inclusions are toll boxes and fuel cards, as appears from the words of Van Dorst. What especially comes to his mind is the service given when things are not going like they should. “A while ago one of our drivers had problems switching on his DKV BOX EUROPE. Together with DKV Mobility I worked on a solution, even after hours. Mind you, their own hours as well, but that’s what you do when relations are good.” They solved the problem together; an approach that comes with a bond so very much valued by a family-run business like Schavemaker’s, he says. “Twenty years of working together is a long time indeed, but we put a high value on the benefit of sustained working relations.
