English - Nooteboom Giants on the Road Magazine English - Nr. 6 - 2019 | Page 57

15 QUESTIONS 6  HOW IMPORTANT IS THE EC FOR YOUR BUSINESS? Very important. Thanks to the open borders we don’t have to wait for unnecessarily complicated customs formalities. And the Euro allows us to carry out assignments and to buy/sell throughout Europe without currency risks. 7  HOW CAN WE RESTRICT THE COMPLEX EUROPEAN REGULATIONS FOR ABNORMAL TRANSPORTS? We can’t. The regional circumstances in Europe are very different. A large transport in Scandinavia cannot be compared with Italy or Spain. I think that one single exemption for several European countries is a utopia even if it may be improved in certain areas. 8  YOU HAVE BOUGHT A DANISH COMPANY. DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER PLANS FOR ACQUISITIONS IN EUROPE? A simple answer: why not? 9  WHICH IMPORTANT TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE TRUCK/ TRAILER SECTOR CAN WE EXPECT? Three things have my attention: more electronic systems, reducing the dead weight of our vehicles and optimised planning, if possible multimodal. 10  HOW CAN WE MAKE TRANSPORTS SAFER? Some of the accidents occur because the drivers are under far too much pressure. This is partly due to the complex regulations for driving times and rest periods and also because projects are becoming larger and having more urgent time schedules. We are often working in limits and this may not be disturbed too much by urgency. 11  YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF EUROPE FOR ONE DAY ONLY. WHICH LAW WOULD YOU CHANGE? The driving times legislation is too complicated, especially for the work we do. I would change it into a fixed number of driving hours per day. Our drivers are perfectly capable to spread those hours over the day. 12  WHAT CHALLENGES DO YOU SEE FOR THE FUTURE? The transport equipment we use is extremely specialised. To make the best possible use of this equipment is a challenge for us. At the moment - due to the influence of large projects and seasonal influence – we can have extremely busy periods followed by quiet ones. In cooperation with our customers we try to spread the work more evenly over the year. 13  WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED DURING THE PAST WEEK? The job I do cannot be done sitting behind a desk. I have to stay in touch with our drivers and like to be present at the transports. Our personnel are a team made strong by meeting people in person. 14  WHAT ARE YOU PROUD OF? In 17 years I built this as a profitable business from zero to a € 50 million turnover. This I am proud of, but I am even more proud of my family because they are even more important than my company. 15  D ESCRIBE YOURSELF IN A FEW WORDS. I am a man of few words. 57