New kid

Thursday, 4 November 2021
Bergingscentrale H. van der Vliet in Abbenes was the country's quickest recovery operator in the third quarter of 2021. That is big news in a sector in which this title is almost always claimed by Takel-, Berging- en Transportbedrijf A. Barendregt of Rhoon. Nationwide, there were 30,625 recovery operations on IM roads during the quarter, 2% more than the record that was set in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Chris Kortekaas van Bergingscentrale H. vd Vliet noteert een aanrijdtijd van 06.41 minuten vanochtend op de A44 bij Buitenkaag (foto: Dennis Knetsch)

The heavy traffic and a tight labour market meant that many companies had to contend with higher response times. Taking the response times of all IM recovery operators into consideration, the average comes to 12:04 minutes, a good half a minute more than in the second quarter. But Van der Vliet was able to swim against the tide. The company's average response time, for a total of 750 recovery operations, was 6:44 minutes. This was over a minute faster than in the previous quarter.

Quickest recovery operators, 2021-Q3

The rankings are restricted to companies that have carried out at least 250 recovery operations in the past quarter

This positive result was partly attributable to the fact that Van der Vliet was able to generate many incident reports itself. IM recovery operators en route often come across 'new' incidents that have not yet been reported to IMN's National Central Reporting Point ("LCM"). These incidents tend to involve breakdowns posing a potential hazard to passing traffic.

IM recovery operators with average response times below 8 minutes

The recovery operator can report this sort of incident to the appropriate authority, Rijkswaterstaat, which will often opt for the solution of that particular IM recovery operator removing the vehicle in question from the road. A job of this kind means a response time of 0:00 minutes for the recovery operator. At Van der Vliet and with other rapid recovery operators too, this was the situation in more than a quarter of their IM recoveries. This way of working has a real impact on overall time saved: after all, the recovery operator is on site before the incident has even been recorded.

IM recovery operators with 100% performance

Another recovery operator that distinguished itself in the third quarter was Hooikammer Berging in Staphorst. This company figured prominently in each roll of honour. For the first time, Hooikammer managed to work its way into the top five recovery operators with the lowest average response time in the country. Among operators serving regions in which average response times of less than eight minutes were recorded, Hooikammer assumed second position. And the company was second to none among operators that performed all recoveries in one or more districts in less than the standard times of twenty minutes during the day and twenty-five minutes at night.

Anton (L) and Leen Ista, of Autobedrijf Istarland, holder of the gold medal of honour in the Order of Oranje-Nassau.

Not every recovery operator that performed well in the third quarter stood out. Autobedrijf Istarland, of Schouwen-Duiveland, was not to be found in any of the tables. Yet this company performed solidly in the disparate Z281 district, which covers the island of Schouwen-Duiveland and the Zeeland Bridge. Istarland succeeded in dealing with every incident in its area of operations, from the Philipsdam to the Eastern Scheldt Storm Surge Barrier.

The tables list only districts for which a complete quarterly report has been published for the quarter just ended. These are districts in which twenty or more recovery operations were carried out and districts for which the quarter just ended was the last in a series of quarters in which the minimum of twenty recovery operations required for drawing up a report was exceeded. Average response times are reported after correction for delays as a result of congestion. In determining the kilometres of road in each district, the two carriageways of roads with divided carriageways are counted as separate roads. No rights may be derived from the information on the tables.