Buitencategorie

Thursday 15 April 2021
The fastest vehicle recovery company in the Netherlands is based in Nuis. From there, Col and Paul Collewijn of V.O.F. Collewijn & Zn. deal with incidents on the A7 west of Groningen. The company is also responsible for some provincial roads that cross the A7. In the third and fourth quarters of 2020, Collewijn achieved an average response time of 5:26 minutes for a total of 135 recovery operations. This made it the fastest IM company in the country in both quarters.

Mark van Denzel, Paul Collewijn, Peter van der Ploeg and Hepke Braam of the vehicle recovery company Collewijn & Zn. in Nuis (photo: Erik Slot Photography)

Stichting IMN publishes a quarterly overview of the fastest recovery companies. However, only companies that perform at least 200 recoveries per quarter are included - a number that Collewijn does not achieve. Nevertheless, the performance of this northern recovery company is certainly worth mentioning. Collewijn follows accident reports on the Internet and often does not wait for the official recovery order from Stichting IMN. This means that the recovery vehicle is already on its way when the report comes in and the clock starts ticking. On the other hand, there is the risk of a wasted journey which will not be reimbursed if the report does not arrive.

Col Collewijn started his career as a mechanic in his father and uncle's car dealership in Utrecht. He decided to start his own business and in February 1979 established himself in the open country of West-Groningen as the owner of a garage cum breaker's yard and recovery company. His arrival coincided with one of the severest cold spells of the century. Collewijn could not enter his premises for three weeks, because a trench had been dug along the road, which could not be filled in due to the frost. The company has grown steadily over the years and for the past few years has been run by his son Paul.