Under the radar

Tuesday, 10 May 2022 (update 16 May 2022)
IM recovery operators achieved very good response times in the first quarter of 2022. 27,880 recoveries were carried out on IM roads, 4% fewer than in the last quarter of 2021. The average response time for these callouts was 12.04 minutes. Taking account of delays as a result of congestion, this figure came to 10.46 minutes. This performance was not just the work of a select group of fast recovery operators in the Randstad region, in the west of the country. Colleagues recording less immediately noticeable achievements also managed to put in a good performance in this quarter and the quarters before that.

Arjan de Leijssenaar van De Jonge Internationale Berging en Transport

Arjan Leijssenaar of De Jonge Internationale Berging en Transport with a jack-knifed car and trailer on the A28, on 15 February 2022

One example is Autohulpdienst Broekmans, the largest IM recovery operator in Limburg, based in Venlo and Roermond. Since the start of the current contract period in 2019 this company, which serves the area that runs from Geijsteren, near Venray, to Linne, south of Roermond (districts L355, L358 and L362), has been returning results that wildly exceed normal standards. The same can be said of De Jonge Internationale Berging en Transport in Hoogeveen. De Jonge operates on nearly 60 km of motorway and two 'N' roads (on the secondary road network) in the south of the province of Drenthe. These recoveries are also completed each quarter with robust response times.

Quickest recovery operators, 2022-Q1

Recoveries
Rank Previous Recovery operator ART average
1(1)Vliet05:56613
2(3)Roos06:51435
3(2)Barendregt07:211.981
4(5)Graaf07:471.129
5(4)Vreugdenhil08:051.603

The table is restricted to companies that have carried out at least 250 recovery operations in the past quarter. The response time shown for each company is the weighted average of the mean response times in all districts in which the company in question operates.

The quickest recovery operators of the quarter were, as usual, the companies that do their work on the corridor from Schiphol Airport to Dordrecht, via The Hague and Rotterdam. As in the previous quarter, the list was headed by Bergingscentrale H. v.d. Vliet, which operates from a magical location with its 'own' access roads in the point of the wedge formed by the A4 and A44 at Abbenes. The secret of Van der Vliet's speed is that its people are often on the way to an incident in response to their own information sources, in other words before the situation is in the system at Stichting IMN's National Central Reporting Point (LCM). That is not just during office hours but even in the dead of night, as was the case with a breakdown recovery on the A44 at 1:30 a.m. on 29 January.

Len van Helden van Autohulpdienst Broekmans

Len van Helden of Autohulpdienst Broekmans working on a breakdown recovery on the A73, 2 May 2022.

Takel-, Berging- en Transportbedrijf A. Barendregt in Rhoon was not the quickest recovery operator of the quarter, although it was top of the rankings in terms of rapid response times on the most widespread network of IM roads. Autobedrijf Istarland also occupied a prominent position on that list. The company achieved an average response time that was well under eight minutes on the N57 and N59 in Schouwen-Duiveland.

IM recovery operators with average response times below 8 minutes

Recovery operator Districts Area (km) Recovery operations
BarendregtZH166, ZH167, ZH168, ZH173, ZH175, ZH177125,32025
VlietNH13676,2613
GraafZH16357,7857
VreugdenhilZH15654,7711
IstarlandZ28151,320
HooikammerD5444,165
RoosZH163a33,2435
CollewijnG3532,258
HauloNH11727,143
EijckGL25118,338
 
Total520,14.865
National Total8.730,027.880
Proportion of districts with response time < 8 min6,0%17,4%

There were eight companies in the first quarter that completed all recoveries in one or more areas within the standard times of twenty minutes during the day or twenty-five minutes at night, between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. Schoenmaker en Zn in Avenhorn was able to do this on a network of roads with a total length of nearly 80 kilometres. Haulo Berging in Alkmaar and De Driesprong in Leunen, near Venray, followed with a perfect score on 66 and 56 kilometres of IM roads respectively.

IM recovery operators with 100% performance

Recovery operator Districts Area (km) Recovery operations
SchoenmakerNH12378,3187
HauloNH114, NH11766,384
DriesprongL35356,152
IstarlandZ28151,320
BarendregtZH175, ZH17750,2344
HeiltjesGL268, NB33047,278
CollewijnG3532,258
WolvesO8216,339
 
Total415,9920
National Total 8.730,027.880
Share 100%4,8%3,3%

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.

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