SALES & SERVICES

IN THE PREVIOUS ISSUES OF ‘ GIANTS ON THE ROAD ’ IMPORTANT EXPORT MARKETS FOR NOOTEBOOM , SUCH AS THE UK , GERMANY , FRANCE AND POLAND RECEIVED EXTRA ATTENTION . BELGIUM SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN THAT LIST TOO , BECAUSE IN THE SALES STATISTICS OF THE HEAVY TRANSPORT SEGMENT NOOTEBOOM IS AT THE TOP .

Paul Cedee has been responsible for the sales of Nooteboom trailers in Belgium for seventeen years already . Recently he was joined by Jean-François Delcroix , who will focus his attention on the Frenchspeaking area of Belgium .

SHIP ’ S PROPELLERS Paul : “ For eight years I was an engineer on an ocean-going vessel . When I came ashore I was employed by Lips in Drunen to sell ship ’ s propellers in the south of the Netherlands and Flanders . During the nineties more and more shipyards were closed down and I was looking for another job . Until then I had never heard of Nooteboom . They had a vacancy for a sales adviser in Flanders and I went to have a look at the vehicles on the Lips site first . To my amazement I could see the name ‘ Nooteboom ’ on most of the trailers . That gave me confidence and a few months later I was working as sales adviser for Belgium and Luxembourg .”

LOYAL CUSTOMERS Paul : “ Our sales numbers in Belgium are rather stable . This is due to the fact that we have many loyal customers who year after year buy one or more Nooteboom trailers . Our customers often tell us that the after sales department gives them good advice – and is easy to contact – and that the parts supply is almost perfect . The fact that customers decide year after year to buy a Nooteboom trailer again is partly due to the quality of the product . The other part is that customers are satisfied with the quality of the smoothly and efficiently operating service and sales organisation .”

SMART SEMI LOW-LOADER EXTREMELY POPULAR Paul : “ In Belgium the system to apply for exemptions is different from the rest of Europe . The Nooteboom trailer that is sold in Belgium most is the OSDS semi low-loader , single extendible with one or two self-steering axles . With this semi low-loader a Belgian transport operator – depending on the load – can in most cases use the network of motorways . But we also often talk to customers who are looking for a vehicle that is suitable for the 90 or 120 tonnes network . Nooteboom also scores very well in Belgium when it comes to trailers for the really heavy work , such as low-loaders with an Interdolly or semi low-loaders with up to 10 axles .”

■ Jean-François Delcroix ( l ) and Paul Cedee

SERVICE POINTS Paul : “ For the service on Nooteboom trailers we work together with several service partners . In the south there are the two facilities of TSL . In the centre of the country customers can go to Scania Belgium in Beersel and further north we have a service point at garage Kant in Antwerp . Customers who frequently drive to the Netherlands sometimes prefer to have their vehicle serviced at our own facilities in Zwijndrecht or Wijchen . We aim to ensure that every Belgian transport operator can drive to a Nooteboom service partner within an hour .”

Paul : “ In Flanders we have many extremely loyal Nooteboom customers and with our new sales adviser – Jean-François Delcroix – we expect to further expand our market share in Wallonia and Luxembourg .” ■

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