English - Nooteboom Giants on the Road Magazine English - Nr. 6 - 2019 | Page 11
COMPANY PORTRAIT
DOING BUSINESS WITH DICK NOOTEBOOM
“Over the years we have built a very good relationship with Nooteboom,
especially with Dick Nooteboom. It started like this: around 1990 our
father visited the IAA to find out about options for new semi-trailers.
Swiss low-loaders don’t exist, so the choice was between Dutch or
German manufacturers. Dick came to Switzerland and we agreed on the
purchase of a 5-axle semi low-loader with ramps. We also wanted to buy
a 2-axle extendible low-loader from a different manufacturer. Dick did
not think that was a good idea. He said: “If the customer says no, that’s
when my work begins.” He refused to budge until he had sold us the
second trailer too. We never regretted it because the low-loader served us
exceptionally well for many years.”
EVEN BIGGER
“A few years later we were looking for bigger trailers. We bought a
Nooteboom with a load capacity of 55 tonnes for the transport of a road
planer. The advantage of Nooteboom was that we could place a heavy load
on just a few metres of the load floor. As well as the trailers for abnormal
transport we had 14 modular axle lines, which enabled us to easily carry
more than 200 tonnes. But we did not use those modules very often and
we sold half of them. In the future we won’t be specialising in transports
of more than 100 tonnes.”
UP TO WHAT WEIGHT CAN AFFOLTER TRANSPORT IN
SWITZERLAND?
“We have five heavy transport tractors, two of them with a torque
converter. In Switzerland at least 20% of the total weight must be resting
on the driving axles. For a 6x4 or an 8x4 tractor the calculation is simple:
5 x 24 tonnes = 120 tonnes total weight. We have one Mercedes-Benz
/ Titan 8x6 tractor. With that we can go up to a total weight of 165
tonnes (5 x 33 tonnes). In Switzerland there are some highly-specialised
companies with 8x8 tractors that can cope with a total weight of more
than 200 tonnes. But that is not our market segment. We don’t deliver
steel cables for ski lifts high in the mountains. With our new Nooteboom
3+6 low-loader, combined with our 8x6 Titan tractor, we get to a total
weight of 150 tonnes exactly. For the work we do a load capacity of
around 100 tonnes is more than enough.”
‘‘Nooteboom offers
us the best
price/quality ratio’’
WHY NOOTEBOOM?
“First of all we have had a very good relationship with several
Nooteboom employees. Another important consideration is the speed
with which we can adapt Nooteboom trailers to suit different loads, and
the low dead weight. If we opted for modules they would be much more
expensive and what’s more, they would be heavier too. The trailers of
Nooteboom offer us the best price/quality ratio.”
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