Going beyond transportation

Van Grunsven Transport BV started 28 years ago with one truck. It has since grown into a company that can handle the complete logistics for large projects, as well as the intake of soil, inspection and delivery of raw materials, "Actually everything except earthwork," says director Anton van Grunsven.

"We do more than transport, we take care of everything from A to Z," says van Grunsven. This has grown that way over the years. "Clients change and we have adapted our organization to that. We stand out because we do just a little bit more, we go beyond transport." Van Grunsven has a sustainable fleet of vehicles with several specialized components: transportation, delivery of raw materials and ice control. The company is also at home in interim storage, soil flow coordination, dredging transport, project management and supervision.

Close to the customer

The main office with workshop and storage/transshipment is located in Uden. However, Van Grunsven Transport has depots at multiple locations. "This way we are closer to the customer and reduce travel time and thus CO2 emissions. With our company Westdijk kippers, we have a second office with workshop and storage/transshipment quay in Utrecht. This location is on the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal where we can load and unload large ships. We also have equipment storage in Reuver and Breda." 

Reducing CO2 and nitrogen is a key focus for Van Grunsven. "For example, we developed special thermo-insulation for tippers transporting asphalt and we drive the latest generation of Euro 6 trucks. In addition, in cooperation with fuel supplier Den Hartog, we switched to an advanced, CO2-saving biodiesel. This is made from residual streams such as vegetable frying fat. This cleaner fuel ensures that we do good work 24/7 in an economically viable way for our customers."

Major projects in 2021

In the summer of 2021, Strukton Civiel BV realized maintenance, asphalt work and widening from 2 to 3 lanes on the A15 near Sliedrecht. For this project, Van Grunsven took care of all transport for laying 220,000 m2 of new top layer. This is comparable to 35 soccer fields. Van Grunsven: "For this, we moved 55,000 m3 of soil by removing material to depot, carrying out lot inspections and finding and removing it again. We delivered 13,000 m3 of sand, transported 22,000 tons of foundation material and delivered 3,000 tons of sand for sand beds. Supplies of 6,600 tons of mixed granulate and 12,650 tons of hydromix mixed granulate were also required." In this project, 47,000 tons of asphalt was applied, of which 15,000 tons were applied during the last weekend. "With ships and trucks, we were able to achieve disposal of 35,000 tons of milled asphalt. This was about 900 transport movements per weekend."

Van Grunsven also worked on the much-discussed maintenance of the A12. Between Woerden and Nieuwerbrug, the asphalt was replaced over 4.5 kilometers across its entire width with very quiet asphalt. "For this, we took care of all the logistics and disposed of the milled asphalt." Of course, major variable maintenance (GVO) is needed regularly throughout the Netherlands. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, Heijmans Infra BV performed maintenance on Main Road Network South Netherlands in cooperation with Van Grunsven Transport BV and Van Lijssel Transport BV. Here 217,500 tons of milled asphalt was released and 245,000 tons of asphalt was transported.