Heijden Transport
HISTORY
What started as a one-man business in 1927,
has grown into a thriving medium-sized transport company.
From horse and cart to modern truck combination
In 1927, the then 25-year-old Gerhardus van der Heijden founded a transport company on Kralingseweg in Rotterdam. He learned his trade through his father’s milk transport company. Using a horse and cart and an A-Ford, Van der Heijden transported vegetables, manure, coal and soil in the early years. His customers were mainly horticulturists.
The crisis years had an impact on the young entrepreneur, and the years of war were also very difficult. Gerhardus got married along the way and had seven children. His only means of transport, the A-Ford, was confiscated by the Germans in 1944. Transport continued as best it could using a pneumatic tow truck running on pneumatic tyres.
A reliable family company
After the war, his son Gerhard joined the company. At the age of eighteen, he provided transport for customers using a Ford dump truck. By now, the customer were not only horticulturists, but also included landscapers and contractors. By the end of the 1950s, the fleet had grown to seven vehicles.
In the early 1960s, the company had to look for other transport work as many horticulturists were expropriated and with that, many transport orders were lost. Van der Heijden tentatively began with port transports and in 1964 gained Heineken as a customer. Ships and pubs were supplied for the brewer. In 1969 his son Gerhard took over the reins at the company and he started with container transport.
The company is currently owned by Bert and Gerard van der Heijden, Gerhard’s sons, who took over the business from their father in 1988 and they soon – in 1989 – established Ridderkerk as the home base. The move was necessary because expansion in Rotterdam proved impossible. Bert and Gerard focused on container transport. Transportation of sea containers across Europe became and remains the transport company’s core business.
