14 B ULK D ISTRIBUTOR
Components
January/February 2019
Turning
a dream
into reality
Kees In’t Veen’s vision for ITT Transport Service Centre is reaching
fruition thanks to Blackmer pumps and compressors
T
he biggest obstacle for anyone who has the
entrepreneurial vision to build a business that can truly be
described as a ‘one-stop shop’ is that the work required to
achieve that ideal state never actually ‘stops’. Just ask Kees
in’t Veen, founder and owner of the ITT Transport Service
Centre.
“We do a lot of things and my job is to take a ‘helicopter view’,”
he explained. “My job is doing the things that others cannot do, so
the big problems and the big decisions are made by me. I’m a little
bit of a fireman here, so where there are fires I have to be there.”
If in’t Veen were getting a ‘helicopter view’ of Europoort
Rotterdam (also known as the Port of Rotterdam) in an actual
helicopter, what he would see is a sprawling business empire that he
has essentially built from scratch. More than 40 years ago, what is
now known as the ITT Transport Service Centre (with the ‘ITT’
standing for in’t Veen Total Maintenance Tank en Silo) was basically
a two-man truck-transport operation run by him and his father out
of the family home in the small Dutch town of Berkel en Rodenrijs,
about 40 km northeast of Europoort.
The ITT Transport Service Centre opened in March of 2006 on 2ha
of prime Europoort property. Today, it covers 13 ha and is home to
five companies, owned by Kees in’t Veen, that are all dedicated to
meeting the delivery, storage, inspection, cleaning, purging and
maintenance needs of operators in the tank-transport industry.
“It’s a one-stop shop for the tank-truck industry,” said in’t Veen.
“We do everything around tank containers and tank trailers,
everything you can think of. We are hands-on, that is our mission,
our vision, and that is very important. Since 2006, we are only doing
building, building, building.”
In the end, this is a success story that combines in’t Veen’s
ambition and dogged determination with trust and loyalty,
particularly with one certain brand of pumps and compressors:
Blackmer, of Grand Rapids, MI, USA, a product brand of PSG,
Oakbrook Terrace, IL, USA, a Dover company. Through their
reliability and performance, Blackmer’s products have played a
leading role in the ITT Transport Service Centre’s growing prosperity.
Kees in’t Veen, right,
and Rutger Opschoor,
sales engineer of
Wiegel Transport
Equipment
The STX Series pumps excel in H2O2 applications because they
have been designed with a body and internal components made of
316 stainless steel, and also feature external ball-bearing
construction, chemical-resistant seals, bearings and O-rings, and
non-metallic vanes, which result in longer life when handling
corrosive products. They have excellent self-priming and dry-run
capabilities with minimal product shear or agitation. The sliding-
vane design enables the pump to maintain desired flow rates, even
as the vanes wear. When the vanes do wear out, they are easily
replaced with no need to remove the pump from service.
Growing and growing
in’t Veen had been using different models of Blackmer pumps in
various capacities since 1987, but handling H2O2 required a pump
technology that could meet its unique material characteristics,
mainly that it is corrosive and can emit irritating – even dangerous
– vapours if mishandled. The solution was found in the STX Series
Sliding Vane Pump from Blackmer, specifically the 80mm models.
“We have special dedicated transports for hydrogen peroxide, and
it is a very difficult product to pump, but the Blackmer STX pumps
are resistant to peroxide,” said in’t Veen. “Since they were installed,
we have been using the STX pumps for 10 to 15 years and we are
very satisfied with them because it is a pump that we only have to
do routine maintenance on two times a year.”
In the beginning…
It’s not often that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is an ingredient in a
successful recipe, but for in’t Veen and what would become his Kees
in’t Veen Tanktransporten BV subsidiary – one of the five ITT
Transport Service Centre businesses – it became the main element
for a company that has become the largest over-the-road hydrogen
peroxide shipper in Northern Europe.
The personal vision of in’t Veen began to crystallise in 1992 when
his company initiated a collaboration with Kemira Peroxides
Europoort, a subsidiary of Helsinki, Finland-based Kemira Oyj, one of
the world’s largest producers of H2O2. At that time, Kemira was in
the process of opening an H2O2-production facility at Europoort
Rotterdam, while in’t Veen was still operating a two-truck transport
firm, which he had taken control of in 1986 when his father passed
away.
“We grew slowly, but since 1992, when we became the main
haulier for Kemira, that was really the start for us and it has grown
bigger and bigger,” recalled in’t Veen. “We started driving two
trucks for Kemira and now we have 25 special dedicated transports
for hydrogen peroxide. There’s only a few haulers in The Netherlands
that are dedicated to hauling peroxide and we are one of them.”
The turning point for what would
become Kees in’t Veen’s ITT
Transport Service Centre success
story came in 1992 when Kees in’t
Veen Tanktransporten B.V. became
a dedicated hauler of hydrogen
peroxide for Kemira
Kees in’t Veen Tanktransporten operates
a fleet of 25 dedicated hydrogen peroxide
transports, all of which are outfitted with
Blackmer STX Series Sliding Vane Pumps
While H2O2 can be called the foundation of Kees in’t Veen’s
subsequent success, it was not the sole factor. He could have made
a good living as a dedicated H2O2 haulier, but he had a grander
vision – which is definitely on display at the ITT Transport Service
Centre.
Assisting in’t Veen has been Wiegel Transport Equipment, of
Moerdijk, which has been supplying his preferred pumps and
compressors since 2011. Wiegel is a distributor of pumps and
compressors that are used in the transport of dry and liquid bulk
products, with additional operations in Belgium, Germany and
throughout most of Central Europe.
“For heavy chemicals, the STX is the best transport-related pump
on the market,” said Rutger Opschoor, sales engineer for Wiegel
Transport Equipment. “With Blackmer, the quality is good and what
they do, they do very well; that’s what I like about Blackmer pumps.
Not every manufacturer can say that.”
Beginning more than 30 years ago, the capabilities and