“I first encountered mobile cranes in my work as a crane operator for various companies. Subsequently, I was employed by the Port of Amsterdam Authority as a crane operator for ten years. I mainly worked with cargo cranes and I really enjoyed what I was doing. I learned almost everything there is to know about cranes on the job and this proved to be an excellent training ground. With the rapid advance of electronics I decided to go back to evening school where I obtained my electronics qualifications. Not long after I installed my first control box for the port authority and by the time I was 28 years old I was the Port Authority’s Head of Technical Service. I learned a lot during that time but when the port authority was privatised people were made redundant, including me. In 1990 I decided to take a leap into the unknown and started my own business under the name ‘Technisch Buro van den Broek’. I had the opportunity to buy a small building from the municipality for 1 guilder. No, I would never have thought that I would one day have a company employing more than 40 people. Of course, I feel a real sense of achievement but I never really think of myself as the director. I will always be a crane man from Amsterdam with a passion for engineering. My enthusiasm for engineering and technology also spills over into my spare time. I used to race a Kawasaki ZX1000 motorbike at the Assen race circuit, but I stopped after I had a serious accident. I still take part in races but this time it’s a lot safer; I bought a race simulator so that I can compete with my racing friends. This way I am guaranteed to get home safely and in one piece.”
“The port, the water, sailing, it’s in my blood. I probably inherited this from my father who also used to sail and worked in the port of Amsterdam. Once I finished secondary school I joined the navy where I was Corporal of the Electrical Engineering Service and I sailed all around the world. After nine years I decided I was ready for a new challenge and got a job as a crane technician with Container Terminal Amsterdam. After five years with them, I lost my faith in the future of this company and left them in 1995 to join EPMC Europe Crane Solutions. I have been working here for 25 years now and I have never had so much as even one dull day at work. I was the company’s service manager for a long time but I recently became the maintenance contracts manager and my many years of experience as a maintenance man has proven to be very useful in this job. I know our customers and their cranes inside out and this position therefore suits me perfectly. Maintenance is an essential part of the service when it comes to operational reliability as well as safety and this is what makes my job so important. Using my experience I am able to convince businesses of the importance of regular and proper maintenance and to arrange appropriate contracts. It always pays off.”
“Like so many of my colleagues, I attended maritime college. I was a technician and worked on steam turbines, I even remember the Kromhout engines with glow fuses. Once I was back ashore, I worked as a service technician on mechanical and electrical installations. I did a lot of courses as I was really interested in the rapidly changing world of electronics. After a tip off from my colleague Gerjan de Winter who told me that the company was looking for staff, I got a job as a service technician at EPMC Europe Crane Solutions. I suppose you could consider Gerjan and myself to be EPMC Europe Crane Solutions veterans and I have always loved working for the company. My job as manager of the EA&D department is extremely varied and all the knowledge that I have acquired throughout the years as service technician, first technician and project manager has been very useful: not only when solving problems but also when it comes to managing my team. Engineering continues to fascinate me and it is exciting to see how the world of cranes is increasingly moving towards electronic and cloud-based solutions. I love engineering so much that I like to spend my leisure time building electrically controlled scale models of cars and boats. My hobby is my work and my work is my hobby!”
“Like so many of my colleagues, I started my career as a technician. In think that you need that technical background and that in-depth knowledge of cranes to be able to do this job properly. This knowledge is necessary for the commercial aspects of major projects and quotation requests, as I also have to be able to put the right figures into the calculators. My job also has an advisory aspect to it as customers will sometimes think about buying a crane that is not really suitable for them. I enjoy giving our customers honest and transparent advice that is based on my own practical experience. It’s good to see how commerce and engineering meet and how we do not use a ‘hard’ sell. After a purchase, we discuss the maintenance contract and you have to have the necessary technical knowledge to draw up a good proposal for the customer. The relationships with our customers are long term because the crane’s hardware has a lifespan of at least thirty years. Yes, it’s a challenging job sometimes. I relax by spending time with my family, driving our convertible and I also play the trumpet in our party band ‘Ex-BTW’. So you won’t find me at work during carnival...”
“I am responsible for the planning and management of our service technician team which is literally deployed all over the world, from Dubai to Finland. My team is rapidly expanding and we are planning to recruit even more service technicians this year. I am usually the first person to be told by a customer when a crane is not functioning properly. It is my job to find out what is still working on the crane so that I can make an accurate diagnosis. In a way, you could see me as the GP of customers with crane issues. I find this a particularly interesting aspect of my job as the more information you can give the technician before he gets there, the quicker he will be able to solve the problem. A crane may seem like a simple piece of machinery but in reality it isn’t. It’s that complexity that keeps you on the ball and makes sure that no two working days are the same. I usually start my working day at 7am and go home around 6pm but not before I have planned the next day’s job list, with some additional time scheduled in for any emergency jobs. Sure, the job is hectic but once I hop on one of my motorbikes – the Yamaha or the Augusta – all my cares just blow away.”