A salvage company comes into action if a car can no longer continue after an accident or damage. This has happened very often in the past three months, according to figures from Stichting Incident Management. This is a foundation that works together with 54 recovery companies across the country.
Old cars
There are many reasons for the high amount of salvages, starting with the fact that the Netherlands has the oldest fleet (the total number of vehicles on the road) in Western Europe, according to spokesperson Stijn Oosterhoff of trade association Bovag. “This is partly because we bought more and more second-hand cars during the corona period. And those old cars need more maintenance.”
Other reasons are the sales of new electric cars that are not going as fast as hoped and the traffic on the road. “It is even busier than before corona. This automatically causes more damage and breakdown.”
Resulting record crowds
In the past period, there has been a record rush at recovery companies, according to figures from Stichting Incident Management Nederland. In the second quarter of 2023, recovery companies carried out 39,472 recovery orders on the largest Dutch roads. That is 13 percent more than the old record set in the third quarter of 2022.
Most of the salvages were from people who had broken down on the side: 32,587. There were also 6262 accidents. The rest are cars left unattended.
Stichting Incident Management Nederland is responsible for all recovery operations on the main roads, and works as a client together with recovery companies. The foundation distinguishes between two types of salvage: accidents and breakdown removals. “We have been doing breakdown transport since 2005,” says spokesman Ivo Wildenberg. “Then we had 30,000 reports per year. This year we are already at 180,000, which is six times as many.” The number of accidents is also growing, but has not yet reached the maximum of 2019. “Then it was about 27,000 accidents and now about 26,000. So it is really moving in that direction.”
Wildenberg attributes the growing number of trips by broken down cars to ‘more traffic’ and the growing number of old cars on the road. “The age of the fleet has grown,” he says.
Deferred maintenance
The salvage company Roos Berging, mainly active in the Rotterdam region, also perishes in the work. Berger Dion Vlasblom notices that fewer and fewer people want to spend money on maintenance, which leads to many breakdowns. A breakdown is about mechanical failure of your car, such as having a battery that no longer works. “We regularly see cars that are parked due to overdue maintenance. We also see more and more people who postpone refueling because of the costs and eventually get stuck.”
In contrast to a breakdown, damage involves an external influence, such as an accident.
Bovag’s spokesperson confirms that people spent less money on maintenance during corona. “Now we see that maintenance costs are rising.”
Modern cars
Despite the current bustle, salvage companies are expected to calm down in the future. According to Oosterhoff, this is due to the increase in modern cars. The advanced systems of these cars, the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), aim to prevent collisions in traffic. This will reduce the number of accidents. Bovag therefore predicts that the number of claims will decrease, but the average amount of claims will increase. “The damage that is there is more complex and therefore more expensive to repair.”
2023-08-19 12:02:38
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