van de Graaf & Meeusen Rivertransport BV

Van de Graaf en Meeusen Rivertransport B.V. was created from a merger of the Amsterdam Beheer en Beleggings Maatschappij J.H. van de Graaf B.V. and the Rotterdam W.L. Meeusen B.V. on 1 January 1994 and the idea was that, with the elimination of freighting in rotation per 1 December 1998 (when the shipping exchanges were closed), there was no longer any right to exist for two relatively small freight brokerage offices. The motto for the future was more or less “onwards together”. The objectives were clear: cooperation and increased growth, either autonomous and/or through takeovers. The logo of Van de Graaf en Meeusen has a “mid-channel buoy” which actually symbolises “safe water”. In view of the closing of the shipping exchanges, a new central location had to be found. This was found at a new site to be constructed at the Boelewerf in Ridderkerk on the Nieuwe Maas. The official opening of the premises was on 17 October 1997. On 17 March 1998, the company Willem van Driel’s Stoomboot- en transportondernemingen N.V., which was founded in 1888, was taken over from DSM of Limburg. A heavy schedule of loads was involved in this takeover plus also 8 pushed barges and the personnel. Partly due to the increased loading schedule it was decided in September 1998 to order the construction of 12 new pushed barges. These pushed barges arrived in Rotterdam on two pontoons after a voyage of 80 days on 27 May 2001.