Martijn Viergever
Senior Transport Planner

Martijn is an experienced Transport Planner who enjoys being part of the Thermotraffic transport team at the busy Port of Rotterdam.

I have been at Thermotraffic for nearly six years now. Before that, I worked in a similar role at a transporter in Hoogerheide but had a lot of travelling time – 1.5 hours each day. Thermotraffic is close by and in the heart of the Port of Rotterdam. And I already had a click with the team because I knew them from my previous company. The team consists of eight people: a manager, four transport planners and three forwarders.

Container planning

I joined Thermotraffic as a Transport Planner, primarily responsible for container planning. The moment a container is available to be moved from the terminal, our team arranges the transport. We oversee the whole process, collecting it from the terminal through to the inspection point and on to the customer’s desired destination. Nationally and internationally. I have a particular responsibility for the transport to our cold storage facilities. And together with my colleague we also arrange road journeys by truck for the onward transport of goods from the cold stores.

Rewards and challenges

It may be a cliché, but every day is different and there is always a new challenge in organizing the transport. It is satisfying to be able to say at the end of the day: “It is all arranged”. Customers are happy and so are we. Completing the puzzle, that’s fun to do.

On the other hand, you can never predict in advance how things will turn out. You are dependent on how busy it is at the terminal, and Rotterdam is often very busy. We always plan, but disruptions are a fact of life. We also deal with the inspection points. How busy is it there? How fast does it go? Are there containers with problems or is everything going smoothly?

You need everything coordinated and ready in advance. And you never know how extensive the inspection will be. If there’s a delay you need to inform the customer. There’s a lot more to it than just arranging the transport.
We work with around 25 charter trucks. Most of them are self-employed drivers and we want to make sure they’ve earned enough money at the end of the month. So, you’re working for Thermotraffic, but also for them. There is an obligation towards each other.

Why choose Thermotraffic?

I had a click with Albert, my manager. Albert also invited me to come and get a sense of what it’s like to work at Thermotraffic. That made the choice easy and I immediately chose to join the company.

Thermotraffic thinks not only about the business but also about the employees. It’s informal and there is a lot of laughter. You can work in whatever way you like as long as the work is done well. If you manage to get things done together, isn’t that great? You can also make mistakes and learn from them. The conditions are also good. For example, a non-contributory pension is very attractive. And if you do your work well, you are rewarded accordingly.

Training and ambition

I am not currently doing any training, but training is very much encouraged. There are plenty of opportunities to grow here and if you have the ambition you can do anything within the company.