1 December 2020

During the first COVID outbreak, in March this year, the transport sector slowed down. Especially transporters for the event and catering industry saw their work come to a halt. The industry took a big hit and and a number of BAS’ companies had to shift to a different gear, but it was also a reason to continue working full throttle on innovative concepts. The impact of the second wave on the production and sale of trucks and trailers appears to be milder. Despite COVID, BAS as a group is expecting to realize one of its best years ever. This is reflected in the rapidly growing number of vacancies.

So, no negative growth, but vacancies instead. BAS continues to accelerate into top gear with innovation, digitization and new business models as its drivers. This is how Caspar and Bas van Heertum characterize the state of BAS during the era of COVID. The pandemic is affecting us in a human and organizational sense. "But we are agile and ambitious," say the executives of the international family business. "It is wonderful to see that our employees are using this crisis to step up a notch."
We are now mainly focused on ground-breaking digitization processes. Each of our business units is making history. IT is running at full speed. All employees, from buyers & sellers to mechanics, are enthusiastic about the challenging developments in their role at BAS. "We realized that digitization is the crucial road to success. That is now working in our favour. And the best is yet to come."

Order book well-filled in 2021

Since the summer, BAS Truck Center, the dealer and service branch (Volvo and Renault Trucks and DAF Trucks in Germany), has seen demand pick up again. "Corona hit us unexpectedly," says director Bas van Heertum," so we had to adjust our forecast. Volvo's factories had to close, which was drastic. No trucks from the factory meant significantly less man-hours in the workshop. Fortunately, we were able to move technicians around within our different subsidiaries. We see that our customers’ business is picking up again. Transport companies even experience an advantage: less traffic jams on the roads."
The order book for 2021 is well-filled now. This is partly due to the new trucks that Volvo is launching as a premium brand. "Thanks to their spectacular features and lots of interesting options". The quieter period, after the first outbreak, was used to accelerate the implementation of smart concepts. We must further digitize our communication and work processes at the customer contact and after-sales level, but also in the workshop. Bas van Heertum: "We are facing a change in the interaction between our customers and technicians. A remarkable experience.

"We're still short of hands!"

"We're still short of hands!" BAS staff are not bored for a second. Employees who had to be quarantined could hardly wait to get back to work. Bas: "Thanks to our Global Truck Concept, we can easily move around people in our company. There is always work to be done. We are still short of hands.” The BAS Global Truck Concept means transporters find everything they need for their trucks at BAS. In other words: the support of a unique dealer and service company, adequate financing, lease, rental and fleet management services, and quick access to the worldwide market for used trucks, trailers and machines.

Trade branch experiences stormy growth

The trade branch in particular - BAS Trucks, BAS Parts, BAS Vans, BAS Machinery - has been experiencing rapid growth for years. You will not find a larger specialist in used equipment in Europe. Every year, BAS Trucks sells of approximately nine thousand vehicles worldwide. 2020 also promises to be a good year. Director Caspar van Heertum: "The business benefits from a little imbalance in the world. We had no shortage of that this year. Corona appears to be shaking up the market. In March and April, we responded immediately by making price adjustments. Since May we have been running at full speed again. We are currently even thirty percent above our budget."

"We need enthusiastic people for this, who understand that the world is changing and who take opportunity to claim their own role in it. Purchasing, sales or IT – at BAS you get the space to lead the way."

"Opportunities for talented people who understand that the world is changing"

With a broad and young team, BAS Trucks is permanently strengthening its position in this dynamic global market. The company has attracted a lot of talent over the past few years and continues to look for candidates with the right BAS DNA. Because the trading company wants to go further - from nine thousand vehicles annually to thirteen to fifteen thousand vehicles in three years. Caspar van Heertum: "We need enthusiastic people who understand that the world is changing and who take the opportunity to claim their own role in it. Purchasing, sales or IT – you are given the space to lead the way.” Not only BAS Trucks continues to perform in top gear despite corona, BAS Machinery, the youngest branch within the trading company, is also performing well beyond expectations. When BAS started it, they were considered crazy. BAS Machinery is now regarded as a global top brand. This year, we already sold more than a thousand machines.

Ground-breaking e-commerce platforms

BAS employs a remarkable number of IT staff and marketing specialists for an automotive company. Not only at the head office, but even in India. Our teams are committed to the digital transition with heart and soul. The scope is broad: logistics processes, connectivity between the trucks, transport operators and the workshops, communication, the customer journey of the global customer base and the development of ground-breaking e-commerce platforms.

BAS knows for sure that smart, interactive buying and selling platforms, which are not inferior to consumer platforms such as Booking.com, Bol.com or Amazon, are the future. Caspar van Heertum: "We have a head start. We build our own systems to maximize the efficiency of our processes and the relationship with and service to our customers. When we started doing that, we couldn't even imagine that our keeping distance would become the new norm and that it would still be possible to do business effectively.”

Everyone at BAS hopes that corona will soon be a thing of the past and that we can meet again to celebrate successful transactions. But we will continue to do business online in essential areas. Our new game-changing platform is ready to go. With the recent arrival of Marcel van Leeuwen, as our new Product & Tech Director, we expect to launch this platform successfully and continue to develop it in a scalable way. With Marcel, we have an experienced IT director who has influenced the development of the bol.com consumer platform in various roles over the past eight years.

A great year, despite COVID

In brief, we can say that the companies of BAS were also completely struck by the corona pandemic at the start of this year. Factories came to a standstill, components were not delivered, everyone stepped on the brakes. As a dealer and service company, BAS Truck Center saw its business decline, but demand picked up again after the summer. Expectations for the new Volvo Trucks series are high. BAS's trading companies, including BAS Trucks and BAS Machinery, seem to be benefiting from the global imbalance. They are heading for a top year. Not only in terms of the figures, but also of their digital journey. BAS will soon launch an e-commerce platform that will change the international purchase and sale of used equipment forever.

Do you want to know what you can do for BAS? Head over to our vacancies in full throttle