Netherlands
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My name is Mark Manders (Far left in photo) and I am from the Netherlands (Holland) in Europe. I am the youngest of 10 children and we grew up on a farm, and my dad had a livestock truck. It was that truck that sparked my interest in the trucking industry. My brothers took the truck over in 1990, and today they have 4 livestock trucks and 2 reefers for hauling slaughterhouse waste for a huge company here in Holland. |
P.v. Beekveld was one of the largest livestock operators in Holland. My brother JAN has worked for them for 5 and a 1/2 years before he started out on his own. They used to haul livestock throughout Europe.
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| The owner, Theo Beekveld was trapped by a steer quite some time ago, and was partially paralyzed since then. Right after that he sold most of his trucks, keeping 2 for himself, but ended up selling those off too. My brothers JAN and GEERT took over the cattle business and now haul for Beekveld's former customers. |
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MY BROTHERS TRUCKS
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(Left Photo) LEO's truck; he is an owner/operator with TEEUWISSEN, the rendering company. (Right Photo) JAN's truck; he hauls rendering products in Holland and Belgium. |
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(Photos above) My brother GEERT's trucks haul mostly butcher cattle to slaughterhouses here in Holland. They also haul breeder cattle for exhibitions and for export to foreign countries such as Russia, Greece and Tunisia.
On one of Mark's previous trips he went to East Berlin with a dump trailer for VD Linden Veghel. It was a load of lime from Belgium to a cement factory in East Berlin, returning the next day with a load of fertilizer from Lutherstadt Wittenberg, 2 hours south of Berlin.
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The above photos were taken in Helmsted on the former east/west border. Helmsted is located in the middle of Germany now.
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The centre photo shows one of the observation towers beside the highway. Top left photo is where they checked all the trucks and cars. The lower left photo is a TRABENT car that was built in the former East Germany. The former people of East Germany were required to use this car only, not a Mercedes or a BMW. The Trabent runs on a liquid that is made out of gas and oil, (I don't know the exact word for it but they smoked a lot.) |
The Manders boys are in the process of building a 2 tiered livestock trailer. It is not the first truck body or trailer they have built, and undoubtedly will not be their last.
Livestock hauling is like a disease; when it's in your blood it never gets out. --- Mark Manders.
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