New vans

SO we choose to renew all of our vans this years for the cleanest newest models so that we can continue to drive them until at least 2027 in Holland without any obstacle. What it means for the rest of Europe is still to be seen, as all the rules are not coordinated but vary from country to country, from city to city even.

Also our two partners in Belgium and Germany are renewing their vehicles and so for the most part by the end of this year we will just drive around vans that have been delivered to us in 2024.

Things go in circles.

We are not only supplying gear, but also vans again.

There was a time that I was supplying for pretty much all the bands I was working with not only gear but also the vans. That was in the time that I was doing almost all the work myself, say the first 8 years of this millennium.

As the amount of bands I was working with was constantly growing, it wasn’t possible to keep on doing this without getting stressed over too much work. So I decided to ask someone else doing this for me, to keep my hands free to focus on the gear alone again. Just Like Your Mum was taking care of most the vans for about 5 years.

In the last two years we have been going back to the situation where we started doing the vans ourselves again, we are now working with several people at the gear warehouse so it is less stressful to do all at once again. Multiple reasons led to this decision, but the 2 most important of them are:

1. shorter communication lines and being in control of the pick ups,
2. there are no real costs involved for us to pick up van, then band at Schiphol, then gear at the warehouse and the little costs involved we pay out of our commission that we get from vanrental companies.

So we are back to where we were 7 years ago. And I think it makes sense. It means bands only talk to one person about the whole start up of the tour.

We have a couple of vans ourselves now. 6 seater Ford transits and 5 seater Ford transits. Apart from those we get vans from various companies like Diks, Huurnietduur, Pieter Smit, Racs, Tourbodrive and Voyager 9. All with their own specific qualities, luxury, pricing and conditions. And if bands tour in nightliners we deal with Absolute Touring, Crosslands, Pieter Smit and Starstrucks.

Some handy things to know

1. So pick up at and delivery to Schiphol is for free.
2. Delivery and pick up anywhere in Europe is possible.
3. Vans come with filled up tank from the rentalplace and need to be returned to rentalplace.
4. Bands or their driver are liable for speeding tickets and damage to the car, we need to know before set up how that is arranged.

There are cheap and expensive options. Please be aware that every price has its own quality, just like you don’t get business class treatment in economy class when flying. We like to state various options when discussing which vans are available. Please make good note what you expect versus what you want to pay.