Van Gend & Loos was a Dutch distribution company. It was established in 1809, and was purchased by

DHL DHL (originally named after founders Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) is a multinational Import-Export Expert Company, founded in the United States and headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It provides courier, package delivery, and express mail service, ...

in 2003.

History

Van Gend & Loos was established by the

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

-based innkeeper and carriage driver Jan-Baptist van Gend. He had married a woman from the Loos family in 1796. When Van Gend's brother-in-law Petrus Josephus Loos died in 1809, his

diligence Diligence—carefulness and persistent effort or work—is listed as one of the seven Seven virtues#Seven capital virtues, capital virtues. It can be indicative of a work ethic, the belief that work is good in itself. : "There is a perennial ...

company was merged with Van Gend's company to form Van Gend & Loos. The ''De Algemeene Postwagen Onderneming J.B. van Gend & Loos'' (General Postal Carriage Company J.B. van Gend & Loos) gradually expanded its network of diligence services, to transport passengers, goods and money. The company remained active in the

Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

(and beyond) when

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

became independent from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in 1830. Van Gend & Loos had trouble keeping up with competition from

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

. Diligence services between places that also had a railway connection, had to be abandoned. Van Gend & Loos did offer a connection to places where a railway hadn't yet been constructed, but the number of such places declined with the expansion of the railway system. Disestablishment of the company was even considered in the 19th century. Van Gend & Loos was purchased by employee Hipolyte Colignon, who revitalised the company. He abandoned passenger transport, and focussed on the transport of

break bulk cargo In shipping, break-bulk, breakbulk, or break bulk cargo, also called general cargo, are goods that are stowed on board ships in individually counted units. Traditionally, the large numbers of items are recorded on distinct bill of lading, bil ...

from and to railway stations. To this end, he signed deals with railway companies. Railway companies in their turn had trouble keeping up with the competition from motorised traffic, particularly trucks, vans and buses, in the 1920s. The national railroad company established the ''Algemeene Transport Onderneming'' (ATO; General Transport Company), which used both buses and trucks. The ATO was intended to transport break bulk cargo from and to the railway stations, which had been Van Gend & Loos' market. In 1928, the national railway company took over Van Gend & Loos. The ''N.V. Expeditie Onderneming Van Gend & Loos'' switched to trucks, and grew significantly. Important railway stations had large

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the rural–urban fringe, out ...

s, with freight wagons on one side, and grey and orange Van Gend & Loos trucks and vans on the other side. The corporate headquarters were moved to

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

in 1960, near the headquarters of the

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (, , NS ) is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight operato ...

, the Dutch railway company. ''

Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen ''Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen'' (1963) Case 26/62 was a landmark case of the European Court of Justice which established that provisions of the ''Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community'' were capa ...

'' (1963) was a case that gave Van Gend en Loos a place in the history of

European Union law European Union law is a system of Supranational union, supranational Law, laws operating within the 27 member states of the European Union (EU). It has grown over time since the 1952 founding of the European Coal and Steel Community, to promote ...

Takeover

The company was reorganised in 1984. Railway transport of break bulk cargo was abandoned, and the company focussed on transport by truck. Van Gend & Loos was sold to

Nedlloyd Nedlloyd was a Dutch shipping company, formed in 1970 as the result of a merger of several shipping lines: *Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (SMN) *Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd (KRL) *Koninklijke Java-China-Paketvaart-Lijnen (KJCPL) *Vereen ...

in 1986, with its main focus becoming the transport of packages and

pallet A pallet (also called a skid) is a flat transport structure, which supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a Loader (equipment), front loader, a Jack (mechanical), jacking device, or an erect cra ...

s within the

Benelux The Benelux Union (; ; ; ) or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portma ...

area. Nedlloyd sold Van Gend & Loos to

Deutsche Post (, ) is a brand of the DHL Group (listed as ), used for its domestic mail services in Germany. The services offered under the brand are those of a traditional mail service, making the brand the successor of the former state-owned mail monopoly ...

(DP) in 1999. The three daughter companies of DP (Danzas, DHL Worldwide Express and Van Gend & Loos) were merged to form

in 2003, ending the almost 200-year history of Van Gend & Loos.

History

Takeover

See also