Dutch inland shipping cooperative NPRC has appointed Luc Geerts as its new Belgium manager. “The offices in Belgium are important for north-south traffic,” says Geerts. He has 36 years of experience in freight forwarding, logistics and inland navigation to his credit.
Luc Geerts succeeds at NPRC Mario Lauwers, who will retire at the end of 2024. From September, he will officially take over the torch. Lauwers will remain active to accompany him until the end of the year.
After studying Shipping-Expedition and serving in the army, Luc Geerts joined Panalpina as inside sales export. “After that, I worked for about eight years at Polytra as a project cargo forwarder. There I got the chance to interact with different modes and shippers and learnt a lot,” he says. “At the age of 30, I started working for a shipper. Sibelco was looking for someone with knowledge of logistics and chartering. That was my first intensive introduction to inland navigation.”
In 1997, Sibelco still had its own fleet of inland barges that were used between the quarries in Kempen and the port of Antwerp. “Half of my duties consisted of rotating the vessels optimally. At that time, inland navigation had not yet been liberalised. Chartering was still done through the stock exchange,” he says. “From 1998, rates became free and that was a completely different thing. Our own fleet suddenly turned out to be more expensive than the free market, but Sibelco did not want to act too quickly and waited. Then, in 2002, the decision was made to divest the fleet and it was my job to find a candidate. So the fleet went to De Grave-Antverpia (now DGA Shipping) which still does the transports for Sibelco. In 2005, I left the company because they had moved from Antwerp to Dessel and the commute became too much for me,” he outlines.
Great memories
After a brief interlude at a lubricants company, Geerts once again draws the card of inland navigation. “In 2006, I started as sales manager of the French inland navigation group CFNR in Antwerp. Two years later, I succeeded the then managing director Michel Haesen. For three years, I headed the company in Antwerp. I have one of my fondest memories of that period. I was responsible for clientele and operations in a polyvalent role. That period came to an end with the 2008-2011 banking crisis. The shareholders decided to divest the inland navigation activities, which were not a core business. The barges were sold to De Grave-Antverpia. The chartering went to Rhenus and the container business was left to Danser. Then I joined Shipit – a client of CFNR – in a commercial role,” he says.
Independent expert
In 2016, he chose to continue as an independent expert. “I then spent two years working on the ‘Watertruck +’ project on behalf of Waterwegen en Zeekanaal (the predecessor of De Vlaamse Waterweg ed.). After a brief interlude at Euroports in a commercial position, I joined De Vlaamse Waterweg via a government assignment in 2020. As ‘market developer’, I have to convince companies to take the step to water and bring parties together to realise the modal shift. That assignment ends this summer.”
At that point, NPRC comes into view. “I started talks with NPRC when it was announced that the current manager in Antwerp, Mario Lauwers, is retiring at the end of this year. From 1 July 2024, I will start at NPRC and from September I will take over the torch from Mario. He will then stay on until the end of the year to guide me”.
Entrepreneurs
NPRC is a member-centric dry bulk barge cooperative. The cooperative has about 150 members including quite a few Belgian skippers. “Together they form a group of entrepreneurs whose objective is to strengthen the market position of the individual entrepreneur. Every day, we link our entrepreneurs to cargo and in doing so, we ensure that we provide an optimal service for our customers. My job will therefore be to look after the members’ interests and ensure customer satisfaction. I will also further develop and support the team in their work.”
Ibarge
Luc Geerts sees the main challenge as making the profession and waterborne transport attractive to customers. “One way to do this is through digitalisation. By working data-driven and digitising processes, communication with members is already entirely digital via the Ibarge application. Greening is also being actively pursued. Last year, for instance, the cooperative invested EUR 3 million to make the fleet of the 150 united entrepreneurs more sustainable. Energy transition is also a big challenge with certain flows, such as steel and coal, declining. As a result, we have to look for new traffics, being mainly cargo flows created as a result of the circular economy, which will grow,” he says.
NPRC Belgium
Geerts will be manager NPRC Belgium with offices in Antwerp and Tournai. “Antwerp employs seven people and Tournai two. The Belgian offices are important for north-south traffic of construction and minerals, among other things. The Antwerp office is also active in transporting coils to France and rice from Antwerp. The development of the Seine-Scheldt project offers an opportunity for the Antwerp and Tournai offices,” he concludes.
