Transportation Infrastructure

"In terms of inbound transportation, Rotterdam is the third largest port in the world and Amsterdam is the third largest European airport. As for outbound transportation, a lot of transportation into Europe ... is done overnight."
Tim Postel, EMEA Service Parts Operations Manager, IBM Corporation

 

A major factor in the Netherlands' dominance as a European logistics location is the quality of its transportation infrastructure.

The 2011 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook recognized this when it ranked the Netherlands well ahead of its major logistics competitors.

The Netherlands is an excellent location from which to serve Europe and the world. It is a natural gateway, with flat countryside and excellent river connections that have been built into a dense yet highly efficient infrastructure of ultramodern and well-maintained roads, railways, inland waterways, airports and seaports.

Well-equipped facilities, good security, affordable utilities, frequent schedules, and high-efficiency processing of cargos are but a few reasons why the Netherlands is the number one way to access Europe. In fact, the World Bank ranked the Netherlands fourth in Global Logistics Performance out of 150 countries*.

* Source: 2010 Study, World Bank - Connecting To Compete

There are good reasons for this. The Netherlands' logistics workforce is flexible, highly skilled and multilingual. It is supported by an ever-growing array of related services including pilots, tugs and tow boats, stevedores, customs, barge companies, third-party logistics service providers and more.

There are more than 12,000 Dutch companies serving its transport sector -- among the largest in all of Europe -- accounting for 40% of all goods carried by water and 25% of those carried overland. Not surprisingly, over half of all North American companies with European logistics centers choose to locate them in the Netherlands.