Mercedes ServiceCard: Tales from the Ruhr region: how the transport company Köppen in Duisburg reaps the benefits of using the card

The history of the Köppen family and their transport business began over a hundred years ago, in Duisburg in the heart of the Ruhr region. Back then, great-grandfather Köppen was carting milk around. Sitting on a wagon pulled by a draught horse, he delivered the farmers’ milk cans to town.

Today some 80 tank containers depart from the yard of Köppen GmbH every day. Today’s clientele are no longer the region’s dairy farmers. Köppen provides a vital transport link between the production facilities of the chemicals industry along the Rhine and Ruhr rivers to and from the region’s container terminals and the major seaports. Freight carried by the company includes isocyanates, epoxy resins and naphthalene. They also provide a repair and cleaning service for tank containers. A special-purpose warehouse in the company yard where hazardous goods can be heated using steam, hot water or electricity completes the all-round stress-free package. On this scale, the local service is considered to be unrivalled.

It has been a long haul for the business, going from carting milk to transporting chemicals. A journey marked by war and crises for the Köppen company, but also by cohesiveness within the family and partnerships. One such partner is Michael Steirl. He has been supplying the Köppen fleet with the Mercedes ServiceCard for ten years. “As soon as Mercedes-Benz gives us the chassis number, we order the card,” says Jochen Köppen.

In addition, all the vehicles are fitted with the UTA One Box for automated payment of tolls. As well as cashless payments when filling up, the Mercedes ServiceCard offered in cooperation with the company UNION TANK Eckstein GmbH & Co. KG (UTA), also assists Köppen whenever a truck happens to break down. “I remember the first time it happened: I was amazed just how quickly the boys from the workshop did their job.” Michael Steirl adds: “That means quite a lot when you have to be at the port at twelve o’clock on the dot.”

Köppen serves around 200 customers in the chemicals logistics sector. The fleet is made up of 50 units, with 46 of them bearing the star. Of the 170 employees, 62 are drivers. They drive past allotment gardens, refreshment stalls, miners’ settlements and pitheads on a daily basis. They pass smoking chimney stacks and drive underneath massive rusting pipes. This is the Ruhr region – with a population of around five million and covering 4435 square kilometres, it is the biggest conurbation in Germany.

And this is where Jochen Köppen grew up. And like his father Hans-Wilhelm, he learned the trade from the bottom up. Today the two of them run the private limited-liability company as a team. The younger one as general manager, and the older one as senior boss and operations manager, also taking care of the upcoming extension work at the Duisburg location. And thus the Köppen family history continues.

*Mercedes ServiceCard is not applicable to the UK market.

Photos: Michael Neuhaus