Every single day 115 brand new medium and heavy lorries leave the DAF plant in the Dutch town of Eindhoven. ISS has provided specialised cleaning at this gigantic plant since 1998. Recently, more facilities were added. The contract extension came about, when DAF, which belongs to the American PACCAR Group, was reviewing its contract with ISS. At the time, the PACCAR firms Leyland Trucks and Foden, both based in England, were also on the lookout for a new cleaning company. Eventually, ISS was able to make the most competitive offer for all the PACCAR plants concerned, thus landing a new cross-border deal.

Today, 230 ISS employees work at PACCAR sites in the Netherlands, Belgium and United Kingdom, doing specialised cleaning of plants, machines and offices.

Looking back at the negotiation process, Stijn Slegers, Operations Manager at ISS, admits to have been a little nervous: “We knew that DAF had put out a very detailed tender.” René van Lint, Commodity Manager at DAF agrees: “That's right. But you also knew that DAF was generally satisfied with the work that you were doing. ISS had already on several occasions shown what it was capable of. When on a Saturday a fire broke out in the DAF engine factory, ISS was there straight away with a team of cleaners, one hundred of them. The engine factory was running again on Monday. That is something you don’t forget.”

Van Lint explains that while DAF had been generally satisfied with ISS’ work at existing sites in the Netherlands and Belgium, they were expecting more coordination between ISS operations going forward:

“We expect a lot from the international partnership. First of all, the level of cleaning can be compared more easily between our locations, as ISS works according to international standards. For example, we can check whether or not our factories are all cleaned to the same degree, and we will attempt to push through improvements at all three locations. In addition, a large international contract like this has cost reduction benefits,” ends Mr. Van Lint.