01.07.2026

Verschoor celebrates 60 years

Dutch crane rental and sales company M. Verschoor held a major open day on Saturday to celebrate 60 years in business. And 30 years for its sales division UCM Holland.

To mark the anniversary, it invited employees, suppliers and customers along with their families to join the celebrations at its facility, in Sassenheim – between Amsterdam and The Hague.

An estimated 3,000 visitors attended the event to learn about its history, see a wide selection of cranes from its fleet, watch the many demonstrations and enjoy the party. They also had the opportunity to glimpse into the future of the industry with its presentation "Next Level Verschoor".

An abbreviated history

The business began when Maarten Verschoor senior opened a BP petrol station in Sassenheim in 1966. In order to add another dimension to his business, he spent his evenings building a tow/recovery truck, taking just two weeks to complete his machine.

He then signed up with the emergency services agency, stating that he was not only reachable 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but also had available capacity.

In the 1970s, Verschoor began to add further recovery vehicles and his first cranes, starting with a 10 tonne telescopic truck crane.
Verschoor recalls how a sales rep from the Grove crane distributor Geveke tried to sell him a new 10 ton Grove TD 100, single cab truck crane. He said that he found the price - 180,000 guilders -way too high.

In spite of this objection, Geveke delivered a unit a few days later with the message: “see if it's any good and then let’s talk.” Within a day or two of it arriving, the first potential customer called, a sugar factory in Halfweg, which asked if Maarten had a crane to unload pipes. Of course he did! The client was so pleased with the crane that he immediately agreed to rent it for at least a year.

A short while later Verschoor purchased a 15 tonne Grove TD155 again with both driving and operator cabs back to back on the chassis with a swivel seat. It had a three section telescopic boom, plus an offsetable underslung jib.

Over the following few years, more cranes were added to the fleet, including six 10 ton Grove TM 100Cs, with swing cabs.

In 1979, the first TD100 crane was deployed at the Droge Hiswa - Amsterdam Boat show, unloading and lifting boats into position starting a collaboration that continued for many years and brought plenty of good publicity.

In 1991, the company celebrated 25 years in business and moved into new workshops and yard at its current location in the town.

As the company expanded, it began recruiting and training a new generation of operators, many of them straight from school and only 16 years old. As such, they did not qualify for a heavy vehicle driving license.

The solution was found in the Faun RTF 30 which had a transmission that could be restricted with the installation of a small bolt. This allowed it to be driven by a 16 year old with a farm tractor licence, enabling them to drive the cranes to jobs within the Bollenstreek area, which stretches 25km along the coast from west Leiden to south of Amsterdam.
A good number of these junior crane operators are now among the most senior operators at Verschoor. With a fair few of their sons now also working in the company.

In 1995 Verschoor took its first Manitex boom truck, mounting it on an all wheel drive Terberg chassis a crane configuration that, it says, is still popular today.

In 1996 Maarten Verschoor junior decided to start trading in used cranes and spare parts, setting up UCM Holland. To date, the business has sold and delivered cranes to more than 140 countries.

In 2007 the company purchased its first Spierings Mobile self-erecting tower crane, starting a relationship that remains very strong to this day.

In 2015, Verschoor purchased its first big crawler crane, a 600 tonne Liebherr LR1600, kicking off its entry into the wind turbine installation market, both in the Netherlands and overseas. Today, its fleet is topped by a 1,000 tonne Liebherr LR11000.