Check brake fluid, inflate tires to correct tire pressure or top up engine oil. The employees of the ANWB were busy on Saturday with the holiday check of cars at the border crossing Hazeldonk. Holidaymakers could have their car checked before the journey to France, Spain or the Belgian coast was started.
“Let’s have a look at the lighting,” Michel van Hooijdonk of the ANWB tells a motorist who has his car examined. Van Hooijdonk walks around the car, looks expertly under the hood and takes notes. Soon Michel’s thumb goes up. The driver is relieved. “My wife saw that we could have our car tested for free. Fortunately, no big things, only topping up brake fluid and engine oil. This gives a little more certainty,” says the driver. “The journey to Normandy can begin.”
“Heavily loaded? There are only a few lawn chairs in the trunk.”
The approved vehicle is one of sixty cars that were checked at the Hazeldonk border crossing on Saturday morning. “We have checked the cars intensively. Usually these are smaller problems: putting tires at the correct pressure and possibly replacing a lamp or window fluid.” In addition to the cars, the check also checked thirteen caravans and two trailers.
The 42-year-old Mercedes of Wim van Ginneken from Breda attracts a lot of attention. “No problem. The car has just been inspected. We don’t make long journeys with it. We had a holiday at the Belgian coast last week,” says Wim. There is nothing to criticize about the Mercedes today. “It’s not too heavily loaded. There are only a few lawn chairs in the trunk.”
“Badly loaded caravan starts to swing in a department.”
This does not apply to the car and caravan of Piet Utens from Rijsbergen. The caravan is weighed. “The weight of the total load in the caravan is good, but it is not equally distributed. There is a difference of 140 kilos on the left and right. “That has to be more balanced,” says ANWB member Mickel van Erp, who weighs in. “The caravan is unstable. In this way, the trailer can start to swing in a descent. Then the caravan takes off with the car.”
Van Erp notes that a caravan that is too heavily loaded can be removed from the road during a check. Utens is advised to better distribute the weight between the caravan and his car. “Then I’ll leave my wife at home,” the Rijsbergen resident jokes. At the holiday check, another caravan was loaded no less than four hundred kilos too heavily.
“Sometimes people need a little help.”
Yet the holidaymakers often have it well arranged. “In general, people go on holiday well prepared,” says Markus van Tol, spokesman for the ANWB. “Others need a little more help.” He sees a trend that people are opting more for the car because of the hassle at the airports and corona. “Plus, they’re more flexible,” he says. He also gives as a tip that a yellow vest, first-aid kit and a warning triangle are mandatory abroad.
