Inland shipping cooperative opts for continuity and renewal
Zwijndrecht, 14 April 2026
PTC Groep, the cooperative of inland shipping entrepreneurs, will appoint a new chair this summer. Wilco Volker will succeed Wim Bennik, who is stepping down after nearly twenty years from a collective he helped build from the very beginning. Bennik leaves behind an organization that has developed strongly as a logistics service provider in inland waterway transport and is ready for its next phase. The appointment of an external chair from outside the cooperative marks a new step for PTC Groep.
In recent years, the cooperative has grown into an innovative logistics player of stature. More than 45 inland shipping entrepreneurs, a dedicated team of office staff and its customers work together within PTC Groep on stable logistics solutions. With the appointment of Wilco Volker as chair, PTC Groep strengthens its chosen course towards sustainable growth and a robust, agile organization.
Board member and spokesperson Henri van Sandijk is pleased with the arrival of the new chair. “Wilco is not only a passionate ambassador for inland shipping, he knows the sector well and has unique experience in logistics, strategy and cooperative working,” says van Sandijk. He continues: “The appointment of an external, independent chair is a new step for our organization. It fits with the structural change we are implementing internally, in which the board envisages a more supervisory role.”
For Volker, who himself comes from an inland shipping family, the appointment as chair has a special meaning: “This is the cooperative whose flag used to hang on the wall of my room. The fact that I may become its chair from this summer is an honourable appointment. I think it is great to see how PTC Groep has moved along with all the changes in the market in recent years. A market in which customers are under pressure due to everything that is happening in the world. In that market, PTC Groep does not want to be a bystander, but a party that thinks along, takes action and thus provides certainty and stability in the logistics chain. I look forward to continuing this course recognisably together with the board, members and employees.”
The gavel will change hands this summer. From 14 April until the appointment during the general meeting in June, Wilco Volker will further familiarise himself within PTC Groep and participate in board meetings. In addition, there is ample time to transfer the existing knowledge of outgoing chair Wim Bennik. Wilco will fulfil the chairmanship alongside his work at his consultancy firm Logistic Navigators. It is therefore not an executive role, but a supervisory one, fitting a cooperative in which the collective does the work.