TNT Annual Report and Form 20-F 2006

John ten Heuvel

John ten Heuvel
TNT Post - Postman, work planner and contact for the OC
40 years old, married, 2 children

John looks like a postman. He dresses smartly, always has a smile on his face and radiates a down-to-earth nature that immediately calls to mind reliability. He exercises that same nature in his job. When he’s not delivering letters and parcels in his hometown of Nieuwegein, he is planning the rounds of others or acting as contact person for the OC, part of the national Works Council responsible for employee surveys related to company processes. His company TNT Post is undergoing some fundamental changes and not all his colleagues understand the necessity of what is going on. He considers it his responsibility to maintain a good atmosphere within the team and is always ready to talk about and explain developments to those around him.

John: “I am a connector by nature. One of my ambitions at work is to ensure that the various characters within our team, and on a larger scale within the branch office, mould together as well as possible. With the changes within Post, full-time postmen are going through a hard time. Some of them feel that the post delivery staff, who are not full-time and cost less, are taking their jobs. They forget the underlying reasons why the changes are necessary. I help them to understand.”

“I’ve been with the company for 22 years now. If you’re going to head out into the cold every morning, you have to love the interaction with people. What I like most about it is that there are new challenges and new experiences every day. Add the fact that you get the respect from those around you – everybody knows the postman in their area – and you’ll understand why I like getting up each morning. That TNT looks after us helps too, of course. Even now that matters are a little tougher, they are doing their best to explain what it going on. Like a huge family, there are many different parts, each with their own interests and specialties yet all with the same mentality – doing our jobs as well as we can.”