We have heard that Jean Vincent, a well-known figure in the Belgian transport sector and winner of the Transporter of the Year in 2007, has passed away. He had been retired since selling his company to the Berto Group and was killed in a car accident in Argentina.
Jean Vincent bought his first truck in 1972. A perfectionist through and through, he had grown his business before selling it to the English group LEP Swift, then buying it back and selling it for a second time in 1997 to the French group Synchrony Logistique. The latter soon found itself in serious financial difficulties, dragging its Belgian subsidiary with it, which was declared bankrupt in September 2001. In the meantime, Jean Vincent had started a logistics company again, bought the remaining assets from the receiver and started a road transport company under his own name, winning back his customers and staff within a few years. In 2007 he was awarded the title of Carrier of the Year.
In 2022, Jean Vincent sold his company again to the Berto group and retired from the transport sector. He is remembered as a man who was extremely demanding for himself and for others, a perfectionist through and through, always looking for innovation (he was the first to drive an ecokombi in Wallonia), always on the road to find new customers, but always present on Fridays and Saturdays in his office, from where he kept an eye on the incoming and outgoing trucks of ‘his’ company. Since 2022, he has regularly participated in rallies for vintage cars and while exploring one of those rallies in Argentina he suffered a fatal accident. His wife Caroline Vergote was injured, but is out of danger.
The Transportmedia team extends its sincere condolences to his family (and in particular to Caroline Vergote and Maxim and Julian, their two sons), as well as to the staff of Vincent Logistics. The formalities for Jean Vincent’s funeral, which depend on the body’s return to Europe, are not yet known.
