NL: Second season of labor-saving for Van Duijn De Jong

Twelve years ago, Tom de Jong moved from South Holland to North Brabant. Together with his partner Peter, they began growing aubergines, eventually doubling the farming area to its current 11.5 hectares before merging with van Duijn in 2023 to form Van Duijn De Jong Aubergines. The combined company now operates from four locations and cultivates 39 hectares of eggplants. With no time to pause, Tom and Peter are always looking to improve, and they recently moved forward by investing in a new harvesting system.

Labor savings in the broadest sense of the word
Peter shares an update on their new harvesting system: This is the second season they are using the Qii Drive Fust for harvesting. After their previous system needed replacement, Tom and Peter turned to the Qii Drive system from Bogaerts Greenhouse Logistics since they were already familiar with it, having used it at their other locations.

They were looking to reduce labor costs in every possible way. Peter explains, "And we've achieved that. For three-quarters of the year, it's a labor-saving system. As for the remaining quarter, we're referring to times when harvesting is done manually or when production is low. But even then, this system makes the work much more comfortable for our greenhouse staff. There's no more heavy lifting, pushing, or pulling. It operates more smoothly. We believe it's important to provide good working conditions for our employees, as we want to keep staff turnover as low as possible."

© BogaertsTom de Jong, Van Duijn De Jong Aubergines

With the Qii Drive system, up to 35 empty crates can be brought into the greenhouse at once, and all full crates can be taken to the storage area in one trip. This means the old method of using a separate harvesting cart and trailer has been replaced by the Qii Drive. Now, only one cart is needed instead of two, eliminating the need to connect and disconnect equipment or manually move crates around.

The Qii Drive operates fully automatically, traveling to the unloading station where the crates are emptied into a buffer and replaced with new, stackable crates. It then returns to the greenhouse along the induction line, ready for the next round of harvesting.

Necessary adjustments
The carts used in the system are slightly larger than those in the previous setup. As a result, the concrete path had to be widened by 50 cm to accommodate the Qii Drive. This change also required adjustments to the pipe rail, growth pipe, and cultivation gutter.

The unloading installation was also modified, but they were able to use and adjust their existing machines for this purpose. The existing induction lines remained unchanged and are now used by the Qii Drive system.

Batteries
The Qii Drive Fust is charged twice a week. It autonomously drives to the charging station, where it charges overnight. By the next day, the fully charged Qii Drives are back in operation within the system.

Leon Verkoelen from Bogaerts Greenhouse Logistics offers advice on battery maintenance: "Ensure the batteries never run dry. Stay vigilant and monitor them closely, as running dry can be detrimental. Also, avoid completely depleting the battery, as this can cause damage. Lastly, keep the top of the battery dry."

For more information:
Leon Verkoelen
Bogaerts Greenhouse Logistics
+32 472 127 442 (GSM)
lve@bogaertsgl.com
www.bogaertsgl.com