Under construction…
Automobielfabriek P. Schmidt of Amsterdam and Alkmaar so called A.S. was an importer of US Republic-
trucks and soon (we Dutch see opportunities) the company decided to assmble themselves! Hence a new
chassis was engineered with US-assembly…■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ the first years…1928
A.S. was the FIRST company with a ■■■■■■■ installed overseas, just after the installation in a White-truck
for Purity-stores as discussed in the ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
Herewith:
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an extraction of “The encyclopedia” from Dennis Miller,
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an advertisement (around 1937) on three 6x4 trucks with ■■■■■■■ for a supplier of cheese
as Alkmaar (north of Amsterdam) is worldknown for cheese with famous cheesemarket, -
a copy out of a ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ from 1935 where A.S. is mentioned for trucks and busses,
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a copy out of a ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ from 1956 with an A.S. (3-axles) in front of Dutch windmill
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a picture of an A.S. for Van Wezel of Hengelo near Enschede, for same contractor (Ten Horn of
Veendam) as Robert gave with Verheul-truck of Lommerts (absorbed by Harry Vos) on the relevant
thread. Calpam has nothing to do with Calor, but everything with Caltex, later Texaco.
Van Wezel was part of the Mammoet-group, as also Stoof of Breda and Van Seumeren of Utrecht.
@Johnnie: there is more to highlight on the company A.S. (also no relation with French company
with same capitals) as they were the first ■■■■■■■ importer/dealer in Europe in 1932, whereas
Ets. A. Denonville from Brussels started in 1936 as importer/dealer. Also A.S. was official importer
for International (IH) longe before Nefkens and Engelbert as well as Diamond T. Winder of Limmen
with heavy transport (cranes and earthmoving equipment) was a frequent user/operator of both
International and Diamond T vehicles.
ERF thank you for the information as I was in heavy haulage in the 60s and 70s and two company,s I recall were Big Lift and Hans Franke Rotterdam who I nearly came over to work for but having a young family at the time it would have too much or my wife moving to a new country and not knowing anyone as I would have been away from home a lot.
I know there was quite a few other Dutch heavy hauliers but the brain will not go into gear 
I was very fortunate as my first two trips over were to Antwerp and Rotterdam but we offloaded in the docks onto barges but it gave me a good insight into what was required for later when I came over as a driver.
regards Johnnie
Johnnie, you are absolutely right having a young family to keep them in their own region of life!
Perhaps I now fresh up your mind on the heavy hauliers:
Mammoet, Stoof, Winder, Van Seumeren, Holleman, Dabekausen, Van Vlist, Priems, Van Wezel,
Lommerts, Geytenbeek, Baetsen, Sarens, Gruwez, Wagner, Jonet, Laroy, Van Weghe, and those
who I forget or don’t remember now…
Take care! Will search if I can find something on BIGLIFT from earlier days
A-J
By coincidence I found an A.S. of 1960 (after being in service for Disselkoen in De Lier, near Delft)
active as wrecker at Maters in Huissen. This was the heaviest A.S. (type NH14-38) with a 7-ton
front-axle and a 20-ton rear-tandem. The ■■■■■■■ NHB-600 provided 210hp via the Fuller 10-speed.
An Austin Western-crane/hoist was installed and for some reason the double-tyres from the second
axle were removed. On the hook was a 13-ton FWD.
A.S. also manufactured/assembled > 125 busses and (known) some 20 lorries, mostly the heavy ones.
A-J: good research on this so underestimated lorry and company!
I somewhere saw some info that the A.S. in front of the windmill (by the ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
was in fact a conversion of a Leyland-chassis, for what my info is worth…
Open up some removal-boxes for new stuff please! I do my best on my attic
Was in Maaseik today, exchange of documentation, but merely passenger-cars and few trucks.
Alex
I recently overheard that some people within CONAM are occupied/dedicated on A.S. and
writing a book (more likely some relevant pages) with pictures, history and production-files?
Alex…I overheard that rumour frequently (that within Conam the A.S.-history will be published)
but it lasts some years now. With help from Mr. Henk van Wezel I now input mainly pictures on the
Van Wezel 6x4 A.S. heavy lorry. After the good experiences of ■■■■■■■ in their International’s K11,
with ■■■■■■■ bought at Ets. Denonville in Brussels, Van Wezel ordered this heavy lorry. The chassis
was in fact an ex-Diamond T and now with Fuller 12 speed and ■■■■■■■ 200hp. I suppose the axles
were saved/gained from the Diamond T. This #14 was operational during 8 years and the strongest
they had in that era of 1960-1969.
Also attached the closed 6x4 for cheese-transport, as earlier inputted here, as well as an example of
an A.S.-autobus.
I herewith invite JWK (Conam-group) to join this thread with his knowledge so we all can benefit!
A.S. was one of the first companies understanding that assembling was prior to producing…
hence the experiences with Republic (as Denonville had with Federal and Indiana) they were
convinced that procurement of best possible components was the best. A lot of ex WW2 surplus
was used, as GINAF and many other companies did, and on that goal best practise!
USA was the first by having a good overview on what the automotive market offered, that being
said…ROSS, TIMKEN, HENDRICKSON, LIPE ROLLWAY, ■■■■■■■■ HERCULES, and many others!
Jan-Willem…show us what you’ve got!!!
Upon invitation of ERF-Continental, a short history of A.S.:
A.S. started around 1916 as a small garage north of Amsterdam. Besides trade, maintenance etc. car rental with driver was also offered. After WWI, Schmidt imported many ex-WD trucks from France, where there were many ex-US army trucks left behind.
Especially the lighter trucks, like GMC, were imported by Schmidt and sold to the public. Many of these chassis were to be used as bus. For some of these chassis Schmidt was also the coachbuilder building the body.
In 1927, Schmidt became the official importer/distributor of Republic (USA). Because of the merger between Republic and LaFrance, this ended after a few years. Next to this, Schmidt also held a dealership for o.a. Studebaker (passenger cars) and later Ford (passenger cars, but also agricultural tractors). The current Ford dealership in Alkmaar (north of Amsterdam) has it’s origins here.
At the RAI exhibition of 1930, Schmidt introduced their ‘own’ chassis: A.S… These chassis used components of US (as mentioned before: Timken, Brown-Lipe, Ross, etc.) and French origin (there was a business relation with the French A.S.!). Most of these early A.S. were to be used as buses also.
In the early 1930s, Kromhout of Amsterdam started production diesel engines under Gardner licence. A.S. offered these engines in their chassis as an option. Soon however, Schmidt imported it’s first ■■■■■■■ diesel engine (1934), which was built in the first ‘cheese truck’ (see advert of ERF-Continental, and picture 8/9 of ERF’s post of Oct 15, 12:21pm). In 1935 Schmidt became official ■■■■■■■ distributor. Later also Leyland and Hercules engines were to be used.
Around 1933, Schmidt got the distributorship of Leyland. Especially in the bus market, Leyland proved to be successful in the Netherlands.
Due to the successful Leyland business, the ‘production’ of A.S. chassis was decreased.
The start of WWII stopped practically all business. This stopped also the ■■■■■■■ distributorship for Schmidt. After the end of the war Schmidt restarted Leyland imports, and also ex-WD vehicles (again) were on offer. Only occasionally new A.S. chassis were assembled. In 1949 the Leyland import went from Schmidt to Leyland Holland. After this Schmidt made more (still very low volume) A.S. chassis. Main business was maintenance work.
In 1954 Schmidt regained the ■■■■■■■ distributorship. In order to sell more ■■■■■■■ engines, next to marine, industrial etc., all following A.S. chassis were equipped with ■■■■■■■ engines (first ‘modern’ A.S. with ■■■■■■■ was the v.d Kommer truck. The last A.S. was assembled in 1959 (see picture in post of ERF-Continental of Oct 12, 4:44pm).
Contrary to what has been written before, vehicle ‘production’ ceased 10 years before 1969. The company ended all business in 1963. The ■■■■■■■ distributorship was formed into a separate company earlier, and survived. It went to Dordrecht as became the current ■■■■■■■ Holland B.V. (now part of ■■■■■■■ Inc.).
Total production was very limited, and most of the customers were local to Schmidt.
Regards,
JWK
Welcome Jan-Willem…we Dutch have double names so our parents had two chances when they yell…
Nice outline on the history!
I forgot to mention Diamond T in the overview:
After the long-term importship of Diamond T by Beers (later know for Scania) ended in the mid-50s, Schmidt saw an opportunity and became the new importer. In 1957 they had a ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ 6x4 tractor on their stand which was sold to Lips of Drunen (marine propellers). It was only a short-lasting venture for Schmidt as the Dutch market for heavy US trucks was gone…
Welcome to the forum, JWK. It is great to have a Conam person on board- IMO, the Dutch motor industry, especially the coachbuilders, is fascinating.
The cheese van looks fabulous- is that a Kromhout front axle on it?
Who built the cab on the van Wezel ballasted tractor? I swear I have seen a similar one elsewhere. 
Good there is more activity on this thread!
I remember an article in “Transmobiel” (by Johan or Wim van Loon) on A.S. mainly on
their post-war activities. As with the most traders/manufacturers a lot of army-surplus
was available and needed updates, repairs or adjustments. A.S. was known for in fact
dismantling and overall assembly just like Ginaf and Terberg experienced so thoroughly.
I remember (said so some lines ago) that the v.d. Kommer (as JWK mentions) was an
ex-Leyland but after corrections/adjustments with the A.S.-emblem. I don’t recall the
exact data but here in Belgium we had the company of Magnus and you could obtain all
kind of components, Hendrickson tandem-axles, Hercules/Diamond T, Mack, White, and
all that was available out of army-surplus. In that way a lot of hauliers were operational
to build up the country in the first-coming ex-War-years. See the separate thread on
ex WW vehicles over here.
Alex