Marc De Wilde

Marc De Wilde was born on April 6^th, 1959 in Wetteren, Belgium. His business was founded by his father, Jozef De Wilde. After graduating school in 1977, Marc went into the army, as was required by young Belgium men in those days. He served at Soest, where he worked in the garage, responsible for the maintenance and towing of army vehicles.

After leaving the army in ’78, he started working at his father’s company. Because of his father’s sudden death in 1989, his brother, Rudy De Wilde, and Marc took over the firm. He has always been fond of American builds and towing equipment and the brothers have worked with Holmes and Bro Wreckers, etc. since the very beginning of their careers. In those days, their work was more local and regional, for both the police and their own customers.

By the end of the 1980s, Marc and Rudy decided to scale down the garage work and focus on towing. They had to find more effective equipment, so they would be able to tow all kinds of vehicles and began creating relationships in the US and attending Trade Shows annually. Investing in state of the art American made equipment for towing and recovery became one of their trade marks. Their current showpiece is their Kenworth T800 with a Century 1075 rotator, equipped with 5 winches, one of the heaviest wreckers currently active in Europe.

In 1999, Marc and his brother founded Autotransport De Wilde Gebroeders, a car transport company, so as to offer their clients an even better service. Marc has worked hard at expanding their network of contacts so they can rely on fellow towers across Europe, from England to France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and Norway.

Since the middle of the ‘80s, Marc has been a director and committee member of both Federauto and Detabel which are associations that look after and promote the interests of towers across the nation. In 2006, he became president of Detabel and in this function; he came into contact with the Belgium ministries. He has thus been able to help steer the Belgium towing legislation to better their industry and standards. Detabel is currently working on new training especially designed for towing companies.

Furthermore, Marc laid the foundations for DetaXpo, a biennial tow show and convention, first held in 2010. In 2012, the second edition of this towing convention was held offering equipment demos, training information, and general networking to the industry members in Belgium and Europe. As president of DetaXpo, Marc has been able to rely on US manufacturers to send special instructors from the United States to Belgium to enhance training and education.

In 2010, Marc founded Trans Mobility Solutions (TMS) together with 4 partners, all from the towing industry. This company was founded by, with and for towers. They have thus created a network of towing and recovery all over Belgium. Secondly, TMS organized a network of replacement vehicles in a one way system. The company currently has over 200 units in its fleet.