ANWB & Localyse – 10 years of innovation in the ‘Seamless Journey’: From ‘Metal and Medical’ to flawless location intelligence
What began as a partnership at the dawn of the digital age has grown into a strategic alliance that makes Dutch roads safer. For more than 10 years, Hans Kemper (ANWB) and Jeffrey Benning (Localyse) have worked together to push the boundaries of location intelligence. Our most recent meeting on 6 May 2026 confirmed it once again: at ANWB, everything revolves around precision, safety and the person behind the breakdown report.
The expert at the helm: 24 years of ANWB experience
Successful innovation stands or falls with domain knowledge. Hans Kemper has worked at ANWB Assistance (the Emergency Centre) for 24 years and knows the organisation and its applications inside out. With a broad Area role and a focus on the wide field of compliance (the rules are extensive and the organisation is under strict supervision, partly because ANWB also acts as an insurer; think DORA and ISO), Hans is the driving force behind ANWB’s digital reliability. He is also keen to develop further as a Business Analyst. Soon, from the new head office in the centre of The Hague (the former conservatory), he will be working on the future of assistance services.
The core of assistance: ‘Blik en Bloed’ (Metal and Medical)
ANWB’s operation is impressive in both scale and complexity. Internally, they make a crucial distinction between “Blik en Bloed”, literally “tin and blood”:
- Road Patrol (Metal): Roadside assistance on the European market, both for ANWB’s own members and on behalf of leasing companies and premium car brands such as BMW. When a call comes in, ANWB even answers the phone in the name of the brand concerned.
- Care & Persons (Medical): A global market in which ANWB covers medical costs under a health or travel insurance policy. Here they see, for example, many holiday complaints that can ultimately be traced back to food that didn’t agree with someone.
The process is a well-oiled machine: the Emergency Centre registers the report (Hans’s domain), after which the Dispatch department in Arnhem sets the response in motion. During the operation, they continuously optimise to keep waiting times as short as possible. Systems such as Sparx and cooperation within the international ARC network (Brussels office) also ensure that requests are passed on seamlessly to roadside assistance services in the country concerned. In the Netherlands, an immediate repair attempt is made, while abroad the standard arrangement is that the vehicle is taken to the nearest garage.
The evolution of location detection: exploring the Navigation SDK
An important part of customer interaction runs through the ANWB Onderweg app. Navigation in the app currently runs on Mapbox; an understandable choice at the time, because during that renewal process Google did not yet allow navigation to be integrated directly into customer apps. Now that the Google Maps Navigation SDK is available through Maps Platform, we want to explore the possibilities together with ANWB. There is a commercial wish to investigate whether trusted Google navigation can be offered seamlessly within ANWB’s own environment in the future.
Technical deep dive: precision down to the square metre
During our recent visit, we also discussed the impact of the New Legacy Places API. Google recently capped its tier pricing, which means ANWB may miss out on discounts. However, this immediately creates an opportunity to switch to new, improved pricing models. By combining Autocomplete sessions with the Address Validation API, pricing not only becomes simpler (you only pay for the validation), but ANWB also benefits from significantly better performance and stronger OAuth and API key security.
The LBI question: safety first
One specific challenge we are looking at together is the LBI (Locatie Bijzondere Inzet, or Special Deployment Location). ANWB has its own highly effective index that shows immediately whether a mechanic can safely work at the reported location, or whether it is a danger zone. The direction of travel matters less; what counts is whether someone is, for example, exactly on the motorway or not. Perfecting this location detection remains a top priority.
Pro tips for accurate geodata
Location is initially retrieved from the smartphone’s operating system or the browser’s IP address (often via the Geolocation API, accurate to 5–10 metres). To make it even sharper, Localyse is happy to share some best practices:
- The ‘figure-eight’ movement: When GPS or addresses falter, moving the smartphone in a smooth figure-eight helps calibrate the magnetometer (the compass).
- Snap to Road: Once the best coordinate has been determined, the Google Maps Roads API can ‘snap’ it to the nearest road. This prevents a Road Patrol mechanic from being sent to an incorrect POI coordinate just off the road.
- Live View: Using Live View and pointing the camera at buildings across the street can significantly increase accuracy in complex environments.
Towards the horizon together
The partnership between ANWB and Localyse shows how technology and domain expertise reinforce each other. Whether it is the strict compliance requirements Hans oversees, the exploration of new SDKs or fine-tuning coordinates for the safety of stranded travellers: together, we help ANWB keep the Netherlands moving.
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Localyse is part of GeoSquare.
