A senior executive with motoring organisation ANWB is joining the company’s main rival Route Mobiel. Monique van der Sanden has held various functions within the ANWB for the past 20 years and is currently head of mobility services. She is now to join Route Mobiel as general manager.

The two companies have been embroiled in cut-throat competition since Route Mobiel’s launch in 2004. The ANWB has 3.5 million members, Route Mobiel some 200,000. The ANWB is furious about Van der Sanden’s move. ‘There are not that many people in the Netherlands who could do this job,’ a Route Mobiel spokesman said.