Meet DOK

DOK is a Rotterdam-based startup founded by Martijn van der Boor, Arjan Knol en Martijn Koole. All three co-founders are result-oriented and pragmatic with a primarily technical background (Delft University of Technology, University of Groningen). They enjoy building technical solutions to achieve impact in the public sector. After working together for several years at the DataLab of an executive agency of the Dutch government called Rijkswaterstaat the 'Martijnen' and Arjan started freelancing independently in 2019 building road safety models for road maintainers. In 2020 they joined forces by founding DOK, steadily growing and building actionable data-driven solutions that matter.

DOK offers full stack technical expertise (data engineering, data science, front end development, agile projectmanagement) in the road safety and mobility domain. Often used software/programming languages/frameworks/techniques are among others Python, PostgreSQL/PostGIS/BigQuery, ReactJS, AI/Machine Learning with e.g. Tensorflow/Keras/Scikit-learn and Docker for deployment on the Google Cloud. Clients have dubbed us as 'social nerds'; besides coding user sessions are often facilitated and work is often presented at conferences as well.

Arjan and the 'Martijnen' have been working together for years with a fairly loose division of tasks. From a technical perspective it is Arjan who usually builds the front ends (websites, apps) and deploys apps on the cloud. He also likes to build new 'proof of concept' (machine learning) models in Python which are further developed if successful. Martijn Koole and Martijn van der Boor both primarily work on the back end (data engineering, spatial data science). They are very good in the building of solid models and the prepping and coupling of (geographic) data. They also guide staff and hiring usually. In short, there is a fairly flexible division of tasks; assisting others is done when possible and necessary.

DOK's technical expertise enables the coupling of usually open data and the building of road safety models such as roadsafetymodel.com that show their worth in practice.

Remco Smit started as a partner at DOK in 2024. Remco came over from the municipality of Rotterdam. He worked there for 6 years as a senior Mobility advisor and was responsible for, among other things, the policy field of road safety. Before his time at the municipality of Rotterdam, he worked as a consultant at Rho advisors. Remco brings an enormous amount of knowledge in the field of road safety. In Rotterdam he developed a new risk-based road safety policy. In other positions, he worked, for example, as chairman of the 'risk indicators' working group within the national Road Safety Data Taskforce of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment.

In addition to substantive mobility expertise, Remco has a good sense of process and administrative sensitivity. He was the right-hand in the field of mobility for experienced councilors in Rotterdam. And he has achieved a lot internally in the organization by positively connecting management, directors and colleagues to the task at hand.

Remco is happy to work with other municipalities and provinces to develop policy and measures for road safety and mobility. In addition to substantive advice, he can play a role in getting policies higher on the (political) agenda or in organizing the right resources in the organization.

In summary, the combination of full stack technical expertise and road safety expertise that DOK offers is unique. With Remco on board, DOK applies its specific technical products in practice for substantiated road safety advice and policies. Our mission to create mobility solutions that matter is rock solid, we aim for results!