The car transporters

Prior to the establishment of Rice’s Car Transport in1968, new cars were driven from the port of entry to the dealership. The company founded by Dick Rice and his brother in law Jim Boland broke the mould. Current Transport Manager Richard Rice spoke to Irish Trucker.

Based at New Ross in Co. Wexford, Rice’s Car Transport’s fleet of 54 vehicles and transporters donned in its red and yellow livery are known throughout the 32 counties.

It is a far cry from the early days when the company ran two units in an infant and uncertain market.
Richard Rice has been with the company since 1987. In the intervening period he has seen the market grow and flourish. By 1987 the fleet had grown to 22 units, In January 2001 the company will add a further Mercedes units and transporters to the fleet.

To execute the movement of high value cargo such as cars, vans, light commercials and trucks the company runs a fleet of Mercedes, Scania, Renault, Daf and Man tractor units. A mixture Lohr and Kassbohrer transporters are sourced from the manufacturers in France and Austria respectively.

The company work with well known companies such as National Vehicle Deliveries, Motor Distributors, Nissan Ireland and various car rental companies. Richard enthused: “85% of our business comes from National Vehicle Deliveries. They have locations at Baldonnel, Dublin, in Cork at Ringaskiddy and Marina Commercial Park and Rosslare in Co. Wexford. The four locations fax us with their requirements on a daily basis. We put the cars into loads to make the deliveries as easy as possible. Most of the cars are shipped with 24 hours and the balance within 48 hours.”

A high level of customer service and an extensive and modern fleet of vehicles and transporters are the cornerstones of the company’s success story. This is particularly evident with the N.V.D. contract. “N.V.D. brings us to the level that they want to be at. We give them the level of service that they require. We can also offer them a large fleet of vehicles to draw on.”

Carrying a high value “product” Rice’s Car Transport’s drivers are out of the very top draw. They have to be. Richard elaborated: “there are times you could be drawing eight or nine “S” Class Mercedes. That is heading on for £1 million pounds worth of cars. We are constantly reminding them of the value of their load. Familiarity can lead to complacency.”

Working within a very specialised market Rice’s Car Transport place a huge emphasis on driver training. Richard revealed: “all our drivers have to be trained. A new driver starting here gets three days with us here and another three days on the road with an experienced driver.” After the training process a new driver is given support advice and back-up until he finds his feet. Richard explained: “there are certain routes we can’t travel with high loads because of low bridges and overhanging branches. Our experienced drivers know which routes to avoid and they’ll always give advice to new drivers.”

The core of the drivers have more than 10 years experience with the company although Richard revealed that driver recruitment and retention can be a problem. “It can be hard to get good drivers and to hold on to them. We are very happy with the drivers we have and we hope they will stay with us.”

In 1968 with an eye to the future, the company broke new ground when it introduced car transporters to Ireland. In 1997 the company were at it again when it introduced the first truck transporter in to the country. Using a Lohr TMV 4 tri-axle transporter and rigid truck combination the company can transport three tractor units at a time to their final destination.

Richard feels this niche is still in its infancy. “The market is a bit like the car market 25 years ago. We are hoping to build it over the next few years. It is still a relatively expensive way of moving tractor units because of the price of the equipment involved, but more and more people are seeing its value.” Richard added that the transporter can carry two tractor units with a third being carried on the rigid truck.

The company is continually updating its fleet and at the time of writing they had 12 tractor units and eight transporters on order for January 2001 delivery. With a lead in time from order to delivery of over a year the transporters were ordered in November 1999. Eight of the tractor units will represent an addition to the fleet while the other four vehicles will replace older vehicles.

It is company policy to upgrade vehicles every five years. “If a tractor is running particularly well, we might keep it an extra year or two, or if it was doing particularly badly we might let it go earlier, but on average with replace them every five years,” Richard added.

The company adopt an “in house” maintenance schedule for both the tractor units and the transporters. To that end they have a service manager, jimmy Kelly, three mechanics and a welder employed full time. “You could probably sub-contract out the maintenance of the tractors, but the maintenance of the transporters is very specialised. There is nobody in the country who could do it. We have the expertise here so we do the two together,” Richard explained.

In terms of car ownership Ireland is still well behind its European counterparts and playing catch up. Consequently the Irish motor industry is riding the crest of the wave and that is extremely good news for all at Rice’s Car Transport.