Music to the ears

In terms of providing a comprehensive, high-quality service at reasonable rates, multifaceted Derry-based company Roy Hamilton Commercials Northern Ireland hits the right note every time. Specialising in the three key areas of commercial vehicle sales, haulage and spare parts, Hamilton’s are rightly recognised as one of the North’s premier operators in the transport sector.

Roy Hamilton Commercials Northern Ireland Ltd. can be found at Killaloo, near Claudy, just outside Derry city. From humble beginnings, the company has developed into a leading force in a number of haulage-related areas. Having forged a stellar reputation as a top-class breakers, with a vast stock of spares on hand around the clock, the company does a booming trade all over Ireland, the UK and Europe.

The roots of this company go back to the mid-1960s, when the eponymous founding director started out as a young boy selling eggs, doing his rounds on a pushbike. From there, Roy began working with Bibby’s Mill in Lisburn and it was here that he began his lifelong association with Leyland.
Next, he worked for his uncle at Matthew Robinson Concrete Products – a busy sand, gravel and concrete plant in Derry which had 30 or 40 lorries at the time. Roy operated a digger for Matthew Robinson but – always deeply interested in mechanics and engineering – he also began to work on fixing cars and vans from his home. He’d got a big break in this line of work when he secured employment with Tullyalley Car Breakers. After effectively managing that operation for a while, he decided that it would be logical to go out on his own.

Roy started breaking cars and vans and the occasional truck and it was an area of work in which he was particularly adept. He had found his vocation. Roy Hamilton Commercials Northern Ireland was born.
Gradually, he worked more and more with trucks. For the past eighteen years, Roy has specialised exclusively in commercial vehicles, predominantly Leyland DAF. These days, his son Jason is very much involved in the family business.
“There are basically three parts to the business – truck sales, spares and haulage,” Jason explains. “In the sales end of it, we stack everything from 1980s models up to brand new. The spares is a massive part of the business now. We break the vehicles ourselves and have a huge selection of spares available at any given time. In haulage, we have tippers doing sand and gravel etc. as well as low-loaders. We cover Ireland and the UK and also go into Europe as well.”
In the breakers yard, Roy Hamilton specialises in reconditioning and rebuilding gearboxes for all makes of trucks as well as new differentials and rebuilt engines. With the credit crunch holding the entire sector in a merciless vice-like grip, these spares are now more popular than they have ever been. Operators are working off significantly smaller budgets than they were two or three years ago, thus an unprecedented demand for quality reconditioned parts, which can be acquired for a percentage of the price of a new part.
The service is nationwide and Roy Hamilton’s customer base extends from Cork to Antrim and everywhere in between as well as the mainland UK and even as far afield as Germany! Whether you’re seeking an air valve, a wiper motor, gearbox, cab, engine, body glass, headlamp, bumper or any other part one cares to mention, the Derry breakers will be able to supply it. “We pride ourselves on stocking everything,” Jason notes.
“We’re in the middle of a 120-acre farm, where we have a 30-acre yard, as well as a second yard on another farm and three more stores, so we’re not short of space to dismantle or store them. We’re opened for business all week long, from 9am on Monday morning right through until 1pm on Saturday. We also have guys on standby to do recoveries at night time and we can go out and recover crashed or broken down trucks anywhere in Northern Ireland at any time of the day or night.”
A personal touch is very important. Hamilton’s is a family business which strives to do all it can to please the customer. “If we don’t have a particular truck or part, we will get it in. We never let a customer down and this is reflected in the customer base we have in Ireland, England, Scotland and Europe.”
Employing a staff of ten, the company is part of a delivery network that can guarantee next-day delivery anywhere in Ireland or the UK. “We also have credit card facilities in the office now,” Jason continues. “This means that we can take card details from customers over the phone and ship the part out to them straight away, without them even having to come into the yard.”
All parts are fully guaranteed and Hamilton’s stand by everything they sell. “We wouldn’t send it out unless it was 100%. Everything is checked thoroughly and cleaned and the parts leave here in perfect working order. We’ve never had any complaints.
“Substantial savings can be made by using second-hand or reconditioned parts. More and more people are buying second-hand parts these days. They can make a 40-50% saving on the part – even more on a gearbox. All our gearboxes have a decent warranty and they are built with heavy duty, genuine parts. We’ve never encountered any problems with them.”
Roy Hamilton Commercials Northern Ireland is proof that a company can go a long, long way by sticking to doing what they know best. Their expertise and thorough knowledge of a specialist area has brought them a long way – and there’s much more to come from this Derry entity, which made its name providing customers with high-quality products and services with the emphasis on one word: value.