Two of a kind - McAuliffe Trucking Company and Kerry Truck Sales

Sister companies McAuliffe Trucking Company and Kerry Truck Sales complement each other perfectly. Irish Trucker travelled to the company HQ in Castleisland, County Kerry to take a closer look at their symbiotic relationship.

Working very much hand in hand, McAuliffe Trucking Company and Kerry Truck Sales provide an excellent all-round service to the people of Kerry and beyond. Both companies are owned by Mike McAuliffe, who has forged his reputation on cornerstones of efficiency, dependability, service and integrity.

January 2010 sees McAuliffe Trucking Company celebrate 40 years in business. Kerry Truck Sales was established in 2001 and complements the original business wonderfully. The original haulage company specialises in all kinds of haulage, providing nationally and internationally a general service that comprises everything from grain to fridges, tankers to curtainsiders, hanging meat etc. McAuliffe Trucking Company plays a vital role in local livelihoods; for example, contracted to County Councils, its tankers carry 24-hour emergency water, which ensures that clean drinking water can be made available anywhere in the country within a maximum of seven hours.

The company was originally founded by the present proprietor’s father and has gone from strength to strength over the intervening four decades. Boasting a great tradition and an illustrious history, McAuliffe Trucking Company stays true to its core founding values of quality service, punctuality and competitive rates, making it one of the most sought-after haulage companies in the south of Ireland.

Declan Mangan has been transport manager with McAuliffe since 1987 and has been integral in the growth of the company, including the genesis of Kerry Truck Sales some nine years ago. Mike and Declan established Kerry Truck Sales to represent DAF in the south west of Ireland. The fact that both men already had a wealth of experience in the haulage industry made them ideal candidates to form their own sales, service and repair centre. Their in-depth knowledge lent itself to establishing a main dealership.

As truckers, they were also able to put into practice, the type of operation they would be happy to deal with as hauliers. Based at Fahaduff, Castleisland, the garage is well placed - geographically and strategically - to take advantage of opportunities in the local market. The business operates out of modern premises, on the same site as McAuliffe Trucking. The workshop is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, and manned by an excellent team of mechanics.

So, how has business developed over the past five years? “We have streamlined the operation and have become more efficient. Efficiency is very much the key here, especially in the current economic climate. We feel that if we provide an efficient service that customers will continue to rely on us.

“We have a good team of workers spread throughout the operation, from the office to the drivers and into the maintenance department - Kerry Truck Sales. This is the second company and it feeds the main company with trucks and also looks after servicing, maintenance, repairs etc. Having the two companies gives us a big advantage over the competition. For example, we can source our parts at trade price. The two companies work hand in hand and they enable us to run the ship efficiently, with obvious financial benefits.”

Customer loyalty is a strong characteristic of McAuliffe Trucking Company and they still retain the vast majority of the core clients they’ve worked with down through the years. “We concentrate on the partners we have and we give them a top-class service,” Declan notes. “We find that this is a better policy than trying to put your arms around the world. We value the customers we have and most of them have been with us a long time.”

These include Newmarket Co-op, Kerry Co-op and the Kerry Group. One new company that has come on board recently is Truly Irish County Foods, which produces the very highest-quality Irish pig meat with full traceability. The shareholders in this company are a group of local pig farmers who came together to provide a premier quality food. Mike McAuliffe is one of the directors of Truly Irish Country Foods.

McAuliffe Trucking Company operates a fleet of 20 trucks and 60 trailers, comprising tankers, fridges, curtainsiders and livestock trailers. Understandably, the vast majority of the tractor units are DAF, as Declan explains: “Kerry Truck Sales is a DAF dealership, so we tend to use DAF. We do use other makes from time to time to run them against the DAF, just to prove to ourselves that the DAF is best. But we always find that the DAF has best performance, fuel economy and driver comfort. The DAF is extremely comfortable to drive and our drivers really appreciate that.”

Between the two companies, which operate out of one yard in Castleisland, 32 people are employed. Key personnel include foreman Davy Corkery, who has been with the company for over 16 years and looks after Kerry Truck Sales; Esther Galvin and Kay O’Connell in the office; drivers Nicky Greaney, Dan Fehan, Dan Murphy, Johnny Flynn and John Aherne, all of whom have given great service and are now very much part of the furniture; and head mechanic James Moloney.

As for the future of McAuliffe Truck Company and Kerry Truck Sales, Declan reveals: “Our main goal recently was to become as efficient as we possibly could because we could see that the bubble was going to burst and we wanted to be in the strongest possible position when that happened. We were ready for the downturn and thankfully we are holding our own now.

“Regarding the future, we will continue to do what we are doing and to provide the best service possible. We are always open to any kind of work, if anybody wants to call us with a request. We like challenges and we wouldn’t be afraid to invest money if the right opportunity presented itself. Myself and Mike designed our own livestock trailer in the past and that worked out very well. If a new company sets up, we are available to work alongside them in any line of business.

“We still do a lot of maintenance and repairs for customers and Kerry Truck Sales has a 24-hour breakdown service as well, which is very popular. Kerry Truck Sales have a number of blue-chip customers under their belt, including O’Shea’s of Kerry and Kingdom Coaches, two of the most reputable coach operators in Ireland today. We know ourselves from running a transport company what the requirements are. We understand the needs of the haulage sector and that’s why we can service it. We also carry a big stock of parts at all times.”

And finally, what’s with the spectacular livery adorning the company fleet? “This is very important to us, as it projects a good image of the company. We have a different theme on each truck and we usually get some input from the driver to see what he is interested in and what he’d like on the truck. We do spend a lot of money on this but we find that over the life of the truck it turns people’s heads and we get positive feedback from it and we get a lot of queries and attention as a result. This can result in new contracts from time to time, so we’ll continue to project a positive image on the road.”

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