Passion and professionalism to the fore at Danny Egan Transport Ltd.
10/04/2024
Providing unbeatable service levels for coming up on four decades, Danny Egan Transport Ltd. is Kilkenny’s longest established and most trusted courier company. We travelled to the Marble City and touched base with the eponymous proprietor to discuss his fresh, pristine fleet and the unbeatable same-day delivery service provided between Kilkenny and Dublin and much further afield.
Firmly established as a national and international licensed carrier of choice, Kilkenny-headquartered Danny Egan Transport Ltd. is an industry-leading, family-run courier company providing a prompt, professional and personal service covering a comprehensive range of cargo from parcels to pallets, furniture removals, builders providers materials and full house moves to antiques, fine art, machinery, motor parts and everything and anything in between.
At the heart of the business is the energy, enthusiasm and passion of hands-on owner Danny Egan, who is possessed with an innate love of his work and prides himself on operating a pristine award-winning fleet of vehicles, providing value-added, dependable collection and deliver services nationwide.
“I believe in keeping things right. We go to a lot of truck runs and truck shows and have been fortunate enough to pick up a few trophies,” the Kilkenny courier confirms. “I like to keep everything clean and spotless because image is everything in this line of work and it’s important to create the best-possible impression. I’d usually spend my Saturdays cleaning, washing and polishing the lorries and vans. It’s time well spent – I’m only happy when they look the part.”
This meticulous approach to fleet presentation and upkeep epitomises a long-established, trailblazing family business that has been setting standards for 38 years now: “My father, Danny Snr, set the business up in 1986,” says Danny. “We became a limited company in 1993 and Dad retired in 2016.
“He started off working for a furniture company in the early 1980s. His first vehicle was a Mitsubishi Canter and he built the business up slowly from there. By the late 1990s / early 2000s, he had nine vehicles on the road – five rigids and four vans – but we have scaled back a good bit since those boom times.
“We were one of the first companies to provide a Kilkenny – Dublin daily service in the mid-80s and there was big demand, which led to the company growing. Initially, we worked for a lot of manufacturers, then during the Celtic Tiger years we were flat-out like everybody else.”
Today, the Danny Egan Transport fleet comprises one rigid and three vans. “Around 2007, my father scaled back to one rigid and two vans, but he got rid of the rigid in 2012. We had a contract with a newspaper company and we kept on the two vans to deliver the newspapers up until he retired and I took over.”
The changeover was seamless as Danny had always aspired to take the reins of the family business: “All I wanted to do since I could walk was to take over my father’s company one day,” the present-day proprietor notes. “I had been involved in the business since I was a child, loading and washing lorries and driving forklifts. I worked for my father after leaving school at the age of 14, then did my own thing for a few years, before coming back to Danny Egan Transport, which is where I always wanted to be.
“We are currently a second generation business but I am hopeful it will be a third generation on ein time with my own son Danny, who is aged 4, in line to get involved in the future.”
A nationwide delivery service covers 70 per cent of the country on a regular basis, with two vans on the original Dublin - Kilkenny / Carlow (and back) route daily offering same-day deliveries – the core of the business. Other services include Cork, Limerick and Waterford on Tuesdays, and the midlands (Athlone, Mullingar, Galway, Roscommon, etc.) on Thursdays.
As for the items transported, it could be literally everything and anything, from a small package to precious antiques to a large consignment of building materials, vehicle parts or furniture. “We do a lot of work for builders providers and manufacturing companies,” says Danny. “We deliver school furniture nationwide for one of Ireland’s largest school furniture manufacturers, who are based in Kilkenny, and also carry a lot of antiques and fine arts for leading auction houses, including Sheppard’s. Any time they hold an auction, they give our name and that’s really nice work to get.
“We’re flat out at the minute, thankfully, and we get a large volume of repeat work from regular customers, which is a good sign and much appreciated. We do a good bit for Sullivan’s Brewery and Duggan Steel and many others. We have built up lasting relationships with customers and we make sure to look after them all. We have just shy of 120 customers on our books at present, and that number is always growing. Obviously, you wouldn’t get work off them all every day but we’d be dealing with between 60 and 80 customers a month on average and that’s keeping us ticking over nicely.”
A finalist in the Family Business of the Year category at the 2023 Transport & Logistics Awards, Danny Egan Transport Ltd. currently runs a MAN rigid alongside three beautiful Nissan NV400 vans, which Danny swears by: “You really can’t go wrong with the NV400 van,” he comments. “They are incredible vans and that’s why I’ve stuck with them.
“I’m currently driving a 19-reg with 300,000km on it and it never gives me any bother; I haven’t even had to replace the clutch yet. I also have a 211-reg and an 18-reg and have just traded in an 18-reg with 380,000km and I had no trouble with it, either. I service them every 15,000km on the button and they are fantastic – reliable, very economical on diesel and with a brilliant load capacity.
“We actually deliver parts to garages around the country for Nissan and also delivers parts for Harris Group in Dublin, Freshford Garages and TRP in Kilkenny amongst others. We get to do a lot of that work due to our same-day delivery service.”
Indeed, the same-day delivery service between Kilkenny / Carlow and the capital is one of the many things that gives Danny Egan Transport Ltd. the edge. “I pull everything out of Dublin every afternoon at 12:30,” Danny reveals. “To achieve that, you leave Kilkenny early. One lad is on the road at 5:30, another at 7am and I’d set off between 4:30 and 5 in the morning. You have to put the hours in.”
Customers of Danny Egan Transport will be relieved to hear that he is only too glad to do so as the Kilkenny man loves the job and being at the coalface of such a busy and successful company: “I do love it,” he concludes. “I’d do the invoicing, the office work, driving, organising routes, and I could take up to 70 phone calls a day. There are trackers on all the vehicles so I can see in real time what is going on and keep customers in the loop if they have a query.
“It’s nonstop but there is absolutely nothing I’d rather do. We close for ten-twelve days around Christmas every year and that’s the only holiday I’d take. There will always be some days that are more difficult than others but when you are happy in your work, it doesn’t feel like a job at all, and I’m very lucky in that respect as this is really all I ever wanted to do.”
And it shows. It’s reflected in the immaculate appearance of the vehicles and the exemplary service levels invariably delivered by Danny Egan Transport Ltd.
Danny Egan Transport Ltd.,
306 Johnswell Road,
Kilkenny,
County Kilkenny.
Tel: 056 7761616
Mobile: 085 743 5108
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dannyegantransportltd
First published in Irish Trucker magazine March/April 2024, Vol 27-1
