More industry recognition for Cooper Executive Travel
28/04/2025
Dovetailing perfectly with the industry-leading family-run business’s 40th-anniversary celebrations, Cooper Executive Travel were shortlisted for a prestigious 2025 Irish Transport & logistics Awards. We headed to Castlerea in County Roscommon and touched base with managing director Bobby Cooper to find out more.
No stranger to winning major industry awards, Cooper Executive Travel was shortlisted in the ‘Passenger Company of the Year – SME’ category for the 2025 Irish Transport & Logistics Awards. A second-generation family business fronted by Bobby Cooper since 2020, Cooper Executive Travel has embraced an ambitious programme of growth over the past five years to emerge as County Roscommon’s premier private passenger transport operator.
The cream of Ireland’s logistics and transport community came together at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry on Thursday, February, 27th, 2025 as the annual Irish Logistics & Transport Awards deliver one of the yearly highlights of the industry’s social calendar.
Having in 2024 achieved Business All-Star accreditation with the All-Ireland Business Foundation (recognising outstanding performance, dedication to quality and adherence to best practices), Castlerea headquartered company Cooper Executive Travel was on a shortlist of five for the coveted ‘Passenger Company of the Year – SME’ award, much to the obvious delight of proprietor Bobby Cooper, whose father Denis established the company in 1985:
“It’s our second year to be shortlisted for this award and being nominated for these awards is a real honour and it’s a testament to the services we’re offering and the great work being carried out on a daily basis by our exceptional team.”
While the chauffeuring side of the business has attained Business All-Star accreditation for the past two years, Cooper Executive Travel also collected Irish Prestige Awards in both 2023 and ’24.
Serving all types of occasions, Cooper Executive Travel provide a comprehensive range of executive passenger transport solutions throughout Ireland. Synonymous with having a sterling reputation for delivering premium transportation solutions tailored to the unique needs of its clients, Cooper Executive Travel is renowned for prompt, professional, safe and value-added corporate travel, airport transfers, special events, tours or leisure excursions, school transport, HSE and Local Link work, etc.
The company's vehicles and experienced drivers consistently ensure a seamless and comfortable journey for passengers.
Totally committed to excellence and the provision of a high-quality service using a versatile fleet of modern vehicles, Cooper Executive Travel is an ambitious, innovative and passenger-focused operator that is setting the standards for others to follow.
“My father started out in 1986 with one taxi and one bus and he didn’t really want the headache of having employees, so he kept it small. After running the business alongside my parents for a while, I took over in 2020 with the intention of driving it on. I started off with five buses and a taxi and we now have an expanding fleet of 22 vehicles.”
Starting off with contract work, Bobby expanded into tours. The first few years were hard work but this aspect of the business is really starting to take off.
As the company name suggests, corporate travel is a big part of Cooper Executive Travel’s daily activities. For this, Bobby operates a high-spec fleet of Mercedes-Benz S-Classes, V-Classes, seven seaters and a Sprinter mini-coach as well as a stunning Audi A8 for airport transfers and chauffeuring (“colour and brand are very important in that line of work,” he notes).
Complementing the magnificent array of vehicles, a wonderful team of transportation specialists is at the heart of Cooper Executive Travel. “All our drivers are qualified and competent,” Bobby confirms. “The tour lads are all guides and they all have their national badges and know the country and all its attractions inside-out - north, south, east and west.
“Our client base for tours is 99 per cent Americans and many of them would never have been to Ireland before. This aspect of the work is interesting and you meet all walks of life. We met unreal people last year and I’ve had the pleasure of encountering people I never imagined I’d meet.
“For example, we have had A rated celebrity figures and high end business individuals with us and served all their transport needs. They were so impressed by the service that we will be doing exclusive transport for them any time they are back in Ireland.”
Cooper Executive Travel has come a long way in the five years since Bobby took the reins and the current proprietor is determined to keep pushing forward: “I’m going to keep growing,” he comments. “I haven’t put a limit on it, but there’s going to be more growth. The contracts I have currently are all good ones and I’m in the process of tendering for more, so I have no idea at this point when we’ll stop expanding.
“All our drivers are good loyal lads and they are sticking with me once they join the team. I’ve never struggled to get drivers or to keep them, and that’s very reassuring. I don’t breathe down their necks and I look after them and they repay me with loyalty and great work.
“We’ll keep investing in the fleet going forward, you have to. We have bodybuilders coming back with prices as we speak and we’ll make our decisions based on quality, service and availability more so than price. What exactly we order is going to depend on what new contracts come in.”
Considering that the county was always considered (somewhat ludicrously) to be off the beaten track, Bobby and Cooper Executive Travel are doing a great job of promoting Roscommon, flying a flag for their home place… “A lot of people thought I was taking a big risk, being from Roscommon, but if you don’t take a gamble in life then you will go nowhere. We have worked extremely hard, nonstop, seven days a week for four years. If you are prepared to do that, it’s going to work out in the end.”
At Cooper Executive Travel, the emphasis has always been on quality and that is not going to change, irrespective of how many industry awards are captured. “Absolutely. Just look at the standards on the roads at the minute. Look at the lorries, many of which are show lorries, and the buses are the same,” Bobby concludes.
“Local Link have set serious standards and the newer the bus the more points are awarded. Every bus built now is of an extremely high quality, even the factory-built ones which come with a serious spec, where a lot of things that used to be extras now come as standard. This is a high-quality industry and quality has to be a priority. Customers won’t settle for less and why should they?”
Cooper Executive Travel,
Castlerea,
County Roscommon.
Tel: 087 661 5201
Email: [email protected]
First published in Irish Trucker magazine March/April 2025, Vol 28-2
