FACTFILE: INTERPALACE FREIGHT (soon to become CARGO KING) BASED: Newmarket-on-Fergus,
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Co Clare. 1,525m2 warehousing. FOUNDED: 1984 by Aengus King. CONTACT: Aengus King, managing director; Tom Greaney, transport manager. FLEET: 22 artics, all Mercedes but for one MAN. Six rigids including three Mercedes, one Scania, one Hino. five vans. Buys new. Most recent purchase, Mercedes 1838 in 1994. Five new models ordered for January 1997. SPECIALITY CONTRACT: Hauling airfreight between airports in Ireland and the UK.
t seems strange to think that it is quicker to take freight off one aircraft and drive it by road to another airport for onward transshipment than to fly it there, but this is what happens in the mysterious world of air cargo. Interpalace Freight, a few miles down the road from the Shannon Airport, is well versed in these mysteries. It works for air-cargo shipping agents and airlines in Ireland and the UK. All its UK work is time-sensitive deliveries to airports: mostly to Heathrow but with some drops in the East Midlands and Stansted. For this work the company has several rollerised trailers to handle freight loaded on airline pallets.
Transport manager Tom Greaney says the company plans to start direct deliveries to UK customers before long, with one or two trucks leaving Ireland nightly: "We can't mix normal freight with airfreight, because those loads are often sealed by customs and come out of one bonded warehouse to go into another." The company runs a similar operation within Ireland, serving Dublin, Cork and Shannon, transferring freight from one airport to another airport or airline. "Aer Lingus offer a service to their customers out of Shannon and we supply the truck," says Greaney, putting it simply. He has a vehicle dedicated to Aer Lingus which works round the clock, doublemanned. A typical day will include a morning collection at Shannon, continue with an afternoon delivery at Cork, a return to Shannon for a change of driver. The fresh driver then strikes out overnight for Dublin, delivers, collects and returns to Shannon for the morning shift, handing back to the first driver.
Greaney accepts that double-manning is not popular among drivers who like to have their "own" truck. 'We try to keep it to the same Iwo drivers: some still don't like it but in this day and age you can't afford to keep the vehicles idle."
More conventional, perhaps, is a contract for UPS where Interpalace collects between five to 12 trailers a day from a factory in Limerick for sea shipment out of Dublin. Much of the company's work is spot hire: "People ring on a daily basis so there is little time to react," says Greaney, "We need to have men and vehicles on standby." This leads to the use of subcontractors in busy periods. The company now runs more than 30 vehicles of its own, from artics down to collection vans, evidence of strong growth since beginning with one rigid 12 years ago. From January, Interpalace in Clare will be renamed Cargo King because it has sold its UK-interest to the Rutges Group, a former partner which plans to retain the Interpalace name in Dublin, However, international support for Rutges will continue, with six trucks regularly serving the UK.