A n obsession with transport must begin somewhere. For William Drennan
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there was no particular reason to get into road haulage, except that he suffered from a craving for trucks and distance. The family, based in the village of Tobermore, ran a farmproduce business so there were a few vehicles taking potatoes to market but no family history of hire-or-reward haulage. There is now.
Drennan set up in 1970 with a single TK Bedford running dry freight and general haulage to Scotland and England. Today the business still works in this area, including groupage. It has also added a trunking service to Dublin and opened an 800m2 depot in the Republic's capital. At 18 vehicles the fleet is somewhat larger than 27 years ago but not as large as it has been.
Drennan explains: "At one time we had 27 trucks but now we subcontract a large proportion of our UK work." He says this gives the business more time to concentrate on its customers, once it had established a base of reliable sub-contractors. It added a flexible dimension to the operation with subcontractors able to cover a wider geographical area than had been managed previously: "Before we might have had to turn down a load if all our vehicles were in London. As a result of going out to subcontractors we have increased our business by about 50%."
He has a different slant on the BSE crisis from most hauliers as he also owns a 600-acre farm, with 600 beef cattle, and feels his interests have been well served by the farmers' union winning financial support for its members. But he has noticed that he is bringing less farm machinery into Ireland—a definite indication that some farmers are tightening their belts.
Apart from a trunking service, Drennan serves its operation in Southern Ireland by bringing full loads into Dublin by ferry which are broken down into groupage at its depot for distribution through Southern and Northern Ireland.
In England it has developed partnerships with Operators in London, Manchester and Leicester who put their Irish groupage into the system on a daily basis. The company has diversified by purchasing commercial property in both Ireland and England.
At this point CM is joined by Stanley Thompson, the company's financial director, and David Drennan, William Drennan's son who works in traffic management. Thompson talks about the value of extending the operation to Southern Ireland: "Its economy is booming and growing at 7% a year."
The Dublin depot, which includes a mobile home, provides a useful stopover for drivers who need to keep within their hours. And there's another good reason for sending trucks south of the border: "I'd prefer to buy all our fuel down there if I could—here it's 49p a litre; there it's no more than 43p," says Thompson. So the company's vehicles are filled up in Dublin before returning home.
Thompson knows of many hauliers on the border who pop over to the Republic to fill up before catching a ferry out from Belfast or Larne.
Young David Drennan has been in the business three years and completed a BTech business course day-release while learning the ropes. So what does he get out of it? "Each day is different," he says. "That's why I enjoy it."