FACTFILE: IGGY MADDEN TRANSPORT BASED: Galway, Co Galway. FOUNDED: 1977.
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CONTACT: Iggy Madden, managing director; David Madden, transport manager. FLEET: 21, including curtainsiders, tankers and reefers. Most are Volvo FH12s or F1Os with three MANs and three Scanias. Usually buys new. Three FH12s added this year. SPECIALITY CONTRACT: chemical distribution, fresh meat to the Continent. TURNOVER: £2m. Looking out from his spacious new depot on the edge of Galway Bay, Iggy Madden seems entitled to his belief that "there is a great buzz in the country".
He is talking about the Irish economy, of course, but his own outlook has benefited in the past year from moving from a cramped, half-acre dock site to one six times its size less than a mile away. It is built on land whose reclamation was partly funded by the EU, although Madden received no help toward the purchase of his share. From being able to squeeze only one truck and trailer into his garage, he now has room for three and can park 60 in the yard.
The site is five minutes from the N59, linking with Ireland's major road networks. He is reluctant to say how much the development cost but admits: "I will be old before it's paid for." But why the move?
"You can't sit at the same level in this business you have to move forward or get out."
The larger site increases the options — more trucks perhaps, certainly warehousing. A drag on the economy has come from the BSE crisis. "If you could get the beef back on track, the country would be fine," says Madden.
He used to run up to 12 loads of fresh meat to France and Italy each week; that has dwindled to three or four. Keen to maintain continental backloads of fruit and vegetables, he has managed to find dry freight for the outward journeys. Fortunately, three-quarters of the company's business comes from within Ireland and around half its total volume from chemicals. Hazchem loads to the UK are very tightly controlled.
"You are restricted to freight boats and the ferries have to be notified in advance exactly what is going to be carried and over what period," says Madden, who is annoyed by the attitude of some insurance companies who refuse to cover hazchem loads. He is insured but his choice is limited.
"People are ignorant of the fact that you don't approach this work half-heartedly. You have to have proper equipment and drivers trained to do a first-class job," he adds.
Easier on the nerves is a contract to supply water treatment chemicals from a plant in Spiddal, Galway, to water authorities all over Ireland.
Madden began in business 19 years ago, running a fleet of forklifts in the docks. Formerly employed as a crane driver for larnrod Eireann (Irish Railways) he was in a good position to assess the need for handling equipment, When the number of forklifts on the docks began to outstrip demand, Madden added some trucks. "From there it mushroomed," he says.
Early contracts included hauling chemicals for coastal oil txploration within Ireland and taking chemicals and groupage to the Continent He has moved on since then but the headaches never go away: "This is a blood, sweat and tears job."
The driver had a fine for a previous tacho offence, which had been dealt with, but he continued to be stopped on every trip. Madden is upset by the implication: "We don't run on the wire—if we can't run legal we won't do it."