A genuine passion for trucks shines through at Redmond Transport
19/06/2024
The inherent, authentic passion and enthusiasm for trucks and trucking that permeates every facet of Rathnure, County Wexford headquartered Redmond Transport invariably results in unbeatable customer satisfaction. We headed to the sunny south east and interrupted Aidan Redmond’s busy schedule to find out more about this exceptional family-run national and international general haulage contractor.
At the heart of Redmond Transport is a dependable, eye-catching and immaculately-maintained fleet of trucks, trailers and vans, ensuring that deliveries are consistently completed on time, every time, with professionalism and communication to the fore.
Always prepared to go the extra mile to look after customers and their consignments, this second-generation family business has been quite literally delivering the goods for coming up on three decades. And, encouragingly, demand for their industry-leading services had never been stronger!
The genesis of Redmond Transport dates back to 1996, when Aidan’s father, also called Aidan, bought a Mercedes 1735 and started doing deliveries for local furniture manufacturer John Conran. Today, the haulage business is fronted by the founder’s sons, Aidan and Thomas, and tellingly their enduring relationship with Redmond Transport’s very first client, Conrad Interiors, remains very much intact, with both local businesses growing hand in hand over the years and decades.
Currently operating a fleet of five trucks and two vans – a Ford Transit box body with tail-lift and a small Renault Traffic - Redmond Transport possesses the experience, wherewithal and equipment to provide a comprehensive range of general haulage services, covering Ireland, the UK and sometimes mainland Europe.
“We do a bit of everything,” Aidan confirms. “We have box trailers, curtainsiders, skelly trailers and we also do low loader work, fridge work and rigid and tail-lift work as well as having the vans for deliveries to houses. We also run the Megalift trailer which can lift fully-loaded containers.
“We’re still doing a lot of furniture for Conran Interiors and deliver windows for Reynaers Aluminium in Enniscorthy as well as steel and metal materials nationally and internationally for Buffalo Steel Products in Wicklow. Hörmann Ireland in Wexford is another customer – we deliver roller shutters, shed doors, loading docks, etc, for them as well as solar panels nationwide for Pinergy Solar Electric.
“Another service we provide is on-site container storage, where we drop off containers on-site which can be used for a temporary storage solution.”
Very much a traditional, hands-on, sleeves-up trucker at heart, Aidan runs a trusty fleet of Scanias and doesn’t believe in upgrading to newer units just for the sake of it. To the contrary, the Wexford man prefers to focus on rigorous preventative maintenance of the existing fleet to ensure that issues never arrive and that all trucks are in tip-top condition at all times.
“I like the older trucks and I enjoy looking after them,” he confirms. “The oldest truck here is a 1997 and it has been in our fleet since 2002. It has 2.5 million kilometres on it and is still going strong because I maintain it to the highest spec. We can rebuild and maintain older trucks to the highest standard so that’s the approach we take. I find the older trucks easier to work with.”
Aidan spends his weekends working on maintenance and repairs. He has been around trucks since he was a child and mechanicking came naturally to him. “When you stick to the one make, there aren’t many complications,” he notes. “Scania hasn’t changed much in years. The parts for a 2011 Scania will be the same as the parts for a ’97 Scania, generally speaking. They are brilliant lorries if you look after them. I do be out in Portugal myself in a ’01-reg, driving up and down the Algarve, and there’s never any hassle with it.”
The fleet is always clean and immaculately-presented and, true to form, Aidan likes to take a truck or two to truck shows in Dualla or Waterford if and when the opportunity presents itself. “Last year wasn’t great for truck shows due to a combination of the weather plus the fact that we were very busy as we took on a few new contracts, but I’m definitely hoping to get to as many as I can this year,” he states.
A personal, prompt and value-added service is guaranteed, with the driving team headed up by brothers Aidan and Thomas, their dad Aidan Snr. and uncle Owen, making Redmond Transport very much a traditional family business, with the emphasis very much on consistently and promptly delivering outstanding levels of service.
“We always say that we like to be on time every time and the key to that is regular maintenance on the trucks,” notes Aidan with regard to the secret of the company’s ongoing success and popularity. “To make sure that every time you leave the yard you are going to make it from A to B, on time and without any problems, you have to keep the fleet in order. We are on time 99.99 per cent of the time and reliable maintenance is a big, big part of that.
“When it’s a family business, nothing goes amiss and we keep all the trucks and trailers neat and tidy.”
Aidan’s passion for trucks and haulage is truly infectious and there is no doubt he has ended up working in the industry that suits him best: “I can’t see myself doing anything else, to be honest. Of course, there is pressure in any job and there are challenges involved in keeping a family business on the road, but this is all we ever wanted to do, so we give it our undivided attention.”
Looking to the future of Redmond Transport, Aidan concludes: “We’ll keep on doing what we are doing and I’d also like to expand the business a little more, hopefully. We’d be hoping to take on a bit more continental work and perhaps expand the on-site container storage, while we’re also looking at palletised storage in the warehouse as another possible growth area. You have to keep moving forward.”
Redmond Transport has been literally doing this for 28 years and one gets the distinct impression that there’s lot more mileage to be clocked up before this particular journey is over!
Redmond Transport,
Rathnure,
Enniscorty,
County Wexford.
Tel: 087 4516611
First published in Irish Trucker magazine March/April 2024, Vol 27-1
