Transport is in Sarah Lonergan’s blood
04/02/2026
Sarah Lonergan of Dungarvan Transport was both surprised and delighted to be shortlisted for the prestigious Women in Transport accolade at the 2026 Irish Haulier of the Year Awards.
The nomination recognises Sarah’s significant influence in a traditionally male-dominated industry, where she continues to drive Dungarvan Transport to new heights. She is proud to follow in the footsteps of her mother Lynda, who is a previous winner of the Women in Transport award, and to maintain her family’s reputation for excellence in the transport sector.
“It’s a family tradition,” the young trailblazer points out.
“When I was growing up, my parents Mark and Lynda ran a haulage company called Mark Lonergan Transport which had 25-30 trucks at its peak. But they scaled it back to just two after mam – who won the Women in Transport award in 2013 – got sick. We were living in Kildare and she wanted to come home to Waterford.
“I always had a passion for transport, having grown up travelling Ireland and the Continent with my dad and helping out in the office in later years, but wanted to try something different when I left school. I was working as a tutor for a training company, but then saw an ad in the paper for a job with Dungarvan Transport and that drew me back into transport. I started as a junior planner five years ago before working my way up to my current position as transport manager.”
She adds: “I’m honoured to be in the running for the Women in Transport award. It’s not the norm yet for women to be involved in transport, but it’s changing. I would encourage any woman to give it a try. I’ve found people to be so supportive and helpful in this industry. I'm especially thankful to my boss Tomás Horgan for all of his encouragement.
“I enjoy dealing with customers and drivers on a daily basis. Every day is different and there is never a dull moment. I drive in the evenings and on the weekends as required.
“It’s really a 24/7 role in that you always have to be accessible to drivers and customers. We have a lot of blue chip customers with different needs, We deal mostly with containers, tankers and blowers.”
These are exciting times for the 27-year-old who also recently collected the keys to her new home in Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford. To help fund it, Sarah sold her beloved 2004-registered Scania 164 which she brought to the Retro Truck Show at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon last year. Rather fittingly, it had the slogan, ‘it’s in the blood’ emblazoned across the bottom of its windscreen.
She now brings her father’s trucks to the shows which she attends all over Ireland and the UK.
“I’m living just 10 minutes from my homeplace in Lemybrien and 25 minutes from the office in Colligan,” says Sarah, who is clearly an old head on young shoulders.
“It’s great to be so close to both. Myself and my younger sister Hannah hold rigid and artic licences and keep our hand in the family business driving for dad when we can. Hannah works in marketing with Musgraves.
"My younger sister Ellen is in fourth year of Veterinary in UCD and my 16-year-old brother Matthew is in fifth year in school and has his own agri contracting business when he's not in the classroom."
Established in 1979 by Diarmuid Horgan, Dungarvan Transport is now fronted by his aforementioned son Tomás who is joined by over 70 staff. Delivering quality services across Ireland, the family business runs a modern fleet of 65 trucks and 200 trailers. The trucks are mostly Mercedes with Scania and Renault making up the balance, while the trailers are a mix of Dennison, Schmitz and Kassboher fridges, skellys, tankers, tippers and boxes.
The trucks are decked out in blue, except for those which are dedicated to transporting animal feed stuff from the Tirlán-owned GAIN Feeds production facility in Clonroche, Co. Wexford. Their livery is white and red.
“We’re involved in four main sectors - container transport, bulk animal feeds, pharmaceutical goods and liquid food grade tanker transport,” Tomás Horgan explains.
“Pharmaceutical transport is a key part of what we do here and we also provide a lot of tanker transport with more than 30 food grade tankers, Container transport with a fleet of Gooseneck low height Dennison trailers and Bulk feed blower units of which we operate 10.
“We also have 30 tankers and we have many with pumps as well. Because we do so much work when it comes to pharmaceutical transport, all of our drivers are GDP qualified. We do a lot of container work too, delivering to all 32 counties.”
Dungarvan Transport is a company that is known for its customer care and state-of-the-art vehicles, which is crucial when it comes to customers’ peace of mind and trust.
“We’ve been working with some of the same customers for over 30 years,” Tomás continues.
“Customer service is huge for us. They choose us because we’re efficient and reliable. We also place a strong emphasis on Health & Safety and compliance, and have Truck Safe Green & Gold accreditation from the FTA. We are also TASSC accredited and ISO 9001:2015 certified.
“We have a top-class, professional team who always deliver the goods. Our drivers are GDP certified, ADR and Air Cargo Security trained.”
So, whether it’s bulk liquid, bulk feed, pharmaceutical, container or low loader transport that you require, look no further than Dungarvan Transport to service your needs.
Dungarvan Transport
Garryduff,
Colligan,
Dungarvan,
Co Waterford.
Telephone: 058 68 855
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.dungarvantransport.ie
First published in Irish Trucker magazine January/February 2026, Vol 29-1
