Operating out of Athy, County Kildare, Harris Transport Ltd. are renowned throughout Ireland and the UK as agricultural transportation specialists who place an uncompromising emphasis on hygiene.
Marrying an exceptional fleet of Scania trucks, superb facilities and decades of expertise, this long-established and thoroughly professional family-run operation provides a stellar service that is simply second to none. We popped into their depot and interrupted managing director Seamus Harris’s busy schedule to find out more…
Harris Transport Ltd. is a family-operated transport company located centrally in Athy, County Kildare, just 20 minutes from the M9 motorway. They carry out a wide range of general haulage and agricultural-related transport within Ireland and the UK, specialising in bulk transport of food quality grain such as barley, malt and oats.
As TASCC (Trade Assurance Scheme for Combinable Crops) approved hauliers, the team at Harris Transport understands the importance of hygiene. This is why all drivers are extensively trained in all aspects of trailer hygiene and the prevention of cross contamination.
The modern fleet of well-presented and immaculately-maintained Scania artic trucks is paired with white, smooth-sided bulk tipping trailers, which have their interiors washed daily and fully sanitised every four weeks. All bulk tipping trailers have a unique I.D. number for traceability purposes, each is accompanied with a log of previous loads carried.
Trailers can be designated in accordance to customer requests and grain trailers include on-board trailer weight cells, while curtainsided trailers come with Moffett Mounty truck-mounted forklifts for ease of loading and unloading.
Since the genesis of the business – which goes back over half a century – the Harris family have always guarded against complacency and strive at every available opportunity to improve their excellent levels of customer service. This has resulted in a strong, well-managed operation with exceptional equipment, facilities and personnel.
For example, the well-appointed, extensive facilities at their Athy base – secured by security fencing and electric gates as well as CCTV, while connected to the internet via a high-speed broadband connection – comprise a large concrete depot, weighbridge and generous storage capacity.
Reflecting on how the earliest seeds were sown for Harris Transport Ltd., Seamus Harris – who oversees the business alongside brothers Joe and Raymond as well as their father and original company founder Jim Harris – notes:
“My father would have started with the lorries way back in the 1960s, drawing sugar beet to Carlow Sugar Factory as well as hay and straw and work for CIE transporting lime. We were all brought up in the business. There was always a lorry coming and going in the yard and that is where our interest developed, I suppose. My mother Breda is also a big part of the business – she’s here all the time preparing meals, making sure we eat properly and also saying the prayers to keep us safe. – and a fourth brother, Declan, runs another company concurrently to ours: Declan Harris Transport.”
Harris Transport Ltd. itself was officially established in 2007 by Jim, Seamus, Joe and Raymond, who are all equal partners in the family business. They started off drawing barley, wheat and bagged fertiliser for Glanbia and also Barley for Minch Malt in Athy. The business has grown steadily over the years.
Glancing out at the truck yard, which was virtually empty when we dropped in – always a good sign! – Seamus continues: “We have seven lorries in total now, all Scania, ranging from 2004 to 2014.” Last year, they bought a brand new Scania R560 6×2 and they also have a new Scania R500 due to arrive at the time of writing, also from Delaney Commercials in Naas.
To complement the trucks, there are twelve tipping trailers and two curtainsiders with Moffett Mounties for farm deliveries.
Harris Transport Ltd. specialises in the transportation of food quality grain such as barley, malt and oats. The malt from Boortmalt is delivered to Diageo. The barley from Glanbia is also delivered to Diageo; the oats are delivered to Glanbia’s new state-of-the-art oats processing facility in Portlaoise – the most modern and efficient plant of its kind anywhere in Europe.
Seamus is glad to report that business is brisk. “We are running at 85-90% of capacity,” he confirms, before switching quickly to something that’s always on his mind – hygiene: “Hygiene and safety come first, they are of utmost importance. All of our drivers are trained to the highest standards in the industry and everything is checked and double-checked. When you are handling food quality grain, nothing can be left to chance.
“The trailers are washed daily, inside and out, and when you are drawing gluten-free oats for example – in a special trailer which is exclusively designated for transporting oats – then that trailer has to be washed and washed again and checked by an independent party beforehand. We insist on these standards.”
Everybody assumes responsibility and makes sure that the wheels move smoothly and efficiently. “We have our own workshop on site, where two part-time mechanics come in at nights and weekends to make sure the fleet is up to date and maintained. The drivers do the washing themselves and are very aware of how a trailer interior must be spotless clean before loading any food quality grain.
Seamus and Joe are very much the archetypal hands-on directors. Not for these boys to have the feet up on a desk with a mug of coffee in their hands… “Myself and Joe drive and we also have four other full-time drivers plus three part-time. Our Drivers certainly play a huge role in our company and they are great team players. “Raymond is in the yard constantly, making sure all the equipment is clean and in top condition.”
Last June, Harris Transport invested in three Stas smooth-sided tipper trailers, painted white to increase the hygiene aspect and with green rollover covers.
The insistence on absolute hygiene sounds like no easy feat but Seamus and his team take in in their stride. “It’s second nature to us at this stage,” he comments. “It’s a routine now. All the drivers are trained, monitored and kept up to speed with what’s expected. In this line of work, it all boils down to hygiene and quality, so that’s what we focus on first and foremost. There’s a lot more to working here than driving a truck; there are lots of other tasks to be performed and washing and cleaning would be top of that list.”
Two-thousand-and-seven was hardly the ideal time to start up a bulk haulage business, considering that the recession was just about to strike. To what extend did the downturn hamstring Harris Transport during those crucial formative years? “None, really,” Seamus reveals. “We were already well established and the family name was known – we were really just evolving from a sole trader into a limited company with four shareholders.”
Why operate an all-Scania fleet? “Because we believe they are the best. We moved to DAF around ‘04/’05 for a change and they weren’t a success with us at all, so we went back to Scania. It’s a great product and we get great support from Delaney Commercials. They are only a phone call away and their service is second to none. We have a great working relationship with them and couldn’t be happier with the trucks or the back-up service.” With that said we are very fortunate that all our suppliers give us a great service, such as Guing Construction, Abbey Helmar Washing Chemicals, Ballyroe Engineering, Multiwash Powerwash Systems, Wrights Insurance, Carbery & Fingleton Accountants, Athy Trailer & Engineering, O’Shea Shot Blasting, Quigley Agri, and Grassland Fertilisers.
The Harris family also oversee their own tillage farm, growing barley, wheat, oil seed rape and gluten-free oats, so there are little or no idle hours in the day. With that thought in mind, I decided it was time to depart Athy and let Seamus and Joe get back to work. Before leaving, I asked them how they envisaged the business going forward?
“The plan would be to continue what we are doing and try to continue improving our service, as there is always room for improvement in some shape or form. At the moment, we are trialling a dual fuel tank, which runs on half diesel and half CNG (compressed natural gas). At this moment we don’t have enough data in to make a call on how its fairing out, but it certainly is promising. We also have tracking devices in all the trucks so that we can monitor all the loads and we will continue to seek out any new technology that can keep us on top of our game.”
Harris Transport Ltd.
Churchtown, Athy,
County Kildare.
Tel: 086 8192434, 086 2545080
www.harristransport.ie
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 3, April 2015
