Brexit warning: ‘If the processes are not working on January 1st, there will be hell’
All posts by TadhgC
Call for businesses to be given grace period to implement Brexit changes
Customs agents say small firms trading with UK not ready for ‘colossal’ volume of forms
Covid-19 Notice
Independent Express Cargo is currently open and intends to stay open in the current Covid-19 crisis despite the substantial drop in freight volumes. Transport companies are deemed frontline in the fight against Covid-19, and we are no exception. We have many staff who are operating from home and our phones and emails are being covered as normal.
Our 24-strong, pallet network, TPN is also operating in all locations.
We may experience a slower service to some parts of the country during this period, but the plan and intention is to continue to offer nationwide delivery and collection. Working with our sister network, TPN UK, we are also continuing to offer our standard UK import export service.
If you have any queries please contact any of the following:
- John Donnelly CS Manager 086 8032266
- Hugh Burns Sales manager 087 2314347
- Seamus Mc Gowan MD 087 6468506
- Customer services Landline 01 8219999
Thank you for your support and cooperation, and we hope that you will all stay safe and healthy in this very difficult and uncertain time.
Yours sincerely,
Seamus Mc Gowan
MD
Christmas / New Year’s Opening Hours
Independent Express Cargo will be closing at
14:00 Tuesday 24th December
and reopening at
06:00 Thursday 2nd January.
Independent Express wishes all of our customers a very happy Christmas.
Irish businesses on Brexit preparation in The Irish Times
TPN Chairman, Owen Cooke, was interviewed recently by Simon Carswell for The Irish Times about Brexit preparation. Those interviewed for the piece include the Irish Exporters Association, the Irish International Freight Association, and ISME (Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association). All have expressed alarm at the lack of appropriate warehousing capacity available with a no-deal Brexit seeming more and more likely by the day.
“There is a very, very little capacity anywhere in the supply chain and October is the peak in general terms in all sectors so if there was a crash-out then, all hell would break loose.”
New Tractor Unit For Independent Express
Renault Trucks Ireland delivered a new tractor unit to Independent Express last month as the first part of a fleet upgrade. Independent are investing €500k this year in new vehicles for the fleet.
The investment shows our commitment to growing and improving the business despite what could be a challenging year for Irish transport. Depending on how Brexit develops, there may be significant disruption for our customers’ regular routes and supply lines.
Former Independent Express driver earns commercial pilot’s licence
A former Independent Express driver has just earned his commercial pilot’s licence. Barry Mullen worked for Independent Express Cargo for 10 years as a driver in the Dublin area, and was one of the top drivers there. Customers loved him. We were well aware that he spent all his free cash on learning to fly.
When Barry sold his camper van to raise money for a commercial licence, we didn’t take much notice. We believed flying was a hobby, and Barry would continue to drive for us well into the future.
We could well understand why he loved flying, but when he came us to ask for a loan of €20,000 to cover his study, exams, and finals as a commercial pilot our first reaction was – why would we do this to lose our best driver? On reflection, we thought that if this guy in his mid-forties has the ambition and determination to follow his dream and go for this, that we should help him and not get in his way.
So we gave him the money and were not sure that we would ever get it back. But Barry made all repayment stages on their due dates. When he finally left to go into full-time training, the repayments kept coming.
We heard nothing for a year until last week, when Barry walked into our office in his flight suit – now a fully accredited pilot with Stobart Air, based in Cork and chartered to Aer Lingus.
Barry’s love of flying has not diminished now that it’s his job. As he commented, “I still can’t believe they pay me to do this”. He never said that about delivering pallets but who could blame him for that!
Service Alert – Storm Emma
Due to the ongoing weather event in Ireland, Independent Express will now be closed from noon today until Saturday. More updates to follow.
Service Alert – Beast from the East & Storm Emma
Due to the “status red” weather alert with snow-ice warnings issued by Met Eireann for much of Leinster, Independent Express will not be carrying out collections or deliveries today.
Service will return to normal as the weather improves.
Service Alert – Hurricane Ophelia
ATTENTION : Due to the adverse weather conditions brought on by Hurricane Ophelia, and the number of businesses closing as a result, TPN Ireland will be closing at 4pm today (16th October) and reopening at 5am tomorrow (17th October).