Sister companies Liffey Glass Transport Ltd. and Liffey Crane Hire provide unrivalled glass transportation, glass lifting and mini crane hire solutions to customers nationwide. As they prepare to roll out a new fleet of self-drive cranes, we caught up with co-founder / director Michael Gill to find out more about this exceptional, specialist operation.
Ireland’s only haulage company dedicated to the transportation of glass (as well as mini-crane hire), Liffey Glass Transport Ltd. boasts two decades of experience in all aspects of glass handling including transportation, glass lifting and even manufacturing.
With a specialised fleet of articulated trucks, smaller trucks and vans (fitted with specialised transportation systems specifically designed for the requirements of transporting glass) as well as mini cranes and vacuum lifters for lifting glass, this thoroughly-professional market-leading company offers superb transport solutions to the glass and glazing industries.
Experienced, friendly and fully-trained drivers ensure that every job – including the transportation of glass, windows and door frames – is completed professionally, on time and to the highest possible standards of excellence.
Meanwhile, Liffey Crane Hire specialises in the supply of all-terrain mobile cranes, mini-cranes, spider cranes, crawler cranes, pick-and-carry cranes, compact city cranes and vacuum glass lifters to the glass and glazing, quarrying, scaffolding, building and construction industries.
A comprehensive, fully-inclusive, -certified and safe service is provided in house, with glass collected at source and delivered on site, nationwide, 24/7, while collection and delivery to and from the UK can also be arranged.
Liffey Transport was established in 1999 by Michael Gill and Brendan Nolan, initially providing glass transportation services to Dockrell’s Glass Ltd. and subsequently to Saint Gobain Glass. In 2001, Liffey Transport commenced transporting glass for one of Ireland’s leading double-glazed manufacturing companies (a partnership that continues to go strong today); the following year, Michael Gill also became the Transport & Logistics Manager for Dockrell’s Glass Saint Gobain in Ireland.
Liffey Transport have dispatched and transported a range of glass product into the Irish and UK markets, including artic loads of sheet glass (anneals glass, laminate glass, fire glass and figured glass), while smaller fleet lorries can carry loose glass, doubled-glazed units, triple-glazed units, processed glass, mirror and a recently-developed new product called smart glass.
Combining the latest technology in lifting equipment and vehicles with highly-skilled and experienced personnel, Liffey Crane Hire can provide contract lift services, where they manage and supervise customers’ complete lift process.
“Brendan and myself started Liffey Transport as a sole trading company in ’99 and the following year we formed Liffey Glass Transport to specialise exclusively in the transportation of glass,” founding director Michael Gill recalls. “In 2013, we saw an opportunity to set up a small crane company specialising in supplying small cranes into the glass and glazing industry.
“Liffey Crane Hire was established in 2015. We started with a small fleet of city cranes and now have a fleet of ten, including a full range of glass vacuum lifters with lifting capacities ranging from 320kg to 1200kg. While we specialise in lifting glass and glazing, we can also take on other jobs, such as timber frame houses etc.”
Liffey Crane Hire has the best selection of mini cranes in Ireland. “The range starts with the small Maeda MC285 spider crane, which is just 750mm wide when folded up and has the capacity to lift three tonnes,” Michael continues. “It has a diesel engine and an electric three-phase power pack and can lift to a height of 8.5 metres. Meanwhile, the Liebherr LTN 1030 is a 35-tonne mobile crane, while our city cranes range from 10 tonnes to 20 tonnes.”
Many of the cranes in the fleet cannot be found anywhere else in Ireland. “We have an IHI three-tonne crawler crane,” says Michael. “Only 20 of those were ever made and we are delighted to have one of them here in Ireland. It’s got a lift-and-carry capacity of 1.5tonnes. We’re also the only crane company in Dublin with the Kato MR100 (ten tonne capacity) and we have the only Tedano TR200 in Ireland, which, at only 2.2 metres wide, is really good for accessing restricted spaces.”
Plans are afoot to purchase three new cranes from Maeda UK to roll out a self-drive fleet for 2017, which will facilitate further growth. “We have experienced growth and I can envision more,” Michael confirms. “The market is saturated with bigger cranes but we spotted an opportunity in the smaller-end ones and that’s what we will continue to focus on. We would hope to establish ourselves as the largest small-crane company in Ireland over the next three years.”
Generating direct employment for a team of 15, including ten highly-skilled crane operators who have been trained in-house and who can double up as truck drivers, Liffey Crane Hire – like Liffey Glass Transport – provides a nationwide service. “Most of the crane work is concentrated in the greater Dublin area at the moment but we have worked everywhere from Northern Ireland to Waterford,” Michael adds.
“There has been a definite increase in the volume of work in and around Dublin,” he concludes. “We have come through some tough times but we are in a strong position now going forward. We’re very positive about the future. We’re a small company and we’d like to keep things like that, sticking with the workforce that have been here long-term. We have a small turnover of staff and I believe this speaks for itself.
“We have a sizeable fleet, which is maintained in-house and which we’ll continue to invest in, while the new self-drive fleet will hopefully open some new doors for us next year.”
Liffey Glass Transport Company Ltd. / Liffey Crane Hire,
Henry Road,
Park West,
Dublin 12.
Phone: 1850 911880
Mobile: 087 2389309
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]
Web: www.liffeytransport.ie / www.liffeycranehire.ie
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, October 2016, Vol 2 No 6
