At the risk of being laughed off the forum for good, I’m asking: who are the straightest Southern Irish firms to drive for? Surely they can’t all be magnet wielding cowboys?
ezydriver:
At the risk of being laughed off the forum for good, I’m asking: who are the straightest Southern Irish firms to drive for? Surely they can’t all be magnet wielding cowboys?
WAH A HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Three of the biggest are Dixon,s O’Tooles and Virginia
Dixon’s go all over Europe ideal for the man who doesn’t want to work to hard last man I know of who left there, left because of too much sitting around.
O’Tooles fish out of Ireland to France, the Benelux and just into Spain.
Virginia cover most of Europe mainly meat out, with curtainsider work into the UK, Luke will be able to tell you more
All three firms run new, well maintained plant and are generally left alone by VOSA as they run straight
No such thing as magnets anymore but you may be asked to “put the boy on her” or “do a bit” 
but not at any of the firms above
And most will have the continental version of 90kph ie 110kph… 
if you phone looking for a start,and your entire cv interview relies on the correct answer to the question…what boat can you go out on? and how long can you stay out for?,then your working for the happy hooligans… 
Do Dixon’s have in cab cameras?
Considered giving them a ring but have zero interest in that kind of thing.
A.
Adonis.:
Do Dixon’s have in cab cameras?Considered giving them a ring but have zero interest in that kind of thing.
A.
Never heard it mentioned more firms are now fitting external cams but not heard of anyone fitting internal ones
yes they have cameras m8
stevejones:
yes they have cameras m8
Just dash cams or driving facing ones, do you know?
A.
both facing in/out but they only activate when harsh braking/accidents etc
stevejones:
both facing in/out but they only activate when harsh braking/accidents etc
Well that’s a no from me.
Cheers for the info mate, do you work for them?
A.
AndrewG:
And most will have the continental version of 90kph ie 110kph…
Apart from Dixons, who challenge Maritime at 85kph max 
The bigger companies all run very legally and have trucks limited to Mac 90, many 85.
If you want to do Europe then generally now Ireland is the place to work, it’s the reason I went to Virginia. A large part of Virginias & Dixons European work is Coke Cola ingredients from West of Ireland to across Europe, as far as Hungary. Stuff going further is taken to Holland and put on a truck from country of destination. This work is nearly all ADR so if you had one its an advantage.
Both are good to work for. If Europe is your aim go Dixon, if variety Virginia. Issue with Virginia is the bulk of their work is Ireland - UK - Ireland with curtainsiders, may a driver has landed there and got ■■■■■■ off when European work isn’t forthcoming. Both have very modern tidy fleets, the bulk of Virginias units now are Renault T Ranges but they also have a selection of flagships. Dixon run Mercedes-Benz, Volvo & a scattering of Scanias.
I worked at Virginia for 9 years, 9 times longer than my previous longest job, so that says a lot. The bonus with companies like this is your are treated depending on your merit, not how long you work there. So if your face fitted and you kept your head down and got on with things you could be driving one of the flagships in a couple of years
was on dixons out of rugby m8 briefly told it was european .6wks furthest i went was belgium alot of parking up miday somewhere like dpd oldbury then rolling 12/1am if u get on dublin side u get more euro but in my opinion having done european for 20yrs its a matter of if your single never complain and theres not one of the blue eyed boys around then u might get half decent run but be warned once your out your out
Thanks all, some good replies here.
Switchlogic - I’d prefer to stay in Ireland and UK, so Virginia sound appealing. What kind of hours could I expect? Do they have a variety of shift patterns? Is the pay any good?
Dixon- run 100% legal at 85k, supposedly easy work.
Virginia- pretty much the same except there’s a sprinkling of v8s
Caffrey- lots of EE relatively decent plant.
O Toole- legal but planned to the last minute, lots of split rests, strange start times and the most unorganised place you’ll ever set foot in.
Maguire Int- decent plant running legal.
Carna- again plenty of EE drivers, good few Irish too. Sound enough from what I hear but money is crap.
The New Ross triangle of Breen, willie o Leary and Nolans are to be avoided. O Leary(sail away and never come home as the saying goes) all EE, same with Breen. Nolan is hiring Irish men again and paying a lot better than most.
As for magnets and fiddling tachos, there’s a reason why a lot of Irish fridge men run old scanias and early digi tachos. Majority of the cross channel fridge work cannot be done legally without fiddling something.
If your willing to work and do the hours you’ll make money with an Irish firm but most won’t be able to stick the pace with an Irish haulier.
Would the companys mentioned not be regarded as poor payers anymore then. Try going for a smaller company someone not as prominent on the road. You be alot better off than those 3.
ezydriver:
Thanks all, some good replies here.Switchlogic - I’d prefer to stay in Ireland and UK, so Virginia sound appealing. What kind of hours could I expect? Do they have a variety of shift patterns? Is the pay any good?
Tramping general haulage doesn’t really involve shift patterns as such, you just do as needed. You would get some weird hours now and again but generally you’d be doing days on that work
ellies dad:
Would the companys mentioned not be regarded as poor payers anymore then. Try going for a smaller company someone not as prominent on the road. You be alot better off than those 3.
Pay isn’t great but everyone pays a similar amount. Working for small hauliers has its pros and cons, biggest con is sometimes you can be under a lot more pressure. With a bigger company there is always another option available to them should you be out of hours or likely to miss a boat. And if you go for a smaller haulier that pulls someone else’s trailers, well, people should go there at their own risk!
switchlogic:
ezydriver:
Thanks all, some good replies here.Switchlogic - I’d prefer to stay in Ireland and UK, so Virginia sound appealing. What kind of hours could I expect? Do they have a variety of shift patterns? Is the pay any good?
Tramping general haulage doesn’t really involve shift patterns as such you just do as needed. You would get some weird hours now and again but generally you’d be doing days on that work
Its surprising that some one wanting to do Tramping, whether Continental, British Isle’s or just UK would be asking that question
Shift patterns would defeat the object off Tramping, wouldn’t it