Volvo Trucks and Irish Commercials have won six major awards at the fifth annual ‘Fleet Transport’ Awards 2012 which was held under the auspices of ‘Fleet Transport’ magazine.
The ceremony in Dublin was attended by over 600 representatives from the Irish transport industry.

The evening began on a high note as the Volvo FE Hybrid was awarded ‘Green Commercial of the Year 2012’ title in the Diesel/Electric Hybrid category.
Says Jarlath Sweeney, Group Editor, Fleet Publications and Chairman of the judging panel: “In recent years electric and hybrid powertrains as an alternative fuel source have come to the fore, thanks to a financial push from the Government of Ireland, together with the collaboration of a number of manufacturers, who have invested heavily in developing zero and low emission vehicles.”

He continued: ”To acknowledge the innovative developments by the manufacturers Fleet Transport, in association with ESB ecars has for the past three years honoured these initiatives through its Green Commercial of the Year Awards. It is fitting therefore to award the ‘Green Commercial of the Year’ title to Volvo Trucks for its FE Hybrid, which impressed us during our appraisal while in operation with Veolia in London.”

Volvo dealer Irish Commercials, who are based in Naas and Galway, were successful in winning the inaugural ‘Customer Service Excellence’ Award and with one of their workshop technicians, Pat Walsh, completing a memorable double by securing the ‘Technician of the Year’ Award.

Volvo Trucks UK & Ireland Managing Director Göran Nyberg expressed his delight on the success achieved on the night: “We are thrilled to win so many awards from ‘Fleet Transport’ Magazine! Although it’s fantastic to receive the Green Commercial Award with the FE Hybrid, we are especially pleased that the hard work and investment being made by Irish Commercials has been recognised with them winning the ‘Customer Service Excellence’ Award.”

“It’s also absolutely fantastic that Pat Walsh, who is one of Irish Commercials most senior Technicians, received the highly deserved accolade of ‘Technician of the Year’. We are working very hard with our Dealer Network in Ireland to help operators reduce costs, improve uptime and efficiency by delivering effective transport solutions.”

In addition to the awards presented to Volvo Trucks and Irish Commercials, Volvo customers also lifted a number of prestigious trophies in the Irish Haulier of the Year 2012 Award categories.
Volvo operators such as Dixon International (Dublin) took the top step on the podium as the ‘International Haulier of the Year 2012’, while MTS Haulage (Mayo), which specialises in heavy haulage scooped the ‘Owner Driver’ class. South Coast Logistics (Cork), another FH fleet customer secured the honours as ‘Regional Transport Operator of the Year’.