Tag Archives: Irish Hauliers Association

The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) is lending full support to the Weastflow project , which aims to improve and enhance freight logistics in North West Europe, including the Shannon Estuary ports. The €9 million project is part-funded by the Interreg IVB NWE programme and involves 22 partners and 19 observers from countries including Ireland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the UK and China. The project will explore current freight logistics practices in North West Europe, identifying challenges and opportunities to improve freight flows and encourage more sustainable freight transport methods. President of the IRHA, Clare man, Eoin Gavin spoke at a recent Weastflow conference in Brussels to outline the Associations on-going efforts to support and promote sustainable transport in respect to the Limerick/Shannon gateway. During the course of his presentation, Mr Gavin highlighted the excellent opportunity for the area to position itself as the closest deep-sea port and international airport to North America. Mr Gavin stated after the event …

THE company operating the Shannon Tunnel lost over €6.7 million in 2013, despite having the benefit of a generous Government subsidy. The mounting losses of €15 million over a two-year period have prompted calls for Transport Minister, Pascal Donohoe to introduce new measures to attract more traffic for the tunnel. Irish Hauliers Association president, Eoin Gavin believes the reintroduction of toll-free journeys for heavy goods vehicles (HGV) would result in a number of financial and environment benefits for the company and the Government. Last November, the total number of HGVs using the Shannon Tunnel jumped by a massive 70%, when former transport minister Leo Varadkar introduced toll-free journeys for trucks, who no longer had to pay €6.10 per journey. While Minister Varadkar suggested this pilot initiative should be continued, this wasn’t done and trucks started bypassing the tunnel once more. Mr Gavin stressed there were a number of benefits arising out of the continuation of the initiative, such as increasing …