Owen Cooke (left), founder and Chairman of Independent Express and TPN with Minister Michael Martin and Maurice Buckley, CEO of NSAI.  

Our history

Independent Express Cargo Ltd was founded in 1984 by Owen Cooke in offices in Santry near Dublin Airport.

Express UK – Ireland services, general freight forwarding and customs clearance was the base activity which later broadened out to nationwide delivery service, project management and full storage and logistics services.

In 1993 the company was one of the first freight companies to achieve ISO 9002 accreditation.

In 1999 the big move was made to Northwest Business Park in Blanchardstown and the facilities has since had two further phases of expansion which now totals 175,000 sq ft buildings on two adjoining sites of 8 acres.

While freight forwarding, general logistics and European road freight continued to develop, national distribution of palletised cargo became a priority for the company due to its association with pallet networks in the UK.

This inevitably led to the company setting up The Pallet Network (TPN) in Ireland and after investing €15m in hub facilities and €2m euros in development costs, TPN is now the dominant player in the pallet delivery market in Ireland.

IEC now enjoys the services of an Irish network of 23 depots and 88 UK depots, all tightly controlled and monitored to ensure the best delivery service in market.

TPN is the only network in the UK or Ireland with ISO 9001 accreditation for all depots. KPIs are controlled by a full time internal auditor, with penalties for failures and awards for excellence.

Industry leading technology offering full track & trace and imaged PODs back to customers computers is what sets IEC and TPN apart from the rest.

“Friendly and Reliable Service” is our motto", says MD Seamus McGowan, "and we endeavour to live by that maxim."