A young Kilkenny man has won first place in three categories at the annual truck show held in in Naas, Co Kildare, last weekend.
MJ McGuinness, proprietor of McGuinness Logistics and the Kilkenny branch of DPD, won prizes for best Mercedes, best truck and trailer combination, and best customised working truck at the event.
His Mercedes Actros and Scania R Series were the envy of thousands of truckers and enthusiasts at the three-day show, where he won every category he entered.
MJ first made the headlines in local media at 21 years of age when he was the youngest person in Ireland to be presented with a national and international road freight carrier's license by the then minister for transport, Martin Cullen, in Lenister House.
He is now 22 and already owns a successful secure storage company, the Kilkenny branch of DPD, and McGuinness Logistics and Warehousing.
MJ continued a family tradition by taking over the transport business from his father, Minister John McGuinness. MJ has worked with his father in the transport business since he was a child and he is very proud of the fact that his dad taught him everything.
Along with DPD, MJ set up a secure storage company a little over a year ago and has already expanded beyond his expectations to cater for the demand.
MJ continues to add articulated trucks to his fleet for McGuinness Logistics. He takes great pride in the presentation of his trucks, as was evident at the truck show in Naas.
In total, the young man now boasts a fleet of five vans, two lorries and two articulated trucks with trailers. It comes as no surprise as MJ drove his first artic at the tender age of nine.
He was one of the youngest men in Kilkenny to pass his driving test first time around, just one week after his 17th birthday. He spent his youth travelling all over Ireland in trucks with his father’s transport company Fast-Mac Express.
