Professional Driver Magazine December 2020

VOLUME 14 ISSUE 06 £4.95

Dear Santa...

Mercedes-Benz S500L 4Matic At last it’s here – and it doesn’t disappoint

EMISSION IMPOSSIBLE?

Is the UK government plan to switch new car sales to electric power by 2030 achievable?

THE BMW 745e M SPORT SALOON. MONTHLY RENTALS FROM £590, PLUS £5,310 INITIAL RENTAL*.

BMW Fleet & Business Sales

The Ultimate Driving Machine The BMW 745e M Sport Saloon: a Plug-in Hybrid like no other. While passengers relax in BMW’s spacious Sky Lounge, our latest battery (with an electric range of up to 32 miles) combined with a 6-cylinder engine means the BMW 745e delivers performance and efficiency. Purchase through the BMW Chauffeur Programme and you’ll have access to an exclusive range of benefits available only with The 7, including: • Free Trackstar with one-year subscription • Complimentary servicing for the first 120,000 miles or four years (whichever comes first) • Replacement car coverage for warranty repairs that keep your vehicle off the road for four hours or more • Chauffeur replacement vehicle service with PCO vehicles available For further information, search BMW Chauffeur Programme

Fuel economy and CO2 results for the BMW 745e M Sport Saloon: Mpg (l/100km)(weighted combined): 122.8 (2.3) – 128.4 (2.2). Electric energy consumption (weighted combined): 3.3 to 3.4 miles/kWh. CO2 emissions (weighted): 48 to 45g/km.

Equivalent all-electric range is 31.1 - 32.3 miles.

These figures were obtained using a combination of battery power and fuel. The BMW 745e M Sport Saloon is a plug-in hybrid vehicle requiring mains electricity for charging. Figures shown are for comparability purposes. Only compare fuel consumption, CO2 and electric range figures with other cars tested to the same technical procedures. These figures may not reflect real-life driving results, which will depend upon a number of factors including accessories fitted (post-registration), variations in weather, driving styles and vehicle load.

The CO2 figures shown above have been determined according to the WLTP test. WLTP has been used as the applicable CO2 figure from 01 April 2020 for first year vehicle tax (VED) and from 06 April 2020 for company car tax (BIK). The CO2 figures were previously based on the NEDC equivalent. *BMW Chauffeur Programme only. Prices exclude VAT at 20%. Prices shown are for a 36-month Contract Hire agreement for a BMW 745e M Sport Saloon, with a contract mileage of 20,000 miles annually and an excess mileage charge of 14.02 pence per mile. Applies to new vehicles ordered between 01 October 2020 and 31 December 2020 and registered by 31 March 2021 (subject to availability). At the end of your agreement you must return the vehicle and vehicle condition, excess mileage and other charges may be payable. Available subject to status to UK residents aged 18 or over. Guarantees and indemnities may be required. The amount of VAT you can reclaim depends on your business VAT status. Terms and conditions apply. Offer may be varied, withdrawn or extended at any time. Hire provided by BMW Group Corporate Finance. BMW Group Corporate Finance is a trading style of Alphabet (GB) Limited, Alphabet House, Summit Avenue, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 0FB. We commonly introduce customers to BMW Group Corporate Finance. This introduction does not amount to independent financial advice. BMW (UK) Ltd, Summit ONE, Summit Avenue, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 0FB. Registered in England and Wales 1378137. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for credit broking activities. ^Test drive subject to applicant status and availability.

contents

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OVER STORY C DEAR SANTA...

Can we have a new S-Class for Christmas?

6-11

B usiness News The latest from around the UK private hire sector

14-17

N ews analysis Business travel has been devastated by Covid-19, but when will it return?

20-29 N ewsUn analysis Self Drive Hire of PCO Licensed and Licensed Exe The Government wants all Mercedes S-Class , Mercedes V-Class , Mercedes new cars to be electric by 2030. Is this achievable?

Tesla Model S , Nissan Leaf features 01707 R egular 649 090 34 The Knowledge

35 The Advisor : info@chauffeurrentals.com 36 The Negotiator

Daily , Weekly or Hires

37 Monthly The Insider

30 VOLUME 14 ISSUE 06 £4.95

Dear Santa...

Mercedes-Benz S500L 4Matic At last it’s here – and it doesn’t disappoint

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Mark Bursa 01932 858575 markbursa@prodrivermags.com

Kevin Willis, Peter Panayiotou, Iain Dooley, Mike Stone, Adam Bernstein, Dennis Bartholomew

COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Paul Webb 07807 133527 paulwebb@prodrivermags.com

WEBSITE MartinCoombes 01959547000

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FOCUS: EV market

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CONTRIBUTORS Ian Robertson, Tim Barnes-Clay, Glen Holder, Phil Rule, John Coombes, Gary Jacobs, David Self Drive Hire of PCO Licensed and Un Licensed Executive Cars Wilkins, Phil Huff, Craig, Thomas, Mercedes S-Class Mercedes V-Class , Mercedes E-Class

Emission impossible?

Is the UK government’s ambitious plan to switch all car sales to electric cars by 2030 achievable?

Mark Bursa

T

HE UK GOVERNMENT’S ANNOUNCEMENT THAT IT PLANS TO BRING FORWARD THE end-of-sale date for new petrol and diesel cars by a further five years to 2030 has certainly focused the minds of the car industry. The decision is political – prime minister Boris Johnson wants to make the UK, freshly decoupled from its European partners, the fastest G7 country to decarbonise cars and vans.

But the decision raises more questions than answers, with many in the industry questioning whether the deadlines and targets outlined in the plan are achievable.

Will global automakers be able to supply sufficient battery-electric vehicles to replace the 2.2 million or so petrol and diesel cars sold every year in the UK? And at the same time, will they be able to satisfy demand from all other markets, many of which

have announced similar plans to switch sales away from the internal combustion engine?

UK sales figures show battery vehicles trebled their market share, albeit in a market down 27%, from 3% to 9% in the first 11 months of 2020. BEV sales are on course to surpass 11,000 cars this year, more than double the 5,000 sold in 2019.

Plug-in hybrids are also growing fast,

ESTABLISHED SINCE 2005 EMISSION IMPOSSIBLE?

Is the UK government plan to switch new car sales to electric power by 2030 achievable?

Mike Galvin

20

Tesla Model S , Nissan Leaf 01707No.: 649 090 Registered in England 70 86172 © 2020 All contents copyright of Pro Driver Media Ltd. : info@chauffeurrentals.com Daily , Weekly or Monthly Hires

up 76% to 7,700 in the January-November 2020 period. Combined sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids across 18 Western European countries have topped 1 million, closing in on double last year’s tally.

Progress, but not as dramatic as required.

There are questions around infrastructure too. Even though money is promised to help deliver charge points, how will this be deployed? Will the money be allocated to private individuals for the fitment of home chargers, or will the money be available to commercial installers of public rapid charge points? And will there be some effort in bringing order to the chaos within the charging networks, where a plethora of companies, many of them demanding deposits, smart cards and specific apps, make the business of EV charging a whole lot more complicated than filling up with petrol or diesel at a service station.

And then there’s the issue of taxation.

The established system, whereby fuel duty

DECEMBER 2020

DAILY , WEEKLY OR MONTHLY HIRES ESTABLISHED SINCE 2005

Self Drive Hire of PCO Licensed and Un Licensed Executive Cars Mercedes S-Class , Mercedes V-Class , Mercedes E-Class, Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf

T:01707 649 090 E:info@chauffeurrentals.com

4

ESTABLISHED SINCE 2005

Self Drive Hire of PCO Licensed and Un License Mercedes S-Class , Mercedes V-Class DECEMBER 2020, Merc Tesla Model S , Nissan Leaf

comment

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The light at the end of the tunnel? f you’ve made it to the end of 2020,

and you’re still in some form of business, congratulations. I reckon you’re about two-thirds of the way through the worst peacetime crisis to have hit the world for centuries.

The private hire, taxi and chauffeur industry has played its part in keeping Britain moving. But it has been hit hard, and has been very shabbily treated. The government’s furlough schemes, bounce-back loans and self-employed support grants have helped many companies and many people. But operators and drivers in our industry have fallen through just about every available gap.

The problem is simply this: for many selfemployed people, stopping working also stops adding cost. But a driver still has to pay for a car, insurance and licence. OK, there have been payment holidays, but they are just that – deferrals of money that is still owed. And without income or savings, drivers simply cannot survive.

But instead of a specific scheme for people in the sector, as has been implemented successfully in Northern Ireland, and mooted for Scotland (though as yet there has been no cash forthcoming from Holyrood), drivers in England have had no help from Westminster. Chancellor Sunak has happily bailed out big corporations, but the little guys and gals have been left to fend for themselves.

Some local authorities have come up with local bailouts for drivers, so praise where due for South Yorkshire and Merseyside. But even so, the amounts are not sufficient. Sefton Council has 4,000 drivers on its books, and this month it has allocated £400,000 to help them out. That sounds a lot – and right now it’s tough for local councils too – but it means each driver pockets just £100.

It might buy some Christmas cheer for the family.

It certainly won’t cover a month’s car rental.

At least Sefton did something. Many others – most others – have done nothing at all.

The LPHCA’s plan to have central government pay licence fees from central funds to local councils is sensible, and has our full support. But more is required. Operators and drivers cannot live in fear of repossessions and evictions while the pandemic rumbles on until the vaccine is fully

DECEMBER 2020

implemented. At least we can see a likely end date, when proper herd immunity – through vaccination — the only way this can be achieved, is reached.

In the meantime, we need some action.

Government support in terms of mandatory payment holidays on car loans, so finance companies receive some recompense but the driver isn’t forced to dip into reserves every month to fund an asset they can’t use. And how about a top-up to the bounce back loan? Raise the ceiling from £50,000 to, say, £75,000 and allow companies to borrow more funds at the same advantageous rates. The Government will, after all, get this money back at some stage. But the pandemic has lasted longer than estimated – so why not offer a little more to get firms through to the end?

There is some optimism that a recovery will start fairly early in 2021. Some things will take longer – like international business travel. Airlines and hotels are talking about 2024 before we’re back to 2019 levels, and we may never get there again. The catastrophe of Brexit won’t help either, whether it’s deal or no deal. Travelling to Europe will be more difficult, and many companies will try and avoid it, and stick with Zoom meetings rather than zooming off to Heathrow. Bad news for those of you engaged in airport runs.

But once it’s safe to travel, the holiday market will return. And by the summer, companies will be fed up with home working and social distancing, and thus business events, trade shows, roadshows and conferences will start to come back. At Professional Driver, we’re banking on this – we had to cancel all our events in 2020, and we really can’t wait to get the QSi Awards, the Car of the Year judging days and Congress London back out there. We’re finalising venues and dates, and we’re confident that from mid-year, we’ll be able to entertain you all once again.

Until then, have a great festive season (observing your social bubbles, of course) and we’ll see you in a hopefully brighter, vaccinated 2021.

Mark Bursa Editor markbursa@prodrivermags.com

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news

Former Tristar MD Bruce takes the helm as French chauffeur firm Chabé moves into London Mark Bursa Former Tristar managing director David Bruce is setting up a major new London chauffeuring operation owned by French luxury transport brand Chabé. The company will target high-end business including hotels, financial road shows and events, with an initial fleet of 10 cars.

In addition, Chabé is looking to recruit independent chauffeurs to cope with peaks in demand as the market recovers in 2021.

Tristar was permanently closed after the management buyout of parent company Addison Lee by Liam Griffin earlier this year, with the bulk of the Tristar fleet rolled into Addison Lee. Bruce has recruited two former senior Tristar col-

leagues, Niven Salem and Daniel Stener, and Chabé has opened an office in Stockley Park, close to the site of the old Tristar base.

“We’re building a team of experts in business chauffeuring,” Bruce said.

“We have set up from scratch in London and we David Bruce have a five-year licence from TfL. And we have very supportive shareholders in Chabé. The company is family-owned and is more than 100 years old,” Bruce said. Chabé started servicing Parisian hotels in the interwar years and this is still a major part of its business. “Chabé is a niche service provider and we are very keen to replicate that in London at the top-end

of the market,” he added.

He said the timing of the launch during the pandemic was “a bold move”, adding: “Thankfully, the strength of Chabé’s balance sheet means we can invest in anticipation of when the market returns.”

He believes this could be as early as the end of the first quarter of 2021. “It will start to build up again in the third and fourth quarter of 2021, and we should be back to 2019 levels in 2022,” he said. He believes events will be a major recovery driver. “People don’t want to be at home or in offices five days a week – they need to get out and meet others.”

He said the landscape for chauf-

feuring will be different after the tough 2020. “When times are tough it may be the best time to start a business,” he said. The company is building an inhouse fleet of vehicles, mainly Mercedes S-Classes, though the lack of a PCO-licensable PHEV at present means two BMW 745Le PHEVs have been added, with two V-Class 7-seaters also on order.

The “mixed model” of some company vehicles and a roster of self-employed chauffeurs makes sense, and will offer work for some chauffeurs who have been impacted by the Covid-19 crisis.

Bruce said Chabé would consider acquisitions too in the future. “It’s probably too soon, and any company would have to be a good fit. But we are open minded about that,” he said.

Uber disposes of autonomous and flying car divisions as Khosrowshahi focuses on core business In a major strategy switch, Uber has disposed of its autonomous vehicles and “flying cars” businesses to focus on its core businesses of taxi services and deliveries. The disposals free up funds and resources – while allowing Uber to keep an interest in both the emerging technologies.

But in tandem with efforts to encourage Uber drivers to move into electric vehicles worldwide, the move is seen as Uber pulling back from earlier ambitions to do away with drivers and move toward entirely autonomous transport.

Uber has sold its self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), to autonomous vehicle start-up Aurora. In return, Uber is investing $400 million in Aurora, with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi joining Aurora’s board.

Aurora was founded by a group of former Tesla, Uber and Google engineers in 2016. The company started out aiming to develop autonomous taxi services, but recently shifted focus to build autonomous driving software for commercial trucks.

Uber has also agreed a deal to also offload its electric

flying car division, Uber Elevate, to California-based electric aircraft specialist Joby Aviation for an undisclosed sum. Uber will invest $75 million in Joby as part of the transaction. Joby said Uber had invested a previously un-

disclosed $50 million in the company in January 2020.

Uber described plans for a vertical take-off and landing flying car in 2016, outlining a concept where a fleet of such aircraft could shuttle passengers from rooftop to rooftop in cities.

Last October, Uber launched a helicopter service called “Uber Copter” in New York City to give customers an early taste of future flying taxis. This offers a $205 ride from Lower Manhattan to JFK airport in eight minutes. Uber had planned to start beta testing Elevate in three US cities this year, paving the way for a commercial service rollout in 2023. But the pandemic put these expensive projects on hold as Uber closed down most of its expensive R&D projects.

In May, Uber permanently closed two new product research divisions, Uber Incubator and Uber AI Labs, with the loss of 3,000 jobs. Khosrowshahi said the company needed to cut $1 billion in fixed costs in order to achieve profitability in 2021.

Uber drivers take company to Amsterdam court over use of secret tracking algorithms A group of UK Uber drivers are taking the company to court in the Netherlands in order to access performance data the company collects on them. The drivers claim Uber determines how to allocate rides and fares based on information it collects about drivers’ performance, behaviour and other personal traits it infers through the app they install on their phones.

They are demanding full access to this

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information and to details on how Uber’s algorithms work, claiming that the it ultimately decides how much money they can earn. “Uber should offer total transparency,” lawyer Anton Ekker told Reuters at the District Court in Amsterdam, where Uber’s international head office is located.

In response, Uber said it had shared all the information it was required to with its drivers, but that sharing any more could

impact passengers’ privacy. Uber said rides are allocated based on driver locations, routes and fare preferences - and that drivers were excluded from giving rides to passengers who had previously given them the lowest possible rating. Individual ratings, complaints and other feedback could not be shared with the drivers for privacy reasons. The District Court in Amsterdam said it would make a decision on the claim by Februrary 11, 2021.

DECEMBER 2020

news

MBH Corporation adds Victoria Gosden Travel to its growing taxi firm portfolio Mark Bursa Acquisitive investment company MBH Corporation has acquired a second UK taxi operation. The group has bought Victoria Gosden Travel Limited (VGT) for a price between £1.3million and £2m. VGT joins ADT Taxis within the group’s transport division, which is aiming to build a national network under the Take Me brand.

VGT is MBH Corporation’s 12th acquisition of 2020 across a variety of industries and the fourth in the past six weeks. Founded in 2002 with just one vehicle, Farnborough-based VGT is a taxi and licensed private hire operator covering the Waverly, Hart and Rushmoor areas of south-east England.

It now has a fleet of 100 vehicles, and in the 2020 financial year, VGT’s underlying profit

was £278,545 with assets of £1.18m.

VGT managing director Gary Marshall, who has more than 30 years of experience in the taxi industry and 16 years as a software supplier to the taxi industry, is remaining with the business. He said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for us. We have spent the past seven years growing VGT to a 100car fleet. Joining with MBH has allowed us to release equity in the business, remain in control of

the company and remove the limiting factors allowing us to grow the business further.”

Take Me Group chief executive David Hunter said: “As we continue to grow, VGT will be an amazing addition to our brand. Gary already has companies in our trade around him lined up to join his Farnborough hub, and we look forward to assisting them with new technology and streamlining as we grow.”

Callum Laing, Frankfurt-listed MBH’s chief executive added: “VGT has been a reliable and wellrespected business for nearly two decades and it will be great to have Gary joining our team. This has been an incredibly productive year for us as a group. VGT joining our other company ADT in the transport vertical is incredibly exciting and gives us a good footing to expand the fleet further in 2021.”

Addison Lee incorporates what3words location technology into booking system Addison Lee has integrated progressive location technology what3words into its booking tools to help with journeys and deliveries where a greater level of accuracy is required.

The what3words system, launched in 2013, will complement existing address technology on Addison Lee’s booking platforms to help customers where they are navigating London’s hard-to-find addresses, or buildings and locations with multiple entrances, such as hospitals, offices and sports stadiums. Importantly, in the current pandemic, if a customer has a hospital appointment at a particular wing, they can enter the what3words location in the Addison Lee app and be taken straight to the door, avoiding unnecessary con-

tact and enhancing safety.

The system divides the world into a grid of 3m squares and given each a three-word identifier. Entering ///admiral.turkey.pushed as a destination in the Addison Lee app, for example, will take you to the front entrance of what3words’ London office. If passengers were looking to go to the canal side entrance they could be dropped off at ///bands.piano.gave and walk to ///youth.runner.guess. The technology can be used across all Addison Lee booking channels - app, web and phone.

Liam Griffin, Addison Lee’s CEO said: “Among the millions of journeys and deliveries we do every year, there’ll always be some that need extra detail due to

London’s wonderful scale and complexity. Our partnership with what3words will give us the extra accuracy to get our customers and deliveries to the exact right location – whether that’s the right office doors for your job interview or the gift to the deliveries entrance.”

Chris Sheldrick, co-founder and CEO of what3words, said: “Postal addresses are not accurate enough for the modern world. Visitors to our office know this well. Entering our central London postal address into any sat nav, ride-hailing or navigation app won’t take you anywhere near our building. It actually drops a pin in the middle of the A40 Westway flyover that runs beside our office. This can add an extra 20 minutes to your journey and causes quite a lot of frustration. By accepting what3words addresses, Addison Lee is alleviating pain points like this and making their experience by far the safest, fastest and easiest around.”

Karhoo targets growth through new partnerships with Trainline and Apart City Global taxi marketplace Karhoo has announced new partnerships with Trainline and Appart’City as it aims to build its mobility-as-a-service model for 2021. The Renault-owned company aims to operate 15,000 rides per day worldwide by the end of 2021.

Karhoo brings together thousands of fleets from around the world, working with major brands such as SNCF, Thalys, Booking.com and Trip.com.

Trainline which takes 150 million rail bookings each year, now joins the platform alongside the leader in apartment-hotels in France, Appart’City.

DECEMER 2020

Globally, the number of rides made via the Karhoo marketplace recorded strong growth of around 50% in 2020 compared to 2019, despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The acceleration in the number of rides over the months of July and August 2020 (respectively 30% and 49% compared to July 2019 and August 2019) reinforces the group’s ambition to become the leading B2B

player in connected mobility.

Vanessa Heydorff, Karhoo Chief Commercial Officer [left], said: “Despite the significant decrease in travel worldwide, we were able to demonstrate the value of the solution proposed

by Karhoo. With the confidence of our partners, in 2021 we will continue to develop our activities in Europe and beyond.”

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news

LPHCA calls on Government to fund drivers’ licence renewals nationwide Mark Bursa

The LPHCA has written to chancellor Rishi Sunak calling for nationwide support for Britain’s taxi and private hire drivers through central funds rather than piecemeal local grants as at present.

In the letter, LPHCA chairman Steve Wright proposed a help scheme under which the government would directly fund vehicle and driver licensing fees for owner-drivers via a block claim by the licensing authority. The drivers would simply not be charged for re-licensing their vehicles and renewing their own licences. “I believe this could be a potential lifesaver for the sector,” Wright wrote.

This would have several positive effects, according to LPHCA, including incentivising drivers to return to work, and ensuring that the local authorities would not lose valuable licensing revenue. “Drivers who have renewed already could be credited with

the grant money against their next licensing renewals,” Wright added. “As the money would be for individual drivers ‘state aid’ rules do not apply.”

He continued: “This scheme would not be supporting drivers to be paid not to work, it would be incentivising them to return to or continue working.

It should be easy to set up as entry level to funding would be via a simple ‘existing licensing provability by drivers’ (say, licensed in the past three years), which would be easy for licensing authorities to manage.”

He said he had also pitched the idea to Department for Transport officials. “Given that billions have been given to various sectors in support, often with no work outcome, I believe this scheme would deliver positive outcomes for all concerned,” he added.

The LPHCA letter highlighted the plight of drivers, explaining how many had been unable to take

advantage of bounce-back loans, furlough schemes or self-employed income support, at a time when much of their traditional work had all but disappeared. And unlike many self-employed individuals, drivers have considerable unavoidable overheads to maintain their ability to work’ status.

Wright wrote: “Since mid-summer it has become extremely obvious that the support for drivers, including chauffeurs has been extremely limited. As many such drivers are self-employed, the amount of support from government has been limited, in part because grant assistance does not take account of the need for these drivers to continue and maintain their vehicle and driver licence statuses, vehicle repayment costs and insurance. Those working also have the additional costs of facial coverings, PPE and cleaning materials. Where support is available, it is rules based, complex and difficult to secure, often leaving drivers with no easy route to support.”

Catalytic converter thefts on the rise during pandemic lockdown Thefts of catalytic converters in the UK have risen six-fold during the lockdown, so drivers whose vehicles are parked up should be careful about where they leave their vehicles. Catalytic converter theft is one of the highest rising crimes in the country as the price of their metal components - platinum, rhodium and palladium - have skyrocketed. Recently a field full of parked-up London black cabs in Epping Forest was hit by catalyst thieves, who stole 50 of the devices.

New research from online broker comparethemarket.com has identified the top ten towns and cities with the most catalytic converter thefts. London

top 10 towns & cities for catalytic converter thefts rank city

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

London Birmingham Coventry Cambridge Luton Peterborough Derby Wolverhampton Manchester Bristol

17-18

18-19

19-20

total thefts

154 26 23 4 5 11 7 2 5 5

2,600 62 31 20 33 8 14 4 16 9

12,483 232 233 142 63 56 50 63 45 44

15,237 320 287 166 101 75 71 69 66 58

Source: comparethemarket.com

has the highest instance of catalytic converter thefts over the three-year period, and each individual year, with Birmingham and neighbouring Coventry

also hot spots for the crime. Even small towns such as Warrington have seen big rises in Catalytic Converter thefts.

In 2018-19, just one Cat was stolen. But

in the next 12-month period, there were 28 thefts.

Dan Hutson, head of motor insurance at comparethemarket.com, said: “For those who are worried about falling victim to this type of theft, try parking your car in a way which would make it difficult for thieves to slide under the car to access the catalytic converter.

There are also anti-theft devices you can buy and fit to your car to prevent unwanted attention. A comprehensive car insurance policy should also cover you if your car has become a victim of the trend, but it’s best to check with your provider to make sure, especially if you live in a higher risk area.”

Boro council uses lockdown to fix the town’s pothole problem A drive to clean up Middlesbrough’s potholes has been hailed a major success.

Now council chiefs have pledged to keep on top of the problem following one of the biggest highway repair operations in the town’s history. The 20-week initiative was launched in June. During the fivemonth scheme, the repair teams fixed a total of 5,350 defects, or 26,750 individual potholes. They laid 1,425.5 tonnes of tarmac and completed 13,898sq m of patches.

8

Over the coming months the teams will turn their focus to the winter response, while repairs to A and B road defects picked up during the 20-week drive will be added to the forthcoming repair programme from April next year. Deputy Mayor Antony High said: “Potholes are a nightmare for motorists and cyclists, causing untold misery, damage and disruption, not to mention the cost of repairs. We decided to tackle the problem head-on, with a

systematic and ambitious approach right across the town.”

DECEMBER 2020

news

Scottish taxi drivers protest at lack of government support and demand tailored support package Mark Bursa Taxi and private hire drivers have taken to the streets in Edinburgh in protest at a lack of promised financial support from the Scottish government. The protest outside the Scottish Parliament was organised by trade union Unite Scotland to coincide with a meeting of the Rural Affairs and Connectivity Committee at Holyrood.

In a Unite survey, more than one third of drivers said they had been unable to access any government support during the pandemic.

And the union is calling on Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes to release the £19 million in aid that she promised last week. It is demanding a financial package similar to that in Northern Ireland, where a specific grant of £1,500 has been given to taxi drivers.

Unite Scottish Secretary Pat Rafferty said: “The mobile protest outside the Scottish Parliament is designed to raise awareness over the plight of taxi drivers across our nation. It’s estimated that there are around 36,000 taxi drivers across

TfL offers free face coverings and hand sanitiser to London taxi and private hire drivers Transport for London has been handing out free face masks and bottles of hand sanitiser to London’s taxi and private hire drivers. A total of 1.5 million masks and 30,000 bottles of Dettol sanitiser have been distributed to drivers from sites including London Underground and other car parks throughout the capital on a first come, first served basis.

TfL has also created short educational videos for drivers that provide guidance on how to clean their vehicle after each time a passenger has been safely dropped off.

Drivers will also receive a sticker to display in the vehicle to demonstrate that the driver is

Scotland with the majority of them having dramatic cuts in their income with around a third having had access to no government support at all. We need urgent clarification and the release of the promised support from last week and a commitment to continue to support the trade.”

Last month First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a £30 million discretionary fund for councils to deliver extra business support to those in need, including taxi drivers. But since then there has been no offer of funding. “We’re still waiting,” one driver told Professional Driver.

Edinburgh Cab Branch Secretary Jacqueline

“Covid prepared”. The video does not include advice on screens, however, and TfL continues to make screen-makers undergo costly and time-consuming certification, citing spurious safety issues.

Helen Chapman [pictured], TfL’s director of licensing, regulation and charging (pictured), said: “We know that the pandemic has been tough for taxi and private hire drivers, which is why we want to do all we can to help them prosper as restrictions are eased. We are providing this additional support to help boost the industry in the coming weeks, reassuring customers that vehicles are as safe and clean as they possibly can be. We will continue to provide up-to-date advice and guidance for drivers on how to keep themselves safe and what support is available

Dunn told local media: “Unfortunately due to Covid we have lost about 85% of our work. We have no support coming from local authorities or government and our taxi trade is in desperate crisis. Today we are asking the Scottish Government to give us that help that we desperately need. We have drivers who are basically on the poverty line.”

She continued: “Only a small percentage of drivers can access government grants but because we don’t have premises that is not available to us.

There is the self-employment scheme but owners who still have fixed costs do not have the help that the owners of a pub or a restaurant would get. Some drivers go out – maybe from 6 in the morning until 6 at night and walk away with about £50 if they’re lucky.”

Dunn concluded: “Usually this time of year is very busy with Christmas parties and tourists so there is a massive drop. We ask the Scottish Government to sit down with us and realise that our business is unique, and that we need a tailored grant system for our drivers.”

for them in these difficult times.”

Steve Garelick, GMB organiser, welcomed the move, saying: “GMB Union is delighted to learn of this initiative giving protection to drivers and the public alike. This extra support is heartening at such a precarious time for the taxi and private hire trades that have been decimated by the pandemic.”

And Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, said: “Taxi drivers need all the support they can get, at what continues to be an extremely challenging time. This is therefore a positive initiative, which should help to demonstrate to the public that taxi drivers are taking every possible precaution to keep their passengers safe.”

—Mark Bursa

Sefton taxi and private hire drivers given £100 council Covid-19 hardship payment Sefton’s licensed black cab and private hire drivers are set to receive a cash boost after losing income due to Covid-19. More than 4,000 drivers are now eligible for a £100 support grant.

Eligible drivers will receive a letter to their home address containing details of how to access the grant. Once approved, the drivers will receive their grant within five working days

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The total cost of £400,000 will be covered by Liverpool City Region funding. In a joint statement the leaders and mayors of the Liverpool City Region said: “We recognise the hardship experienced by our area’s taxi drivers, who have seen their trade seriously affected by the coronavirus restrictions.

As leaders and mayors, we are continuing to press the Government for fi-

nancial support packages that work for everyone who has seen their livelihood affected by Covid-19 restrictions. We know this fund can only make a small contribution but wanted to make this available as a gesture of support for a sector that has been hit hard without adequate Government support.”

Reliant on the hospitality trade, drivers have seen their trade decimat-

ed for the second time this year, due to lockdown. Sefton Council says it has ensured a dedicated team will be on hand to support all applicants through the claims process. Those drivers who do not meet the criteria for this grant are able to access other support schemes which offer financial aid.

For more information visit sefton. gov.uk/taxigrant

DECEMBER 2020

news Bolt teams up with Splend and Ubitricity to expand electric car use and charging networks for London minicab drivers Mark Bursa Ride-hailing app Bolt has launched two new partnerships aimed at boosting electric car use within its London operations. Bolt has set up a partnership with PCO car hire company Splend to offer discounted prices on EV rentals. And the company is spending £250,000 to improve electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the capital through a new venture with Ubitricity, designed to install chargers close to the homes of its drivers.

Bolt has conducted independent research into EV usage, which shows that only 42% of Bolt drivers feel confident switching to an EV. However, the same study indicated that 81% of Bolt drivers were seriously considering an EV as their next car, as the combination of cheaper fuel and exemption from London’s ULEZ and the Congestion Charge makes financial sense.

C-Charge alone costs £15 a day, or £90 for a six-day working week.

The partnership with Splend means Bolt drivers can access a new electric car for a reduced deposit, with a package that includes insurance, servicing and

maintenance. Bolt said it was working closely with Splend to get 500 more drivers into electric vehicles in the first half of 2021. More information about the offer will be announced in early 2021.

The partnership with Ubitricity is designed to increase the number of charge points in areas where Bolt drivers live – especially to help those who live in flats or terraced houses with no off-street parking, and thus the inability to fit a home charger.

Bolt and Ubitricity are identifying neighbourhoods in London where private hire drivers would benefit the most from more charge points, and will then work with councils to speed up the installation of more public charge points.

Bolt UK general manager Sam Raciti (pictured) said: “We need to contribute on a local level to supplement our Europe-wide Green Plan. Global research consistently reports that a combination of cost, range and charging infrastructure are the three biggest barriers to EV ownership, with our own analysis also suggesting as much. Therefore, we believe it’s obvious

that all three factors need to be addressed.”

He continued: “We’re confident that the groundwork being laid by our Zero Emission Transition pilot will help identify the mechanics that are most efficient at getting Bolt drivers into electric vehicles, and are excited at the potential benefit this could have for our drivers and the wider city.”

Ubitricity managing director Daniel Bentham said: “When you compare driving patterns, a taxi covers five times more mileage per year than the average car. So helping taxi drivers switch to EVs sooner by solving their charging worries around cost and convenience, delivers a large and quick gain against local authorities’ climate change and air quality goals. Our growing network of 2,500 public charge points brings easy, good value EV charging to the doorsteps of people who park in the street. By working together, Bolt and Ubitricity can help local authorities accelerate the roll-out of EV charging infrastructure for the taxi community.” n Splend’s Justin Patterson interview, p29

Wakefield drivers claim victory as council agrees to delay new rules until September 2022 Taxi and private hire drivers in Wakefield are claiming a moral victory after the local council backed down over plans to force drivers to buy newer, cleaner cars.

Drivers had earlier called off a planned strike in protest against the proposals, which stipulated that diesel taxis had to meet Euro 6 emissions standards by March 2021 – a move that would have forced drivers of older cars off the road, given the lack of business during the coronavirus crisis. Many drivers said they were unable to afford the switch, which could cost up to £10,000 for a newer, used car, because of the effect of Covid-19 on their finances. But the council has now agreed to give drivers until September 2022 to buy new vehicles.

Waj Ali, spokesman for the Wakefield Drivers’ Association, welcomed the news. “It’s a moral victory for the trade and we’re glad the council seem to have listened

to what we’ve said. They’ve held out the hand of friendship and it’s the fair thing to do.”

The council has also agreed to relax complex and strict rules regarding tinted windows of local taxis.

A licensing meeting was told drivers were struggling to buy the vehicles because most of them had glass that was too dark to meet the current requirements. The

council has agreed to loosen those requirements, but insisted that passengers will still be visible from outside the vehicles and public safety will not be compromised.

Committee chair Cllr Martyn Johnson said he sympathised with taxi drivers and added that the impact of Brexit and the possibility of new tariffs being applied to imported cars may also present more problems for the trade. “There’s a cost to buying these new vehicles and the drivers haven’t had a lot of work in the last eight to 10 months,” he told the meeting. “Covid is still going on and we’ve got Brexit coming too. There may be more issues which will restrict drivers from getting a new vehicle before March.”

A separate local taxi drivers’ group, the Wakefield and District Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Association, also welcomed the extension.

New ride hailing app Wystle opens up rewards programme to supports drivers during lockdown New London ride-hailing app Wystle is offering drivers the chance to unlock access to the app’s bespoke Wystle Rewards programme, before it launches in the capital in December.

The move is a direct response to the latest Covid-19 lockdown and aims to help support drivers during the coronavirus crisis.

Wystle Rewards offers discounts at more than 900 leading high street stores and restaurants including Tesco, ASDA, ASOS, Currys PC World, Pizza Hut and Odeon cinemas. Wystle CEO

DECEMER 2020

Gary Wazir said: “The latest lockdown is having a hugely detrimental effect on the drivers across London. With such uncertainty in the ride hailing market, we want to step up and demonstrate that as a London company, we are in this together and actively support our drivers. As we have just finalised the rewards offerings, we thought it was essential to allow drivers to access these early to help support them and their families during these difficult times.”

Normally divided across three levels

– Wystle Red, Wystle Gold and Wystle Platinum – the rewards were originally intended to recompense drivers for completing rides. Drivers could expect to receive more lucrative rewards for completing more journeys. Instead, all drivers will now automatically gain access to the highest reward level, Wystle Platinum, ahead of the service going live next month.

To unlock early access to all 900-plus retailers, all drivers need to do is refer one other driver to register with Wystle. All drivers, both new and

previously signed up, will receive a unique referral code which they can use to refer a driver. Once their nominated driver’s registration is complete, they will receive instant access to Wystle Platinum.

Wystle claims to be the first Londonborn ride-hailing app. It is currently recruiting new drivers, and offers five different car categories, along with a short-term self-drive hire service. It also says it offers a better commission rate for drivers than many other appbased minicab services.

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news analysis: business travel British Airways has retired its entire of fleet of 24 Boeing 747s as a consequence of their financial hit in the pandemic

Return ticket?

Will business travel bounce back?

And if so when, and how far?

Mark Bursa

F

or anyone involved in executive chauffeuring, or even a regular private hire business with a business clientele, there’s one question that really needs answering: Will business travel recover to pre-Covid levels? And if so, when?

With vaccines now being deployed, there is hope that some degree of normality will return to the working environment in the first few months of 2021. But the predictions are less encouraging for the return of big-ticket items for the private hire sector: air travel, business events, trade shows and hotels all take a more pessimistic view. And while there are signs that tourism might open up more quickly, European travel is about to get another kick in the teeth through Brexit, while other sectors such as cruises are also taking a long-term view.

Private hire operators are having to come to terms with the new post-Covid reality. Keen Group managing director Keith Keen believes some of the enforced changes of 2020 are

14

here to stay: “Do we need city offices? Do we need to fly to New York for a meeting? Or are people comfortable with a Zoom meeting? The market will recover, but not to the same level as before – and for all the right reasons,” he says.

In the longer term, however, the prognosis is good. According to new US research, the global market for taxi and limousine services, estimated at $127.1 billion in 2020, is

[below] The world’s cruise ship fleet was ‘furloughed’ for the entire 2020 holiday season

projected to reach a revised size of $334.9bn by 2027, growing at a rate of 14.8% over the next seven years. The question is when this growth will start to kick in. And what form will it take? Right now, 2027 seems an awfully long way away.

The International Air Transport Association represents the world’s airlines, and while it sees some signs of recovery starting in 2021, the association says a full recovery to 2019 pre-pandemic air travel will not happen until at least 2024. IATA’s Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said in a statement: “This crisis is devastating and unrelenting. Airlines have cut costs by 45.8%, but revenues are down 60.9%. The result is that airlines will lose $66 for every passenger carried this year.”

He continued: “We need to get borders safely re-opened without quarantine so that people will fly again. And with airlines expected to bleed cash at least until the fourth quarter of 2021 there is no time to lose.” According to IATA research, most people who plan to travel in 2021 will do so to

DECEMBER 2020

news analysis: business travel visit friends and family, with holidays coming a close second. Work trips are a low priority.

This is supported by research from analysts McKinsey & Company. Based on the experience of the economic downturn caused by the 2008-09 global recession, business travel took five years to recover, while international leisure travel was back at pre-crash levels within just two years. PostCovid, the risk-averse business travel market is likely to be less bullish, McKinsey says – not just because the widespread adoption of videoconferencing means many trips may be deemed unnecessary.

Issues such as duty of care and occupational health and safety requirements are risks that need to be managed. By putting your staff member on a plane, are you risking their health – even their life - unnecessarily?

For airlines, that is a major problem, as corporate customers account for somewhere between 55% and 75% of revenue. And a lot of it may never come back.

Airlines have cut schedules and have prematurely retired their biggest and most thirsty airliners – British Airways, KLM and others have ended Boeing 747 services ahead of schedule. BA’s fleet was intended to be phased out by 2024 – the aircraft stopped flying in the summer. In their place are cheaper, smaller and more fuel-efficient twinengined aircraft - so even if the schedules

return, the capacity will not.

And right now, the schedules are nowhere near 2019. Air France said it planned to operate 50% of its planned schedule in November and December 2020, while KLM said it targeted 60% of capacity for the same period. EasyJet, which recovered to operate 38% of its planned capacity in the third quarter of 2020, said Q4 capacity would be down to 25% of planned levels. Meanwhile in October Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr ws reported as saying he would be happy to reach 20% of 2019 capacity levels in winter

2020-21. British Airways, which has cut up to 13,000 jobs as a result of Covid-19, said it did not expect demand to recover its pre-crisis levels until 2023 at the earliest.

Europe is the hardest-hit region for aviation. Year to date cumulative seat capacity was down by 55% in the first 10 months of the year – worse than in any other region, and in October the reduction was running at 62-63%. Average weekly seat capacity among European airlines was running at 11.3m CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

Even new aircraft like these Boeing 787s have been parked-up on airport aprons following a collapse in demand for travel and closed national borders

DECEMBER 2020

15

news analysis: business travel CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

seats, compared to 29.8m in October 2019.

One bright area – seat capacity on domestic flights was down a lot less – around 37% yearon-year, compared with international seat capacity, which is down more than 70%.

Instead of flying abroad for meetings, employees will continue to use videoconferencing services such as Teams and Zoom. These services work, and will only get better as 5G systems improve communications bandwidth, allowing HD videoconferencing. Many corporations have acknowledged this shift, and are choosing to allow non-manufacturing staff to work from home, as they are actually finding it has improved productivity. The shift to home working is likely to start an urban exodus, with workers and companies getting rid of expensive city centre offices in favour of smaller, more flexible workspaces in the suburbs or in cheaper outlying towns.

Private hire operators with a strong business focus have to find ways to cope with this. Green Tomato Cars managing director Jonny Goldstone – whose business is 97% corporate – acknowledges it will be difficult.

And he’s pessimistic about the airline sector’s ability to recover. “Business air travel will never recover to what it was,” he says. “It will go back to something like it was before the no-frills carriers. Travellers will pay if they really need to fly. But they won’t be flying from City Airport to Amsterdam for a three-hour business meeting.”

On the other hand, a virus will see a partial return to office working, Goldstone believes.

“While people thought remote working was best, some are now feeling jaded and cannot replace the dynamism of the office environment.” This might mean one or two days a week, and given that there is likely to be a resistance to commuting by bus, train or tube, there will be new opportunities for private hire operators to offer door-to-door commuter journeys.

Where business travel is deemed necessary, increasing numbers of corporations are likely to turn to private jets. According to a Honeywell Aerospace forecast on corporate aircraft, business jet operators’ plans to buy new aircraft are largely unaltered by the pandemic. Private flights carry smaller groups and promise wealthy passengers less risk of exposure to the coronavirus, so they have generally fared better than those of commercial airlines, with operators like NetJets and VistaJet reporting improved demand this summer.

The industry, which delivered 809 business

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A scene most airports got used to in 2020 – deserted terminal airports

jets in 2019, has still not recovered since its peak of 1,317 deliveries in 2008. Honeywell’s 2020 business aviation outlook said new aircraft deliveries would only return to prepandemic levels by the middle 2020s. But it said it expected business jet usage to recover to 2019 levels by the second half of 2021.

Scott Neal, senior vice president of worldwide sales for bizjet-maker Gulfstream, said: “We are seeing corporate customers expressing interest in growing their fleets so they can fly more executives and others privately, to safeguard employees’ health and prevent disruptions to their business.”

For beleaguered chauffeur operators, the private jet market has at least offered some work at a time when most regular jobs have dried up. Will Senior, managing director of iChauffeur, reported that his company was getting around 10 trips a week from London to private terminals, mainly at Stansted and Luton, prior to the second lockdown. “We should be doing about 60 a week at this time of year,” he says. “The market started to open up again in September, but then was locked down again.”

The airline industry is not the only key indicator of business travel. The hotel industry has also been hit hard by Covid-19, and analysts PricewaterhouseCoopers offers a bleak outlook for recovery, predicting that hotel occupancy rates in 2021 are forecast to be 55% across the UK, and could take four years to return to pre Covid-19 levels.

The availability of a vaccine that can be quickly and widely administered is key to demand recovery coupled with consumer confidence to travel. PwC’s forecast for occupancy in 2021 is predicted to be 52.4% for London and 59.2% for UK regions.

This represents a decline of 31% and 16% respectively when compared to 2019. The only significant market now, and into 2021, will be UK domestic tourism. Hotel room occupancy rates across the UK are forecast to be at the lowest level since hotel benchmarking services began gathering data in the 1970s.

Business travel will remain depressed.

Cities relying heavily on corporate travel and events, such as London and Edinburgh, are forecast to experience lower occupancy

rates in 2021 compared to coast and country locations. As with air travel, the hotel sector expects the recovery in occupancy to take longer than recovery from the 2008 global financial crisis. In London, a return to 2019 levels in real terms is unlikely until 2024, with the UK regions possibly achieving the same result a little earlier in 2023 subject to a successful vaccine implementation in 2021.

If the airline and hotel industries both agree that business travel will not be back to normal levels until 2024, what about tourism?

It’s easy to understand its importance - in 2019, tourism made up 10% of global GDP, worth $9.3 trillion. In several European countries, its share is significantly higher.

For example, tourism in Croatia contributes 24% of GDP, in Greece 20%, in Spain 12%, in Portugal 8%, and in France 7.5%. In the United States, tourism generated $1.5 trillion, or 4.7% of GDP. But in 2020, tourism is down between twothirds and three-quarters. Travel bookings in the US this October were at about a third of October 2019’s level, and 40% of hospitality workers are out of work. Greek hotels only reached 35% occupancy this summer, while Spain only hit 30% and Portugal 25%. Group travel is particularly problematic, with coach parties proving difficult to socially distance, unless all members of the tour party have been vaccinated against Covid-19. Even then, with a 90% effectiveness, one person in each 50-seater coach could become infected, even if everyone has had the jab. This does create opportunities for car services, allowing tour parties to be split into smaller groups and transported by car. Certainly the new vehicle demand among chauffeur firms seems to be for seven-seater Mercedes-Benz V-Class type vehicles rather than saloons. iChauffeur’s Will Senior is hopeful that travel bookings from the US – a big part of the company’s business in the past – could start to come back in 2021, as there is pent-up demand for holidays. “It could start to come back from June 2021, but we won’t be at full capacity,” he says. “We were doing 60 jobs a day – we could be back to 40. But in two or three years’ time, iChauffeur still might only be half the size it was.”

DECEMBER 2020

news analysis: business travel

Private jets may be the only way to avoid queues at customs and passports in 2021

How the nightmare of Brexit will deliver further misery for the brusied business travel sector As Professional Driver closed for press, Britain was days away from Brexit chaos as prime minister Boris Johnson bumbled and stumbled toward the Armageddon of a “no-deal” Brexit.

For business travel, Brexit represents another layer of trouble on top of Covid-19, and the refusal by the UK government to ask for an extended transition period is now looking irresponsible to the point of recklessness.

So-called “Project Fear” is bcoming all too real as we enter 2021.

Businesses are now piping up about the problems Brexit will create – not just the worst-case “no-deal” scenario, but any form of Brexit. As a “third nation”, travel between the UK and the 27 European Union nations will be subject to paperwork and restrictions that will impact on companies such as private hire and chauffeur firms that serve the business travel market. Meanwhile negotiations over the fishing industry, a sector so trivial as to be insignificant (it accounts for 0.06% of GDP) dominate the Brexit negotiations, as Johnson puts appeasing a small claque of shrillvoiced, jingoistic nationalists ahead of peoples’ livelihoods. What a mess.

So what does Brexit mean for business travellers. In short, it means the end of freedom of movement. While right-wing politicians such as home secretary Priti Patel celebrate this as a means of clamping down on immigration, in reality it is imposing far more stringent curbs on the ability of British workers to travel. It means a tsunami of paperwork – far from ridding

DECEMBER 2020

PM Johnson’s highwire act continues to keep the country on the edge of disaster

ourselves of “unelected bureaucrats”, Brexit is providing them with plenty of work.

The position for business travel between the UK and the EU27 is not straightforward.

As EU members, UK passport holders have been travelling happily and freely to the EU27 countries for business or work under freedom of movement rules. But on December 31, regardless of whether or not there is a deal, that will stop. UK passport holders travelling

to the EU27 will need to qualify for entry in the same way as any other ‘third country’ or nonEU national.

The rules will depend on the country being visited, but visa-free travel will generally only be possible for UK passport holders for a limited number of permitted business activities. This is likely to cover meetings with colleagues, clients or customers as well as attending conferences and exhibitions connected with trade, industry or work.

Anything beyond that is likely to require a work visa under the rules of the EU27 country being visited. The proposed activities of the individual will be key rather than the duration or frequency of travel, meaning a one-day trip could be as problematic as a three-month trip.

Even for short trips UK nationals will have to confirm the purpose and duration of the trip; demonstrate they have accommodation and funds available for the trip; and have at least six months left to run their passport at the time of entry into the EU. They will only be able to stay in the EU for a maximum of 90 days in each 180. Similar rules will apply to EU27 nationals arriving in the UK. All this is likely to act as a disincentive for business travel. It’s just as well that corporations have got used to Zoom, Teams and Skype, as you can bet the preference will be for using those rather than endless customs queues. “Taking back control” doesn’t look such a good idea now, does it.

—Mark Bursa

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Have you signed up to the Safe Taxi & Private Hire Charter?

Option to pay by card through the app, to avoid drivers and passengers using cash.

Hand sanitisers will be provided to all drivers and customers.

Drivers will sanitise their hands regularly.

No physical contact with the passenger unless in an emergency situation or if a passenger requests assistance.

Drivers will wear clean clothes each day, be well-presented and maintain impeccable personal hygiene.

Vehicles which have a shield installed will be regularly cleaned and sanitised.

The passenger area of the vehicle will be wiped down and cleaned with sanitiser regularly.

The driver will conduct a weekly inspection and deep clean of their vehicle.

Signage to be displayed, (where available and where licensing permits) to convey safety and sanitation messages in and out of vehicle.

Social distancing guidelines will be followed by the driver.

Drivers will wear PPE in line with the latest government guidelines.

Sign up to get your pack, adopt the guidelines and promote one message

to get the UK moving again

#GoSafeGoTaxi

200+ signatories and counting

200 sign-ups in 2 weeks! Huge thanks to all the operators nationwide for taking the time to sign up and support the #GoSafeGoTaxi campaign and the launch of the Safe Taxi & Private Hire Charter. It’s wonderful to see the industry working together. Join the movement - Sign up, share and get involved at: https://gosafegotaxi.com/

FOCUS: ev market

Emission impossible?

Is the UK government’s ambitious plan to switch all car sales to electric cars by 2030 achievable?

Mark Bursa

T

he uk government’s announcement that it plans to bring forward the end-of-sale date for new petrol and diesel cars by a further five years to 2030 has certainly focused the minds of the car industry. The decision is political – prime minister Boris Johnson wants to make the UK, freshly decoupled from its European partners, the fastest G7 country to decarbonise cars and vans.

But the decision raises more questions than answers, with many in the industry questioning whether the deadlines and targets outlined in the plan are achievable.

Will global automakers be able to supply sufficient battery-electric vehicles to replace the 2.2 million or so petrol and diesel cars sold every year in the UK? And at the same time, will they be able to satisfy demand from all other markets, many of which

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have announced similar plans to switch sales away from the internal combustion engine?

UK sales figures show battery vehicles trebled their market share, albeit in a market down 27%, from 3% to 9% in the first 11 months of 2020. BEV sales are on course to surpass 11,000 cars this year, more than double the 5,000 sold in 2019.

Plug-in hybrids are also growing fast,

Mike Galvin

up 76% to 7,700 in the January-November 2020 period. Combined sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids across 18 Western European countries have topped 1 million, closing in on double last year’s tally.

Progress, but not as dramatic as required.

There are questions around infrastructure too. Even though money is promised to help deliver charge points, how will this be deployed? Will the money be allocated to private individuals for the fitment of home chargers, or will the money be available to commercial installers of public rapid charge points? And will there be some effort in bringing order to the chaos within the charging networks, where a plethora of companies, many of them demanding deposits, smart cards and specific apps, make the business of EV charging a whole lot more complicated than filling up with petrol or diesel at a service station.

And then there’s the issue of taxation.

The established system, whereby fuel duty

DECEMBER 2020

FOCUS: ev market and VAT on sales at the pump is collected at point of sale and channelled directly to HMRC, is a good and robust one. And it raises some £28bn a year (Covid-19 notwithstanding) in fuel duty and a further £6bn in VAT. That money is hard to replace.

If EV users are recharging at home on Economy 7 overnight tariffs. It’s not really possible to charge different rates for “car electricity” against “home electricity”.

You could impose a duty on sales though charge points, but this would be a major disincentive to switch. If the price of electric energy reaches parity with fossil fuels, why would consumers pay the £10,000 model-for-model premium to switch from IC to EV, when EV charging as it stands offers a much less convenient way of filling up?

This raises the unwelcome spectre of road pricing – soundly rejected the last time it was mooted under Gordon Brown in 2007. It carries poll tax-like overtones, and has been criticised as being a tax on the poor, and on those living in remote areas. And it would result in those still driving IC-engined cars after 2030 – these will still be in the majority – being doublecharged: once at the pump and once again to use the roads. It’s an unhappy situation, but chancellor Rishi Sunak is known to be looking at it.

Industry consultant Dr Mike Galvin believes road pricing is a distinct possibility in a post-Covid world, where there might be fewer objections than in 2007. “We’ve shut the pubs this year, so road pricing might not seem so radical,” he says. “The move to electric vehicles will cause a gaping hole in terms of tax. As well as road tax, clean vehicles pay lower road tax too.”

The government has announced a twophased approach in its EV policy. Step 1 will see the phase-out date for the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans brought forward to 2030. Step 2 will see all new cars and vans be fully zero emission at the tailpipe from 2035. Between 2030 and 2035, new cars and vans can be sold if they

have the capability to drive “a significant distance” with zero emissions (for example, plug-in hybrids or full hybrids), though this has not yet been defined.

With new-generation PHEVs capable of 50-60 miles of zero-emissions range, and the likelihood that could improve further, it seems short-sighted to kill hybrid technology when it could bring about the air quality improvements that the government desires on short-range urban journeys, while allowing a less fraught inter-city capability without “range anxiety”. At a stroke, clever and evolving technology will be nipped in the bud – cars such as Ford’s new Transit/Tourneo Custom PHEV, which uses a small 1.0-litre petrol generator to provide highway drive and on-the-road recharging, while using geofencing to ensure EV-only travel in urban zones.

Within the package, more than £1.8 billion is being committed to the plan. The bulk of this - £1.3 billion – is to accelerate

the roll-out of charge points for electric vehicles in homes, streets across the UK and on motorways in England. The rest of the money is £582m in grants for those buying zero or ultra-low emission vehicles to make them cheaper to buy and incentivise more people to make the transition. In practice, these grants serve only to reduce the price differential between EVs and their petrol/diesel counterparts. EV sales may be in excess of 10% of the UK market, but the cars are still premium-priced.

The government hopes “green number plates” introduced from this month, will increase awareness of cleaner vehicles on our roads and help local authorities bring in local incentives. The government suggests drivers could benefit from local initiatives such as cheaper parking and cost-free entry into zero-emission zones.

The DfT will publish a green paper in the coming months on the post-EU regulatory regime for CO2 emissions from new road vehicles. This will consider both overall fleet efficiency and how to best deliver the transition to 100% zero emission sales for cars and vans. A consultation on the phaseout of new diesel heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) to put the UK in the vanguard of zero emission freight will also be launched – though this is an altogether more challenging project which could – we hope – help put Hydrogen fuel properly on the map, as many believe it offers a better and ultimately cleaner long-term alternative to Lithium batteries, which while offering clean tailpipe emissions, are far from ecologically friendly in their manufacture.

So are the manufacturers ready? It’s a tall order. At the same time as these plans were published, Nissan put out a press release celebrating 10 years of the Leaf, the car that was the first practical EV that could be used as a taxi. Unveiled in 2010 and first on sale in the UK a year later, the 500,000th Leaf rolled off the UK production line in Sunderland in September this year.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

“Road pricing is a distinct possibility in a post-Covid world, where there might be fewer objections than in 2007. Dr Mike Galvin says: ‘We’ve shut the pubs this year, so road pricing might not seem so radical. The move to electric vehicles will cause a gaping hole in terms of tax. As well as road tax, clean vehicles pay lower road tax too’....”

DECEMBER 2020

21

FOCUS: ev market

Infrastructure is the key to making the switch Green Tomato Cars managing director Jonny Goldstone is clear as to what the Government’s priority should be – “The three Is,” he says. “Infrastructure, infrastructure and infrastructure.” He has a point. If you’ve used an electric car over the past few years, you’re bound to have suffered from “range anxiety” and inconvenience trying to hunt down a working charge point.

Ecotricity was an early mover on motorway service areas and even offered the service for free at first – but when the charge points weren’t working and you were instructed to make a U-turn at the next junction to use the charger on the opposite carriageway, the time and irritation factors reached critical mass. It’s better now, and certainly the main motorway corridors are now well served with charge points, with Ecotricity upgrading much of its infrastructure.

Ecotricity now has more than 300 “electricity pumps”, as it calls them, around the UK. The company has an “Electric Highway” app, which allows you to find the nearest sites and pay directly. The company also offers home electricity deals that give 50% discounts at Ecotricity charge points.

Ecotricity is not the only big player – Tesla obviously has its own dedicated network, while European firm Ionity is installing large charging hubs at Extra service areas. Ionity is becoming a major player in the infrastructure game.

Its strategy is to connect cities and countries through a fast and reliable high-power charging network along European highways. Ionity already operates a network of more than 300 stations across Europe, and its target is to have high-power 350kW charging stations every 7090 miles.

The European Commission has set a longterm goal of carbon-neutral transport by 2050. The mobility sector accounts for 25% of EU carbon emissions, so a 90% decrease in transport emissions, and an increase in renewable energy sources is needed to hit that target. This pan-European Green Deal will see more than 13 million EVs on the roads of Europe, as well as 1 million charging points open to the public by 2025. At the moment, EV sales are low but rising. Between 2020 and 2025 it is expected that 400 new battery-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 21

And having tested the Leaf along the way as it evolved, it’s clear that EV development has come on in leaps and bounds. The early models were capable of 60-80 miles of range, depending on weather conditions. A round trip in an early Leaf from Surrey to Central London was challenging without an electrical “splash and dash” somewhere on the journey. By 2018, the second-generation Leaf promised 140 miles of range, and delivered that

22

powered electric vehicle models will enter the market, covering all sizes and body styles.

The biggest element of the UK government’s “Green Deal” - £1.3 billion – is to be spent on charging infrastructure. The money will include grants for homeowners, businesses and local authorities to install charge points, as well as supporting the deployment of public rapid charge points such as Ionity’s network. To date, more than 140,000 residential points and 9,000 points for staff parking at businesses have been installed, as well as 19,000 public charge points, including over 3,500 rapid devices.

The government claims this is one the largest networks in Europe, but is it enough?

The private hire and taxi sector is already being forced into zero-emissions vehicles.

Transport for London will no longer allow any non-PHEV or ZEV to be licensed, despite the fact that government guidelines set out jointly by the Department for Transport and the Department of the Environment do not require such draconian measures at this stage. But this is bound to trigger similar moves across

pretty accurately. Now the car has a bigger battery again and should easily cover well in excess of 200 miles on a single charge – that’s a trebling of capability in a decade.

Can we get further, or will the performance increments become smaller as the technology reaches maturity? Most manufacturers seem to be working on a 300-mile range ceiling. This is acceptable for most private motorists, and probably acceptable for fleet users. Not many urban taxis or PHVs come close to this daily mileage – and for

charge points

the UK in the coming decade, and high-mileage users such as taxis and PHVs are going to need dedicated chargers in order to keep cars moving and drivers earning.

And as we know, a lot of drivers don’t have the luxury of a driveway or a garage, and a system needs to be found whereby cars can be parked close to drivers’ homes and left overnight to charge. It’s welcome to see Uber working with charge point supplier Ubitricity to identify areas where drivers live and install charge points there. It would not be too difficult for local authorities to work with local private hire operators to identify similar opportunities.

There’s still work to do. There are too many service providers with their own rules, contracts, cards and apps. Rather like car parking, where there are a number of networks all requiring separate payment apps, there are many charge point operators. Some consolidation, or at least some simplification of payment and use, would be helpful, in order to help the transition to the electric economy.

—Mark Bursa

users with the availability of off-road charge points at home, going electric is workable.

For those that do – and we have seen a spike in longer-haul chauffeur journeys during the coronavirus crisis as business customers in particular look to avoid train travel for inter-city trips – an adjustment in attitude may be required.

“Unless battery life leaps forward, people will have to get used to the fact that sometimes the driver will have to stop to recharge the car,” says Dr Mike Galvin.

DECEMBER 2020

FOCUS: ev market New survey shows public appetite for EVs – but charging remains cause for concern

EV SURVEY

New research by EV charge point operator Osprey, in partnership with pub operator Marston’s, reveals an accelerating shift towards EVs and highlights some of the remaining barriers to adoption for UK drivers.

Almost half those surveyed (42%) expect to drive an EV in the next five years – equivalent to more than 16 million additional EVs on UK roads by 2025. This rises to 73% for 18-34 year olds. But the biggest obstacle to adoption is concerns over infrastructure. The number of public charging points and their availability (48%) and length of time it takes to charge a vehicle (43%) prove to be the biggest worries about public charging infrastructure.

Almost two thirds (59%) would prefer to use rapid public charging infrastructure compared to other charging speeds available, while more than a third (36%) of people would be encouraged to use public EV charging if there were good quality food and drink facilities at EV charging sites.

Covid-19 has also changed travel habits, the study reveals. Around 38% are more concerned about air pollution as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. A similar number (37%) are less likely to use public transport because of the pandemic, with over half of those (55%) likely to switch to a private car, potentially accelerating the shift to EVs. Marston’s recently opened the 100th Osprey rapid EV charging point at one of its facilities.

The partnership will eventually see a total of 400 rapid EV chargers installed across 200 sites, supporting the UK’s EV infrastructure requirements.

Secondhand market will propel affordable EVs into the mainstream One indicator of confidence in the electric vehicle market is the development of a used car market, making EVs affordable to less affluent consumers. According to online car supermarket BuyaCar.co.uk, it’s starting to happen, with a 67% increase in used EV sales during 2020.

Analysis of EV sales on BuyaCar.co.uk also shows that 2020 model year cars are most popular - bucking the trend for other fuel types, where older cars are more popular, with more cars registered in 2017 sold than from any other year.

It suggests that recent advances in addressing range anxiety are paying off and starting to make EVs a mainstream used car option. For example, the range of a Renault Zoe EV has increased from 130 miles between charges to 245 miles in the past five years.

Analysts at BuyaCar.co.uk also believe that a year of pandemic travel restrictions may have also encouraged some buyers to think less about longer distance journeys and look again at EVs. And the government

24

USED EVs

announcement of the end of IC-engined car sales gave the sector another boost, with enquiries and searches for EVs on BuyaCar. co.uk surging five-fold overnight and consistently remaining higher than before.

The rolling 30- day figure for EV searches currently stands 60% higher than for the rest of the year and is now pushing close to one in 10 initial enquiries.

Average prices paid on BuyaCar.co.uk for an electric car are significantly higher than for petrol or diesel cars, with only hybrids above them. With customers paying an average of around £2,000 more for an EV compared to a typical diesel and a whopping £6,000 more than for a petrol car, BuyaCar sees this as another sign of growing consumer confidence in electric cars.

Christofer Lloyd, editor of BuyaCar.co.uk, said: “Electric vehicles clearly remain a niche area of the used market at the moment, but with initial searches now knocking on the door of 10%, the signs of approaching mainstream acceptance are clearly there.”

DECEMBER 2020

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FOCUS: ev market

Gridserve’s Electric Forecourt aims to change the way we refuel Mark Bursa Do electric vehicle charge points have to be randomly sited at roadsides or in car parks?

Why can’t EVs be refuelled in the same way as petrol or diesel cars? Gridserve thinks they can, and has just opened its first Electric Forecourt, in Braintree, Essex, the first of a planned network of 100 in the UK over the next five years.

The site is at Great Notley, just off the A131 – about 17 miles from Stansted Airport. It enables 36 electric vehicles to be charged simultaneously, with high-power 350kW chargers, enabling users to add 200 miles of range in 20 minutes. And Gridserve reckons charging times will reduce as battery technologies develop, particularly with the arrival of solid-state batteries in the coming years.

Nevertheless, the Electric Forecourt is designed to offer facilities to help motorists while away the time while their car is being charged. The site includes various shops including WHSmith, Costa Coffee, Booths, a Post Office, and Gourmade.

The facility also includes a waiting lounge, free superfast WiFi, high-end washrooms, a dedicated children’s area, business meeting room pods and even a “well-being area” with exercise bikes that generate electricity.

Gridserve is investing £1 billion in the plan.

CEO Toddington Harper said: “Charging has to be simple and free of anxiety, which is why we’ve designed our Electric Forecourts entirely around the needs of drivers, updating the traditional

26

petrol station model for a net-zero carbon world.”

Electricity is generated from both the solar power canopies above the chargers, and a network of hybrid solar farms, also operated by Gridserve.

The UK’s first subsidy-free solar farm in Clay Hill is paired with Braintree Electric Forecourt, providing 100% renewable energy via the National Grid.

There is also a 6 MWh battery onsite which helps to balance the local energy grid and shift energy to periods when it is more valuable. For example, on windy winter nights the battery can store enough energy to drive 24,000 miles in electric vehicles the following day, helping to maximise the value of renewable energy resources, stabilise the grid, and keep prices low.

Drivers charging at the Electric Forecourt will initially pay just 24p per kWh of energy (including VAT), which is currently the lowest ultra-high power

“Electric Forecourt, in Braintree, Essex, the first of a planned network of 100 in the UK over the next five years.

The site is just off the A131 – about 17 miles from Stansted Airport...”

ELECTRIC FORECOURT charging rates on the market today – meaning a typical charge from 20% to 80% costs under £10 for an average-size electric vehicle on the market today.

To deliver additional flexibility Gridserve also plans to introduce a tiered pricing structure in the future, as well as an app.

In addition to the Electric Forecourts, Griderve has teamed up with Hitachi Capital (UK) to launch Gridserve Electric Vehicle Solutions, the UK’s first net-zero electric vehicle leasing business. The service is designed to bring the cost of driving electric well below that of petrol or diesel cars, and minimise the environmental impact of EVs. Net zero carbon energy is included in monthly leasing payments, meaning drivers can charge at Electric Forecourts without paying any additional costs. Gridserve says this removes a key barrier to mass EV adoption, enabling people to compare the cost of leasing a petrol or diesel vehicle, plus fuel, with an electric vehicle with fuel included.

The benefit is amplified for the 40% of UK drivers without access to off-street parking who would otherwise have to rely on less dependable and typically more expensive public charging infrastructure compared to charging at home.

For those who lease through Gridserve, charging at an Electric Forecourt becomes cheaper than home charging because energy is already included in monthly leasing payments. And to reduce the environmental impact of EVs even further, Gridserve will plant 100 trees for every electric vehicle leased through the service.

DECEMBER 2020

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FOCUS: ev market

The alternative alternative

HYDROGEN

— will trucking demands give Hydrogen the boost it needs?

Mark Bursa All the talk may be of battery-electric vehicles, but Hydrogen remains the elephant in the room.

It has some very major advantages – range is not an issue, and recharging is no more difficult than filling up with LPG. And it has disadvantages. The fuel cells required to turn Hydrogen into electricity are very expensive. Only a couple of car makers are committed to the technology – mainly Hyundai and Toyota, and both have hedged their bets to some degree by backing EV technology too.

Perhaps the biggest issue is extracting the Hydrogen itself. This has traditionally involved using fossil fuels, and critics say the process is inefficient, using more energy than it creates.

However, that might be about to change. And the prime driver behind hydrogen is the commercial vehicle market. Cars make up 44.3% of EU transport emissions, but light- and heavy-duty trucks contribute a sizable 27.9% as well. And it’s not so easy to develop battery-electric heavy trucks.

Batteries are heavy, and you’d need a lot of them to move a 44-tonne artic. That would compromise the payload, making the vehicle inefficient. Which is where hydrogen – the lightest substance on the planet – comes in.

A group of seven truck makers, including Volvo, Scania, Ford and Daimler, agreed last month to stop selling diesel-powered trucks by 2040, a decade earlier than previously planned. And Shell has now teamed up with a group of truck makers including Daimler, Volvo and Iveco, as well as Austrian oil and gas firm OMV, to develop a programme called H2Accelerate, designed to make Hydrogen the fuel of choice for road freight vehicles.

The program seeks to synchronise investments in early-stage hydrogen truck and fuelling infrastructure to enable the 2020s to become a “decade long scale-up”, with a view to thousands of Hydrogen-powered trucks being manufactured and a European network of refuelling stations by the second half of this decade. The trade body Hydrogen Europe expects 10,000 hydrogen trucks on Europe’s roads by 2025, rising rapidly to 100,000 by 2030.

“The prize is clear. By boosting scale in a big way, hydrogen-fuelled trucks will need to become available to customers at or below the cost of owning and operating a diesel truck today,” said Elisabeth Brinton, EVP for Shell’s New Energies unit, in a statement.

“This means truck customers will need to have access to a fully zero-

28

Hyundai Nexo SUV at the hydrogen filling station, Cobham Services M25

emissions vehicle with a similar refuelling time, range and cost range compared to the vehicles in use today.”

Martin Lundstedt, president and CEO of the Volvo Group, said Hydrogen and batteries would both form part of the solution. “In the future, the world will be powered by a combination of batteryelectric and fuel-cell electric vehicles, along with other renewable fuels to some extent,” he said in a statement.

For car producers, the announcement is good news. Not only will infrastructure become available – analysts believe Hydrogen could be a useable fuel for all users with as few as 100 filling stations in the UK – the demand for fuel cells for trucks will bring down the cost of those pricey fuel cells for car makers.

And the fuel cell cars that are on the market are very impressive. We tested the Hyundai Nexo SUV last year, and its 414-mile WLTP range is unlikely to cause range anxiety. And its ability to be refuelled in no longer than a petrol car gives it a major advantage over a BEV. Toyota, the other main player in the HEV sector, has recently revealed a secondgeneration Mirai, which looks extremely impressive.

It has a much smaller fuel cell stack than the

New Toyota Mirai

Mk1 Mirai, weighing half as much, yet it delivers more performance and range – Toyota estimates 400 miles on a tankful of H2. And while the price is still high and volumes low – Toyota sold 11,000 Mk1 Mirais worldwide over five years, including 180 in the UK, but is looking for a ten-fold increase with the new model over a similar timeframe.

The car is likely to cost around £50,000, which is a lot less than the £66,000 price tag of the Mk1, and but it’s easy to see a downward curve there as volumes rise.

The other key to hydrogen adoption is “green hydrogen”. This involves making hydrogen through a chemical process known as electrolysis. This method uses an electrical current to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in water. If this electricity is obtained from renewable sources, it would produce energy without any CO2 emissions.

It’s not a cheap process at the moment, but the technology is real. In Spain, Iberdrola is building a plant producing green hydrogen for industrial use in Europe. The Puertollano plant in Ciudad Real will consist of a 100MW photovoltaic solar plant, a lithium-ion battery system with a storage capacity of 20MWh and one of the largest electrolytic hydrogen production systems in the world (20 MW). With an investment of €1.8 billion until 2027, it will produce 15,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year. The laws of supply and demand apply. The need to power those thousands of heavy trucks is likely to focus the minds of energy companies into making hydrogen in the cleanest and cheapest way possible. And that’s good news for the hydrogen car market.

DECEMBER 2020

FOCUS: ev market Making electric cars affordable for private hire drivers One of the main barriers to going electric for private hire drivers is the cost of the vehicle. Manufacturers are still pricing EVs at a premium, and for private hire drivers, that extra cost is a major reason to delay a switch from diesel or hybrid. In London, of course, drivers wanting to register a new car have to either go full electric or plug-in hybrid, so a cost-effective solution is required.

Vehicle rental specialist Splend believes it has the solution, offering an all-in bundled price for drivers to hire an electric car, with MOT, insurance and PCO licence cost all included, Without needing a deposit or a credit check, drivers can access a practical EV such as the Hyundai Ioniq Electric for an all-in price of £259 per week. That means they can be up and running straight away, and avoiding C-Charge payments, which could be a saving of up to £90 a week against a non-zero emissions compatible car.

Splend was founded in Australia but is now headquartered in the UK. Its operations are run by a familiar face, former Addsion Lee fleet operations manager Justin Patterson [pictured], who joined the company 18 months ago. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a challenge for the company. Overseas operations in Mexico and Canada were closed, while plans to expand into three other UK cities, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, which were ready to go live at the same time as lockdown in March, have been put on ice.

Now the focus is shifting to electric cars, Patterson says. And the transition has been accelerated during the pandemic. “People are doing fewer miles, and there’s less of an aspiration to own a car in cities,” he says. “People are likely to flock to the taxi market rather than public transport when they are not commuting regularly, and that creates an opportunity for electric vehicles.”

Congestion charging has accelerated the use of EVs, and the ULEZ zone is getting wider, making suburban operators liable for extra charges too. Drivers are turning down jobs late in the day that incur the charge, as they feel there is no way they will be able to earn enough to cover the cost of the charge. But having an electric vehicle removes that from the equation. And factoring in substantial fuel savings, the cost issue is flipped on its head, Patterson says.

“The stars are starting to align. EVs are becoming one of the cheapest types of vehicle to operate.”

Patterson says he’s “not evangelical about EVs”, but he sees how the market is developing, especially with the availability of cars with the right combination of price and range. “We’re going to land with some volume in 2021,” he says. For city operations, going electric is the way to go. And the mindset about charging up is something that will become second nature to drivers – rather like we automatically charge up our smartphones all the time, the trick with EVs is to grab some charge whenever you can – during meal breaks or downtime while waiting at airports, for example.

“It’s horses for courses,” he says. “An operator in Brighton travelling up to Gatwick or London would be better off in a PEV. But if you’re mainly going from the City to Heathrow, an EV is going to be right for you. Splend is focusing on the Hyundai Ioniq, which offers a good combination of range and passenger space, as well as the Kia e-Niro compact SUV. The company is also looking at MG – the Chinese-owned British brand has launched a range of budgetpriced EVs that bring down the entry cost.

But the trick is not just to provide cars. “We need to look after the

DECEMBER 2020

SPLEND

driver. That’s something the app platforms are not doing.” Drivers who rent their cars from Splend become “members” – in return, Splend provides them with information and advice that offers an advantage over their competitors. A weekly newsletter advises them of trends and initiatives in the market in real time – so if one of the ride-hailing apps is offering a discount or bonus, it advises Splend users to focus on that operator.

“Anyone can rent a car – but you need to maximise revenue and minimise cost,” Patterson says. And although the company has signed a deal with Bolt to help its drivers switch to electric (see

page 11), he says: “We’re agnostic about which platforms the drivers use. We give out value advice, letting drivers know where the opportunities are.” Splend also offers training and advice on topics such as how to maximise downtime, or simple stuff like how to avoid getting a parking fine.

Splend serves around 1,000 drivers in London at present, but with around 115,000 licenced drivers on TfL’s books, there’s plenty to go at.

“There’s always 20,000 drivers ready to change car,” says Patterson.

While Splend generally offers a straight rental deal for three pr four years, one growing service is rent-to-own, where the rental fee covers the purchase of the car. So at the end of four years, the driver takes ownership of the car. The driver can then either keep using it, sell it, or pass it on to a family member – something that Patterson says is a likely outcome, with the driver then signing up for another new car.

Next on the agenda is an executive offering – though right now, the choice of pure electric cars suitable for the E-Class segment is limited.

But the electric opportunity is there for the private hire sector. “We’re at the cutting edge, and the move to electric is to our advantage,” Patterson says.

29

first drive

Mercedes-Benz S500L 4Matic

Dear Santa...

ProDriver Tested 29.8mpg / 28mph Dec.2020

Mark Bursa

A

t last, it’s here. And it doesn’t

disappoint. Covid-19 has played havoc with manufacturers’ launch schedules, and a second lockdown meant the scheduled October launch of the new MercedesBenz S-Class in Stuttgart was cancelled at the last minute, leaving us tantalisingly so near, yet so far from a first encounter with the last S-Class of the internal combustion age.

Thankfully, Mercedes-Benz UK has managed to spirit a couple of cars over to the UK for the press to drive. So instead of Germany, we’re get to see the car at Mercedes’ UK head office at Milton Keynes, and hit the roads of Bedfordshire rather than Baden-Wurtemburg.

The cars are left-hookers, and high-end S500 spec, with straight-six 3.0-litre petrol engine that might not be the automatic choice for chauffeurs – but it gives us a chance to see the full technological capabilities of the new S, the latest attempt to raise the bar in the luxury saloon sector.

First, we need to confront the elephant in the room. The order books are open and the first UK cars will be here early in the new year. But London chauffeur operators can relax for now – because

30

you won’t be able to licence the initial supplies of petrol and diesel-engined models for private hire.

Mercedes has a difficult job of satisfying global demand, and that means a decision was taken not to include the plug-in hybrid version of the new S-Class in the launch range. China and America, the biggest markets, are still fossil fuel fixated.

It’s coming, but it won’t be here until the second half of 2021, which means Mercedes will be without a London chauffeur offering for the next six, maybe nine months. Covid-19 may have spared Stuttgart’s blushes with no new PHEV, as the chauffeur market has been devastated by the pandemic. But there will be some chauffeurs who will really want to get their hands on a new S, but will be frustrated at the delay.

It will also give Mercedes-Benz executives a chance to work out exactly where the S-Class PHEV will be pitched. The previous generation S560e was something of a premium model – a cleaner S500, perhaps – whereas rival BMW has pitched its 745Le PHEV as an alternative to a 740Ld diesel, with just a small price differential.

This conversation is ongoing in Mercedes, and executives are clearly aware of the issue.

“Please be patient with the pricing of the plugin,” says Dirk Fetzer, Mercedes-Benz’s director of product management for S-Class. “We have not done the pricing yet, but we need to have an entrylevel hybrid.” So it looks like the PHEV version will come in a range of trim options, including one that is close to the top-selling diesel S350d.

It’ll be called S580e, and it looks like it’ll be worth waiting for, as Mercedes is claiming a 100km electric range – or 62 miles – making the PHEV more capable than many small EVs of just a few years ago in zero-emissions range terms.

It’ll combine the same 3.0-litre petrol engine that we’re testing in the S500 with a gearbox-mounted electric motor and a 28KWh battery pack – twice the capacity of the S560e – to give combined total output of 510hp – 75hp more than the S500.

It’s to be hoped that the battery pack won’t impinge on boot space the way it does on the current S560e. The S500L’s boot is cavernous, so even imagining a higher floor, it should still allow two large cases to be stowed. What there won’t be is a diesel PHEV, like the E300e. Diesel’s days are clearly numbered, and only a few markets might be interested in such a powertrain.

DECEMBER 2020

Mercedes-Benz S500L 4Matic

So what’s it like? Styling has been simplified over the previous S-Class. Gone is the descending panel line from the front wing to the base of the rear wheel arch. Instead, the lines are far cleaner – the same evolution as happened with the E-Class.

The grille continues to grow, though, while the headlamps are smaller and neater thanks to advances in LED technology. It’s still recognisably an S-Class, though it’s not trying too hard to show off – perhaps because there will be more ostentatious Maybach versions in due course.

The most noticeable change is found when you climb into the driver’s seat. Gone is the “floating” horizontal dashboard and satnav, where two widescreen 12.3in displays were combined into one continuous display, including driving data, map, infotainment and camera images. The new s-Class again separates the dashboard from the main screen, and the map display has moved back to the centre of the dashboard, below the new, slimline air vents rather than above them. This is a vast, 12.8in OLED display, positioned in portrait format, Tesla-style. There are no buttons or switches at all on the dash apart from the chunky “engine start” button.

DECEMBER 2020

On the downside, this move takes the screen out of the driver’s immediate eye line – but that doesn’t account for the dashboard display. This is an extraordinary 3D screen, where a 3D map view appears to float behind the dashboard information such as speed – and this combines with a very detailed and comprehensive head-up display which means you’ll not need to refer too often to the main screen to work out where you are and where you’re heading.

The big central screen means a farewell to a manual entry “Comand controller”. You’ll have to use another method to change the station or turn up the air conditioning. That can be via touch screen via gesture, via steering wheel buttons or via voice command, using the sophisticated MBUX system. It all works well, though I do think there will be many chauffeurs who will miss the discreet ability to enter data and change settings with the hand control on the centre console. But with a number of alternatives available, you should be able to find a way that suits.

Personally, I would prefer to have a directly controllable heater, rather than having to navigate touch-screen menus just to adjust the

first drive

temperature. We’ll need to live with the car a little longer than two hours in order to find the best way to operate it – and there’s a lot to operate!

Comfort is as you might expect – the seats appear to have the same functionality, including hot-stone massage – as the previous car. And the rear seats are equally impressive, while legroom has increased a tad thanks to a 51mm stretch in the LWB wheelbase (overall length is increased by 34mm). Our test car had funky tan seats with diamond stitching, charcoal headlining and “piano brown” dashboard detailing with bold pinstripes.

The level of customisation available is likely to be considerable.

On the road, the new S-Class is a revelation.

Traditionally, the flagship Mercedes has always been a more stately drive than either of its key rivals, the BMW 7-series and the Audi A8. But this time round, the new S-Class has been tuned to handle. Hustling round Bedfordshire B-roads was a real pleasure- the S500L felt agile and stable, without a hint of the “waft” that you CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

31

first drive

Mercedes-Benz S500L 4Matic

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31

might have felt with the previous car. Back-toback with a 7-series, the S perhaps has the edge in terms of ride and handling.

There are a number of reasons for this. One is 4Matic four-wheel drive, available for the first time on UK cars, as Mercedes has found a way to accommodate the drivetrain within a RHD format. Our car is a German-plated left-hooker and that’s the feel we’ll get on UK models. The other major addition is four-wheel steering, available on S400d and S500, which makes for terrific manoeuvrability in urban areas and tight car parks, with the rear wheels moving in opposition to the front wheels at low speeds.

There are two 4WS packages – one offering 4.5 degrees of movement and the other offering 10. Why two? To cope with different wheel sizes and tyre widths. Also factor in air suspension and active damping and the level of stability and precision in cornering is extremely impressive, with almost no perceptible body roll. It’s extremely quiet too – the bodyshell is packed with sound-deadening foam in the spaces within the metal, bringing noise down to extremely low levels.

The car has high levels of autonomy and will be capable of full hands-off Level 3 autonomous driving, when – and if – regulatory approval is given. And you can see this working via the headup display, which is by some distance the most sophisticated HUD we’ve experienced. As well as speed and nav information, the HUD broadcasts information about the road and the surrounding

verdict

t

he new S-Class is an immensely

impressive technological tour de force.

Mercedes has focused on functionality rather than radical restyling of the concept.

The S-Class has high levels of safety and massive improvements in ride and refinement, As a driver’s car, it might have even leapfrogged its traditionally more front seat-focused rivals too.

With a bristling array of technology, we barely skimmed the surface of the car’s capability in a couple of hours on the road. It’s certainly different from traditional Mercs in terms of how it operates – this car seems to represent a break from the previous generation of system, and it might take some getting used to. It’s such a shame that the plug-in hybrid is not part of the launch range.

Until it arrives, Mercedes will find its sales in the chauffeur sector restricted to non-licensed private chauffeurs. On the other hand, Mercedes might have got the timing right – as the chauffeur market might be showing signs of post-Covid recovery by the second half of 2021, when the PHEV is scheduled to launch. It should be worth waiting for.

32

traffic gleaned from the car’s camera and Lidar systems.

So if you drift out of lane when using lanekeeping assist, a red line appears, directly where the lane border is. When adaptive cruise is on, a lit bar tracks the vehicle in front, while other graphics indicate if a vehicle is about to pull out into your lane. In semi-autonomous mode, the car deals with this information and keeps its distance. For now, you still have to touch the steering wheel every few seconds. But the

data price as tested warranty ved

£100,035 36 months / 100,000 miles K

performance engine transmission power torque

0-62mph top speed combined economy co2 emissions

2.999-litre 6-cyl, 24v petrol 9 speed manual, AWD 435bhp @ 6,100rpm 520Nm from 1,800rpm 4.9sec 155mph 31.7-32.5mpg (WLTP) 199-202g/km (WLTP)

dimensions length

5,320mm

width

1,921mm

height

1,503mm

wheelbase

3,216mm

loadspace

550 litres

turning circle fuel tank

12.8m 76 litres + 8 litres reserve

capability is clearly there. Mercedes says it’s designed for highway use rather than urban conditions.

The automatic park assist systems are Level 4 compliant and can be done without driver intervention. So you can park the car remotely into parallel or perpendicular bays.

We haven’t tried it yet – but it’s a handy capability when parking a big car in a car park designed in an age when cars were generally smaller and narrower.

Prices start from £78,705 on-the-road for the entry model, the standard wheelbase S350d AMG Line. In the UK, the best-selling engine has been the S350d and around 80% of S-Classes sold in the UK are long-wheelbase models. A 9G-Tronic nine-speed automatic transmission comes as standard across the range. The powertrain mix will change when the PHEV arrives.

The S350d uses an inline six-cylinder diesel engine, which produces 286hp and 600Nm of torque. It emits 173g/km of CO2 and the LWB model delivers between 39.2 and 39.8 mpg (WLTP). Priced from £94,135, the S400d 4Matic, only available in LWB, uses the same engine but tuned to deliver 330hp and 700Nm. It emits 192g/km of CO2 and delivers between 37.7 and 38.7 mpg on the combined cycle.

The petrol-engined S 500 4Matic, tested here, has prices starting from £89,105 It produces 435hp and 520Nm of torque and uses an integrated starter-generator powered by the 48V on-board electrical system, allowing some mild hybrid functions. S500 delivers between 31.7 and 32.5mpg for the long wheel-base variant) and emits 184 g/km of CO2. Our test drive was reassuringly close to the quoted figure – 29.8mpg.

DECEMBER 2020

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the knowledge

Charging or gouging? A welcome CMA study into EV points

D

this is a clear dichotomy that the CMA is URING THE CURRENT PANDEMIC, going to look in to. keeping private hire and businesses alive is the sole interest of most people WHAT IF THE NIGHTMARE in this industry. So the news that the COMES TRUE? Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a ‘market study’ of the electric vehicle A nightmare scenario would be that charging charging market may not feature very highly on the point companies continue to edge up the costs of chatrooms and groups that have come to replace charging to a point (given the current differential the various roadshows and conferences that used we may have already reached it) whereby it bears to attract such earnest discussion. The normal Dr Michael Galvin no relationship between domestic supply costs mantra is that it’s a problem for tomorrow (usually and on-street charging. The poor old cab drivers https://mobility accompanied by a ‘if there is a tomorrow’). But is it? are stuffed as they can only use an electric vehicle; Assuming survival, businesses and drivers across serviceslimited many have no access to domestic supply and the country are going to find themselves customers .com instead are forced to pay exorbitant costs for of whatever networks at whatever costs they are charging. Hydrogen seems to be a long way away expected to pay. Why? Because the industry has to move and policymakers simply shrug and blame the market. Given to electric vehicles. From when the first discussions took that we have started with a blank sheet of paper, and are place in London concerning the introduction of the ultrahardly past that point, would this be a system that should be low emission zone, I and others have raised our concerns put in place? I think not! that drivers will be held to ransom when charging EVs. SOME FIGURES Typically, at the moment you will be paying around 8p per unit for your domestic supply, while at the charging point you may The very relevantly named Dr Rebecca Driver, a leading be paying around 34p (figures provided by the Energy Savings academic, wrote a September 2017 report called ‘The Provision Trust). Why the difference? of Rapid Charging Points in London’. She calculated that 8,000 Firstly, the charging point company has to drill holes, provide rapid charging points would need to be provided for the private and maintain kit, collect money - and ultimately make some hire and taxi industry in London. If that sounds a lot just think money. All true. that this is for 100,000-plus vehicles that will charge at similar Secondly it could be argued that the difference is because… times of the day and in similar places. Rapid charging is not they can. In the early discussion on this subject probably five going to be neatly spread throughout the day and night or years or more ago we argued that the charging point companies geographically across London. There will charging peaks and should be limited to a x% plus domestic supply costs pricing places that are more popular for charging than others. framework. Of course policymakers had other ideas – they were Transport for London had a strategy of ‘seeding’ London with not intending to pay for a charging infrastructure and instead 300 rapid charging points (90 reserved exclusively for Taxis) wanted ‘the market’ to provide the investment and in order to with the rest expected to be provided by the market/commercial do so needed to give them a clear run or why would they take on organisations. This is a fantasy based on no data whatsoever. the risk? I have since those early days not heard a word from the The likelihood is that the provision of charging points will lag far trade bodies on this subject. behind the sales of cars and the need for charging points. Range

SOME PERSPECTIVE To put this into some perspective I firmly believe that wrecking people’s health through having them live and work (including driving taxis and PH) in polluted cities is not a good situation. I firmly believe that something needs to be done. I also believe that choking taxi and PH drivers, not on fumes, but on high charging prices is not acceptable either.

Giving the market free rein to charge what it likes, or as much as the consumer of the charging points will pay, is also not right.

Particularly in the early days of charge points, the charging point companies will be exposed to risk and higher costs than is likely to be the case when the nation’s fleet has migrated to electric.

At this point they will know where to put the points, how many charging hours per day will be typically used and one presumes there will be a correlation between placing a charging point and the revenue that will flow from it. One hopes the outcome of all of

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extenders will be widely used which defeats the object of a Zero Emission Capable (ZEC) vehicle.

Government has made another policy change based on a good lunch and wishful thinking that new ICE vehicles can’t be sold after 2030 in the UK. So, if in nine years’ time all new vehicles must be EVs, in 2023 (in London) all PHVs must be EVs, if all taxis had to be EVs from January 1 this year what’s the problem?

Charging maybe?

Unlike many of the charging companies who have welcomed the CMA market study through gritted teeth, I certainly do welcome it and I hope that readers and trade organisations will contribute to it as the CMA invites them to. Otherwise a pandemic, Brexit and the rest of our challenges will seem easy compared to exorbitant charging costs and lack of charging points during the decades ahead. n Dr Michael S. Galvin https://mobilityserviceslimited.com

DECEMBER 2019

the knowledge

The new key workers in the financial recovery of 2021

T

he sterling efforts of the medical

“Accountants like me will become the key workers of the financial turnaround. We’ve have tried to keep the ship afloat by offering financial guidance and support through the pandemic...”

community have helped us through the Coronavius crisis of 2020, but as the Covid-19 vaccine is deployed and the nation’s health is secured, we can move toward the possibility of an economic recovery in 2021.

Now we’ll need to look elsewhere for support.

Accountants like me will become the key workers of the financial turnaround. We’ve have tried to keep the Gary Jacobs ship afloat by offering financial guidance and support through the pandemic, and we’ll continue to play a Gary Jacobs runs critical role in keeping companies going. The postDrivertax, an pandemic economic recovery will be about retaining accountancy firm staff after furlough, re-onboarding self-employed of work’ (SoW) referred to when talking about the specialising in drivers, offering restructuring and business advice, issues of self-employed status. the taxi and private and protecting companies from a hungry HMRC IR35 was originally set for this year but is now seeking to get the government’s money back. hire business being pushed to April 2021. The responsibility for Book-keeping software company Xero undertook determining employment status will no longer lie gary@drivertax.co.uk a major survey of its broad sector of SME clients with the sub-contractor themselves but with the recently and come up with the following figures: medium to large size business they contract to 43% of SMEs said their accountant was crucial to (you can see where I am going with this). Workers their pandemic survival; 32% of companies turned that fall inside IR35 will have to have their National to their accountant for Covid-19 financial recovery Insurance and PAYE deducted at source or offered advice (34% went to government website and 15% to externally through umbrella companies. family members). More importantly, 45% said their The SoW is the document used in a managed accountant was more important than ever before, service agreement for contracted-out services, with 58% naming their accountant as their most which specifies what outsourced work is being done. It is extremely trusted business advisor. Just saying… detailed and is being touted by many legal advice teams, and in my So, what are we to expect financially for the coming year? Watch opinion it is not suitable for hire and reward. So, what do we look out for the following issues, which will be areas of concern in 2021. for when IR35 rears its ugly head:

BOUNCE BACK LOAN GUARANTEES

Can a director have a personal guarantee with a Bounce Back or CBILS Loan, even when they never actually signed for it? Many directors have signed up for these loans because they do not need a personal guarantee, a fixed charge, or a debenture. If the company does go into liquidation and the loans were used to reduce their director’s loans or pay themselves preferentially, this will be caught by the Companies and Insolvency Act. More on this soon.

FURLOUGH FRAUD The furlough scheme is now extended until the end of April 2021. However the HMRC has already had some early victories in sniffing out furlough fraud and there will be ‘tears before bedtime’ for people that think the HMRC cannot trace your emails, social media, and potentially illegal business activity better than the govt can trace people infected with Covid-19.

STATEMENT OF WORK, AND IR35 Finally, next year sees the IR35 reforms fast approaching.

You are going to hear more and more the phrase, ‘statement

DECEMBER 2020

n Operators, do not take your position for granted n It can be managed effectively n There is no quick fix or workaround, but you need to be super

familiar with the legislation and work within contract chains for compliance.

If any of this either scares or confuses you, rest assured, we will be looking into all of these subjects in detail in the next few months. Meanwhile, I’d like to wish all of you season’s greetings and a safe, recovering new year.

Third SEISS grant applications must be in by January 29 The third Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Grant is now open for applications, but claims must be made on or before January 29, 2021. Individuals who can claim must have been eligible for the first and second SEISS grant but do not have to have claimed them. They must also declare that they intend to carry on trading and are currently trading but are impacted by coronavirus; or were previously trading but unable to due to coronavirus.

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the negotiator

Things can only get better. Surely?

A

s we leave 2020 the situation facing the

HAMMER BLOW ONE Nowadays professional drivers are facing a series of hammer blows. Here are a couple of significant examples.

As the GMB trade union’s Uber workers’ representative, many drivers contacted me to say that they had been “deactivated” from the company’s app. On examination I found, invariably, that they had received a text from Uber stating that they had committed an infraction of their HAPPY DAYS OF YORE contract (unspecified), usually alleged to have affected a My greatest earning as a professional driver was over 25 passenger (unknown) and they were being terminated.

Dennis years ago, when I netted over £800 in a single day. I had No amount of communication with Uber would get them Bartholomew lost my job so I entered the profession. Entry requirement to disclose the breach made by the driver, the name of the was simple: a legal licence, a legal car and legal insurance. passenger, the data/time/route when this infringement had I bought a car and worked for a series of small companies, occurred, “...because it would breach data protection...”

GMB some good, some bad.

Cobblers. Not one of our members was ever reinstated.

I eventually came across Addison Lee and went to work representative It was my view that Uber’s business model is based on for them. Shortly after that they changed their fleet to Fiat for Uber drivers a reduced and automated back office. There is no point Ulysse seven-seaters. I immediately sold my car and hired in establishing a web-based service, yet employing a huge one of their vehicles. It made sense; a substantial part of number of people to resolve the tens of thousands of issues the risk of vehicle ownership was transferred to Addy Lee, with tyres, that arise from the millions of journeys taken each day.

MOT, insurance and maintenance now being their responsibility.

A fightback is taking place, with the App Drivers and Couriers Union At the time Addy Lee was also at the forefront of marketing and bringing a claim against Uber under GDPR in the Netherlands (where Uber driver communication. Many readers will remember the two-way holds its data). The case alleges that the company relies on a machineradios used by all cab companies then. Within a short period of learning algorithm when dismissing drivers. Under article 22 of GDPR, time the company had introduced pagers on to which the jobs were there is a broad prohibition against any decisions which have legal or downloaded, thereby avoiding mistakes and time wasting. Jobs were other significant effects on data subjects from being made solely via plentiful and you really had to work hard not to reach the target, automated processing. The case is progressing. Watch this space. whereby you did not pay the rental.

HAMMER BLOW TWO On the day in question, a slow Saturday, I was parked up by the Like every capitalist in history Uber sees its role as squeezing as much as Lanesborough Hotel waiting for work. It was about 1PM and had been it can from its resources, whether that be machinery, slaves or workers. As an hour since my last job. The controllers called “Pick-up at Sinclair I have reported, ad nauseam, they have invented some jolly wheezes to do Road”. I knew where Sinclair Road was and I was not going to schlep this. For example, the Uber Pool will have drivers working for free on some over to Shepherd’s Bush to take some old geezer down the road to occasions.

Tesco. Eventually, I reluctantly accepted the job.

A while ago Uber launched its “Dynamic base fare” and “Set fare”.

On arrival I was rewarded. A party of seven wanted taking to a Surprisingly, these have resulted in the drivers earning less money than wedding on the outskirts of Oxford, earning me £300. I asked how before.

The “set fare” trips are a return to the old minicab office days they were to get back. They said they had booked the return with when a fare was quoted and that was all the driver earned. Now, like then Addison Lee. If I could get the return journey would that be OK, I the Uber driver is not paid for delays in traffic, unpaid extra miles because asked? I was informed that it would be fine, obviously without waiting the riders requested a change of route or road closures have taken place. time.

So, fine for Uber and the passenger but not for the person who is actually Great day. I read a book, ate, watched the fireworks display from doing the work. the wedding and slept. At the allotted time, about 12:30AM, control As with the GDPR case above, drivers are fighting back, with a petition called me and I did the pick-up. Uneventful return journey earning at https://tinyurl.com/yc49659b Good luck with that I say, as I can see no me £400 plus a £25 tip. I then got a seven-seater job at about 3AM. chance of UBER changing its mind. The petition calls on Uber to go back from Central London to Hampton for another £100. to the original fare, which was £2.50 base + £1.25 per mile and 15p per HOW IT’S CHANGED minute waiting time. This is small beer, as that was the fare when I first A few years ago I began work with Uber. In the early days with the began to work for UBER. So, this a call for a return to a fare that has not company I tried working full time but gave up, as my weekly takekept pace with inflation. home never reached £800. Yes, I know many drivers have taken home Best wishes for 2021. Mind how you go. over £1,000 – £1,500. However, I also know the crazy hours they have —Dennis Bartholomew to work to be able to achieve this.

At Addison Lee you had to put in the hours but not to the level now n Dennis Bartholomew is the GMB trade union representative required from a professional driver. This is unsafe, placing the driver, for driver/members working for Uber. He is an author passengers and other road users in danger. Yet neither the regulators and broadcaster with a strong knowledge of the private nor the companies will take action, despite several reports that have hire industry. dennis.bartholomew@yahoo.co.uk made numerous recommendation. +44 7544 026 122

private hire profession is dire. As with other industries, the effects of Covid-19 have been terrible on earnings for operators and drivers. From the drivers’ side I have not seen a situation like this in the life of the industry. I will illustrate with the following scenarios, to show how bad things have become for drivers.

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DECEMBER 2020

the insider

Hindsight is 2020 – let’s look to a normal 2021

O

n new year’s eve a lot of people, maybe ‘Rochester’ ‘reading Viz’ as we waited for Nan to unmute yourself included, are somewhat guilty of her iPad while she was driven crazy at being able to hear wishing away the old year with the dismissive us but not yet see us. Then we looked like a genius when hand flapping of having delivered a curried the fools failed to check your answers enabling you to beer fart into a busy lift. shout ‘Yup, we had that’ after each answer is read out.

Fair enough, as they are looking to enter 2021 with an To me, 2020 has been this generation’s World War 2, and optimism and hopefulness that the past 12 months has has instilled the same Blitz spirit. We’ve seen neighbours failed to deliver. Never have I ever thought along these same connect with neighbours to offer support, seen complete lines until recently taking time to ponder the forthcoming, strangers helping the elderly and vulnerable. 2020 has albeit muted, celebrations of this season’s offering. Maybe, been the year most of us stood up to be counted as Kevin Willis I thought as I stepped from the lift to the sound of coughing volunteers and that needs to be recognised. Why, even and theatrical gagging, it is time to consider giving genuine those pathetic creatures, the Pandas, took their chance elation to the dismissing of the old guard, this 2020, and Everyday problems to finally procreate once the zoo became people-less and focus my efforts on welcoming in a new dawn, a fresh start from the operator’s private. For you disappointed nature lovers out there I am where everything, surely, will be better next year? certain there must exist a YouTube video of them doing it point of view...

Not so fast! While 2020 will always be remembered for should you possess the kind of perversion needed to watch one thing and one thing only, surely, if we dared to peel two bears shagging (they’re not bears – Ed). back the layers, there has also been a lot to celebrate these past 11 And I’m no expert, but type into your search engine ‘YouPorn – months or so that wouldn’t have happened had we not been in the grip of Categories – Panda’ and see how you get on. a pandemic. Before anyone writes in with accusations of me trivialising So I will not be rushing to condemn this year too harshly. It is the year the seriousness of Covid-19, let me say I am acutely and sadly aware that a vaccine was developed in NINE MONTHS. A miracle in itself, but of the death toll, the long-term health implications suffered by a lot of when that comes alongside the news from SAGE that they now know how people and of the heartache brought to their loved ones left behind. to develop a new antidote to combat the next, inevitable pandemic within My aim is not to make light of the cold, hard facts, but to look for some three months means, for once, we are ahead of the virus and perhaps positives in this bleak time. can start looking forward to getting back to normal sooner rather than For example, could we ever have anticipated a Premier League later. This is the also the year America finally woke up to vote out the footballer stepping up to shame government and business into providing Twitter Terrorist Trump as the country finally smashed through the glass free school meals for impoverished children? Yeah, yeah, I have heard all ceiling of racial and gender prejudice to usher in Vice President Kamala the counter arguments. “It’s easy when you’re rich,” and “how much tax Harris. does he pay?”, but the bottom line remains that Marcus Rashford has In our own industry I am seeing and hearing of drivers who are reensured that kids are receiving hot, nutritious meals when they would training to develop new skills that will add further strings to their bow otherwise have gone without. End of! and help them emerge from this mess fitter and stronger. Big companies Predictable as I appreciate my next point is, what about Captain who once had hundreds of cars have briefly joined people like me Tom? (Though I prayed they would make him up to Major so he could under the banner of ‘SME’. I say briefly as they are only doing what is get a message from ground control). At 100 years old this trooper walks necessary to survive and have crunched the numbers to secure that around his garden to raise over 40 million quid for the NHS. Setting survival and will undoubtedly flourish back to the success they were preaside the fact that he cheated a little by being zimmer-frame assisted, he Covid. brought heart-swelling pride to our nation.

One friend of mine has just invested in forty (40) new vehicles because We also celebrate a new-found respect for teachers who, now all he has an idea, a bloody good idea, to adapt and change his business those pushy parents have had a taste of home schooling their own little to fit the new world (they also kindly threw in a free wheelbarrow to horrors, can now appreciate why teachers need to finish the working transport his massive balls around in). People are getting ready to shine day at 3pm and deserve that long summer holiday. The NHS has risen again, we need to put this last twelve months behind us and put it down like a phoenix to shine again. I won’t labour this point too much as they to no more than a hiatus on our business, our life. have enjoyed the lion’s share of love of all and, full disclosure, I am a tad On the stroke of midnight, December 31, 2020, I will raise a glass to bored of seeing badly coloured-in rainbow pictures decorating windows. all those who didn’t make it through this horrific virus, I will be thankful Seriously though, we should pity the creep who ever turns up drunk in for the many who helped us through the year and I will be really looking A&E shouting abuse at the triage nurse because the justifiable beating forward to getting back to some form of normality in the New Year. Yes, they will get from the collective mob will divert his attention from that hit I will be taking the vaccine at the first opportunity because our clients of methadone he came for. Legends, all of them. are going to want to know that their driver is ‘immune’ and I really want Pollution was down to record levels, which is as good for the planet as to get back to work, because (1) I need the money and (2) I watched a it is for our health but also rendered that Greta Thunberg and Extinction ‘Homes Under the Hammer’ this morning and realised I had already seen Rebellion mute – for a while at least. it! It is time.

Still not convinced? OK, well the situation this year has meant that As I end my final column of a strange year, may I take this opportunity I have had no parking tickets issued or congestion charges to pay, to thank you for the (mostly) kind emails regarding my earlier Insider and much enjoyment from watching Mayor Khan digging his hands ramblings and wish you all Seasons Greetings, Happy Hanukkah, Merry through the empty pockets of his Oliver Bonas suit as he looks for ways Christmas and a peaceful, healthy, and – dammit – properous new year! to tax cyclists. Then, don’t forget, we have had far more time to spend n K evin Willis runs Chirton Grange, with family (insert own gag here) and enjoyed the weekly Zoom quiz contact@chirtongrange.co.uk that looked like a poor man’s version of University Challenge – ‘Willis’

DECEMBER 2020

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