profile: Travelhire
[from left] JONNY GOLDSTONE AND JOE BITRAN: “We held most of the contracts with the NHS trusts in London, we got hit with an avalanche of work because all the doctors and nurses were told to call us to get a taxi in to work...”
Electric Green
Travelhire group weathered the pandemic storm better than most. Now it’s restating its eco credentials with a shift to EVs “The furlough scheme was amazing for a business like ours,” says Bitran, “and when the full lockdown was announced it meant no one could travel on public transport. Because we held most of the contracts with the NHS trusts ravelhire group weathered the pandemic storm in London, we got hit with an avalanche of work because all the doctors and better than most. Now it’s restating its eco credentials nurses were told to call us to get a taxi in to work.” with a shift to EVs. “On top of that, the roads were empty, so cars could move about freely. We last sat down with Joe Bitran and Jonny Goldstone just 20 months ago, but it feels like a different age. The C-word had yet to enter the And that basically saved us. I’m sure that if we’d been corporate only, we’d have shut down, because our corporate work declined by 97%.” vocabulary; pandemics were not something we expected to experience. The group was operating at around 50% of pre-pandemic turnover, Bitran’s Travelhire company had just acquired Green Tomato Cars, the putting it in a much better position than many competitors. Bitran adds: eco-centric private hire fleet founded by Goldstone in 2005, but which had been taken over by French transport giant Transdev. A corporate restructure “We also did a lot of work for the train operating companies, and the trains kept running on a reduced level.” saw Transdev exit the UK private hire sector. Now, with lockdown over, Goldstone says the expected September work The pair were tackling the problems that had become evident under resumption has happened. “We’re busier than I can remember us being,” he Transdev, and the outlook was positive. Then came Covid, and the world says. “But there’s a chronic driver shortage and it’s not going to go away.” changed. Further cost-cutting saw the company move out of the rented offices on Like everyone in the sector, it’s been a struggle. But for the Travelhire Western Avenue and back into the old Green Tomato Cars depot offices in group, it’s been less of a struggle than it has been for some.
Mark Bursa
T 20
OCTOBER 2021
