24 minute read
Current Affairs
Tesla’s powerplay
Tesla has always operated in its own bubble, going its own way without collaborating with other automakers.
But that’s about to change. Tesla’s SuperCharger network, since launch closed to all but Tesla drivers, is to be opened up to drivers of rival brand electric cars. This means owners of other EVs will be able to gain access to Tesla’s large and very fast network by simply using the Tesla app.
This is obviously a carefully thought-out strategic move. It will increase the utilisation of the Tesla owned SuperCharger network, enabling lower charging costs, at least to Tesla owners, and making the network more profitable. That in turn should enable Tesla to expand its network more rapidly.
COUNTER-INTUITIVE MARKETING
The move is great news for all EV drivers outside of the Tesla bubble. They will suddenly be able to access a super-reliable, ultra-rapid charging network. But I might feel a bit narked if I was one of Tesla’s existing customers.
Tesla’s phenomenal success is itself putting stress on the charging network, and Tesla drivers are already experiencing queues at larger city hubs. The arrival of Fords, Hyundai and VWs could make that worse. But that’s not how Tesla sees it.
Tesla has never advertised. It leaves that expense to other car brands that are desperately trying to catch up on the road to e-mobility and zero emissions. By opening the exclusive SuperCharger network to other drivers it will expose these drivers directly to the ‘Tesla experience’, and it believes that will lead to more Tesla buyers in the long term.
LEGACY MANUFACTURERS
Legacy car manufacturers are already fighting new EV manufacturers like Tesla with one arm tied behind their backs. They are forced to prop up their outgoing petrol and diesel car ranges, and these cars are more complex to build, with tens of thousands of parts against just a few hundred in an EV. It’s not surprising that many have decided to place their EV ranges under sub-brands or even completely new marques such as Volvo’s Polestar. BMW uses I; MercedesBenz uses EQ; VW uses ID, and so on.
At some point they’ll also be fighting against their own brands as customers debate whether to buy internal combustion engines or EVs.
Meanwhile, Tesla is unburdened by legacy ICE cars, so it just does product launches and announcements and markets through social media channels.
MARKET DOMINANCE
Tesla’s big move is a potential game changer, exposing the market disparity between Tesla and the rest. By opening up its charging network Tesla believes it will demonstrate its global superiority. Elon Musk has stated: “The biggest constraint at Superchargers is time.” Outside Tesla, the majority of existing rapid charging infrastructure is made up of relatively sluggish 50kW chargers, which make up around 80% of the rapid charging network. In addition, many have operational faults and
Tim Scrafton sluggish maintenance schedules. By contrast, Tesla’s chargers operate at Founder and COO 250kW – five times faster than most “rapid” of The Connect chargers. Tesla has even stated that it will
Consultancy increase charging speeds from 250kW to 300kW – indicating that its own new EVs will be upgraded to receive this capacity. Tesla’s network will make almost 80% of the existing public charging network obsolete. The car companies are investing in similar technology, including the Daimler/ Hyundai-backed pan-European Ionity charging network of 350kW chargers. These have been opening at a rate of around 100 per year – even though only a handful of cars can use even half that capacity – including Porsche and Tesla. Remember, although its SuperCharger network is proprietary, Tesla EVs are still capable of using chargers outside their own network – they just rarely need to do so. By opening up his SuperCharger network Elon Musk will demonstrate, in one move, a huge market superiority for both vehicle and charging capability.
MANAGING THE NETWORK
It is likely that Tesla will introduce dynamic pricing for other EVs incapable of charging at the rate of Tesla EVs. Tesla could also introduce allotted time periods for Tesla owners to have priority at peak times. Whatever happens it is likely to be another counter-intuitive marketing play to demonstrate the first-hand benefits of Tesla ownership. Tesla is used to being a major disruptor in the automotive world. This move sets it well on the way to disrupting the fuelling of all transport, given that it will all be mostly electric. How will the future of charging will look? Tesla took six years (2012-2018) to reach 10,000 SuperChargers. But from November 2020 to August 2021, it ramped up extra production by another 10,000 per year by opening a new Chinese factory. Tesla is big on both solar panels and battery storage as well – it is becoming a major force as a utility company in more and more countries. So Tesla will make electricity, sell electricity and is likely to become the absolute dominant force when it comes to the charging network. n Tim Scrafton is founder and COO of The Connect Consultancy, the UK’s largest independent EV consultancy and installer. www.theconnectconsultancy.com
A Dystopian Utopia
Iam sure I am not alone In allowIng a wry smile to cross my face when I heard this supremely ironic piece of news.
Britain’s largest ride-hailing company spent its time at the Tory Party Conference last week, telling anyone who would listen how virtuous they were, paying £25 per hour to drivers and offering pensions and other benefits as their standard fayre.
Meanwhile said company’s drivers were planning a strike on October 7. Uber has also taken to repeatedly urging others through the broadsheet press to follow their model of worker status and union recognition. Frankly I don’t give two figs what they do, say or urge people to do but I do wish to look at why worker status and benefits are never going to fly in this industry.
SQUARE PEGS AND ROUND HOLES
A leader of one of the biggest trade associations once said to me: “This trade is full of square pegs.” It was not meant as an insult, just an accurate description of why many people end up in this industry. The more I have thought about this statement over the years, the more I agree.
If people in the industry wanted jobs they would have gone and got one. The decision is not about intelligence, it is about aptitude, fulfilment, personal choice and aspiration. Being at a particular place at a particular time is not for everyone.
Knowing what you will earn each month has its benefits but without fear where is the fun? Working hard when you want/need to and relaxing, following a hobby or just slobbing out when you don’t appeals to many. Then there are those that fit caring, education, religion, studying and a million and one other things around work. Fitting life around work isn’t everyone’s desired state. No one (a few PAYE drivers aside) I would suggest joined this industry expecting to be treated like an employee and if they did, they were mistaken.
BUT IS IT RIGHT?
The tub-thumpers, rabble-rousers and idealists may believe that everyone should be treated ‘fairly’, but that is where the wheels come off. Many, perhaps most, drivers expect fairness; a straight box/plot, decent rates, being paid on time and being safe on the streets. But they don’t expect that each of the drivers in their firm gets the same.
No, this is a grittier profession than that – I want more than the rest not the same! I want to see myself as luckier, smarter and a whole lot more streetwise and reap the rewards. I want to work out which hours are best for me. What areas are the most lucrative and how I can turn a short job into a long one. This industry was built on those aspirations. it became successful on those aspirations and it ain’t going to change anytime soon!
SILICON VALLEY IS NOT THE FONT OF ALL WISDOM
Dr Michael Galvin The big mistake people always make when they come into this industry is to assume https://mobility after two days that they know it all. I don’t serviceslimited know how many billions venture capital .com companies have collectively poured down the drain (the last estimate I saw was £50bn), clapped and applauded by well paid consultants who marvelled at these “new business models”. Well, guess what? They were never “business models”. They were nonsensical. Meanwhile the bright young things with their appreciative consultants lost licences, lost fortunes, put the public at risk and on the way to court scoffed at people running responsible businesses that actually made money. Now they want to lecture the rest of us about how we should manage drivers. It seems to me that some of these people need to change their medication. The luck of the draw, swings and roundabouts and most important of all being able to suit yourself is why people came into this industry, why it ran so well and why it will continue to run when this pantomime has moved on to food deliveries, groceries and whatever comes next. Balancing the needs of customers who want ad hoc services with drivers who want to provide services on an ad hoc basis is the secret of this industry. Trying to straight-jacket free spirits into becoming pseudo employees may look good on white boards in swanky offices; it might make shareholders feel like their management are in charge; but it won’t fly. This industry is about balancing, operational stretch, probability and seeing what happens. It’s a complex world that doesn’t want to be organised and constrained. Apart from a tiny minority, customers don’t provide jobs every day on a regular basis and drivers don’t provide their services on that basis either. What management theory describes how two chaotic inputs (customers and drivers) operating in a city that is increasingly congested
“Balancing the needs of and difficult to get around customers who want ad hoc transforms into a super service I don’t know. But it does, and it services with drivers who has done so for years and if left alone without government or want to provide services on anyone else’s interference it will continue to do so.
an ad hoc basis is the secret
the advisor
Touch My Crystal Ball
THE NEXT IMPORTANT ITEM ON ANY accountant’s horizon is the forthcoming budget, due on October 27.
Obviously, 2021 has been a year like no other. We have just come to the end of the pandemic furlough scheme; which means the redundancies are just about to start. Our industry has been crippled like its cousin, hospitality, by a lack of travel both internally and externally. Even though we are still waiting for overseas travel to bring our passengers in, internally operators have been hit by massive labour issues, both pandemic and Brexit-based.
Many drivers were forced to give their vehicles back to their rental companies. Even worse, many owners had no choice but to hand back their keys to their vehicle financiers, and because cars and certain parts were not being made through the pandemic, we have massive waiting list for new ones and a price hike for second hand.
HMRC IS SHARPENING ITS CLAWS
To top it all HMRC is starting to think about how the self-employed are going justify their self-employed grants, if by good grace they managed to earn nearly the same as the last year in a last minute ‘back to work’ frenzy. And they will be asking for their grants back if they don’t think you deserved it. (More on that next month, or ask an accountant).
It is with this in mind we wonder whether the govt will put a sticking plaster and some cooling ointment on our pains or just rip the scab off and pick the wound, in this ‘technical budget.’ To be fair, Making Tax Digital, the massive new HMRC digitisation process and all of its prospective headaches, has been pushed back again to 2024, allowing all of us accountants and normal people alike, a little breathing space.
THE PROFESSIONALS’ VIEW
So here are some thoughts both from myself and other accountancy pundits on what might be in store for us, or for that matter what we think should be in the budget.
WHAT WE KNOW
Well, we know since Chancellor Sunak has already launched a spending review pre-budget, there will be tightening of the purse strings. I think we all knew that. Also, climate change will almost definitely be on the menu. UN Conference of the Parties (COP26) is in Glasgow at the end of October. National Insurance is definitely increasing by 1.25% to cover health and social care. There will be some unexpected state pension halts and there must be some tax increases to try and reduce the £2.6 billion tax gap, and the further effects on the government’s pandemic spending, such as the soon to finish furlough scheme.
WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW
Taking that into consideration, there must still be money for the Covid health response and some specific business pandemic recovery help. We still need to know what recovery will actually look like for us. The Government has already said that it will be looking at strengthening public services, Gary Jacobs levelling the playing field (in opportunity) within the UK, promoting Britain globally and moving Gary Jacobs forward its ‘Plan for Growth.’ I await how the runs Eaziserv, an accountancy firm specialising in government will define this ‘plan’ post Brexit and in a pandemic recovery period. Thanks to some work by the hilariously named Office of Tax Simplification, there may well be the taxi and private changes to Inheritance Tax and Capital Gains hire business Tax. This has been a big win for HMRC: simple means easy wins for them without affecting the eaziserv.co.uk average tax payers’ bottom line. The other easy win, not universally popular, will probably be the freezing of personal tax allowances which normally rise (to our advantage) annually. Finally, let’s see if the government can keep its promise on freezing fuel duty for the 11th year running. I suspect that in the mind of the chancellor, it may be time for it to rise.
A BIT OF WHAT WE WISH FOR
u FOR OPERATORS: Maybe some help for medium-sized businesses (turnover of more than £1m) with cash-flow problems by increasing the ceiling for the VAT cash accounting system, which allows you to pay VAT only when your client pays your bill. A simplification of the now ridiculously complicated EU VAT laws post-Brexit. The ability to easily reclaim overseas sales tax which is also (post-Brexit) unclear and in need of work by HMRC. u FOR EVERYONE: The hospitality industry benefitted from a reduced VAT rate of 5%, so shouldn’t passenger transport get a little of that help? Many fleets are significantly reduced, and the big tech apps get the offshore VAT breaks, so let’s even the playing field a little, even just during our recovery.
CONCLUSION
To be fair, our government has a tough call between refilling their coffers to continue their plans and helping us recover from the financial horrors of the past 18 months. Let’s just hope they will remember the
“To be fair, Making importance of this country’s passenger Tax Digital... has been transportation industry. pushed back again to n Gary Jacobs is a director of Eazitax an industry specialist 2024, allowing all of us accountancy service. If you have accountants... a little any problems with the current issues discussed Gary can be breathing space...” contacted at Eazitax.co.uk or via LinkedIn.
the negotiator
If your face doesn’t fit…
Ihave written many times about uber’s treatment of its drivers – the people who make the money that pays their executives’ fat salaries. I know that a number of these Uber executives, as well as a few Professional Driver readers, have asked why I am always “whinging”.
Earlier this year my trade union, the GMB, along with others, won a historic Supreme Court victory. This decided that drivers working for Uber, and presumably other private hire drivers, enjoyed the minimum benefits under employment law, a decision fought against by Uber over several years. After that, Uber signed a historic recognition agreement with the GMB that appeared to pave the way towards better treatment for all drivers.
So why did drivers picket Uber’s London HQ on Wednesday, October 6? Fellow trade unionists, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain’s United Private Hire Drivers (UPHD), called the protest over the drivers and couriers who have been deactivated (terminated/dismissed/sacked) following automatic checks on their identity via the app.
Research has shown that a huge number of drivers have been terminated this way after years of service because the app failed to recognise their faces. Earlier versions of the software used by Uber was found to have a failure rate of 21% for non-white female faces, 6% for non-white males, but falling to zero percent for white men. Drivers presenting themselves at the UBER hub are turned away even when they can prove that they are the person the app claims they are not.
The UPHD claims that more than 200 workers were affected this way or summarily terminated. From my experience as a “workplace representative” for GMB member/drivers I believe these figures to be an underestimate. What is the situation affecting such workers and what is their position regarding workplace security?
How app-based transport companies work is as follows. They apply a device-based app that allows customers to call on the service of workers, normally via a mobile phone, be they couriers, private hire drivers, cleaners and so on. The companies claim that this is all “new and shiny” and the workers are all independent contractors.
The claim of the companies that these were “gig” workers doing their thing while engaged in something more serious has now been dropped and it is accepted that the majority of those providing services are engaged full time in their work.
These various apps are not “new or shiny” but are just a new way to put customers in touch with workers in existing industries. The app companies make their money not on the basis of innovation but on good old fashioned low wages paid to the workers and taking, at the same time, a slice of their workers earnings as commission. So, why do these companies treat their bread-earners this way?
These companies’ business models are based on low fixed overheads. That includes the cost of humans that are needed many times to resolve problems that the “new and shiny” computers and apps can’t solve. The private hire and courier companies have invented a solution to resolving personnel management, complaints and customer queries.
Namely, the “Kleenex” approach to people management and relationships: if there are any problems, discard and get a new one.
The app companies cannot manage the volume of personnel management issues and customer complaints generated by their success. It would cost
too much in terms of people and will create a huge layer of bureaucracy. Such a development will add to their existing negative earnings. The Kleenex approach (other tissues are available) is underpinned by a simple algorithm. A driver who has any negative comments made against him is given the boot. No lengthy hearing, no need for statements, no appeal procedures, no nothing! But, I hear you say, this paints the app based company bosses as worse than 19th century mill owners, who also Dennot Nyack sent children up chimneys. I’ve seen the photos of Jaimie Heywood and he is clean shaven, nary a whisker on his face, The union view no top hat and he does not wear a frock coat. BTW, he does from our GMB not send children up chimneys. representative Ah, I’ll reply, that is true but when you were kicked out of your work as a weaver you did not end up owing thousands of pounds for your car, insurance, medicals, licences, etc. However, termination of drivers from the app still occurs on a regular basis. I know because I have personally written emails to one of the major private hire companies for more than a hundred member/drivers asking that their drivers be told what it is they have done; when, where and at what time it occurred and who has made the complaint. Not one response have I received. I have had drivers terminated for not allowing their passengers to play drum n’ bass through the car’s speakers; apparently executing a U-turn on the Westway flyover; supposedly leering after female, and male passengers, etc. As I said in my previous article, I and the GMB are supportive of all measures that get rid of drivers who act criminally, put passengers in danger or are just bad people. However, the use of an algorithm to sack drivers and then fail to give them an opportunity to address the charges that led to their dismissal is wrong. I don’t agree with some that say such action is criminal, but it is very poor corporate behaviour and certainly against the corporate social responsibility charter of these companies. So what should Uber and others do? I agree with our colleagues in the UPHD. All drivers and couriers demand a fair process for dismissals in line with Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) guidelines and the reinstatement of their sacked colleagues. The companies have stated that they are taking firm action against bad drivers. If that is the case, then there appear to be an awful lot of bad drivers working across the profession. I don’t think that is the case. What I believe is happening is, as I have said previously, the companies are using computer-based decision-making in order to manage their staff. This is something that I believe is against the law but I will need to check this. Every worker subject to a process that would lead to their dismissal must have the opportunity to hear the case against them and then present their defence. So companies, adopt the ACAS guidelines and, where necessary, increase your fares. Do the right thing. —Dennot Nyack n Dennot is a AGM trade union member and was a former representative of the GMB’s professional drivers. He is also an author and broadcaster with a strong knowledge of the private hire industry and an equality and diversity specialist. email: dennotnyack@yahoo.com — mobile: +44 0740 625 276
Protesting about protests
If I had ever found myself wIth enough of a marketing budget, I had planned to arrange to be ‘interviewed’ by several magazines. High end stuff mind you: the type of rag that gets seductively scattered atop smoked glass tables in private jet centres before being stolen by drivers when out seeking coffee.
These mock interviews would finish with the article adding “…and do not imagine you can just book Chirton Grange. No, you have to know someone who knows someone before they even consider you as a suitable client.”
No contact details would ever be printed. The piece de resistance to my cunning plan would require nerves of steel that saw us actually turn down high profile and wealthy clients with the ultimate insult of “However, I might be able to recommend another company who’d better suit someone like you.”
Annabel’s nightclub in Berkeley Square, London, operated this reverse psychology for years and it’s where I stole the idea. To apply for membership to this exclusive pub-with-rooms you needed to invest an initial £2,000 which got you no more than to be considered by a panel of seven judges, who, no matter who you were or your net worth, could and would turn down anyone they pleased for no logical reason.
Obviously this drove the wannabe members crazy because no one had ever said no to them before. So what did they do? They looked for any which way to gain access into what had become the must-have membership in London. Genius!
“Believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see”’ is something I wish the morons inhabiting this country at the moment had taken a beat to consider when they listened to the BBC glibly splutter forth a news report containing the words “shortage” and “crisis”.
This came about after BP decided to temporarily close a dozen or so of its 1,200 forecourts due to a lack of a few drivers. The government – and the media – scurried to light the blue touch paper and let the zombies out of the asylum to stockpile fuel.
In reality, there is no fuel shortage or any crisis, there is only a driver shortage, but that didn’t stop the companies supplying our fossil fuel from jumping on the opportunity to whack up the prices by as much as 10p per litre. Then, when we do manage to get the fuel gauge moving upwards, we pull on to motorways disrupted by retirees with bollocks all else to do but use their arthritic fingers to squeeze out the last of their dentafix and use it to stick themselves to the tarmac.
These idiots are walking out onto one of the world’s busiest motorways without a care or consequence to what could happen should traffic have to swerve to avoid them. Arrogant, selfish narcissists.
Believe me, I do not agree with Extinction Rebellion’s modus operandi but can at least respect the fact they are fighting for a just cause like climate change. These lobotomised lemmings are championing…home insulation! Home insulation? Perhaps they think child poverty and modern slavery aren’t worthy enough issues?
The BBC and other media outlets created an illusion that did not exist. They created the need for people to crave a full tank of fuel. We have seen first hand, on forecourts across the country, punch-ups, arguments, shouting and swearing and even a knife pulled on one guy in south-east London. Utter madness! Why is it that we drivers, professional or otherwise, are forever blamed and punished? We remain the most heavily taxed, frequently fined and constantly harassed group in existence today. Which would be bad enough when using the car to simply get to and from work or on the school run but becomes a whole different animal when seeking to drive professionally as we do especially after a global pandemic when we didn’t work for 18 months! Why are we the ones victimised? How come they leave 10 Downing Street alone? Why are Home Insulation factories not the ones blockaded? What the f*** has this got to do with drivers? The answer to my question is simple – apathy. Apathy is drivers loosening trouser belts to bend over so “they” can shaft us good and proper. Apathy is the “yeah, but what can we do?” mentality. When all we actually do is moan and groan like a porn star with toothache and do very little to support our case.
Licensing authorities should be helping their clients, because that is what we are, we are their customers and we dutifully pay the piper. What is the point of the Guild of this or the Association of that if they aren’t using their collective strength to challenge the injustice to their members?
I would happily pay any subscription dues for clear access off junction 14 of the M25 over a lapel badge or certificate! Much like my clever advertising idea, when an illusion is created, as the BBC and other media outlets managed to do a couple of weeks back, then fools will follow. It was too easy for those at the Beeb to sit on the red sofa over a cup of breakfast tea and deny they said anything wrong before completing the piece to camera by announcing “now get ready for a shortage of turkeys this Christmas”’…watch this space!
Where is our fight? Our rebellion? How many of you reading this were punks back in the day, rockers or Mods scrapping on Brighton Beach? We need to rage against the machine once more and stop apologising for being drivers, we have done nothing wrong.
Ask yourself, would the younger you be proud of what you have become in later life? Some of you fought against racial and religious injustice while others stood firm and refused to be judged for your sexuality. We need that tenacity now!
Let us drive around to the homes of Insulate Britain protesters and block their streets, their route to work. Let’s stop their ambulance taking their sick mother to hospital. Let’s park our cars on their begonias beds, rev our engines and sing ‘I fought the law’ at full volume for four hours. Let’s see if the police arrest us or enquire as to whether we need sun cream, bottled water or “anything else that made us comfortable!” We can be a force to be reckoned with, there are more of us than there is of them, we just aren’t shouting the loudest.
Stop moaning, stop apologising and start rebelling!
If you want to get together and kick things off you’ll find me in Annabel’s most evenings.
Power to the People! n Kevin Willis runs Chirton Grange, contact@chirtongrange.co.uk
