Professional Driver Magazine September 2022

Veezu brings name to the fore as Bristol’s

V Cars becomes first rebranded hub

Mark Bursa

Veezu is rebranding one of its main operating hubs, bringing the group’s corporate identity into the mainstream market for the first time.

In a major step for the company, Bristol-based V Cars is changing its name to Veezu, and it is expected that the company’s other hubs in Leeds, the West Midlands and South Wales will follow suit, creating a national brand and seeing long-standing names such as Dragon Taxis, Amber Cars, A2B Cars and Go Carz replaced with a uniform identity.

Veezu currently operates across 24 local authority licences in the UK and has more than 8,000 driver-partners on its combined books.

V Cars was acquired by Veezu in July 2017. The company has a

40-year history, and has grown through acquisitions of local private hire taxi brands such as Abbey Taxis in Bath and Chippenham, and Clifton Taxi Co and Streamline Taxis in Bristol.

Veezu CEO Nathan Bowles said: “We are firmly putting the

Aviva backs Connected Kerb to deliver 190,000 on-street EV chargers by 2030

Mark Bursa

Electric vehicle infrastructure provider Connected Kerb has secured an investment of up to £110 million to install 190,000 on-street charge points by 2030.

The potentially game-changing move has been backed by Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva plc. The move will provide access to EV charging for millions of drivers without off-street parking.

As part of the deal, Connected Kerb will also deliver EV charging infrastructure across the insurer’s pan-European property portfolio, which includes more than 300 locations in the UK alone, making it one of the country’s largest portfolios.

The multi-million-pound investment into UK public charging infrastructure will be critical to

expands beyond a name change. It is an opportunity for us to build on hyperlocal activities to ensure we remain at the centre of our communities across Bath, Bristol, Swindon and Chippenham.”

From Monday, September 26 Veezu began rolling out an extensive marketing campaign entitled ‘smarter local rides’ as it debuts its consumer facing name in the PHV market. It will be complemented with the introduction of local community initiatives to the residents across the south-west.

Veezu name on the map in the south-west. The change will help simplify our business, plus create a consistency as the brand of choice for driver-partners, passengers and business accounts.

He continued: “The rebrand

Veezu was founded in 2013 and has grown through acquisition, building large regional hubs in major cities. The company is preparing to announce further acquisitions in the near future, and it is expected these will transition to Veezu branding as well.

with the financial resources and expertise of Aviva Investors to deploy charging, at scale, to all corners of the UK. It’s truly game-changing.”

Peter Howe, co-founder and chairman of Connected Kerb, said: “Aviva’s investment into Connected Kerb will not only supercharge our UK rollout plans, but also lay the groundwork for expansion into other markets across Europe and into the US.”

delivering the Government’s plan of installing more than 300,000 chargers by 2030. The £110m investment is equivalent to around a quarter of all the money committed by the UK Government under its Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund, aimed at helping local authorities fund onstreet EV charging projects.

Chris Pateman-Jones, CEO of Connected Kerb, said: “Our partnership with Aviva Investors will turn EV charging on its head. Successfully delivering the benefits of the EV transition to all, regardless of location, wealth, or circumstance, relies entirely on the UK’s ability to deploy convenient and reliable public charging at scale. For many, it has so far been neither.

“This investment combines the proven longterm reliability of Connected Kerb’s infrastructure

EV sales so far this year have accounted for 14% of all new vehicle registrations, up 50% compared to this time last year. However, there is currently just one public-access on-street EV charger for every 52 EVs on UK roads. As a result, those without off-street parking or a dedicated parking space with domestic power supply – accounting for 62% of drivers – find it harder to make the switch to electric. Currently, this group makes up as few as 9% of EV drivers.

Connected Kerb will have installed over 4,000 chargers in 2022 alone. The chargers provide a fast charge between 7kW and 22kW, perfect for onstreet charging where residents are parked for a predictable amount of time each day. The chargers are durable, enabling the company to offer contracts of 15-25 years – much longer than the industry average of between 5-7 years. Every charge point will feature contactless payment via the Connected Kerb app.

Take Me starts national brand roll-out as Cabfind founder Jordan comes on board

Mark Bursa

Take Me has started rolling out unified Take Me branding across its UK operations, starting with its Leicestershire operation, formerly called ADT.

The fast-expanding group has also added another Cheshire operator to its portfolio, with Club Class Travel of Northwich joining the group.

And experienced taxi executive Chris Jordan has also joined the management team of Take Me as strategic director. Jordan is a former director of Argyle Satellite Cars, and founded ground transport platform Cabfind in 2015.

Cabfind was subsequently sold to Cmac in 2017, after which Jordan oversaw the merger of Wirral Satellite and Argyle Taxis to create a 650-car Merseyside giant fleet. He left the company in 2020.

Take Me CEO David Hunter said: “Chris will be assisting us as we consolidate our group and roll out our national branding. On a personal level I have always looked at Chris as a trade mentor. So I’m delighted

Midlands merger creates emerging new force as Derby’s Chads joins Birmingham’s Star

Two leading midlands private hire operators have merged to create a regional giant with a combined fleet of 370 cars.

Chads Cars of Derby and Star Cars of Birmingham have joined forces – with the merger taking place 31 years to the day after Chads Cars started operations.

The two companies, which are both family-run businesses with proud histories of serving their local communities, have come together to pool their resources and improve services to both the

he has joined us on the journey.”

Take Me branding is now replacing the ADT logo on cars and premises of ADT, the company co-founded by Hunter and which formed the core of the plan to grow a national brand.

Previously, the ADT brand had been applied in a similar style to the Take Me “speech bubble” with ‘powered by Take Me’ below. Now

public and their drivers.

Martin Walker, group chief operating officer of the combined business, said, “There is a great synergy of bringing together Star Cars, established in 1962, and Chads Cars, which covers the city of Derby and the county of Derbyshire.”

Star Cars has around 200 vehicles and serves Birmingham, Solihull, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Worcestershire and North Warwickshire. Chads Cars has a fleet of 170, making it one of Derby’s leading operators.

Walker said the plan was to grow the business to cover the whole of the midlands: “By bringing these two companies together, we have also secured hundreds of jobs, and created opportunities for more drivers to join us, while we continue

the branding has been flipped, with Take Me as the main logo and ‘powered by ADT’ as a supporting line.

Hunter said the plan was to roll out the branding across all Take Me operations over the coming months. The latest company to join the group, Club Class of Northwich, brings a fleet of more than 50 cars to the group. Take Me already

operates in Cheshire with Westside Taxis in nearby Crewe, and also in Stoke-on-Trent with Intercity.

Club Class Travel was originally founded in June 2009 by Nick Goulding, and has grown to become the largest taxi firm operating in the Northwich Area. Hunter said three more companies were being lined up to join Take Me in the coming weeks.

their hard work and commitment over the years, especially through the pandemic.”

to serve millions of passengers and grow the business out of the effects of the pandemic.”

Long-standing Chads Cars directors Gary and Kevin Matkin, sons of the business’ founder, have retired as part of the deal. Gary Matkin said, “The most important part of this merger is that it means Chads Cars will continue to be on the streets of Derby serving its loyal customers for many more years to come. I would also like to thank all our loyal staff and drivers for all

Zoe Matkin, a third-generation member of the Matkin family, remains as co-owner of Chads Cars. She said: “As my father and uncle retire from the business, I am delighted to carry on their legacy. This merger presents a great opportunity for positive change, while retaining our longstanding commitment to our customers and drivers.”

Emma Markham, director of Star Cars, said, “After many years of being friends with the Matkin family, we are delighted to have taken part-ownership of their family business, as we look to create a group of companies serving the whole of the Midlands.”

—Mark Bursa

Take Me directors John Gardner (centre) and David Hunter (right) welcome Chris Jordan to the group

DG expansion drive continues with takeover of Mansfield’s ACE-ABC

Mark Bursa

Nottingham-based DG Cars has continued its ambitious expansion drive with its largest acquisition to date, with the takeover of ACE-ABC of Mansfield.

ACE-ABC is the largest private hire operator in Mansfield, with a fleet of 220 cars, and a permanent staff of 35 people.

DG Cars marketing manager Toby Metcalf said: “This acquisition makes perfect sense as ACE-ABC has a history that echoes our own. They started out in 1979 with one car, and they have grown to 220 cars. They moved offices as they grew,

purchased a garage to help drivers stay on the road, and invested in their IT infrastructure to support staff, drivers, and customers. They

have been down the same road as DG Cars.”

Metcalf also praised ACE-ABC’s core values, saying these were also

similar to those of DG Cars. “They are committed to customer service excellence and supporting the community,” he said.

The takeover is the latest highprofile acquisition for the company, mainly down the east side of England. Companies acquired this year include Pirate Cars of Sutton in Ashfield, Alert Cars of Arnold, Nottinghamshire, CamCabs of Cambridge and Oasis of Kirkby in Ashfield.

Earlier in the year, DG Cars bought Leeds-based Arrow Cars, giving it contracts to operate official taxi services at Leeds-Bradford, East Midlands and Bristol airports.

South coast drivers ask for second fares increase to cover increased fuel costs

Mark Bursa

Taxi and private hire operators in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole are asking for a second increase in fares to cover the huge rise in fuel costs sustained in 2022.

The area’s taxi and private hire association is seeking a 6% increase in fares as diesel prices have increased by around 50% since January. Earlier this year, the council approved an 8% hike in fares but the drivers’ groups now say this is not sufficient.

Councillors will consider the request at a special licensing committee hearing on Thursday, September 15.

David Lane of the BCP taxi and private hire association, said that without the extra increase, many drivers may have to stop driving. In a letter to councillors, the association said the continuing rise in

Only zero-emissions cabs will be exempt from Cambridge clean air zone

Taxis and private hire vehicles will be exempt from Cambridge’s proposed Clean Air Zone – if they follow Cambridge City Council licensing conditions, which state they must be zero-emissions vehicles from 2028, or wheelchair accessible.

The Greater Cambridge Partnership’s proposals said a number of groups could be exempt or eligible for a discount from the potential charge. The zone is described as a ‘Sustainable Travel Zone’ where charges could apply between 7am and 7pm on weekdays. Charging is

costs is having a devastating effect on drivers.

The letter stated: “The 34% increase in the price of each litre of diesel since January 1 effectively means a rise of approximately 12.5% in the total expenses for each driver over only a six-month period. This is without allowing for any increase in other items.”

“We are conscious of the fact that everyone is facing difficulties with their finances due to the current rate of inflation, but at the present time our members are facing these increases and at the same time having their income reduced.”

The association said the additional 6% increase in fares would only help drivers cover their increased costs and not result in additional profit.

likely to start in 2026. Cambridge council wants to cut car trips in the city centre by 50% and increase public transport use by 40%. The plan also involves flat-fare bus travel at £1 per journey.

A proposed £5 a day charge has been suggested and seven exemptions to the charge have been proposed. These are: emergency vehicles, military vehicles, disabled tax class vehicles, breakdown services, NHS tax-exempt vehicles, dial-a-ride services, and certain local authority operational vehicles.

Blue badge holders could nominate up to two vehicles for a 100% discount, and low income households could receive a potential tapered discount of 25-100%. Club car vehicles from official providers are proposed to be exempt.

EasyTaxi app targets local operators in bid to build a national booking app

Mark Bursa

EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou is backing – and branding - a new national taxi booking app, currently under testing in the West Midlands.

The easyTaxi app will be rolled out across the UK, with the intention of creating a national branded app to rival ride-hailing giants Uber and Bolt.

The plan is not to hire drivers in the way that Uber and Bolt has done, but to offer exclusive territories to local taxi and private hire operators. So when customers search for a cab in the easyTaxi app, nearby local operators’ cars are displayed on the screen.

The app, unveiled at the Wembley Ground Transport Show, has been developed by Jasbir Dosanjh, who has 25 years’ experience working for computer dispatch systems companies.

Dosanjh started work on the app three years ago. “We realised we couldn’t do anything with an app unless it was national. What we needed was a national brand, and the backing of someone with deep pockets and experience.”

Dosanjh pitched the idea to Stelios, who was looking for further

extensions to his ‘easy’ brand, having recently launched into the food and parcel delivery markets. As a result, the entrepreneur has invested in the business, taking a 50% shareholding.

So far 34 operators have signed up to the system, all in the West Midlands. EasyTaxi is not a licensed operator, and has no plans to operate vehicles. “We are just a platform,” Dosanjh said. The system allows most

operators to connect via API to their dispatch system.

He sees easyTaxi as a rival to Autocab’s iGo network and operators on the Autocab platform will not be able to access the easyTaxi system as there is no API link to Autocab.

When the app opens up, it displays the name and logo of the taxi firm serving the area. Operators will be offered exclusive territories – so far

more than 20 postcode areas are covered, including Birmingham, Coventry and Leicester.

The system remains under trial until the end of January, and after that the plan is to expand throughout the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe. “Stelios has told us that he won’t be satisfied unless we are operating throughout these places,” said Dosanjh.

EV chauffeur app Vert launches in London with ambitious growth target

order to ensure high standards of customer service.

All-electric executive chauffeuring app Vert is now operating in London after Transport for London granted it an operator’s licence.

Initially, the company was operating with a fleet of 10 company-owned Tesla vehicles, but founder Dacian Keran (pictured) said 80 drivers had signed up to join the app, taking it close to its initial target of 100 cars by next year.

So far 30 drivers are up and running, carrying out jobs via the Vert app, and Keran said he hoped all 80 would be on the road by

February 2023. “The problem is the supply of cars,” he added.

Karan also runs Safety as a Standard (SaaS), a consultancy

body specialising in safety standards for the private hire sector, and all Vert drivers will be offered free SaaS training, in

“The drivers who have signed up are looking to rent Tesla cars,” Keran said. These will be provided by Tesla itself, or via rental companies specialising in private hire rentals, such as Ottocar, Splend and Weflex.

The company plans to grow by attracting existing Tesla drivers. “There are about 1,000 private hire drivers private hire with Teslas in London, including a large number driving for Uber,” Keran said. Vert is looking to recruit from that driver pool, which is “100% a target for Vert”, he added.

Mark Bursa

Jasbir Sosanjh [centre] with easyTaxi executives Samraaj Dosanjh [left] and Nethan Punj

Market chaos and rising inflation could wipe out budget tax savings: analysts

Mark Bursa

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s emergency budget has done little to help the automotive sector. The budget, which focused on tax cuts, resulted in the Pound falling to its lowest level against the US Dollar for 50 years, and analysts believe this will lead to rising inflation and a further hike in interest rates, putting even more pressure on businesses.

Some companies have welcomed some of the measures in the budget, including scrapping a planned rise in Corporation Tax from 19% to 25% and reversing a rise in employers’ National Insurance contributions. These rose by 1.25% in April 2022, and reversing this will save 920,000 businesses around £10,000 each next year, the Government claims.

However, Nimesh Shah, CEO at tax and advisory firm Blick Rothenberg, questioned the approach: “The tax cuts will easily amount to over £50 billion and there are questions already about whether the country can really afford this.”

The Association of Fleet Professionals was critical of the budget, with chair Paul Hollick saying: “In just a matter of days since the new prime minister and chancellor put their economic ideas into effect, we have seen the markets become deeply disorderly with just about every credible economic commentator saying more will follow.

“It’s a situation where exchange rates are falling, bond interest rates are shooting up, inflation is likely to continue to increase and interest rates will be forced to rise. This will help create a scenario in which fleet managers will be tested to the extreme.”

For private hire and taxi

operators, one of the biggest changes is the scrapping of the IR35 rules, which placed the onus on employers to declare the employment status of workers providing services via an intermediary.

Matthew Walters, head of consultancy services at LeasePlan, said: “Businesses should also pay attention to the scrapping of the much-disliked IR35 regulations. Under the new regime, which will take force in April, workers providing their services through an intermediary will, once again, be responsible for confirming their own employment status – rather than the liability sitting with the employer. This could be another significant money-saver for

companies and fleets.”

Chancellor Kwarteng has introduced measures designed to cope with rising energy costs, but these have come under fire for not going far enough. There was no mention of Fuel Duty in the budget, and this represents a “missed opportunity”, according to trade body Logistics UK, adding that even with the budget changes, energy and fuel costs will rise to 28% of business costs over the next year.

Campaign group Fair Fuel UK said Kwarteng and Prime Minister Liz Truss should “hang their fiscal heads in shame” by not cutting Fuel Duty.

“Low income families, small businesses and the economy will continue to be crippled by

high pump prices, punitive fuel duty levels and opportunistic profiteering in the fuel supply chain. Neither have been addressed by this continuing atypical Tory administration,” said Fair Fuel UK’s Howard Cox.

“I am disgusted that yet again drivers are being used as the Government’s cash cows. No promise of keeping Rishi Sunak’s 5p cut in duty and not matching the significant fuel duty cuts across Europe.”

Cox said a cut in fuel duty could have been funded through the increased VAT taken when fuel prices rose to around £2 a litre earlier in the year. “No reduction in Fuel Duty means the economic trend growth aspiration of 2.5% per year is unlikely to be hit. It can’t be achieved without lower business costs. One of the largest is the price of transportation that significantly impacts on inflation and the cost-of-living crisis for all of us.”

For the rest of the automotive and fleet sector, the budget was marked by what was not mentioned – company car tax rates, VED for vans, cuts in VAT for energy and electric vehicle charging controls have all been under discussion, but were not mentioned.

We will have to wait until Chancellor Kwarteng’s full budget on November 23 to discover what the Government plans are on these issues.

Genevieve Morris, head of corporate tax at Blick Rothenburg, concluded: “In 25 years of analysing Budgets this must be the most dramatic, risky and unfounded Mini-budget. It is based on the hope that this will stimulate an economy in an unprecedented period of change for the whole world. I think it will, but have doubts that the benefits will outweigh the giveaways.”

Uber strengthens Local Cab pool across major northern and east midlands regions

Mark Bursa

Uber has announced that a further tranche of operators has signed up to its Local Cab service. The new operators include a bigger presence in West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Nottingham and East Lancashire.

Since Uber’s successful pilot of Local Cab last year, the service has launched in more than 50 locations across the UK.

In Bradford, Eccleshill Premier Taxis has signed up for the service, which gives private hire operators access to Uber jobs via Autocab’s iGo network. The company joins other operators in the region, including Wrose Village Cars and Zip.

A second operator in another West Yorkshire town, Pontefract, has also joined the Local Cab network. Action Cars & Taxis joins Data Yorkshire, which signed up in April 2022.

In York too, a second operator has joined Local Cab. Streamline Taxis follows on from a previous launch with 34 Cars in June 2022.

Across the Pennines, Salford-based Lynch Taxis is the latest operator to join Local Cab in the Greater Manchester area. Other operators across Greater Manchester currently offering the Local Cab option include Intime Taxis, Street Cars, Cresta

Cars and Kingsway Cars.

Mohammad Raza Razaq, director of Lynch Taxis, said: “Demand for taxi services in Salford has grown considerably in recent months, so it’s great to be able to give passengers more options to get from A to B.”

Further north, Rapid Private Hire of Darwen, east Lancashire, has become the second operator in the Blackburn area to be able to fulfil Local Cab trips, following a

previous launch with Blackburn-based City Taxis in April 2022.

Rapid Private Hire director Janeed Ahmed said: “The partnership with Uber is enabling us to provide further job opportunities to our drivers and we hope it will attract new recruits to join our fleet.”

Meanwhile Nottingham Cars has become the third operator in the East Midlands city to join the Local Cab network, joining Central Cars and Southside Cars.

Habib Ali, managing director at Nottingham Cars, said: “We feel that now, more than ever, a product like Local Cab is needed – with demand for taxis continuing to rise and passengers in need of more options.”

Andrew Brem, general manager at Uber UK, added: “Local Cab will help to maximise earnings opportunities for more drivers and provide passengers living across the city with greater choice when booking a ride. We’re looking forward to extending Local Cab in more UK towns and cities soon.”

Uber has switched its expansion from opening direct operations to using existing operators via Local Cab since it bought Autocab in 2020. Uber has not launched a direct service in a UK location since 2017 –five years ago.

Telford & Wrekin to increase vehicle age limit for to maintain fleet

Telford & Wrekin council is this week set to rubber-stamp a proposal to allow older taxis to be licensed in order to maintain the fleet of vehicles in the borough.

Ten year old private hire vehicles are currently allowed on the roads, and the proposal is to allow them to be used for a further two years.

The change will allow hackney carriages to remain on the road up to the age of 15 years. Currently drivers are told to replace their cars after 12 years, though they are allowed to apply for a12-month extension if their vehicles are in exceptional condition.

The new rules will affect hackney carriage drivers who gained licences before present rules came into force in April 2021. These

drivers are currently still allowed to run older vehicles, with one being 19 years old.

Telford & Wrekin Council carried out a 28-day public consultation

in April and May, 2022, and all 11 responses supported the move. If approved, the changes will come into force on October 1.

There are currently eight private

hire vehicles licensed by the council operating in the borough between the ages of 11 and 13 years, while eight of the 21 licensed hackney carriages are aged 12 years and over.

“The proposed vehicle age limits will allow new licensed purpose built hackney carriage vehicles to continue to operate over 12 years to the maximum age of 15 years providing they meet the exceptional condition criteria,” says the report to councillors.

The report adds that under the current policy, private hire vehicles older than 10 years can be licensed by neighbouring authorities and still work within the borough “without any direct control from the council”.

Osprey Charging to install EV charge hubs at all British Garden Centres sites

Mark Bursa

EV charging network Osprey has partnered with the UK’s largest family-owned garden centre group, British Garden Centres, to provide rapid EV charging at its UK stores.

Osprey’s ultra-rapid charging hubs can add 100 miles of range in 20-30 minutes, and initially 12 of British Garden Centres’ sites are in line to receive the chargers, with more centres to be announced in the future.

The Carmarthen store in Wales will be the first to host an Osprey hub of eight 150kW rapid chargers. The Carmarthen hub will be followed by hubs planned in Wimborne (Dorset), Carr Gate (Yorkshire), Braintree (Essex) and Harrow (London). The 12 confirmed sites will be a mix of these larger hubs and some smaller installations depending on the size of the site and availability of power.

A family-owned operation for over 40 years, British Garden Centres is reviewing its entire network with the aim of bringing Osprey’s charging technology to all of its centres across the UK over the next few years. The garden centres have café facilities allowing drivers to take a break while they recharge.

Last month Osprey committed to delivering accessible and safe charging when it became

the first charging network to subscribe to independent public EV charging endorsement body ChargeSafe, to inspect and rate its sites.

Ian Johnston, CEO of Osprey Charging, said: “The British Garden Centres name is synonymous with first-class customer experience, and we’re delighted to provide safe, reliable, and accessible charging at their UK stores.”

Amy Stubbs of British Garden Centres said: “Partnering with Osprey lets our growing

number of EV driving customers charge their vehicles at a time and location that is convenient for them, while they visit our stores.”

The 12 confirmed sites are:

u Carmarthen u Wimborne

u Osterley u Harrow

u Braintree u Wolseley

u Albrighton u Carr Gate

u Newton Regis u Gillberdyke

u Towneley u Brigg

Tesla hits major milestone with launch of 1,000th British Isles Supercharger

Tesla has reached a significant milestone in the development of its Supercharger network with the opening of its 1,000th charger in the UK and Ireland.

The landmark device is one of 15 in the newly opened London Sidcup Supercharger location at Ruxley Manor (pictured). The site is close to the main A20 into East London and offers restaurant, café, grocery store, garden centre, hand car wash and toilet facilities.

Tesla now has more than 100 locations with Superchargers. The first one opened eight years ago at

the Royal Victoria Docks in London. Auto Express selected Tesla as the best electric car charge point provider in 2022, winning categories

including charging costs, speed, reliability and ease of use.

This year alone, Tesla opened 177 new Supercharger stalls and 17

new locations in the UK and Ireland, including Dublin and Edinburgh. Further V3 Superchargers will be added at future locations. These add up to 75 miles of charge in five minutes and charge at rates of up to 1,000 miles per hour.

In November 2021, Tesla opened some sites to non-Tesla owners as part of a pilot scheme, and Tesla said it planned to expand this to new sites and countries. At present, 15 stations and 158 individual Superchargers are part of the UK pilot, making it the biggest fastcharging network in the country.

Local heroes

IT’S BEEN A TUMULTUOUS TWO YEARS FOR DISPATCH systems provider Autocab. In 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company delivered something of a bombshell when it announced it was being taken over by Uber.

The move resulted in a few raised eyebrows – and some typically robust comments – after all, Uber’s track record had been aggressive and uncompromising, For many, it was the enemy.

In reality, the Autocab takeover signaled a change in Uber’s approach to markets outside “megacities” such as London. The company’s management had completely changed, with experienced e-commerce executives replacing the tech disrupters who had founded the business. When Dara Khosrowshahi replaced Travis Kalanick as CEO, the picture changed.

As Uber’s former head of Europe Jamie Heywood – one of Khosrowshahi’s key

appointments - admitted, Uber needed a new “more humble” approach. That involved putting a stop to new Uber launches in UK cities.

In an interview with Professional Driver in the aftermath of the Autocab takeover, Heywood said: “It’s been almost four years since we launched in a new city, and we currently have no plans to launch with our previous model in any more. I can see a world where almost all the future expansion with Uber, particularly in the UK, will be in partnership with local taxi and private hire companies.”

It took almost a further year for this to start to happen – the Autocab takeover

had to be given the green light by the Competition and Markets Agency, which took several months.

But by June 2021, a pilot scheme called Local Cab started in Plymouth, through which customers with Autocab dispatch systems were able to use Autocab’s iGo network, designed to connect operators on the platform, to take on Uber jobs.

Plymouth was followed by other towns such as Bedford, Gloucester, Cheltenham and Exeter. Under the scheme, passengers in any of these towns were able to book a trip with a local taxi company via the Uber app.

The demand was there – in Plymouth alone, Uber said its app had been opened up to 16,500 times per month, but passengers had not been able to book a ride there as Uber had no service in the city.

The pilot was a success, and since then the roll-out has been rapid, says Autocab chief marketing officer Jon Smith (pictured,

Mark Bursa

right). “It’s been an exciting time for us. To date we have more than 80 operators across the country live with Local Cab, actually fulfilling jobs every day in 60-odd towns and cities in the UK. Our operators have all fulfilled millions of trips, and it’s all incremental work.”

While the initial partners tended to be fairly small companies, Local Cab was soon attracting bigger operators, such as 001 Cars of Oxford, one of the “big two” operators in the city, which came on stream with Local Cab in May 2021.

Oxford turned out to be a perfect place to launch Local Cab. “The standout success story has to be 001 Cars,” says Jon Smith. “Their drivers have generated over £1 million pounds worth of trips in the first 14 months, and the work has allowed them to increase their driver numbers by 70 to accommodate the extra work. In weekly terms they’re looking at 3,5004,000 extra jobs.”

001 Taxis’ Amir Khan said the move was benefiting local drivers who work for his company: “As a locally licensed operator and Oxford-based business we provide earning opportunities to many drivers who live in the area.”

“By partnering with Uber we are able to provide more opportunities for drivers and more choice to the customers who book their trip with us through the Uber app. This model is the same as a local cab operator having a relationship with a local hotel who request a trip for their own guest.”

There’s no limit to the potential for Local Cab, Smith says. “In geographical terms there’s work for everyone – we’re working to get them to sign up to iGo and then it’s up to each individual operator if they want to sign up to Local Cab.”

In the post-pandemic world, the industry has new issues to confront. For the taxi industry, top of the agenda has been a lack of drivers – so that a fleet may not want to take on more work, as it simply cannot fulfil the jobs it has.

But Jon Smith says there’s another way of looking at Local Cab. “Operators might say they’re really busy, so do they want to be turning the tap on to external work? But what we’re actually doing with Local Cab is working to fill the capacity gaps that they may have.”

He continues: “If you have, say, 100 drivers working on a busy Friday and Saturday night, of course you don’t want more work then. What you do want is to

news analysis

make sure there’s work at 3 o’clock on Wednesday afternoon or 10 o’clock on Tuesday morning. That’s really where Local Cab comes to the fore, because we’re able to turn on the tap when your existing drivers are available to accept the work.”

One unexpected development was the roll-out of Local Cab into cities and towns where Uber had a directly-run operation. Most significant of these was Greater Manchester, where more than 10 operators have signed up for Local Cab, including some of the biggest operators in the city, such as Street Cars Manchester and Lynx Taxis of Stockport.

Smith said the move was justified, as “the demand is there” in Manchester. “From Autocab’s point of view, our operators will take as much work as they can. Uber and the local cab operators are working together. It’s up to the rider to choose whether to use Uber X or Local Cab, and having that choice is excellent for the end user.”

And size doesn’t matter. Smith is keen to stress that while some very large fleets have taken on Local Cab work, smaller operators have much to gain by signing up.

“We’ve got a lot of 40-50 car fleets on board and that just adds to the marketplace,” he says. A particular success

story has been Key Cars in Bedford – one of the very first operators to participate in the pilot scheme back in 2021.

“Key Cars is just a small local taxi firm, but it’s enjoying some 1,500 extra rides a week, Smith says.

Since the Uber takeover was first announced just over two years ago, Autocab has been on quite a ride itself. Earlier this year it moved from its old base on the outskirts of the city to prestigious new offices at Circle Square, close to the city centre and near a cluster of high-tech universities and colleges that will provide a good source of tech-savvy workers going forward.

And the wheels that were set in motion in 2020 are still turning. Uber has not returned to its direct model, and no further towns beyond the 40 or so operations that opened before 2017 have been targeted. Nor have any Local Cab operators been replaced by an Uber-owned operation –even in towns where Local Cab and Uber compete. Instead, Local Cab remains the growth vehicle.

There’s still a long way to go before Local Cab fulfils Uber’s ambition to be able to offer national coverage via a single app. “The focus for next 12 months is to get all our operators on to Local Cab – we’ve done 80, but that still leaves hundreds,” says Smith.

Delivery Point

How the energy crisis could unplug the EV revolution

Mark Bursa

And as most private hire operations still rely on self-employed drivers being responsible for their own vehicles, increased electricity tariffs will result in increased costs for those charging electric vehicles at home.

From October 1, a typical household’s energy bill will rise from £1,971 to £2,500. This price is guaranteed to be frozen for two years, and will be sweetened by a oneoff £400 fuel bill discount payment for every household. So the increase should be around 10% – a lot better than the neardoubling originally proposed, which would have seen energy bills soar to £3,549 a year.

Taxi and private hire businesses are less likely to be hit by cost rises than, say, pubs, restaurants, engineering firms or businesses with larger office premises that require heating and lighting. But for those that have installed charge points at operating bases, there are bound to be increases.

The crucial figure is the cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity. From October 1, dual-fuel customers on a standard variable tariff will pay 34p per kWh, according to estimates. This is better than the previously-mooted 52p/kWh, but a sizeable rise on the 2021 average of 18.9p/kWh, according to Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

The price cap certainly cushions the blow for home charging costs. From October 1, the cost of charging an EV with a 64kWh battery, such as a Kia e-Niro or Hyundai Kona, from 0-100% via a home charger will rise from £18.37 under the current cap to £22.22 – a lot less than the £33.80 it would have cost at 52p/kWh.

But that is still a steep rise over the price cap in force 12 months ago, when a similar car would have cost £13.69 to charge from 0-100%. So the cost of home charging has risen around 63% in the past 12 months if basic tariffs are used. For a high-mileage user recharging every other day, that’s an increase of £1,556 per year.

Of course, there are ways to mitigate this. Most recharging takes place overnight, when tariffs are much lower. Some energy suppliers offer off-peak EV tariffs as low as 7p per kWh. At this rate, the overnight recharge cost of a typica Kia e-Niro would be as low as around £4.50. However, these tariffs may be an endangered species. Some energy suppliers, including British Gas and EDF, have suspended sales of these tariffs to new customers, and they are likely to rise significantly as the new prices start to bite.

None of this takes into account the cost of using on-street charging, or worse, motorway hubs. We know these are significantly more pricey than home charging – speed and convenience carries a premium.

At the full “rack rate”, chargers such as the superfast 350kW devices that Ionity provides are not cheap. Earlier this year, we used an Ionity charger to give a 200-mile recharge a Mercedes-Benz EQS saloon. Ionity’s basic tariff is 69p/kWh. So our refill cost £50.53, adding precisely 200 miles of range. However, on test, the EQS only actually gave us 77% of the range quoted at the start of the journey, so that 200-mile electric splash and dash would equate to 154 miles, or about 30p a mile.

By way of comparison, we also tested

a Mercedes-Benz S580e petrol-electric hybrid around the same time. The S-Class returned 32.8mpg, and current typical petrol price of £1.68 per litre equates to £7.64 per gallon. So 154 miles of petrol range at 32.8mpg would cost about £35 at the pumps – a lot cheaper than Ionity’s basic rate electricity.

Again, of course, there are ways to mitigate the blow. An Ionity Unlimited subscription comes with the EQS, as Mercedes-Benz is part-owner of the Ionity network. This means free rapid charging for one year at all Ionity stations.

Other manufacturers offer discounted programmes with the networks. Kia’s

COULD THE SOARING COST OF ENERGY PUT THE brakes on the electric car revolution? The Government is still working out how to help businesses, but we know the impact on household electricity bills will be significant.

subscription-based Kia Charge scheme provides access to more than 20,000 UK connectors and more than 200,000 connectors across Europe. It provides access to several major charging networks, including BP Pulse, Pod Point, Ionity, Source London, Instavolt, Shell NewMotion, Osprey, Char-gy, and ESB.

Kia Charge offers different levels of service. The Plus package costs £2.99 per month tariff, and offers a 15% per cent discount per kWh from most networks (except BP Pulse, Pod Point and Ionity)

Users can also add a BP Pulse bolt-on subscription to their Kia Charge account, costing an additional £7.85 per month, which gives a discount of up to 40% when charging within the BP Pulse network. And an Ionity bolt-on, which costs £11.25 per month, cuts the standard charging rate by 64% from 69p per kWh to 25p. It also eliminates the £0.49 session fee, meaning a 10-80% recharge on a Kia EV6, which can handle the 350kW chargers, costs just £13.55.

A combination of home charging and discounted on-road charging via subscription schemes can maintain the advantages in fuel costs that EVs enjoy over petrol or diesel cars – for the time

analysis

being. But the ongoing uncertainty is likely to be a discouragement to many looking to go electric.

Emily Seymour, energy and sustainability editor at consumer group Which?, said: “A big part of the electric vehicle appeal has always been lower running costs, but these price rises could jeopardise more people making the switch to electric cars. In a recent survey, we found that the upfront cost of buying an EV is the biggest barrier preventing drivers from considering an electric vehicle – and this latest energy price rise could further prevent people from making the switch.”

The RAC is calling for price controls at public chargers, including a cut in VAT. Current legislation levies 20% VAT on electricity from a public EV charger, compared to 5% charging at home. In a statement, it said: “The RAC continues to support FairCharge’s campaign for the Government to cut the VAT rate levied on electricity from public charge points to 5%, to mirror the rate charged on domestic electricity.”

FairCharge spokesman Quentin Willson, the former Top Gear presenter, said: “We know that most of the early adopter EV drivers charge at home, but over 30% of

the population don’t have driveways, so if they have an EV or aspire to own one, have no choice but to use public chargers and pay the higher VAT. But having no driveway also means they can’t access the lower night-time electricity tariffs offered by some electricity providers. No home charging means they’re being unfairly penalised – twice.”

Chargepoint operator Instavolt, which recently put its prices up to 66p/kWh, said that if the Government were to cut VAT to 5%, its costs would fall to 58p/kWh. The Government has previously ruled out any such change in VAT rates.

But FairCharge believes that charge point prices will continue to rise. “With wholesale electricity prices – that’s what charge point operators pay for their electricity before adding VAT and their profit margin – soon rising to 75p per kWh, it means that those without driveways will be paying over £1.00 per kWh to charge an EV – which is perilously close to filling up with diesel,” Willson said.

“If we want to encourage more EV adoption – particularly among lowerincome drivers – the 20% VAT levy will act as a disincentive to switch from combustion to electric.”

analysis

FairCharge believes the unintended consequences of the higher VAT on public chargers could be extremely serious. “If by continuing to enforce the higher rate of VAT on public charging, the Treasury unintentionally sabotages the growth in EV adoption, then the whole UK transition to electrification, cleaner urban air and energy security could be put at risk.”

He continued: “If EV adoption stalls, then car makers may alter their EV production targets, charge point operators can’t make a profit and won’t invest in more infrastructure and all those battery factories that the UK needs won’t get built and we won’t benefit from new jobs, investment, and exports. And that’s an enormous concern.”

One of the big problems here is Brexit. Rules of Origin dictate that a percentage of a car’s parts must be locally sourced to escape trade tariffs of up to 10%. With the battery pack representing at least 50% of the parts in an EV, it’s vital that batteries are built in Britain if established manufacturers such as Nissan, Toyota, Vauxhall, JLR and BMW are to switch their UK plants fully to EV manufacturing.

“No UK built batteries mean the car industry will move their factories somewhere else where they won’t have to face extra trade tariffs. That’s a potential loss of £8 billion to the economy and at least a million jobs,” Willson warned.

Could the Government do more? Absolutely. Windfall taxes have been proposed by opposition parties, but rejected by the Tories. And the energy companies’ profits on gas and oil extracted from the North Sea is not capped. This has meant oil companies have profited excessively from selling fossil fuels on the global energy market.

Dale Vince, the owner of energy retailer Ecotricity, has called for Ofgem’s 1.9% cap on oil companies’ retail profits to be extended to the profits oil and gas extractors make in the North Sea. He said this could save households up to £1,000 a year and would avoid the need for a windfall tax. Vince told the BBC: “It’s illogical to cap the retail profits and not the wholesale profits.”

He says the idea would cost the government nothing. But critics think by taking away much of their profits it would

deter investment by these firms.

The Green Party has proposed the permanent nationalisation of the big five UK energy suppliers. The Greens claim this would cost £2.85bn and would allow the price cap to return to last autumn’s level. It points to the French approach, where energy provider EDF is being nationalised, allowing France to limit a rise in consumer electricity prices to just 4%.

Others are calling for a decoupling of electricity and gas prices, as the increasing switch to renewable sources for electricity should mean electricity prices are not affected by rising global gas prices. In 2020, more than 43% of the UK’s electricity came from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power.

However, the UK also relies on burning gas to generate electricity, so wholesale gas prices are used to set all electricity prices. The UK Energy Research Centre wants to see electricity from green sources to be “decoupled” in order to give consumers lower prices at some times of the year. The research body estimates that households could save between £70 to £300 a year if this were to happen.

You’ve got the power!

Judges in the hot seat as they choose our Cars of the Year

Mark Bursa

Abig thank you to everyone who came to the Professional Driver Car of the Year judging days at Epsom Racecourse last month.

Our judges travelled from all over the country to test a great selection of 50 cars in the sunshine at the famous racecourse. Now we have the task of analysing the score sheets and choosing our winning cars in each of the six categories.

We had a terrific selection of cars, and for the first time in the 13-year history of the event, every car was either electric, hybrid or hydrogen-powered. Not a diesel in sight, sadly – we have to reflect the direction of travel within the industry, and both legislators and

the travelling public are demanding the cleanest vehicles.

We’ll announce the winners in each of the six categoriesChauffeur Car, Executive Car, Private Hire Vehicle, Luxury SUV, MPV, and Estate Car – at our prestigious QSi Awards at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport on Tuesday, November 29. And of course we’ll announce our overall Car of the Year on the night as well.

The QSi Awards are the only awards designed specifically for you, the chauffeur, private hire and taxi operator. We look forward to seeing you there. Entries are open now, so make sure you’re in with a chance of winning. To enter, or to book a ticket, please go to:

www.prodrivermags.com/qsi-home

Meanwhile, here’s a gallery of images, showing our judges sticking to the task of evaluating the best cars.

The Ninth Annual Professional Driver QSi Awards

Celtic Manor Resort, Newport, Tuesday November 29, 2022

T HE QSI AWARDS ARE BACK!

We know how much you love the only awards that count in the private hire, taxi and chauffeur sector –and the 2022 edition will be bigger and better than ever.

We’re keeping to our regular spot in the calendar – the event takes place on Tuesday, November 29, 2022 And we’re staying at the same venue as 2021 – the prestigious Celtic Manor Resort, Newport.

As usual, we’ll be presenting Gold, Silver and Bronze awards to the best of the best among the operators and drivers.

We’ll also reveal our 2022 Cars of the Year on the night – so prepare for a great party!

Details of the awards categories and how to apply for the QSi Awards, plus details of how to buy tickets and tables, can be found on our website, so please visit this address for details: https://www.prodrivermags.com/qsiawards-home/

Get ready

Great expectations

Mark Bursa

first drive

Kia Niro EV ‘3’

WHEN KIA LAUNCHED THE E-NIRO IN 2019, YOU COULD SENSE THE Korean manufacturer was on to something. As of January 2019, when we first drove the car, it was the only practical sub-£35,000 electric car on the market with a range of more than 250 miles.

The only trouble was a severe lack of supply. The first edition sold out in a heartbeat, and by the time availability was good, we were into lockdown. Nevertheless, the e-Niro has proved a very popular and successful vehicle, extremely well suited to private hire and an ideal electric replacement for the Toyota Prius.

Now, less than four years after the first cars arrived here, the e-Niro has been replaced. The new, secondgeneration Niro family includes hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric models, just like the original version – indeed, the hybrid Niro pre-dated the e-Niro by a couple of years.

There’s a subtle name change too – the secondgen electric Niro is now Niro EV, not e-Niro. Kia cites a need for consistency – and also the need to leverage ‘EV’ as the brand on its electric cars, such as the flagship EV6.

Niro was Kia’s second-best selling UK model in 2021 after the bigger Sportage crossover, accounting for 23,800 sales – half of which were e-Niros. More than one on four UK Kias were Niro models last year, and Kia expects the second-gen model to improve on that.

As before, there are three trim levels, called 2, 3 and

4. This applies to all the models, hybrid, PHEV and EV. This test is concerned solely with the EV, and we tested a model in ‘3’ trim.

So what’s changed? The new Niro is a sharper, more angular design than the original, with a prominent and distinctive contrasting metal-coloured or black C-pillar available as an option on the top trim level. It looks bigger – because guess what, it is bigger.

New Niro EV is 4,420mm long (an increase of 65mm), 1,825mm wide (up by 10mm), and 1,545mm tall (up by 10mm), and with the wheelbase now at 2,720mm (20mm longer). But despite the increase in size, the weight of the body has been reduced, though not weakened, thanks to greater use of high-tensile steel.

This translates to a more spacious interior, with plenty of legroom and headroom thanks to the boxy roof line. Clever repositioning of the Niro’s 12V battery alongside the high-voltage battery below the rear seats means boot capacity is greater. Indeed, at 475 litres, the EV has more luggage space than either the HEV

or the PHEV versions (which offer 451 litres and 346 litres respectively.) The underfloor boot space is big enough to accommodate charging cables, a tyre inflator kit and still leave room for other bits and bobs.

The EV version is easy to spot compared to the PHEV and HEV models. It has a two-tone closed grille and a dedicated lower grille and bumper treatment. The charging port for the EV model is positioned in the centre of the front grille for ease of access at charge points.

Performance-wise, the powertrain is similar to before, with the same 64.8kWh lithium-ion polymer battery as standard across all Niro EV trim levels. This gives a slight increase in range over the previous model, up from 282 miles to 285 miles (WLTP). We didn’t have long enough in the car to check how accurate the range is in daily use, but the previous car was pretty accurate and there’s no reason to suspect this will be markedly different given the similar powertrain. Kia also says urban mileage could be significantly higher – pottering around town at 10mph could give you up to 375 miles on a full charge.

Unlike the purpose-designed Ev6, which can recharge at the highest speed available in the charging networks (350kW) the Niro EV is limited to just over 100kW, so it won’t recharge markedly faster on a fullspeed 350kW Ionity charger than it will on a more common fast charger. Niro EV has a standard CCS charging port.

Topping up the 64.8kWh battery from 10% to 80% takes around 45 minutes on any DC rapid charger from 100kW upwards minutes even with a 350kW DC rapid

verdict

S AN AFFORDABLE, PRACTICAL ELECTRIC CAR, THE NIRO EV IS PRETTY CLOSE to the benchmark, given where we’re at with the technology. Its roomy enough for five, with a very presentable boot. The fit and finish is to a very high standard, and the systems are logical and simple. And of course, the range of close to 300 miles on a full charge is sufficient for everyday use.

OK, it doesn’t have quite the impact of larger, purpose-designed EVs such as the Kia EV6 or Hyundai Ioniq5, but these carry a hefty premium and in terms of range, there’s not a huge difference between them and the Niro EV, but neither does it have the ultra-fast charging capability of the EV6 or Ioniq5, which take 350kW rapid chargers. But with overnight charging, the Niro EV offers mega-cheap running costs (for now at least). Kia and the other Korean brands appear to have been less badly hit by the shortage of electronic components that has blighted the car industry for the past couple of years. This is largely due to a strong Korean electronics sector with companies such as Samsung and LG, which give preferential supplies to Korean customers.

Having said that, Kia does keep the supply pipeline fairly well controlled so as not to have to discount, and over the past few years, retail customers have been prioritised over fleets. So discounts are not easy to come by, and Kia seems less keen on supplying brokers than its sister company Hyundai. A shame, as the Niro is a better car – for very similar money – for private hire needs than its Hyundai cousin, the Kona. On top of that, you get Kia’s extensive, transferrable 7-year warranty. It’s unlikely a PHV will get close to seven years, but you’re covered for 100,000 miles. The mechanical warranty is backed by a 12-year anti-perforation warranty and a 5-year paint warranty. And services are only required every 24,000 miles, another cost saving.

charger – the EV6 can charge from 10-80% in under 20 minutes, by comparison.

There’s some clever tech to optimise charging times, including navigation-based battery conditioning to pre-heat the battery when temperatures are low when a fast-charging point is selected as the destination. This is an option on ‘3’ and ‘4’ grades only.

On the road, the new Niro EV is not lacking in performance. It has the equivalent of 201bhp on tap between 6,000 to 9,000rpm and instant torque rated at 255Nm. Top speed is restricted to 103mph but 0-62mph takes just 7.8sec. The instant poke compensates for the somewhat flat handling that seems to accompany most EVs thanks to the weight of the battery pack.

Nevertheless the new Niro EV is more engaging than the previous e-Niro, and the ride is notably smoother, with a “big car” feel. This is partly down to suspension improvements, based around MacPherson strut-type front suspension, and a fourlink arrangement at the rear. The steering has been tweaked too, with a sharper steering gear ratio to give better responsiveness, stability and ride comfort.

This is helped by a significantly upgraded interior, taking elements from bigger and more expensive Kia models such as EV6 and Sportage. Good quality materials give a real premium feel. The look is modern, with bold horizontal and diagonal lines, without being too quirky, with soft-touch plastics and up-market touches such as mood lighting in up to 64 colour combinations.

There’s a digital dash panel with different configurable looks as well as a central widescreen satnav screen with nice, sharp graphics. On ‘2’ grade models, the infotainment display is 8in, while on ‘3’ and ‘4’ grades, a bigger 10.25in screen is fitted.

Thankfully, Kia has not incorporated the infotainment and climate controls into the touchscreen display. Instead, these sit below the screen allowing driver or front-seat passenger to make simple changes to in-car temperature or radio options without having to delve into multi-layered menus.

The centre console has a modern, high-gloss black finish. The drive shift is mounted here, using an electronic rotary dial to engage single-speed forward or reverse gears. A wireless smartphone charging pad is also standard on ‘3’ and ‘4’ grades, as well as a number of USB sockets for other devices and the obligatory cupholders.

The front seats incorporate USB-C terminals and storage pockets for the benefit of rear-seat occupants, while the slim dimensions of the headrests help to increase the general feeling of space.

The Niro EV takes sustainability beyond the powertrain too, using recycled materials inside the cabin. The headlining is made from recycled wallpaper, while the seats are made from bioplastics including matter from eucalyptus leaves. Green? You bet.

The Mazda6 was on show at the Car of the Year judging days last month. It drew plenty of attention as it was parked outside the front door, and quite a few of our judges wondered if it was one of the cars they could test.

Unfortunately it wasn’t. The Car of the Year shortlist tends to include the newest cars on the market – and this year, most were electric or at least plug-in hybrids. And sadly the Mazda6 is only a regular petrol car. Indeed, it’s one of very few large volume market saloons available these days.

It’s end of days for the sector that was once dominated by the likes of the Passat, Mondeo and Insignia – all of which are now gone from their manufacturers’ ranges. Passat lives on as an estate, but apart from the Skoda Superb, the Mazda6 is one of the last of its breed.

This is a real shame, as for many private hire drivers, it’s a proper car-shaped car, not an SUV or a crossover. And unfortunately, the layout of your typical EV means the taller profile is going to be the dominant shape going forward. And we’re just going to have to get used to that.

Meanwhile, the Mazda6 represents a good buy – trust me, your customers would be very happy to have this turn up to pick them up. It’s roomy

and

and comfortable, with a real executive car feel, especially in the back.

I’m normally in the front seat, of course – but I did find myself being “chauffeured” recently, and I made a couple of surprising discoveries about the Mazda6, and what it offers rear-seat passengers.

Not only is there a rear USB charging point in the rear, but both rear seats are heated – a real bonus on winter mornings for those 5AM pick-ups. The controls are on the central arm rest. The rear seat ride is fine, too. A little firm compared to a Mercedes or a BMW, ride in the back better than many cars that are used for airport transfers or longer taxi journeys.

On the long haul from Eastbourne to Manchester and back I tried to play with all the extras available to me. The lane keeping assist is rather pointless, but the adaptive cruise control is very good and accurate and with all the average speed cameras on the motorway networks it just relieves the stress of constantly watching the speedo and adjusting the throttle during a long journey.

The biggest disappointment was nothing to do with the car. It was the standards driving exhibited by so-called “professional drivers” on the motorway. Many of them seem to think that by just sitting in lane three of a fourlane motorway they are somehow giving their customers a better ride.

4,870mm

1,840mm

1,450mm

2,830mm

480 litres

I counted 15 plated cars on the journey home that were lane hogging the central lanes, forcing everyone else to change two or even three lanes just to overtake them. Come on people, you’re professionals. Show your customers and the public that you deserve that tag!

Paul Webb

Ground Transport 1 –Business Travel Tech 0

IT’S NOT A COMPETITION. IT REALLY ISN’T. As an industry we need to be working closer with business travel technology.

But, and let’s be frank here, historically ground transport has not been held in high regard by the business travel industry. In this industry, air travel carries all the glamour, and even then you have rail and car hire making up most of the booking volume before you get to ground transport.

Ground transport has less than 3% of a business travel agency’s transactions. Three percent! And this is crazy right? Because we don’t live at the airport or the train station and therefore each flight has at least two ground transport journeys attached to it. So in reality, ground transport should make up a far higher volume of business travel agency transactions and appear higher on their agenda.

But can we really blame the travel technology companies, agencies or travel buyer for a lack of interest in ground transport? Historically, our industry has been difficult to do business with.

The content (read taxis) that they want were not easily accessed. They were accessed either through separate booking platforms, unconnected to the drivers, or by phoning your local operator. In some global markets this is still the case. Even if these potential customers could access the content, through counterintuitive front end booking tools, it was not connected to the fleets, there was no update on when the driver was going to pick up the passenger, if at all.

This coming from a mode of travel that came way down the list of priorities for the business travel industry, so it’s no wonder ground transport was an afterthought.

Until the last 15 years, our industry had little or no technology to make our fleets available for the travel agencies. However the advances in our dispatch technology, driven by companies like iCabbi, Autocab, Magenta, Cordic and Cab9 (to name just a few) have pushed ground transport to equal or surpass air, hotel, rail and car hire.

We can now deliver updates to the agencies about every part of the ground segment of the trip; offering far more data and granular updates than many of the other travel components. It’s this advance that is making ground transport incredibly interesting to travel buyers, their travel management company and the technology providers.

Commercially, they have already maximised their air, rail and car hire programs; ground transport might just represent the final frontier.

Against this backdrop it was hugely rewarding to see Jyrney win the coveted Innovation Face Off award at the Business Travel Show Europe earlier this summer. When it comes to travel, and when up against technology that spans all of travel, ground transport never wins anything.

Even knowing how ground transport, or to use its newer moniker, mobility, was becoming more important to the business travel industry, it still came as a huge surprise. One of the judges actually stopped to ask the question, “has ground transport ever won before?” Ensuring a ground transport win was even less likely was the strong field of competitors including Microsoft, Amadeus, HRS and TripStax.

Judge Steve Clagg, Microsoft travel technology declared Jyrney is “poised to become the advanced decision engine for picking, managing and buying all ground transportation”.

No pressure then! When ground transport is designed to fit into the travel technology infrastructure, when it is built around the strengths of the trade’s excellent dispatch systems and the expertise of the operators and the fleets that use them, it becomes hugely attractive to the travel industry.

The Global Business Travel Association is predicting business travel recovery is facing headwinds, with full recovery expected in 2026, not 2024 as previously predicted. Inflation, energy prices, supply chain challenges, labour shortages and regional impacts of the war in Ukraine and ongoing lock downs in China are being cited as the main blockages of recovery.

The report from the GBTA expects business travel to total $1.39 trillion in 2025, just short of the $1.4tn in 2019.

As it recovers, the industry is looking a little different. I am already hearing anecdotal evidence of conversations between travel management companies and their customers where there is a higher value placed on the services provided by the intermediary; on an integrated booking experience from their business travel agency.

By working together to build the networks necessary to support these new contracts, we can secure a seat at the table of a $1.4 trillion global market. It feels like now is the time for our industry to take our rightful place in business travel alongside air, rail and car hire.

n Daniel Price is CEO and founder of Jyrney. Daniel. price@jyrney.com — www.jyrney.com

Daniel Price

CEO and founder of Jyrney

“The Global Business Travel Association is predicting business travel recovery is facing headwinds, with full recovery expected in 2026, not 2024 as previously predicted...”

The EV sector’s own fuel crisis

IS THE ENERGY CRISIS THE NEW ‘FUEL CRISIS’ for EVS? It was only in June that the newpaper headlines reported the price of diesel had hit £2 per litre for first time, with the AA calling on the Government to cut VAT on fuel tax to 10p.

A couple of months later the ‘fuel crisis’ hit electric vehicles, when a new benchmark for the cost of public EV energy was breached.

Osprey, a leading pay-as-you-go rapid charge point operator (CPO), announced an enormous hike to its pricing to £1 per kilowatt hour, becoming the first operator to do so. The new rates became effective from September 15th.

While £1 per kWh is by no means reflected across all other charge point networks, the fact remains that, according to the RAC, pay-as-you-go rapid charging costs have increased across the board by 42% since May, to an average 63.29p per kWh.

HOW DOES THIS COMPARE TO FUEL?

For drivers who only use the public network to charge their cars, the average hike means the cost is around 18p per mile, compared with roughly 19p per mile for petrol and 21p per mile for diesel, but significantly more for those paying £1 per kWH using Osprey’s network.

The problem is that it isn’t quite so easy to pick and choose when and where to recharge, as it is to refuel, so EV drivers might not be able to avoid these costlier options and may need to use them whatever the cost.

Public rapid charger users are the hardest hit. It is estimated 35% of homes have no private parking in the UK, and more than 70% of these include homes of professional drivers. This means those switching to EVs who can’t charge at home are penalised by having to pay the current exorbitant public rapid charging prices.

PRICE-CAPPING PUBLIC ENERGY

As the costs of public charging have soared, the Government needs to introduce price capping as it has with domestic energy, otherwise the gap widens between those who might afford to go electric, and those who can’t as they have to use public rapid charging.

This applies most to commercial drivers, who cover the highest mileages. On-demand drivers cannot afford long dwell-times charging, let alone pay the same or more for energy than for fuel.

Transport greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions account for 28% of total emissions, with road transport being responsible for 70% of all transport, so there is an urgent need for commercial sector vehicles to be able to go electric. This should be incentivised, not held back by illconceived policies that make the transition either unfair or impossible.

HOME VS PUBLIC CHARGING: THE NEED TO ACT ON VAT

In these energy and fuel crises, there is an even more pressing need to lower VAT on public EV charging than on fuel. Home charging is cheaper than public charging partly because electricity is taxed differently.

What is now needed is an urgent cut in VAT at public chargers from 20% to 5%, which is what is charged at home. Levelling up on VAT to 5% would save around 8p per kWh for drivers who can’t charge at home.

This would most benefit those covering high mileages like professional drivers, who not only depend on public infrastructure the most, but should be the highest priority to help go electric and lower emissions.

Paying 20% VAT for public energy for those without home charging is even more regressive because the far higher cost of public energy makes the percentage even greater compared to drivers paying 5% VAT charging on domestic tariffs. This is far more pronounced with Time of Use (TOU) low peak costs, which are a small fraction of the costs of public charging, yet are taxable at 5% VAT.

ON-STREET CHARGING

The only other recourse for drivers without private parking is to either charge at work, or on the street, but there is a long way to go before street infrastructure is put in place.

The £500m Government funding provided by the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) scheme, was recently set up to deliver the much needed increase in on-street chargers, but until councils decide to apply for this funding, then the situation is going to remain pretty much the same.

HIGH-MILEAGE DRIVERS NEED HOME OR WORK CHARGING

The recent hikes in energy costs, uncapped for commercial chargers and the difference in VAT are serious impediments to going electric.

Without Government intervention the economic and operational viability for EVs is still dependent on access to home charging. With costs around 9p per mile for an average EV, those on TOU tariffs are able to reduce this even further to around 4p per mile, by charging overnight using low peak energy pricing. However, we’ve seen evidence that some energy providers are stopping offering these off-peak tariffs to new customers. The pain may get worse…

n Tim Scraf ton runs the Connect Consultancy, providing end-to-end strategy, insight, supply of EVs, chargers and installations. hello@ theconnectconsultancy.com

Tim Scrafton

Founder and COO of The Connect Consultancy

“As the costs of public charging have soared, the Government needs to introduce price capping as it haswith domestic energy, otherwise the gap widens between those who might afford to go electric…”

the knowledge

Removing the barriers to EV adoption

THE TAXI AND PRIVATE HIRE INDUSTRY HAS been fairly passive up to now in respect of electric vehicles.

There have been ripples of concern about high up-front costs at a time that many in the industry have seen their cash reserves depleted due to Covid and also some irritation about the slow roll out of charging infrastructure.

These annoyances have been countered to a degree by two points: Firstly, drivers themselves are very much at risk from environmental pollution and exhaust fumes; and secondly, EVs present a new marketing opportunity and a differentiator from competitors who only offer internal combustion-engined vehicles.

https://mobility serviceslimited

Now as we move closer to the various licensing and government deadlines for eradicating ICE and only being able to purchase/ licence EVs I detect a strong change in the industry’s perceptions of EVs and the transition from ICE to EVs.

An additional element has entered the fray here with the distortion in fuel costs. Back in the day when we were first talking about EVs domestic kilowatt hours were about 8p. Early charging points were significantly higher than this at circa 25p per kWh. But now I am getting reports of 50p, 60p and even 70p per kWh from the networks.

The economics of running an EV were that the vehicle had a high up-front cost due to the battery and the generational costs of development, and so on, but that over the life of the vehicle the costs would be recovered and a surplus generated due to the lower running (fuel) costs.

Three things have affected the fuel cost: Firstly, as we know and has been well publicised fuel costs globally have increased dramatically.

Secondly as we as an industry predicted putting the commercial risk of installing charging points on the operator means that there would always likely to be a significant gap between domestic electricity costs and on-street charging.

Lastly, there were never any controls on price-gouging, and given the paucity of charging points the much-relied-on maxim of ‘competition will prevent this’ is a pipedream.

Drivers I have personally spoken to have both been very pleased with their electric vehicle and have made savings in fuel costs, and can squeeze one to one-and-a-half shifts out of a full charge. But others have returned vehicles that have delivered just 60 miles on a full charge and can’t spend their shifts sitting at charging points, or worse -

sitting in queues for charging points.

The poor reliability of charging points has still not been resolved and drivers still report that up to 25% of charging points are not working at any one time.

There we have it. A largely negative picture at a critical time. So how does this get resolved? Happily, this is largely a financial issue, in my humble opinion. Governments local and national need to address the yawning gap in infrastructure.

Work carried out a decade ago showed that London needed 8,000 rapid charging points to support the taxi and PH industry (excluding private cars). But so far we only have hundreds – that’s one hell of a gap.

Next, the infrastructure has to work. A figure of 25% non-working infrastructure isn’t acceptable. The price of onstreet charging needs to be capped, though this cannot be done in isolation. Who is going to install charging points that they cannot make any money out of? A formula or model needs to be developed whereby either local authorities, utilities or private companies are able to operate infrastructure commercially.

From the vehicle owners’ perspectives, better information about which vehicles work as PHVs and which don’t need to be much more available (read the road tests in Professional Driver – Ed). Guidance needs to be provided for buyers to understand that the shape, specification and other bells and whistles are nowhere if the vehicle can’t complete at least a shift on a charge.

I fear that government will find that PH drivers will simply hold off until the very last moment to upgrade from ICE to EV unless some action is taken to address what is a fundamental change in the economics of moving to EVs.

The real cost of course is the environment and driver and public health. The luxury of sitting back to see what happens and relying on the market to deal with any issues is now over.

Policymakers need to be aware that they are pushing at an open door in many respects with the taxi and PH industry but that door is in danger of closing abruptly. The infrastructure will need to be put in place as the number of EVs grow so why not leap ahead now and provide an abundance of infrastructure so there are less reasons to avoid upgrading.

Controls are being put on fuel prices in many other areas at the moment so there appears little reason not to address this specific use case. The alternative is to save a few bob and poison the planet –hardly much of an alternative!

Dr Michael Galvin

“Back in the day when we were first talking about EVs domestic kilowatt hours were about 8p. Early charging points were significantly higher than this at circa 25p per kWh. But now I am getting reports of 50p, 60p and even 70p per kWh from the networks...”

The bleeding of the 4,000

IF YOU’RE A RIDE-HAILING DRIVER, keep an eye on your post. HM Revenue and Customs is writing to around 4,000 drivers that use or have used tech booking apps who, they believe, may have not declared all their income.

The letters ask the driver either to confirm they need to declare more or confirm that the information was correct in the first place.

We are heading into some difficult financial times, I believe. Things are tough moneywise in the UK now with the rising cost of living, and everyone talking about an impending recession, so receiving a letter from the HMRC potentially asking for more money is likely to be very unwelcome.

The first letters were sent out on September 5, and anyone receiving the letters has 30 days to respond or face a possible review of their tax affairs.

Gary Jacobs runs Eazitax, an accountancy firm specialising in the taxi and private hire business

eazitax.co.uk

Here’s the basic text of the letter: “We (HMRC) have information that shows you’ve earned money from driving customers who booked using online applications. We also have information that shows that you have not told us about some or all this income. This means you may owe tax. Tell us now and beat the rush…”

And there is a get-out clause: “If you do not have any income you need to tell us about, just tick the box.”

So what does this mean, and why is it happening? Well, everyone supposedly “in the know” seems to have a different theory about what it means. Is it because of the online declarations for the tax checks? Is it because a tech company is handing driver information over? Or is it just an HMRC fishing exercise?

Quite simply, only HMRC currently knows why this is happening. With Making Tax Digital on the way, HMRC seem to be practicing flexing their data capture muscles.

In the early stages of the Tax Check consultations, it was intimated by HMRC that the data collected from drivers would be ‘blind data’ - meaning that the declarations would not necessarily be used directly against an individual. However, this was never formally confirmed.

Perhaps more importantly, the government published a response in August this year from their 2021 consultation ‘Reporting rules for digital platforms’, which considered the implementation of the new rules. Interestingly, the list of ‘stakeholders’ includes Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber.

Under the rules, from January 2024, tech companies not just, but including, passenger, food and parcel transport apps will be required to report details, including the income, of their users to the tax authority of the jurisdiction in which the platform is resident. So, there is an element of inevitability about this anyway.

IS THIS A TAX ENQUIRY?

Er, no. Although this is not the same, anyone who has been the subject of an HMRC enquiry, will know that HMRC has the right to open an enquiry into any tax return. It is also clear that any self-employed taxpayer needs to keep all the documents and information used to prepare a tax return. Basically, we are expected to be ready to deal with this and that the task is not a huge one.

These letters are unusually direct however, and expressly say: “We have information that shows you’ve earned money (income) from driving customers who booked using online applications. We also have information that shows that you have not told us about some or all this income.”

The driver will only have 90 days from the date of the letter to work out and pay any tax. It then goes on the offer a ‘voluntary disclosure’, which is a sort of ‘let’s talk shop’ option.

HMRC does have some wiggle room for their details not to be correct. As they say, tax can be complicated, so they want to help you get it right! It is also possible that many of the people they will be writing to are already ‘in discussions’ with the tax man either by choice, or in enquiry.

My simple advice, as always, is to get advice from an accountant. Many drivers will already have an accountant who would have received a copy of the letter and be dealing with it on their behalf already. Remember, this letter also refers directly to the tax checks and relicensing, so we all know the net is closing in.

The licensed taxi drivers are being hit first, mainly because of the tax checks I presume. But the data reporting rules for the platforms and for tech which increasingly sits above and around us, means that eventually in our increasingly cashless society there will be nowhere to hide from the taxman. So, invest your energy in complying instead of running or hiding!

Gary Jacobs

the negotiator How to Train Your Dragon

IN APRIL 2018 I WROTE AN ARTICLE ‘WHERE DO you turn to – the Professional Driver’s Dilemma’. In this I explained the problems I faced when taking a driver to Heathrow but met with heavy traffic. I wrote:

“...this is the professional driver’s dilemma, one faced many times during a working week. What route do you take when you are not sure how much time congestion would add to your journey? Will the alternatives suggested by the satnav, passenger or taken by you drop you in deep doodoo? I hope our scientists are working on this with their algorithms and all...”

Meeting Errol and Ahmed at the Heathrow MacDonald’s to discuss why they should join the GMB trade union reminded me of this article. Errol had just completed a journey from Barking to the airport. For readers outside of London, Barking is in the extreme east of London and Heathrow is on the far west of the capital.

Kwabena Dennot Nyack

(naughty) and inform TfL of this.

So the driver will have spent several hours driving his sleeping passengers around London for no reward. Serves him/her right.

I have never consciously taken a route, the purpose of which is to increase the fare. It is not worth it as it will only add a few pence to the fare in most cases and if you do so without explaining to the passenger why you are going a particular way they will give you the daggers stare at the back of your neck, as well as reporting you to the company, resulting in the above grief.

“Kwabena, I just about kept my cool with my passengers. They were very unhappy with the route I had taken to the airport,” said Errol. I asked what happened and he explained that although there was sufficient time for the journey, the quickest route, and the one suggested by his Satnav, was via the M25 anti-clockwise or the North Circular Road, also anti-clockwise, or a combination of both.

He chose the North Circular Road but during the journey the passengers began to whinge, saying that he should have gone through the centre of London. Ahmed then recounted how his passengers had given him a poor score even when he tried, and succeeded, to get them to their destination against the odds.

Believe it or not I use taxis and minicabs. I generally let the driver do the driving and get on with something else. On one occasion, which is burnt into my mind my taxi driver took me on a scenic route from East Croydon to my home. This was a journey that cost £12 but was normally a fiver by minicab. This was a long time ago. A direct route by taxi would, in my estimation, have cost about seven quid. I did not complain to the driver but put it down to experience.

So, taxi and minicab drivers can be guilty of trying a thing. However, if you book a taxi or minicab via a reputable and modern company you will normally get a record of the route you have taken and can subsequently challenge this with the company. While there may be variations in the journey taken these should be slight and nothing to worry about. I find these lurid stories of “tired and emotional” passengers being taken around London on their journey home after a night out hard to believe – and here’s why.

Tired or emotional, the passenger will recover the next day. If they are sensible they will look at their journey and realise that you don’t get to Archway from the Caledonian Road by way of Bromley, if that was the case.

They will contact the company who will promptly reimburse the punter and deduct the full fare from the driver. The company will then deactivate the driver, never to offer an opportunity to explain what happened

What should I advise Errol and Ahmed? My take on this is as follows. Firstly, you do not want your passengers kicking off in the back of the car for any reason. If they do you will become agitated and, as a result, lose some concentration. You want them to help you so that at the end of the journey you are feeling really good.

My mechanism for achieving this was to suss out the type of passenger they were. Did they want to talk? If so, talk and keep the conversation going. Whatever you do don’t engage in a discussion on politics or religion. If they bring it up agree with whatever they say!

If they don’t want to talk keep shtum. Do they want music or speech on the radio or do they want silence. You may think that MNEK is great (who? – Ed). Not everyone shares your views.

Having done the above the next task is the route planning. What I would do is ask the passenger if they had a preferred route; if they wished me to use the satnav, of their choice; or if they wish to rely on my expertise. I would then follow their decision in the knowledge that this was their choice.

Once they had chosen, then any problems encountered along the way was not your worry as the driver but theirs. They had made a choice.

However, there may be a fly in this ointment. Some companies now offer a fixed fare irrespective of the route or time taken. Previously the fares were calculated by the apps on distance and/or time. With the fixed fare you want, as a driver, to get to the destination ASAP. So a passenger giving you a cockamamie route is of no use to you. I will leave you to solve that problem!

My words of wisdom were received with due reverence and respect, or so I believed. But I subsequently learned that neither Errol nor Ahmed had joined the union.

—Kwabena Dennot Nyack n Dennot is an 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

The union view from our GMB representative

“So, taxi and minicab drivers can be guilty of trying a thing. However, if you book a taxi or minicab via a reputable and modern company you will normally get a record of the route you have taken and can subsequently challenge this with the company...”

Tyred and emotional

MY BRAND NEW MERCEDES-BENZ

V-class was delivered last week without a spare wheel. Subsequent enquiries to the excellent Becky and Sarah at Ethos Asset Finance, from whom I purchased said vehicle, unearthed the fact that Mercedes-Benz no longer supplies a 5th tyre because, and I quote, they want to “lessen the environmental impact of their vehicles”.

Something very worthy from a company that has produced millions of fossil fuel burning cars over the decades, which allegedly cheated its own emission tests and which has failed to produce an electric vehicle that doesn’t need charging up more often than a four year old iPhone.

Every month, China builds a new coal-burning power station and Dubai has a beach in which the sand is air conditioned yet it is us, the masses, who must turn on energy-efficient lightbulbs at midday to have any chance of them shedding a gloomy light by nightfall and now, again, it is us that have to stand at the side of the M62 as juggernauts try to suck us into the vortex of wind and rain dragging behind them.

If, like me, you never feel totally comfortable when a fault light illuminates the dashboard or when you came out this morning and noticed one of the tyres is wearing as thin as a supermodel’s wrist, then not carrying a spare tyre has the potential to send us spinning out of control.

And I would have more sympathy with Mercedes if they came out and said “we aren’t giving you a spare wheel because some little scrote is going to snip the cable and sell it on to a black cab driver.”

But no, they plunge into the uncontestable subject of the ‘planet’. Even though the majority of Earth’s population will be due a lot of ‘green credits’ when not able to afford to use any gas this winter.

As well as the security of a spare wheel another reliable crutch was also lost to us recently. You might have heard something about this on the news, but Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll has died.

Hang on, stay with me, as I am not about to recount some hideous story about the day I met someone who had nearly stood next to the man who once delivered a copy of ‘Horse and Hound’ to Buckingham Palace.

Strong, reliable and dedicated to her country are a few of the multitude of fawning words dedicated to her over the past two weeks. Yet few mentioned the

Queen’s greatest asset. And that is how bloody great for business she was. She seemed lovely, but I never met her so won’t pretend I mourned the passing of a lady who, after all, made it to 96 years old, served 70 years on the throne and whose image and achievements will be taught in school history lessons hundreds of years from today.

Royalty, throughout history and with the help of the Queen, has gifted us visual magnificence in the like of Tower of London, Windsor Castle, Buckingham, Kensington and St James Palace. Balmoral, Sandringham and the Royal Mall and Long Walk. All tax-generating turnstiles in which to process curious and jealous tourists to add a considerable donation to the UK fighting fund.

One of her last official duties was to accept Boris’s resignation in the morning before being treated to Truss in the afternoon, after they both set a great environmental example by flying up to Balmoral in separate, taxpayer-funded business jets. So who can blame Her Majesty for thinking “Really? After all I have done for my country they elect this shower? I’m tapping out.”

Now the longest serving apprentice in Christendom becomes King Charles III. Things, I believe, will be very different now. Sure, Charles was way ahead of his time on environmental concerns and is a cracking gardener, but personally I am not a fan of our new Monarch and fully expect Buckingham Palace to become a Hampton by Hilton within five years and the hunting of peasants to be made an aristocratic sport to replace fox baiting.

With the Queen’s passing I annoyingly have to rewrite some of my best jokes when next out on tour. Tried and tested gems now rendered irrelevant. So, as with most of the ghouls interviewed outside the Palace, I have made this about myself. However, I loved my Monarch who has, along with my elder brother Steve, been the one everpresent in my life for many years now. When governments lie and cheat, we had the stability of our Queen. When floods hit and bombs dropped, we looked to our Queen. Much like a spare wheel, we only looked for her in times of trouble and unlike my new Mercedes’ spare wheel, we found she was always there.

n Kevin Willis runs Chirton Grange, contact@chirtongrange.co.uk –07725467263

Kevin Willis

Everyday problems from the operator’s point of view...

“Things, I believe, will be very different now. Sure, Charles was way ahead of his time on environmental concerns and is a cracking gardener, but personally I am not a fan of our new Monarch and fully expect Buckingham Palace to become a Hampton by Hilton within five years...”

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