So, I’ve bought my old business back!

CKhalvashi

Hey guys,

Just to give you an insight into my latest challenge, we’ve bought back a back street cab firm a family member owned from 2002-2009 as our next investment project!

It’s trading under a different name to what it once was (it was liquidated about a year after it was disposed of) and there are quite a few money problems again now (leading it to be heavily in debt now), with the main problem being over a taxi rank (of which I’m hopefully going to have £100k for in the next few weeks, clearing the entirety of the debt, plus get my money back replacing various cars (newest was ’07’) if 50-odd drivers from rival companies play ball, which from rank discussions earlier, it looks like they will, with 4 already offering me the £2k I want each!!!)

We’ve paid a rather lovely £10k for it, after it was sold for £160k in 2009, knowing the full situation and exactly what we want to do with it (starting with the callous reputation it’s acquired), and have already purchased a fleet of 29 ’58’ plate Galaxies off Addison Lee’s fleet, going to get 14 of those plated on Monday :cool:

Has any relevant legislation changed in the general area (we’re DIY’ing, although have spoken to an accountant), and what are the exact rules with Self-Employed drivers being shifted (forced) from their vehicles into cars we own? (which are going to be dual-shifted, 40/60 to driver, we pay fuel, with guaranteed min wage) Solicitor (Business specialist, but never dealt with transport) and family member say its fine, I just want to double check with anyone in this game.

Does anyone here specialise in turning company images around? Not had to do that one before, and would be nice to have a chat!

I only want this for about a year, as a short-term investment, and have potentially found our buyer already (company round the corner), but jut don’t want to fail at the first step.

CK

Horace

I think that you need to speak to a solicitor, an accountant may help with your sums but a solicitor will know the legalities of self employed drivers etc.

CKhalvashi

Horace wrote: »

I think that you need to speak to a solicitor, an accountant may help with your sums but a solicitor will know the legalities of self employed drivers etc.

I need a transport specialist, and I’m finding it difficult to find one.

Although I believe from a legal point of view that a driver shouldn’t be self-employed at all unless in their own car (although I know it’s common game in the area.

I’ll find one, it’s not like I’m not trying!

CK

patman99

Thought Taxi ranks were owned by Councils. Had no idea there were private ones.

If the drivers are s/e and they use their own vehicles then surely they are free to work for any firm they wish.
If you provide them with your own vehicles, then you may need to check-out HMRC rule 35 as you are providing them with the tools of the job. If however, you are providing them with a vehicle for which they will then pay a hire fee, then this may be a way around the issue.

As for changing the reputation, why not simply give the firm a new name ?. This seems to be common practice round my way with at least 3 dodgy operators changing their names when changing owners. People will look at the name and know of the reputation it has, so changing the name disassociates the new identity from the old.
After all, the vast majority of your customers will be on the end of a phone rather than walking-in off the street, so unlike a shop, they won't look at the building and think "last time I came here, I got ripped-off".

CKhalvashi

patman99 wrote: »

Thought Taxi ranks were owned by Councils. Had no idea there were private ones.

If the drivers are s/e and they use their own vehicles then surely they are free to work for any firm they wish.
If you provide them with your own vehicles, then you may need to check-out HMRC rule 35 as you are providing them with the tools of the job. If however, you are providing them with a vehicle for which they will then pay a hire fee, then this may be a way around the issue.

As for changing the reputation, why not simply give the firm a new name ?. This seems to be common practice round my way with at least 3 dodgy operators changing their names when changing owners. People will look at the name and know of the reputation it has, so changing the name disassociates the new identity from the old.
After all, the vast majority of your customers will be on the end of a phone rather than walking-in off the street, so unlike a shop, they won't look at the building and think "last time I came here, I got ripped-off".

The plates belong to the council, but the card belong to either drivers or companies, which is normally a bit of both.

I know that taxis have special rules on everything, and may be pushed to go down the Addy Lee route of a separate company to lease the cars through, then fees and split percentages after that (30% to us, plus £25/shift etc), but it’s one I’ll look into

paulwf

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Does anyone here specialise in turning company images around? Not had to do that one before, and would be nice to have a chat!


CK

I'd love to see someone run a taxi company like any other customer facing business and make customer service the key priority at every stage:

- have telephone operators that answer the phones in a polite and friendly manner and stating the company name. Make sure all bookings are logged properly (I've been let down before) and if a taxi is running late for an appointment they should call the customer to let them know.

- make sure the drivers know their way around, have a cab that does not stink of fast food or cigarettes from their last break, have guidelines on the music they can play, and make sure they never ever use their mobile whilst driving.

Most taxi companies around my way if judged against high st customer service standards would score about 3/10 most times.

One good innovation I've seen from a local company is to have a fixed price to town and the major supermarkets. I'd use them over other companies as you know the price won't shoot up if the traffic is heavy. They only run it during set hours when business is quiet, I bet the extra business more than makes up for any small losses by fixing the price.

CKhalvashi

paulwf wrote: »

I'd love to see someone run a taxi company like any other customer facing business and make customer service the key priority at every stage:

- have telephone operators that answer the phones in a polite and friendly manner and stating the company name. Make sure all bookings are logged properly (I've been let down before) and if a taxi is running late for an appointment they should call the customer to let them know.

- make sure the drivers know their way around, have a cab that does not stink of fast food or cigarettes from their last break, have guidelines on the music they can play, and make sure they never ever use their mobile whilst driving.

Most taxi companies around my way if judged against high st customer service standards would score about 3/10 most times.

One good innovation I've seen from a local company is to have a fixed price to town and the major supermarkets. I'd use them over other companies as you know the price won't shoot up if the traffic is heavy. They only run it during set hours when business is quiet, I bet the extra business more than makes up for any small losses by fixing the price.

You’ve just described the company around the corner perfectly!

I’ve gone £12 to Stansted, £60 to Luton and £100 to Heathrow/Gatwick, which is more/less the same as the company round the corner.

Also, knowing the managers of 2 of the hotels has come in useful; average driver takings £7.40/hour to 6pm, and I’m on a personal mission to have that at £20.

Tendering on a £7m Herts CC contract and bits of a £4m Essex CC Contract, plus on a mission to re-card the whole town (we’re going for black cards instead of white).

It could be said that unless CS improves beyond Santander levels, people could well be having employment problems, and I haven’t got Trish to sit on control for 60h/week now (she’s moved on). She was amazing, always looked after customers, always took bookings then subbed to her OH (who drove for the company round the corner) or the company office round the corner if necessary and never had a complaint against her in over 25 years.

The general situation needs improving, and it will at some point in the near future

Savvy_Sue

paulwf wrote: »

I'd love to see someone run a taxi company like any other customer facing business and make customer service the key priority at every stage:

I've used a couple of taxi firms recently and the best one was the company which texted to confirm the booking, gave me the driver's name and he then rang to say he was outside.

The one who took us to the airport at silly o'clock arrived VERY early (better than late, I guess) and didn't speak the whole journey.

vivatifosi

CK, I don't know if this is helpful to you, but if you pop into one of the main libraries in Herts - Stevenage probably best for you, they can look on an online database called COBRA and print you out a "Business Opportunities Profile" for "Taxi and Private Hire Services". They are pretty good little docs. If you speak to your local library, you may even be able to get someone to fax it across to there from the big library for a small fee.

I haven't seen the taxi doc, but I have seen them for other industries (including the one I run my consultancy in) and they are a pretty good starting point. Don't want to teach you to suck eggs and all that, but might be helpful.

ETA: being a bit of a serial entrepreneur, you may enjoy the COBRA docs and having a look through, they are pretty good thought starters in terms of going into an industry. Sorry, should have stated, dbase is called Cobra, factsheets are called COBWEB. In fact these are worth checking out for anyone looking at businesses and are available through the libraries of certain local authorities.

Here's a link to the COBWEB website:
http://cobwebinfo.com/a-to-z/t/

CKhalvashi

vivatifosi wrote: »

CK, I don't know if this is helpful to you, but if you pop into one of the main libraries in Herts - Stevenage probably best for you, they can look on an online database called COBRA and print you out a "Business Opportunities Profile" for "Taxi and Private Hire Services". They are pretty good little docs. If you speak to your local library, you may even be able to get someone to fax it across to there from the big library for a small fee.

I haven't seen the taxi doc, but I have seen them for other industries (including the one I run my consultancy in) and they are a pretty good starting point. Don't want to teach you to suck eggs and all that, but might be helpful.

ETA: being a bit of a serial entrepreneur, you may enjoy the COBRA docs and having a look through, they are pretty good thought starters in terms of going into an industry. Sorry, should have stated, dbase is called Cobra, factsheets are called COBWEB. In fact these are worth checking out for anyone looking at businesses and are available through the libraries of certain local authorities.

Here's a link to the COBWEB website:
http://cobwebinfo.com/a-to-z/t/

Thanks V,

I’m just fed up of seeing drivers going out for £20-30/day, then paying to run their own car out of that. Some have seen less than £5k in the last year! :eek:

I’m going to pop into Stortford in the morning and see if I can get anywhere with this one; You’ve probably got a good idea as to the company itself now, but 2 days in, arrangements have already been made for it to be debt free and with newer cars than at present, so I’ve made a good start. I know what the drivers want, and am pushing to get £3k/year each from them for it!

Spoken to the company round the corner, too, who are interested in partnering on various bits, including the new hotel contract in the town for London transfers (at £100 a pop), which could be interesting. With about 120 cars between us at present, neither of us could manage this contract on our own.

I’ll see how I get on, and thanks for the heads up

CK