Whilst me and Terrence will probably never see eye to eye on politics, the Police or the Royal Family, I understand we do share a common view on the man they call John Griffen the MD of Addison Lee Minicabs.
Mr Griffen seems to think he's 30% cheaper (
) than a licensed London Taxi, however over on the LTDF forum we have yet to find a fare, using Addison Lee's
own fare calculater, that is cheaper than we would do it for and thats only for a 4 seater Minicab, if you have 5/6 travelling the fare jumps again.
Anyway, here is the article from the Evening Standard.
Some of us have taken the time to make a comment at the bottom of the article.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard- ... article.do
Even a slump and the bus lane ban can't stop London's biggest cabbie
Liam Griffin is just telling me about the success of the family business, when in walks his dad. After that, neither Liam nor myself say much at all. John Griffin is a tour de force. He's a 66-year-old multi-millionaire ("I'll retire on my 100th birthday"), the founder of the Addison Lee minicab business, who has a view on anything and everything.
While Liam sits, sometimes rolling his eyes skywards, occasionally putting his head in his hands, John lets rip. "We're the biggest private employer in Camden but Frank Dobson [the local MP] has never even been to see us."
He paces round the room. "We drive 10 million people a year. In total, we've driven over 100 million - yet no driver of ours has ever been found guilty of any offence."
John segues smoothly on. "Don't get me wrong, we think taxis do a good job. But why shouldn't we be in the bus lanes? Look, a black cab can take you from King's Cross to Paddington in 20 minutes. A minicab would take 40 minutes."
He continues: "We will be big players in the Olympics but we're not going to involve ourselves if we're discriminated against. We've spoken to the Olympics people and we've said it's unfair, unjust, unreasonable and uncompetitive - if they let us use the bus lanes, same as black taxis, we will drive people to the Olympic Games. Who wants to be in one of our taxis if they can't be in the bus lane?"
There's no stopping him. "Black taxis are a lucrative monopoly. They don't work nights because they don't need to - that's why you can't get a black cab in the centre of London at night. Look, if you call a black computer cab, their meter starts running as soon as the job is allocated. We're 30% cheaper."
On John goes: "Another thing about them is that when you go more than six miles, their clock almost doubles. That's because, in the old days, the horse pulling a hackney carriage could only go six miles. The system is so archaic."
And on: "The taxis have to get their act together. All our drivers wear a collar and tie. They will open the door for you. The seats will be clean. You don't want some guy in a sloppy T-shirt and shorts and a dirty cab. If they don't sort themselves out we will take over. I'd prefer if they took it on themselves and we shared a superior service together. Instead of blubbing and bleating about us, they should sort themselves out."
To say that Griffin is what's known as "a character" is an understatement. But there's also no denying his business prowess. This is one hell of an operator, who doesn't take prisoners. He's chairman of a group that has a turnover of around £180 million. Addison Lee has more than 2500 vehicles in its fleet (as well as cars, it's got vans, coaches and chauffeured motorbikes). It's bigger than the biggest black cab firm. "We're the largest purchaser of Ford Galaxies in the world," says Liam, when he can get a word in edgeways. "We've got 1000 on order."
While other companies have been whining about the recession, Addison Lee has been powering on. Last week, it acquired Premier Transport, a rival that ran into difficulties, from the administrator. "They were like a lot of people in our game - they had too tight a margin," says John. "They had cashflow issues."
That added another 400 cars and was Addison Lee's fourth major purchase in as many years - in 2006, it bought Redwing, London's largest coach company. It's 44th in the Profit Track 100 League Table of the country's fastest-growing private companies. How big can it get? "There are 48,000 licensed private hire drivers in London and we've got just over 2500," says John. He pauses for once, for effect - there's still a long way to go.
The business is entirely private. It's shared between the Griffin and Foster families - Liam's original partner was Lenny Foster, who died in 1992. Daryl Foster, his son, is the chief executive. Liam is the managing director and his brother, Kieran Griffin, is the marketing and sales director. There are no plans to float on the stock market. "No, not at all, we get pitched to all the time," says Liam, grinning.
The firm is based in William Road, near Euston Station. It ought to be renamed Addison Lee Road. It's a short road and the entire length of one side is comprised of the Addison Lee offices, call centre and workshops. It's also spick and span - perish the thought of the scruffy neighbourhood cabby firm. The vehicles parked outside are gleaming and new. Always trademark black - "it seemed like the best colour for a car firm, it was weddings and funerals", says John. They're mostly people carriers.
Inside, the premises are modern. There are banks of computer terminals, displaying flickering maps and jobs under way or pending. Much of the work is conducted electronically by software, using GPS navigational equipment, of which John and Liam are very proud. They employ 500 staff on PAYE and have 84 telephonists who work from home. "It suits us and them. They can take their children to school and do a few hours for us - it works well," says Liam.
Their drivers are freelancers. Their average take-home, after paying for the car rental, insurance and car wash, is over £600 a week. For that they would do 60 hours a week. "It's about £150 a week more than similar drivers at other firms," interjects John.
He can tell what I'm thinking as I look around. "Not bad, for someone who left school at 16 without any qualifications. I had TB and couldn't sit any exams. I've never passed a single exam."
Nevertheless, he bluffed his way to being taken on by a firm of accountants as an articled clerk. His father had a roads-and-sewers building business in north London. It expanded too fast and got into serious problems. John quit his training to help with the rescue. In the meantime, he had to get an income so he started minicabbing.
Eventually, the building firm was saved. But his father went to work for Islington council as a clerk of works and John stayed with cabbing. By then he was married with two sons and "I came to the conclusion that I could run my own minicab business a lot more successfully than the companies I had worked for".
He set up on his own in 1975. Stuck for a name, he chose Addison because one of his controllers was living in a squat in Addison Gardens and it sounded posh. And the Lee? "It was just off the top of my head. It had to be a short name because Addison was long."
John describes Addison Lee as "London's best-kept secret. The time will come when we will be recognised not only as a valuable part of London's transport network but also as an organisation that has provided the dignity of employment to many thousands of people of different nationalities, all of whom we train to provide a level of service that will help us to expand and prosper."
As well as investing in cars and technology, that's the key, he says. He learned it during the long hours when he worked for other minicab firms: respect for the driver.
They order a car to take me back. On the way out, they challenge me to ask the driver what he thinks. They swear it's someone they've chosen at random. "I'm not lying when I say it's an impressive company," says Kojo, when I ask.
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