Taxi Driver Online

30 staff lose jobs as airport taxi run firm falls into administration

All 30 staff at an Ipswich firm offering airport taxi runs have lost their jobs after it collapsed into administration, it has emerged.

The demise of taxi, bus and minicab hire services business JR Travel Ltd, based at London Road, was caused by “significant” cash-flow difficulties, and also resulted in 17 sub-contractors losing their jobs there, administrators said.

BDO business restructuring partners Eddie Kerr and Danny Dartnaill were appointed joint administrators over JR Travel Ltd, also known as JR Executive Travel, on October 5.

All staff “regrettably” lost their jobs, they said. “Unfortunately, a downturn in business, coupled with mounting creditor pressure, gave rise to significant cash flow difficulties, from which the business was unable to recover,” explained Mr Kerr.

“The joint administrators are taking all necessary steps to mitigate losses to customers and, going forward, will seek to maximise recoveries for the benefit of all creditors.”

The firm, which was based at Little Copdock House, had been purchased in a management buyout for £1.8m in 2015 by Ian Tooke and Andy Fisk, with help from a £950,000 loan from small and medium-sized enterprise lender ThinCats. At the time, the company employed around 35 taxi drivers and 17 coach drivers.

Mr Tooke is a fully qualified mechanic who previously looked after IT for JR Travel, and Mr Fisk is a former driver who worked himself up to become operations manager. One of the affected drivers, who did not wish to be named, said it was “a shame”.

Derek Davis, a Babergh district councillor for Berners Ward, said he had been left waiting for a minibus booked with JR Travel a fortnight before that never turned up. “It was very disappointing,” he said. “They should have notified us - we felt let down. “I was surprised, because JR Travel over the years has been a very reliable company, with an excellent reputation.”

The JR Travel website still has the URL http://www.jrtravel.co.uk, but the page features the branding of a separate firm, Manorside Travel. Although the firm was upholding some of the jobs, there was no contractual obligation to do so and there was no official arrangement, a BDO spokesperson explained.

An employee explained that JR Travel and Manorside Travel are two separate companies, and that Manorside Travel has been helping out with some of JR Travel’s previous booking. “We have been getting people from A to B for them, so they are not let down,” the company representative explained.

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IDFIMH

so was trying to take the gig economy on with the massive burden of tax and PAYE

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Any firm that specialises in airport work is, IMO, never going to make money.

Too many people wanting that work for any sensible margins to be gained.

Other than maybe the top end fleets, and firms that have the airport concessions.

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IDFIMH

My thoughts entirely. There simply isn't any profit in airport runs. Unless you're a London cabby working to/from LHR.

Doubt if it means they were 'employed' in the technical sense, rather than simply working for the firm.

When I read articles like this normally assume drivers self-employed unless there are good reasons to assume otherwise, and can't see any particularly good reasons here.

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Well spotted - I first read about this on Saturday, and assumed the article here was the same piece, but it's actually an updated version.

The first version didn't mention sub-contractors:

http://www.eadt.co.uk/business/jr-execu ... -1-5744043

It simply said:



So presumably the 17 sub-contractors referred to now are the coach drivers, previously referred to as simply 'employed'.

But you could be right about the 'taxi' drivers - it looks more like a chauffeur driver/airport transfer operation, so perhaps a bit more likely to be employees in the technical sense.

Owner of collapsed taxi company JR Travel says ‘every day was a struggle’ as he tried to save his company



The co-owner of a taxi, coach and mini-bus hire company in Ipswich has blamed a tax gripe with HMRC for the company falling into financial meltdown last month.

Andy Fisk describes “slanderous comments and threats” made against him on Facebook as “unfair”, and says he is “completely gutted” about the collapse of his company, JR Executive Travel.

Mr Fisk and Ian Tooke bought the business based at Little Copdock House on London Rd in Ipswich, which was also known as JR Travel, in a management buyout deal in 2015 from father and son team Malcolm and Glyn Roberts, who had run the company for 12 years.

Mr Fisk claims that the root of their financial woes was the £300,000 that JR Travel as a company owed to HMRC, because “taxi drivers who were self employed should have been classed as employees.”

The cash that JR Travel was liable to pay to HMRC was backdated to 2013, two years prior to when Mr Fisk and Mr Tooke took on the company. “Prior to us buying the company, HMRC had been investigating JR Travel,” Mr Fisk claimed. “We were in the line of fire. We thought about taking them (the previous owners) to court, but there was no money to do it because of the tight budget we had to work with.”

However, Glyn Roberts disputes that he and his father were responsible. “We knew nothing about any money owed to HMRC at the time when we sold the business,” he said. “We would have paid our share of it, if we had known. But we were never allowed to speak to HMRC, because the money was owed by the company, not by us.”

When Mr Fisk and Mr Roberts initially bought JR Travel for £1.8m, they raised £1.1m through crowdfunding and deferred the remaining £700,000 to pay back to the Roberts on November 3 2018.

But JR Travel went into administration just a few weeks before the payback date.

Glyn Roberts claims that under he and his father’s leadership, JR Travel had been a profitable company, making £500,000 a year in profit.

Mr Fisk and Mr Took had borrowed £950,000 loan from the lender ThinCats to initially buy JR Travel, and they had been paying back £28,000 each month to the companies they owed money to. “Everything was done so tightly,” he said. “We took on more work to try to make ends meet, getting extra contracts for school runs to Ipswich School.

“But one of our drivers was caught using her phone on one of our buses - we lost the contract and went back to square one.”

Mr Fisk says that six months before going into administration, he and Mr Tooke had contacted KSA insolvency practitioners about undertaking a CVA (creditors voluntary administration), but had decided against it. “The problem was that a CVA would mean everyone would stop giving us credit,” he explained. “The fuel card company, for example, demands money up-front, and some companies would have a right to cancel existing contracts.

“I am completely gutted about what’s happened. I pushed and pushed every day, but it was a struggle.”

At the time of going into administration, JR Travel employed 30 staff and 17 sub contractors, and Mr Fisk said that he had been “concerned” about the fate of his drivers.

The taxi, coach and minibus hire company Manorside Travel, which Mr Fisk’s partner Victoria Richardson is the director of, has been meeting some of JR Travel’s previous commitments, and “trying to salvage what we could,” Mr Fisk said.

The former telephone line and website for JR Travel are now redirected to Manorside Travel, and Mr Fisk said he is currently working as a driver for Manorside Travel.

“What do they want me to do? Just stand down and walk away?” said Mr Fisk, in response to those who have criticised him on social media. “I have a personal relationship with some of our customers going back years. Its just so unfortunate that we couldn’t pay back some of the garages we have done work with. I feel bad about that.”

But Glyn Roberts continues to blame Mr Fisk and Mr Tooke, adding: “We are taking up some of our issues with lawyers as soon as the administration process is wrapped up.”

Mr Fisk is also threatening legal action, claiming that he has solicitors looking into what he describes as “slanderous feedback” about him on Facebook.

Despite the criticism that Mr Fisk and Mr Tooke have received, Mr Fisk says: “our customers have been behind us 100%.”

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IDFIMH

Commonly called bogus self employment.

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IDFIMH

Says it all.

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Grandad,

I wonder how many of those have found jobs with the firm run ex owners other half?

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IDFIMH