Taxi Driver Online

Find it hard to believe this is happening as portrayed. I mean, 24 firms merging? If anything, I suspect most of the firms will be merged already, and the businesses mentioned will be those legacy-type firms and phone numbers that are often retained as part of a merger or takeover.


Rochdale taxi firms merge under one umbrella to improve customer experience

https://www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/rochd ... xperience/

In total, 24 firms have merged to form the new ‘Tiger 2000’ brand including Tiger Cars, 2000 Cars, Castle Taxis, Strand Taxis, United Millennium, Central Newline, Town Taxis, Cozy Cars and Heywood Cars

Taxi firms from across the borough have merged under one umbrella in the hope of improving the customer experience.

In total, 24 firms have merged to form the new ‘Tiger 2000’ brand including Tiger Cars, 2000 Cars, Castle Taxis, Strand Taxis, United Millennium, Central Newline, Town Taxis, Cozy Cars and Heywood Cars.

Passengers will still be able to use the same number for each individual firm and can also use the new ‘Car 2000’ to book a ride.

James Scholes, Tiger 2000 manager, said the idea was down to a number of drivers leaving the industry due to the pandemic.

He said: “As soon as Covid hit straight away the taxi trade took a massive nosedive. We were still providing a service for essential users like the NHS.

“Every firm dropped to about 10% of the workforce that was working. There wasn’t even enough work for that 10% that was working, their earnings were down nearly 80%.

“We were just about keeping our heads above water. It was a very emotional time for us all.”

With the new firm it means the taxi firms will be able to operate across the borough instead of in their core areas.

James said this will cut down on dead mileage as, for example, a driver from a firm based in Norden will not have to return to Norden after dropping off a passenger in another part of town.

For customers in all areas it should mean more availability of drivers and quicker pick up times.

“We’ve got a company in every part of Rochdale and Heywood,” added James.

“It makes absolute sense to have this cooperative of the different firms. It reduces the costs and provides a better service.

“Obviously it fills that gap of the number of drivers we lost because of the pandemic. We’ve got a fantastic firm, we probably now carry 80% of the taxi users in Rochdale on a daily basis. It’s great.”

James said the idea formed toward the end of 2020 with 2000 Cars the first firm to make the move towards amalgamation.

He also said that the firms’ offices will be kept open and none of the staff have lost their job due to the merger.

“Some people are resistant to change but I’d like people to know we’ve done it for better customer service and if you combine the experience of all these firms together it runs into 100s of years,” said James.

“They are highly experienced and highly professional firms and drivers.

“Our collective and combined experiences will help us to become an even better taxi company and we hope that you'll come along on the ride with us!”

So they're merging, but keeping 24 offices open?

As Dr Spock almost said once, 'It's a merger, Jim, but not as we know it'.

Don't know precisely what this is all about, but doesn't look like what most people would regard as a merger.

Suspect it's some kind of co-operation agreement, but doubt it's a full-blown merger.

It’s a CARTEL!

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Former taxi driver

It says in the article that it is a co-operative so assuming there will be no owners.

If true, my guess is all those companies were very small and the owners were making hardly any profits.

Makes sense on that assumption for everyone involved.

Drivers will have a lot of flexibility and minimum expenses to the "company" and the owners of all firms will now be drivers in the co-operative and can work when they want and have no stress and hopefully a decent living just driving.

I think this is a case of firms working together rather than merging. I suspect in response to the likes of Uber.

On a larger scale, it's what firms that have Autocab and iCabbi do now. They share work with other companies when firm A doesn't have a car available.

To me, it makes perfect sense.

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IDFIMH

It kind of sounds like Tesco, Morrison's, Sainsbury's and lots of corner shops are 'merging' in a particular town or city.

But they're actually keeping all their shops open and retaining all staff

In which case, I suspect the Competition and Markets Authority would take an interest.

The cab firms in Rochdale obviously intend co-operating in some way, although not a merger as such. But it's not clear precisely how they'll be co-operating, but in terms of competition law, I'd guess it could be considered anti-competitive.

But there's not enough detail in the article, and they're not the taxi equivalent of Tesco, Asda et al. So unlikely the authorities would take any interest, so we'll probably never know

I don't think the firms are setting one fare for all the firms.

More they are working together to ensure any punter they can't cover doesn't need to use the likes of Uber. Instead, they will pass the job to another firm that has a car more locally.

Or they will have one app showing all the cars from all the firms and the nearest car will get the job no matter what firm that car is attached to, and pay the fare that the firm sets.

A bit like what Uber Local is doing.

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IDFIMH

I wonder if this should be referred to the MMO as it cannot surely be in the best interests of consumers

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