Taxi Driver Online

The Herald (Glasgow)

February 12, 2007

HEADLINE: Back on the road again; Alternative ad deal offered to taxi owners taken for a ride

Steven Wales said Cabscreens had waited 18 months for a licence approval from South Lanarkshire.

TAXI owners locked into four-year finance agreements to pay for equipment abandoned by Cabtivate, the taxi advertising company now in liquidation, are being invited to consider signing up with a rival company to pay off their debt.

Cabscreens at East Kilbride says that unlike Cabtivate, which received a GBP100,000 grant from Scottish Enterprise, it has had no grant help and it does not charge drivers to install display screens in their cabs.

Yet Cabscreens intends to pay its drivers just under GBP100 a month, based on an 8-per cent share of fully-booked local advertising revenues, having installed the onboard equipment in cabs at no cost to the drivers.

Cabtivate, by contrast, persuaded more than 100 drivers in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester to sign contracts for installation costs of GBP3100, which they are now repaying at GBP104 a month over four years.

The promised GBP192 a month of income dried up two weeks ago when Cabtivate's directors, led by founder Mark Greenhalgh, petitioned for liquidation.

The Herald revealed that the group's finance director had quit on December 4, yet screens were still being installed in cabs later that month, and that creditors were likely to be owed close to GBP1m.

John Lygate, a director of Cabscreens, commented that there was a "glaring discrepancy" between the cost of Cabtivate's equipment and the GBP3100 charge made to drivers.

He said: "The hardware used by Cabtivate cost around GBP1200 plus VAT with a fitting fee of around GBP400 and server software at around GBP3100 for the base office."

Cabscreens uses headrest displays which cost about a third as much to install.

"Our business model is different in that we cater for the smallest sole trader to national companies with ad costs of GBP1 per day per cab.

"We fit our systems free of charge with no cost to the driver and he/she is paid a percentage of sales monthly. We would be happy to discuss with drivers the potential use by us of their systems, " it said. Steven Wales, founder of the company, said it had targeted local traders and businesses who wanted better value from their advertising spend. However, it had taken 18 months for South Lanarkshire Council to process and approve its application for a licence, while the company had received no reply at all from its request to Glasgow City Council.

"We were sitting here ready to go with an idea, and meanwhile Cabtivate had overtaken us. But we are starting small, and trying to keep going."
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