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Andover taxi firm A&B Cars to move to 24-hour service in time for Christmas

https://www.romseyadvertiser.co.uk/news ... christmas/


Image: Romsey Advertiser

A TAXI firm which has operated in the town for a quarter of a century is gearing up to launch an around-the-clock service.

A&B Cars, based in Winchester Street, will this week be moving to a 24-hour taxi service – and the switch will come in time for the weekend.

“November 1 is going to be the first night we go all the way through,” said Steve Newell, who co-owns the company with his dad, Andy.

“It’s something that’s been in the pipeline a long time. We’ve finally got the right amount of cars where we can do this and we’ve got the staff who are willing to stay up and do the extra shifts.”

“We were so close to being 24 hours anyway, but you had to pre-book. Now people don’t have to.”

Previously the firm, which has been a fixture in Andover since 1994, did not operate through the night on weekdays, and on weekends their service stopping running at 4am before restarting the following morning.

But Steve says it’s primarily those midweek passengers who are set to benefit most from the move to 24 hours.

“There’s lots of people who do use the taxis a silly o’clock in the morning,” he added.

“It’s quite surprising how many times that phone rings with nobody in to answer it.”

A&B Cars joins 1-2 Call Cabs, based in Station Approach, in offering a 24-hour taxi service in the town.

Steve says he thinks it’s vital that more cars are on the roads and offering a service, and that he believes it can even help to tackle wider issues such as drink driving.

“It’s so important,” he added. “Especially this time of year as well.

“When we are driving late at night, we see the drink drivers and I think a lot of it is because of a lack of cars providing a service in the town.”

A&B Cars are based at 9 Winchester Street and can be reached on 01264 323444.

Employees of the firm, no doubt

In small towns it isn't worth it you get one descent night in 20 the rest there's nothing doing very hard to make it actually pay

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

Andover's population is around 40,000 so surprised they're this late to 24/7, particularly with the big army barracks in the area.

Our population is less than half that, but most of the bigger firms run overnight, although this is done with mobile phones, and the offices are closed - by the sounds of the article the firm's office will always be staffed?

(Although we do have a disproportionate amount of students and tourists/visitors, so that could be a factor here.)

Twenty years ago we didn't really have a 24/7 service, although airport runs etc could be pre-booked. Mobile phones changed all that, because the office phones can be transferred to a driver's mobile.

In fact I think some of the offices are staffed for less hours now than back then, ironically, because when it's quiet it's sometimes easier to close it up early and transfer the calls to a driver.

I think if punters know the firm doesn't run overnight then it's not a problem.

They can pre-book and if the job is good enough someone will do it.

I think even in the busiest of offices not a lot really happens throughout the night, other than maybe at weekends, and quite often it's not worth answering the phone as there aren't the cars working to cover the work.

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IDFIMH