Taxi Driver Online

Hi,

I wonder if anyone could help me out with a question.

Me and my partner have always talked about running our own business. Recently we've inherited a bit of money and so we got to thinking about setting up.

When I've looked into it everything seems quite straight forward, except how do you find drivers who would like to come and work with you?

What do you think the best way of advertising / attracting drivers to a new company would be?

My partner has been working as a PH driver for a few years, and I have experience of running a business (although not PH). Any advise welcome!

Cheers

Chicken and egg situation, without the work the drivers wont come, and without the drivers you wont keep any work.

Might be best to see if you can buy out an existing firm.

But if you have got a few quid, stick it into property and go and drive for someone else.

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IDFIMH

I work as a business consultant and already have a few local companys signed up for contract work .... it's just getting the word out that's an issue!

As for the property ... have you seen how much they cost these days!

The gentle evolution.

You need to get a drivers licence and then take a punt with you and your partner doing all the work.

Then recruit drivers steadily, but be careful, youwon't grow your business if you take on crap drivers thrown out of other firms.

What will be your USP?

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Because of my 'day job' there could be a couple of USP that I could see working well, but first it would be important to nail the basics:

- Customer Service given by all office staff
- Running the cars on time
- Excellent telephony system

This seems to be impossible for a number of firms. Iguess that I would need to consider the initial marketing. Getting the phone to ring will be No.1.

Are there any unique selling points that have worked well anywhere else?

uniformed drivers, non-smoking cars, open the door for the customer, ring the door bell instead of beeping your horn.........theres lots you could do to put other firms to shame.

Being honest with punters. If you are mobbed out with work, then tell them you can't do that job at the time they wanted.

Time and time again I pick up people who just want to be told the truth. If a car is going to be 30 mins, then as long as they know then most times it's ok. They can always make other arrangments.

Also never let anyone down on a job to the station. Pub yes, shops yes, but if they miss their train they will never forget.

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IDFIMH

Anyone misses a train because we are late and there is no iediate follow on train we take them where they are going.

Stoke on Trent, 165 miles is the record.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

I thought that was the law anyway?
we allow 40mins now for a train job any later and we wont guaranee to get them there in time.

As for "never being late on a job" i think thats nearly impossible, to do that the driver's going to have to get the job 15-20mins before it's due and no driver will sit on a job for more than 3-4 mins, well i wont anyway time is money!
"opening doors" and "Knocking instead of beeping" i'll only open the door for and elderly/infirm/disabled punter, and dont knock unless asked (and then only after i put my meter on!

Well the operating system I've looked into has the facility to either call the home phone or send a text message to a mobile when the PH car is 1 minute away or just outside. I thought that would be a good catch for customers as no one in my area offers this service (yet!).

Going back to recruiting drivers, do you think that taking a full page advert in the local press would help attract new drivers? How about a free subs period for any existing driver that brings a new driver?

Any thoughts on that?

Personally I would go for the kind of concrete and easily discernible kind of stuff that steveo mentioned.

The points you're making seem to be more akin to the 'fast and reliable' service type thing that is a cliche of taxi marketing.

I'm not saying that you wouldn't be able to provide a better and more reliable service regarding the points you mention, but if I was wanting to use a taxi service then what you're offering would just seem a bit to much like advertising flannel rather than anything concrete.

On the other hand, if you offered uniformed drivers, new/late-reg motors of decent size etc (ie no Astras etc) then that would seem more tangible and therefore worth ringing you as compared to other firms. But of course it depends what the rest of the firms are up to and there's always the pricing aspect to consider.

Another point to remember is that it may be more difficult to run a reliable service than you envisage, and this will be exacerbated by having a small fleet at start up, which you of neccessity must have.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

A full page advert

If you intend reaching some kind of 'critical mass' at an early stage then, as Sussex said, it's clearly a chicken and egg situation.

I think you really have to offer some kind of initial incentive for drivers to join, say perhaps a few weeks gratis, but of course this depends on how long you can afford to do this and/or how quickly you can pick up work.

I would be specific in your advertising so as to attract the wheat of the local trade rather than the chaff - ie specify an age limit for cars that you're willing to take on, for example. That could tie in with whatever USPs you plan to adopt, and hopefully a virtuous circle would develop - ie you get the good drivers, so that attracts the good work, and this attracts more good drivers etc etc.

In this regard I think a problem with the trade is that the better drivers tend to want a piece of the action themselves - many start-ups seem to be drivers getting together and forming some kind of partnership, which is good to the extent that it's a way of attracting drivers and also mean you can get enough of them to provide enough cover to provide a decent service - another problem that start-ups seem to have is covering all the hours that a cab service needs to operate.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Not a bad idea IMO. Perhaps a deal (off the record) with some drivers working on an existing firm.

Then, as long as their boss don't boot them off, they are in a win win position.

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IDFIMH

So how would you go about aproaching drivers working at existing companies? Is this a taboo in the trade?

What would you think if someone aproached you to work at a new firm?

On the work front I've got some contract work, and I'm talking with a very small firm about the posibility of buying them out and renaming the company (get rid of any bad feelings associated). My idea would then be to install a new computerised dispatch system, do a bit of marketing, and try to expand as soon as possible.