Taxi Driver Online

When I saw the headline, thought Sussex will be totally unimpressed.

But it's not just a women-only service, it's using tuk tuks

A double whammy


Pink taxis to keep women safe set to come to Nottingham

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/loc ... fe-6304433

It has come after recent events in the UK


Image: Mary Storrie, Rosie May Foundation/Nottingham Post

The woman behind a scheme that delivered female-only taxis for women in Sri Lanka who were getting harassed on public transport says they could be on their way to Nottingham.

Mary Storrie and husband Graham set up the Rosie May Foundation in memory of their murdered daughter, who was just 10-years-old when she was killed at a Christmas party in December 2003.

The Bingham-based charity has previously helped children in Nepal return to school after an earthquake and set up an orphanage in Sri Lanka.

It has also set up the female-only taxis using tuk tuks in the same country.

And now because of recent events, such as the Me Too movement and the murder of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old woman who was kidnapped and killed on her way home in South London, Mary is planning to bring the taxis to Nottingham and the UK.

Named the Think Pink Taxis, these taxis would all be driven by women, which would be pre-booked and pre-paid, giving an additional safety net for the driver.

While electric vehicles instead of tuk tuks are planned to be used in Nottingham, it's hoped the new project will pilot in the first quarter of 2022.

Mary Storrie said: "We feel as though now the time is right to do this, especially on the back of what's happened with Sarah Everard and that there's a shortage of taxi drivers post-pandemic.

"It gives that safety of women picking up other women, and we're thinking our target market will be female students or those who are later in life in the community, women on their own.

"It also offers a way for women to get into the employment market and we want to start it in Nottingham as it's the home of the charity, and who knows, it could end up across Nottinghamshire and even further afield."

Users would download an app and be able to pre-book and pre-pay for their taxi.

The scale of it all depends on what funding can be secured, and how successful the pilot is.

Mary said: "We'll start with a small fleet and all being well, if it's a success, we'll then roll it out.

"It's proven it has worked in Sri Lanka and we feel it is a replicable model that would work elsewhere, and we're keen to use electric vehicles as moving forward, that's the way to go.

"It's a big challenge, and I've wanted to do this for some time."


Image: Mary Storrie, Rosie May Foundation/Nottingham Post

In Sri Lanka, the Rosie May Foundation helped to train women in Sri Lanka to drive tuk tuks, so they could introduce female-driven tuk tuks to be used by women only.

It's because of women there being harassed on public transport while on their commute.

Mary said: "If you ask women if they would prefer a male or female taxi driver, most women would tell you that they’d prefer a female taxi driver, so we’re trying to offer a choice for women."


Image: Mary Storrie, Rosie May Foundation/Nottingham Post

The charity has raised £2million and has helped thousands of people across the world.

Its first project, the Rosie May Home, helped home hundreds of Sri Lankan girls who were orphaned by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami.

Mary said: "We had an amount of money sent to us from all over the world, and we actually collected £22,000 in the first year.

"People sent it for our family to use, but we never felt it was the right thing to do...

"After the tsunami, we watched the death count rising on the TV and we decided that maybe we could use it to help children that had been made parentless as a result of the tsunami.

"And that’s how the charity started."

Since then, the foundation has worked on a range of different projects, all with the purpose to help women and children.

In 2015, after the devastating earthquakes in Nepal, the charity set their sights on rebuilding a destroyed primary school, which helped the community even more than just by educating the children.

Mary said:" Natural disasters are a perfect time for traffickers to prey on vulnerable families.

"Traffickers were moving to remote locations and trying to persuade parents to give their children to them to take them to boarding schools.

"Because we rebuilt the primary school, children were kept safe from the traffickers and families were kept together."

Unless they stamp on the other woman's head, say

Or if they're Emma Tustin

On second thoughts, if they're full grown adults then they should be OK, even from Emma Tustin types

Anyway, I'm sure the scheme is well meaning, and the charity's organisers certainly seem switched on. But nothing about the licensing aspects etc, but surely they've done their homework?

So while it might work in Sri Lanka, not so sure about here

Blatant sex discrimination, i'd be out on my ear if I created a male only taxi service.

Will married couples be allowed to use them? Will they have doors on? Will they pass the Council inspection?

_________________
Grandad,

Doomed to failure, like all those others that have come up with this wonderful idea before.

Let them p*** up their money.

_________________
IDFIMH

They claim to be a charity and this would mean they would expect all the advantages a charity receives even though it would have to be a licensed operation throughout.

I do not understand the quote about Sarah Everard who was kidnapped not by a taxi or private hire driver.

In transportation of the general public terminology the use of the word "Charity" has become the biggest deceit ever.

Wonder how the tuktuks got on - maybe the Rosie May Foundation realised that it was a non-starter, so they've moved on to proper cars? And I'm sure Heathcote will be equally impressed by this - it's Blueline and Shanks

Tuktuks are mentioned - but mainly their initiative in South Asia. Nottingham is kind of brushed around...wonder why that would be?


Blueline taxis launches pink cars in Newcastle to encourage more female drivers and keep women safe

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/no ... s-29655303

North East company Blueline Taxis has partnering with the Rosie May Foundation as part of initiative to empower women by introducing a fleet of pink taxis

A fleet of pink taxis driven by women are coming to Newcastle in a new initiative to help passengers feel safer.

North East-based Blueline Taxis, is partnering with the Rosie May Foundation, to introduce the pink taxis to be driven by women around the city.

The THINK PINK initiative launched on Wednesday and saw newly recruited female taxi drivers, along with Mary and Graham Storrie, founders of Nottingham-based The Rosie May Foundation, and charity SmartWorks, gather at Blueline Business Centre base in Walkergate, Newcastle. There the new fleet of taxi cars were introduced, featuring a standout pink banner and 'Driven by Women' sign.

The initiative encourages more women into the job of driving taxis, while also highlighting to passengers which taxis have female drivers.

Tom Shanks, Blueline's finance director, said: "We're thrilled to be launching THINK PINK in Newcastle. The initiative is about empowerment, by providing women with flexible employment opportunities, and is aimed at providing safer transportation.

"We are trying to break the stereotypes of a taxi driver, and help women who have maybe had families and need to fit work around their busy lives see this is a flexible option of self-employment."

Blueline, a family-run North East business, was founded by Tom's grandparents Colin and Audrey Shanks. Audrey Shanks was the first ever female licensed taxi driver in the North East, and ran the business after husband Colin passed away. Blueline now has more than 1,500 registered drivers on their system - but the majority are male.

The Rosie May Foundation, based in Nottingham, have now collaborated with Blueline, after they found similar success encouraging female employment, driving pink Tuk-Tuks in South East Asia. The foundation was established in 2004 following the murder of Mary and Graham Storrie's daughter Rosie in December 2003, when she was aged just 10.

Rosie's family decided to get away from Christmas in the UK, one year after her death, to Sri Lanka, but on Boxing Day 2004, found themselves caught up in the Indian Ocean Tsunami, one of the deadliest natural disasters. After thankfully remaining unharmed, Mary and Graham noticed the increasing amount of 'orphans' in Sri Lanka. A lot of the children were given up by predominantly single mothers who wanted to keep them, but could not afford to house them.

Mary and Graham then decided to turn tragedy into hope, and using donations given for Rosie's funeral fund, set up both a girls' home, and rolled out a groundbreaking programme of pink Tuk-Tuks, offering the women employment opportunities, benefiting the families by lifting them out of poverty and offering safer journeys on public transport.

Since then, The Rosie May Foundation has rolled out THINK PINK in the UK on taxis, first in Nottingham which has proved a growing success, and now Newcastle. Mary said: "We have chose to partner with Blueline and bring the initiative to Newcastle, as they share a similar ethos to us, a family business keen to provide more employment opportunities to women by giving them control and are made to feel respected.

"The Pink Tuk-Tuks are one thing that has gave women the best source of income, and parallels exactly the same here with pink taxis. Less than three per cent of taxi drivers in the UK are women. The idea behind the scheme is to address the gender shortage and imbalance of women taxi drivers, and encourage women to see this as a good, visible job. The women who join up will be supported throughout the recruitment process and beyond, to help create a community of women drivers that feel supported."

Laura Kesan, from Sunderland, joined Blueline as a driver in October 2023, and has already progressed to an executive driver. She said: "Coming from a background of sales, when family health tragedy struck, it was hard to work life around my hours, so I had to gave up my job."

Laura was then encouraged to think about driving as a career, something she says she "has always loved", gaining her taxi badge and attending courses at Sunderland College. Laura has welcomed the initiative and said: "I love being a female in the team, I've felt so welcomed by them all and I'm even referred to as 'Mother Hen'!

"I was so grateful to be offered the position as an executive driver. It's amazing seeing women coming in to be recruited under our THINK PINK campaign, its a great career," Laura added.

Also at the launch event was UK charity Smart Works, who have a base in Newcastle. Aimed at empowering women and giving them the confidence and skills to secure employment, new recruits were offered skills and confidence-based training to get them set up for their new roles out on the roads.

It has never worked before, and it will not work this time.

Love to see them deal with the Trans issue.

_________________
IDFIMH

Just remembered when reading that stuff about the dog in DG Cars that meant to look for this, which I read almost a year ago, but which isn't on here.

But anyway, it's basically the same thing in Nottingham as recently announced on Tyneside with Blueline, Shanks and Co.

So I'd guess the Rosie May Foundation's 2021 tuktuk thing in Nottingham never really got going, then they announced the link up with DG Cars in the city to get more women drivers on board, and more recently the Blueline project

Anyway, a worthy enough cause, and obviously a good marketing and recruitment pitch from the firm's perspective...

But the stuff about flexibility etc makes you wonder why more women aren't attracted to the trade...


Campaign seeks to boost number of female taxi drivers in Notts and Derby

https://www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/campa ... and-derby/

Mega-sized photo here:
https://d4oy8w59p2l43.cloudfront.net/20 ... 659342.jpg

The project has been 'two years in the making' and has become a driving force in female recruitment

A foundation has urged female drivers in Nottingham and Derby to consider roles as taxi drivers as part of a campaign to empower women in the workforce. The Rosie May Foundation was set up following the tragic murder of a 10-year-old Nottinghamshire girl.

Its 'Think Pink' campaign has partnered with DG Cars and Western Cars to increase the number of women taxi drivers in the Nottingham and Derby region, as currently, women make up less than 2 per cent of taxi drivers in the UK. Some 20 new female taxi drivers have already signed up with the ThinkPink scheme.

The Rosie May Foundation was set up in January 2004 following the murder of Rosie May, who was killed in December 2003 by a 17-year-old boy she knew. In response to public support and donations at the time, the foundation launched, with funds going to Sheffield Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Mary Storrie, the co-founder of the Rosie May Foundation, said: "This project has been two years in the making. We partnered with DG Cars and Western Cars a year ago. At that time, they had just one female driver among the 1,400 self-employed drivers working for the firm."

The foundation has grown internationally after the family, seeking solace after their daughter's death, holidayed in Sri Lanka the Christmas following Rosie May's death. It was the year a devastating tsunami hit the country – but a palm planted in memory of their daughter survived and inspired a series of fundraising projects in the country, including a female driver project, with the UK Think Pink project stemming from this initiative.

Mary said: "We first began the driver project in Sri Lanka in 2016 following a UN report that found that 90% of women had suffered some form of sexual harassment while using public transport. We wanted to champion safer journeys and economically empower women. A fleet of 10 women driven tuk tuks now operates in Sri Lanka.”

"There are many parallels between the UK driver campaign and this project. As well as empowering and supporting women, we want to educate them to realise that driving is a career that can provide flexibility, especially if they have domestic responsibilities that restrict their conventional full-time working hours."

DG's only female driver, Kim Blagen, has been driving for the firm for 15 years. She will support and mentor new drivers and continue to drive. As Baljit, one of the new drivers, explained, flexibility is a key driver for the role.

She said: "I can choose my working hours, which means I can spend more time with my children and still earn money to manage my household bills. From the bottom of my heart, I am very happy to be part of the lovely Think Pink team who have helped me start a new job as a private hire driver."

Another driver, Sapheena, said: "I returned to work after 28 years, and now I have achieved 1,000 hires!" With a general shortage of taxi drivers since the pandemic, Mary said training new taxi drivers was fast becoming a success story that she hoped to roll out nationally.

She said: "We have initially partnered with DG Cars, based in my hometown, which has the largest fleet of drivers in the East Midlands, but the aim is to eventually expand the scheme. Taxi driving covers all sorts of journeys, from school transport to hospital appointments. We help recruits who match the criteria to attain their taxi driving license through the DG Academy and Think Pink scheme."

People signing up will be self-employed, but the scheme provides backup to enable this move. Drivers must have a clean driving licence and DBS check; they can use their own car or, if full-time, use one of DG's Cars. Interested drivers can call Think Pink on 07470 512589 or contact via the Think Pink website or the Facebook page.

And if the 20 new drivers are also part of that 1,400, then that's still just 1.5 per cent

And that was almost a year ago - wonder how many are still there, or if numbers have since increased?

And 1,400 drivers, yet the can't find one to take Pixel the 'emotional support dog'

If you look on their website they were doing tuk tuk deliveries during pandemic but there is no mention of driving customers or pixels about

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