Taxi Driver Online

Evesham taxi firm KLA Taxis to close after demand falls#

https://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/2 ... and-falls/

A well-known taxi firm has announced it is closing after continued low demand for services in the Vale of Evesham.

KLA Taxis, which has been operating in the Vale of Evesham for several years now, is closing following 'an extremely difficult decision'.

A statement from KLA Taxis said: "It is with a very heavy heart that we have to share some incredibly difficult news with our loyal customers.

"After many years of serving the people of Evesham and the surrounding areas, KLA Taxis will be closing its doors."

The company cited rising operating costs, a difficult economic climate, and growing competition from larger operators like Uber as key factors behind the closure.

It said that undercutting by bigger firms had made it impossible for a small, independent operator to compete while maintaining the level of service customers expected.

The statement added: "Sadly, the demand for our services has declined significantly, particularly during the evenings, and the reduction in bookings has reached a point where continuing to operate is simply no longer sustainable."

KLA Taxis operated a 24-hour booking service through phone, app, and email and was considered one of Evesham’s biggest taxi operators.

The company thanked its customers for their loyalty and support over the years.

The statement said: "Thank you to every customer who has booked with us, recommended us to friends and family, used our app, travelled with our drivers, supported our social media and, most importantly, chosen to support a local independent business.

"Every booking has meant something to us."

The company said it had been proud to serve the community, providing transport for daily journeys, nights out, airport runs, and countless last-minute requests.

It acknowledged that the closure would come as a disappointment to many and apologised for no longer being able to continue the service.

It is unclear exactly when KLA Taxis will stop operating; however, an Evesham Journal reporter did attempt to clarify this multiple times today, but the business did not pick up the phone.

That statement, the look of its website and the fact that Evesham's population is close to 30,000 suggested to me that it might have a few dozen cars. But on closer inspection the website says it only has 11 cars/drivers.

And despite the 24-hour claim above, the website says its office closes as early as 10pm on Sunday, and only opens till 2am on Saturday (Sunday morning).

Maybe it's like the offices here, with cars on a lot later than the office is open, but calls diverted via mobile phone.

But small offices like that will always be vulnerable because it's not cheap to run a manned office with only a smallish fleet of cars, even if it's not open 24 hours

https://klataxis.co.uk/

Sign of the times.

The costs of operating base 24/7 is huge, and not, IMO, viable unless you have 100+ cars paying subs.

I suspect the main loss to that firm isn't the number of punters to Uber, but rather the number of cars to Uber.

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IDFIMH

Not sure I'd agree with that - historically, the offices open day and night in St Andrews have generally had something like 10-20 cars

And there's even been offices with just a handful of cars, but usually maybe with a working-from-home element as regards answering the phones, and proprietor involvement in answering the phones rather than paying external staff to man the office.

Although even the bigger offices here have always closed for a few hours overnight (maybe from 1am weekdays, or 2am at weekends) and the 24/7 stuff only started with mobile phones and call diversion stuff about 20 years ago now.

...and purely coincidentally, PHTM recently posted a photo of a Wolves-plated PHV sitting on a taxi rank in Evesham

https://scontent.fgla2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=6AC05AC8