A Simple Taxi

Have you ever walked out of a train station and jumped in a black cab only to see the meter racking up an ever bigger bill? Have you then wondered what the difference is between a mini-cab firm and a cab hired from a rank? The laws which control them both are complex and diverse but I will attempt to shed some light.

A black cab in the UK (or taxi) is also known as a Hackney Carriage and is licensed under the Town and Police Clauses Act of 1884. The law dates back to the days before motor cars were invented and relates to Hackney, not a borough of London but a breed of horse which could be hired with a carriage to transport you to a destination. The original law even stated the carriage must carry a bale of hay for the horse to eat.

These days, A Hackney usually has a light on the top; can be hailed in the street; it is often purpose built; has wheelchair access and charges on a meter which starts from the point of hire. Meter rates are set by the local government (or council) relevant to each area of the UK. Hackney carriage vehicles can park on a rank and while the driver and vehicle need to be licenced, there is no need for an operator.

If you are in a city, a train station or an airport then a hackney carriage (black cab) is a great option for a short trip. You can hire the vehicle on the spot for convenience and the driver usually has very good local knowledge which saves time reaching your destination. Typically a black cab’s meter rate will be higher than a private hire’s price list.

It is worth asking what the rate is in advance and even comparing the rate with different drivers on a rank. Some will quote a destination for a fixed cost and while it is legal to charge less than a meter may read, it is illegal to charge more. If you are travelling a longer distance or need a pick-up for a set time then consider a private hire vehicle – a subject for my next blog!

VIP Customers

Once a year, very close to our location in Wrexham a major event known as the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod takes place. It attracts people from all over the world. For travel companies in the local vicinity there is an abundance of work available.

Some of the trips required by competitors, fans and adjudicators can be lucrative. London Heathrow Airport transfers are especially so. There are a number of celebrities who attend this prestigious event too. So, are DrivenByQ getting involved?

Although we have arranged transport for the A list stars who have attended in the past, this year we are not promoting our service. This is because we consider our regular account customers (namely large manufacturing companies) more important.

Between the Wrexham Industrial Estate, Deeside Industrial Park and surrounding areas in north Wales there is enough business to keep DrivenByQ thriving all year round. It is better to let other operators take their fill of work from the Eisteddfod for a week.

After nine years of establishing our niche, jeopardising a reputation or regular income for a fast buck is not prudent. There is sense however in offering capacity to new long-term customers who might be abandoned by their regular suppliers.

A Bit Extra

Browsing through Facebook I saw a comment from someone who took a taxi ride home after a special night out. Their evening had gone fine up until the moment they left the restaurant only to experience a nightmare ride at high speed.

Many people perceive an executive car service to be expensive and out of their reach. The fact is a twenty mile journey with an executive service compared to a taxi will be a close match. Sure the executive service will be slightly more but you receive an awful lot extra.

So how does the executive service compete on cost? Well, it comes down to overheads. The premises for a town centre taxi office has business rates; insurance for walk-in customers; telephone staff (over £1000/week); electricity; radio equipment; heating and more which all add up.

At DrivenByQ we spend more on vehicles and pay a higher rate to drivers than a taxi company but our overheads are not even 30% of a taxi firm. That means we compete on cost and the extra paid above a taxi fare means a clean, quality vehicle and a driver who is not in a rush.

A New Subject

Last week we had an unexpected dip in the number of airport transfers we provide for business passengers. From time to time we expect a quiet week and it can often be factored in to our expectations but this one was different.

Business passengers stop travelling at Christmas, summer shut-downs and Easter too. There is always a blip at the end of the financial year as travel budgets are used up, reset and allocated as well. There are always seasonal trends.

This year however, a new factor has entered the mix: staggered half-term school breaks. This is so pupils are off at different times and holiday prices are lowered by spread demand. England and Wales have different term calendars too!

This week is back on track with a constant flow of new bookings. So too is the congested traffic associated with rush-hour. Who would have thought that school closures would correlate so closely to motorway traffic movements.

Self Drive

On the news last week was Google's new self-driving car. To most people it may seem a gimmick but to a company like ours it could be viewed as a potential threat. The truth is, Google has been developing this idea for quite a while and when you dig a little deeper you find it has also made some big investments in apps and software to enter the taxi / limo / chauffeur market.

The online platform 'Uber' is controversial within the taxi and chauffeur trade across the globe because of the licencing laws it has contravened. Nonetheless it offers something valuable to its users. When travelling abroad to a city on business and the territory is unfamiliar, why not book a cab or limo service using a smart phone app which you know and trust?

People ask me if we are concerned. Well, not yet no. The geographic area that DrivenByQ serves would prove an extreme challenge for a self-driven vehicle to negotiate and in addition, the weather causes even more issues over the course of a year. In addition, the majority of our turnover comes from local corporate account holders.

The real question in my mind is not the threat to the private hire industry but whether the giants of the auto-mobile industry would allow Google to replace them? Would Ford or VW really allow their brands to be replaced with generic vehicles? I really wonder what travelling in automated cars reflects on the occupants and what statement it makes to society. Maybe only time will tell.

Flexing Some Muscle

You might have guessed it but as an owner of a business providing executive car services, I have a passion for cars and driving. I love the history of the motorcar. From steam powered horse carriages right to the latest hybrid hyper cars that top 200mph. Every once in a while I like to do something special in relation to the automobile. Something that gives me goose bumps.

After our wedding last year we decided to do something special for our honeymoon but waited until our baby boy was able to come with us. This year we took two weeks away and visited Orlando in Florida - famed for theme parks. After four very intensive days of roller coaster rides and sensory stimulation overload, we took the pace down a few notches and hired a car.

We opted for a 292bhp Dodge Charger and equipped with our steed we headed for the beach. The particular beach in question had sand just like any other but for a car enthusiast this was the place where the American muscle was created; where the growl of a racing V8 was first heard by the masses and the place where NASCAR was born: Daytona Beach!

Decades before, this is where a group of men (who originally modified and tuned their cars to outrun the police with moonshine in the prohibition era) gathered to compete against each other. They would race on the sand to see which car was quickest. Eventually they formed the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing and the rest as they say is history!

In some ways, Daytona was like visiting the holy-grail. The activities of the 1930’s and 40’s came to life and no longer existed in just a book or TV documentary – they were real, reinforced by the spectacle of the Daytona Speedway. The best thing though is I can tell my son it was the first place in the whole world he sat on a beach and his Dad took him there in a muscle car.

Less Is More

I recently read ‘posting a blog less frequently but with more valuable content is better than posting regular content which nobody will read’. From a Search Engine perspective there are arguments against this theory but from a reader’s perspective, it is a valid point of view.

To be honest I receive little feedback about this blog because my colleagues say “I never read it”. When asked why, they simply say “it does not interest me”. Therefore the Internet Marketing Strategy I have been plotting for the last year needs reviewing.

I’m planning to ditch the technical approach and clinical understanding of rankings and instead, start featuring content in our social medial channels that is engaging, entertaining and reflective of the passion we have for what we do.

Demanding results in a short space of time in our business is unwise. The pressure is too intense and the stress clouds your judgement. Maybe content is king but quality content that people love has to be better! So expect less blogging from me and who knows, someone might read them.

Changing Gear

Many times I have said “I could never start DrivenByQ again”. The time, effort and sheer physical stamina needed in the early years is beyond me. I am not old by any means but I have to face reality. I am no longer in my prime. When you become accustomed to putting in so much time and effort for a business though, it conditions you to believe it is the only approach.

Right now I am seeing how strongly I have previously believed this philosophy. After our latest management meeting and three months of paternity leave, there was a distinct message coming from my (older) business partners telling me to ‘slow down’ – “Learn to pace yourself” the era of working 18 hour days on databases or spreadsheets or accounting systems are over.

It is time to recognise DrivenByQ is no longer a young business in demand of constant input to keep it developing. Instead it is able to stand on its own two feet and it has taken the birth of my son to make me see it - and seven months of him being around to understand what changes I need to make. On reflection it is time to feel proud of the achievement associated with owning a thriving business.

Instead of believing hard work is the only way to live, it is time to relax a little and realise what I originally set out to accomplish has been achieved. After four months paid paternity leave, I can take time off when necessary to be with my family, I will never miss a parents evening or school play and most of all I can be around to spend every possible minute with something precious.

Finally, the hard work, long hours and years of sacrifice are paying off.

Dispensation – Removal Of PH Plates

A chauffeur driven car arrives outside an office to collect a guest for an airport trip. The driver opens the boot, loads the luggage and then opens the door for the guest who appears a few moments later. They set off and then someone asks: were they licensed?

Last week I was at Manchester Airport when a fierce argument broke out behind me in the car park at Terminal Two. The problem was a car without any markings reversing in to a designated parking bay when a driver in a plated and liveried taxi wanted to park there.

The driver in the unmarked car stepped outside of his vehicle, opened the boot and produced a private hire licence plate. Obviously the driver in the other car was not aware of section 75 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976.

At DrivenByQ the majority of our vehicles do not display private hire plates. Instead they have a small badge in the window. Along with this there is a letter in the glove box stating we have permission to remove plates owing to the nature of our executive work.

As the first company in our area to be granted dispensation, we worked with our licensing authority to ensure we secured the right interpretation of the rules. For the general public our vehicles look inconspicuous but to a licenced driver we are legitimate and lawful.

A State Of Mind

Looking back at my blogs from the last year (or two) there is confusion regarding marketing, branding, growth and structure. The truth is, I do not always have the time to sit down and plan what to write or implement in the business – I suppose it is typical of growth when it starts to overtake you. I have to admit, I was not the best at delegating either.

We have been a bit messed up lately at DrivenByQ. Toward the end of 2013, things were starting to take their toll on me after becoming engaged, married and having a baby (which meant becoming a first time Dad); our turnover was growing; we had various projects on the go and in addition I was researching information on Google and VAT.

In December it was clear with the addition to the family things could not continue as they were. It resulted with me taking a trip to A&E and being hooked up to a heart monitor! Luckily the only thing wrong was a severe episode of sleep deprivation! From that point on though, I stopped driving, handed over the reins to my business partners and took a break.

I am glad to say in the last few weeks our baby boy has started sleeping at night and some normality has returned to our lives - I have even done a couple of driving jobs. I have not been completely dormant while off. In fact it has been good to step away and focus on what was important when I first made the decision to enter the executive private hire industry.

In nine years DrivenByQ has grown from nothing to a highly regarded and technically proficient (local) business. Despite being pulled in different directions we have developed. With the benefit of perspective and appreciation for our achievements I think we might be ready for a more structured approach and some very big developments.

Destination Planning

My recent blogs relate to plans to develop a social media and Internet marketing strategy. These will support the DrivenByQ web site. At the end of this month our management team are meeting to discuss them in detail. We recognise it requires analysis and creativity away from the daily distractions life can bring.

I am expecting some scepticism regarding the results we can yield but on a personal level I am confident of developing new business from every part of our plan. What is crucial to success is the identification and separation of different customer types who use our service. Furthermore we need to understand what is valuable or useful to them.

For example the communication required for consumers who travel once a year with us compared to the businesses that travel on a daily basis will be very different. What our vehicles look like might be most important for a leisure customer but cost centres on an invoice might be more pertinent to corporate clients.

The channels we use to disseminate this information must be considered carefully: mixing messages may alienate followers. We need to understand the different channels a social media campaign could use. Furthermore as a number of customers live in other countries (on different time zones) we should post messages at times relevant to them.

I guess we need a timeline of what we plan to communicate; where we plan to communicate it and what we expect to gain. Potential new business could be returned within a few weeks but the more intricate parts of our plan may take years to come to fruition. Either way, each and every part of our plan needs to add value. Otherwise, why do it?

Should I Buy This?

This week’s blog is related to our web site again. I’m not writing about technical stuff though - more about the business side of things and getting buy-in from our team because I want them to embrace a new strategy. The new website is ripe for development which could seek out new opportunities.

Some people think a new web site is an online presence but for me it is the start of something big. It fits in to a strategy targeting a different type of customer and market place. In respect of this we need realigning at DrivenByQ so everyone understands the key decisions being made.

A while ago I met someone who worked for a global printing firm. He travelled the world helping teams who fragmented and lost their way with projects. He did this by bringing people together and aligning their focus. So how did the guru manage to get them back on track so effectively?

He helped set simple, clear and understandable goals. This way people make decisions for the greater good. Take someone at Pepsi questioning if new equipment is required. Rather than thinking in isolation they should revert to the goals and ask: Will this help us ‘Beat Coke’?

The Social Media Marketing Strategy

For the last few weeks I have been banging on about our new website and how Google rankings work. The truth is you cannot build a simple web site and then just expect it to work for you. You have to drive traffic to your site and justify its position in the search results. The best way to do this is by engaging with people. That engagement however needs time, effort and a bit of thought to disseminate the right message or values associated with a business or brand.

Quite a while ago we established social media pages on Google+ and YouTube. We even added the logos of Twitter and Facebook to our business cards so people could see we were forward thinking. In all honesty we did not invest much time in to the social media channels back then because our web site was under-developed, our understanding was primitive and it would have been too time consuming.

Now we have a new desire to attract business through our web site, it is time to revisit our social media channels and devise a strategy for utilising them effectively. Previously when we were looking for corporate business in the local area we focussed primarily on groups within LinkedIn to establish DrivenByQ or we used my blog to differentiate ourselves from our competitors – some of which do not even have a web site.

Our old marketing plan was to use offline, old-fashioned methods for business-to-business engagement like cold-calling. Now however we need to consider business-to-consumer engagement with people far away. The recognition of what is valuable and useful to the customer as content is ever more important. Furthermore we need to think about engagement with both B2B and B2C customers separately.

For a while now I have been interested in the theory of attraction marketing and how it fits in with a digital strategy. The two go together hand-in-glove if understood correctly. What really needs development is understanding which channel is most appropriate for B2B and B2C engagement while somehow reinforcing the brand values we are developing – either way I believe once this is defined our growth potential is not only huge but it is also very much achievable.

The Hummingbird Update

Right now I am focused on the new DrivenByQ website. It has taken a while to get it up and running because it is a marketing tool rather than a brochure site. We want to receive traffic and rank highly on Google for key terms like ‘Manchester Airport Chauffeur’. To do it successfully and consistently a lot of things need consideration. You see, when I first played with Google ten years ago, websites and search engine optimisation were relatively simple things. You built HTML pages, added good quality content with headings, keywords and META tags then submitted to DMOZ.

These days, things have changed because lots of people recognised how simple it was in the early years and they embarked on elaborate schemes to spam Google and influence the results. To combat the spammers Google rolled out numerous updates using their algorithm like Caffeine or Panda or Penguin. When they did this a site could bounce all over the place in the rankings (known as the Google Dance). As rankings changed so did the traffic a site received. This made Google unreliable for us and is why I went off and developed DrivenByQ as a local business.

I always planned to revisit the Internet and build a business which could market to a distant customer. Anyone else reading up on Google or Internet marketing knows the word ‘Hummingbird’ is a big thing right now because after ten years of updates to the algorithm used for listing search results, Google replaced it with a completely new algorithm. Google has become a lot more sophisticated these days and so has the way we use the Internet too. Now you have to have a presence on social media channels; you have to qualify as a trusted author by writing a chauffeur blog and you have to embed video from your YouTube channel.

On top of this you should constantly add fresh quality web pages for Google to devour and these days, mobile phones account for over 50% of Google searches. This is leading to typed search gradually being replaced by voice enquiries spoken to our mobiles. In response Google favours web sites which are adaptable and mobile friendly; built in HTML5 (so they are compatible across modern browsers) and they like to focus on long-tail searches rather than just simple keywords.

I am hoping all this will make Google more reliable and worthy of attempting a strategy of utilising their organic rankings. With the likes of Google+, Google Maps, Google Places, YouTube and Blogger being introduced, this time around we might stand a better chance! There again though, for anyone who has seen Project Glass you will know that Google thinks mobile phones will soon be replaced by wearable technology. No doubt we will have to go through it all again but at least for now, we are on the button.

Perspective

Just before the end of last year, I wrote a blog about my first venture in to the private hire market. It was titled ‘A History Lesson’. It is important because it was my first taste of success with a business even though it eventually faded away due to being too erratic as a business model.

I’ve written other blogs too like ‘Jam Butty Ahead’ which talk about building on our current business model. In fact, if you read the original DrivenByQ business plan our intention was never to remain just a local business. It was never to be regional either.

The plan was to take the business in two different directions. The first would depend on local custom to build volume airport transfers around Manchester Airport and the second would depend on the Internet for bookings from passengers coming to the UK.

Now we have effectively taken eight years to complete part one of our plan, it is time to crack on and start building part two. The first tangible step of that plan began this week with the launch of our new web site www.drivenbyq.com.

Unlike the last time we revamped our website, this time we did it properly using a professional developer. We introduced a content management system; HTML5; adaptive content for mobile devices and it considers our branding and social media strategy too.

Catch Me If You Can

I am still taking time out you know. I haven’t really been involved in the day-to-day running of DrivenByQ since the middle of December. In retrospect it has done me good – I have been able to spend quality time with my baby son and in the process I have learnt a lot about my leadership style.

When you say to people I am taking an extended break, the first thing they ask is ‘how are you affording it’ – well, if you really want to know, I am selling some shares back to the company and in the process, rebalancing the ownership. My majority share always reflected the time spent building our booking system long ago, cashing in now is well timed.

I can’t really switch off from the business completely though. I am always tinkering with something somewhere and one of those things lately has been the development of a new web site. Look at me now, blogging away about it too – I get a kick out of it I suppose.

It reminds me how competitive I can be sometimes. I like being ahead of the competition. It excites me to bring something out before anyone else. It should reflect well on DrivenByQ too and help new customers recognise why we are the market leader delivering such outstanding customer service.

So what exactly am I going on about? Well, to support our new web site with Google we really need a lot of content and it helps to be an (original) authority on a subject for good rankings. So just as well I started this blog four years ago and have updated it weekly ever since. Lots of people thought I was mad all those years ago. Not quite so eh?

Reflection Time

It's been nearly a month since I posted a blog. Truth is I've taken some time out to reflect on things. After developing our new web site (which is yet to be published) and other projects coming to completion (such as software updates) I’ve been considering what is next.

I've really needed to ask myself if DrivenByQ is where I want to be. The company is in a very comfortable position. Over the last twelve months we have developed a new business plan; marketing plan and growth calculations but they all revolve around our accounting system.

Since becoming VAT registered we have used the flat rate scheme. This fundamentally feeds 10% of turnover in to the business. For a long time we have relied on that additional 10% as a subsidy – it has permitted lower commission rates for drivers while funding investment.

As we near the £230,000 VAT inclusive limit, the prospect of losing a ten percent subsidy throws a spanner in the works. To achieve the same level of profitability a complete change in the make-up of DrivenByQ is required along with a considerable investment fund.

In my mind, the company needs to tick-over for the next two years while an investment pot builds. It was the reason for altering the commission rates towards the end of last year. So, going back to my reflection – is an ambitious chap the right person to be a care-taker? Hmm