ON THE GROUND ➔ Taxis switching to electric
GREEN taxi company Climate Cars is expanding its fleet to include larger green vehicles and in the long term plans to expand with new locations outside London. Nicko Williamson, founder of
the eco-friendly brand, runs a fleet of over 75 Toyota Prius cars which emit 60 per cent
less CO2 than black cabs and can run on pure electricity up to the speed of 30mph. The four-year-old company, based at Battersea Heliport, has over 600 account holders including the likes of Unilever, a large US investment bank, city firms, and several law firms, all keen to green their corporate image. There is an online booking system, full management reports and volume discounts. The cost is based on mileage, at £12 for the first mile and £2.80 per mile thereafter. The company will add pure electric vehicles to its fleet this December which can travel at
Five minutes with... Bryan Hepnar
PROFILE
Director of National Accounts, UK CARLSON WAGONLIT TRAVEL
Bryan works with CWT’s large portfolio of SME customers to help them manage their travel expenditure. He has 27 years' experience in business travel and has been with CWT since 2006. Previously, he was multinational account manager at TQ3 and general manager at Rosenbluth International.
up to 70mph. They have a 100-mile range and will be introduced for use on shorter hops around the city. People carriers – the seven- seater Prius – and vans will also be added, while the company also plans to open similar operations in both Manchester and Birmingham. “We were often told that
we were not of a scale that companies could deal with but
it’s easier for us to be taken more seriously now,” says Williamson. On the agenda is to improve response times to match Addison Lee’s average of ten minutes. “We’ve been profitable for
two years but we’re careful with our growth,” says Williamson. “The core of our growth will still come from London from our focus in the city and the West End.”
➔ Rail link's express growth
BTM NEWS
HEATHROW Express is set to unveil a series of
product upgrades before the summer is out, with managing director Richard Robinson admitting there is "something significant in the pipeline." The changes are likely to be product based – onboard facilities, uniforms and the like – rather than operational, and will be the first for several years. A chemical engineer by trade, Robinson arrived at the company just over two years ago from a web-based enter- tainment ticketing business. “I was looking for a position
with an operational bias and a commercial challenge,“ he says. “Heathrow Express was already a well organised business and a great brand, but I felt there was an opportunity to grow the business.“ That inkling proved true, with passenger numbers up 13 per cent in 2010 and profit also rising sharply. One of his first
What is your most memorable business travel trip and why? My first business trip was taking a group of advertising clients to New York, one of my favourite cities. It was a great experience flying Club World on British Airways and staying at Ian Schrager hotels. We accomplished a lot on not much sleep!
What is your worst business travel experience and why? I once got stuck in Abu Dhabi for nearly 24 hours due to bad fog. The locals weren’t sure what to do about this unusual weather phenomenon and as result absolute chaos descended upon the airport.
What is your favourite destination worldwide and why? The warm, sunny, tropical climate of the Eastern Caribbean holds a lot of nice holiday memories for me. It is a great place to relax and enjoy one of my favourite hobbies, sailing.
What three items do you never leave home without when on business? Technology! My BlackBerry, iPod and smart phone. How did we ever survive without them?
decisions upon joining the company was to make onboard wifi free for all passengers and, latterly, he mucked in on the frontline when RMT members staged a strike, enforcing a reduced capacity timetable. “It was a good team- building experience. We learnt a lot and took a lot of positives from the situation,“ he says. Heathrow Express now carries around six million passengers a year between London Paddington and the airport, over two-thirds of
which are business travellers. “During the recession we picked up business from people trading down from taxis. That's our competition, but we're three times quicker and three times cheaper than them,“ says Robinson. He is a member of Heathrow Airport's operations executive team, and is strongly in favour of a High Speed 2 rail link that connects to Heathrow. An extra two platforms were built into the T5 station in case the rail network is extended West.
What single thing could be done to improve your business travelling life? Bring back the good old days when it was a pleasure to take a flight! That means less queuing and an improved way of handling airport security.
What destination would you like to visit next and why? Another hobby of mine is photography and so a few scenic trips are on the list. It will be New England in the autumn with all of its colours or South Africa to head down the Garden Route from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth.
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