THE CHANGING FACE
Following on from International Women’s Day last month and having launched our ‘Females in the Fleet’ initiative to ensure we #breakthebias; the response has been overwhelming. Offers of support for the initiative are flooding in. It is only the start and a newsletter will be going out to all who have already expressed an interest in helping to further the campaign with details of what goals and aspirations we have for the next year to encourage more women to become drivers and fill our ever-growing void.
When it comes to #breaking the bias, it appears there is much work to do outside the industry to encourage women that there is a place for them. Good role models setting the lead are the start. This month, we hear from three female operators.
STACEY LOCK, 51 TAXIS, LOWESTOFT
www.51taxis.co.uk
Stacey is Managing Director of 51 Taxis in Lowestoft which was founded in 1987. Stacey has been with the com- pany for nearly 18 years having started as an administration assistant and becoming a Director four years ago. Recently Stacey signed up to the iCabbi Taxi Alliance.
What is your greatest success?
“Our greatest success is the ability to deliver almost anything that is asked of a taxi company. We have been able to deliver complex travel needs, such as a provision for 50-100 people within 24 hours notice, travelling hundreds of miles away. Delivering such results is due to a lot of hard work from myself and my team. One of our other greatest successes also is probably our staff/driver retention. We have been trading for nearly 35 years and still have some of our original drivers and office staff working with us - they are part of the family and we couldn’t imagine the team without them.”
What has been your hardest challenge?
“Personally, one of my hardest challenges is managing a work/home life balance. Having four children and being a business owner of a 24-hour taxi business is tough. My children have spent many hours in the office or waiting for me to finish a phone call. They are very
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understanding but it’s still one of the most difficult parts of my life to manage - that balance between personal time and work.
“Covid was probably our biggest challenge. It was the most worrying time I have ever experienced which of course then bleeds into home life as it consumes your every thought. With such uncertainty to start with I had no idea how or what would happen with the business.
“We adapted and worked really hard over the original covid period and gained some really good contracts that were ongoing as well as continuing to work with contract providers we already had in place. This kept both office staff and drivers busy and kept moral going at such an uncertain time. We adapted our work to deliver other services that our corporate customers needed which ranged from booking accommodation to food and deliveries.
“We were then hit with the driver shortages which was hard, it was difficult to manage on so many levels. Not only from a management point of view but put extra pressure on staff and drivers, and became difficult to manage the work we were delivering at a time where demand was so high. With staff having to juggle what we could deliver and what kind of wait times customers may expect.”
What would you like for the future of the industry?
There are so many things that I would like to change and evolve in the future of our industry. I think it will be interesting to see how technology changes the industry over the years. I’m looking forward to seeing how EVs will make an impact and move more into the industry. Electrifying fleets becoming more eco friendly is really exciting, I think there is still a lot of work that needs to be put in place to enable the infrastructure to support our industry and make it workable, but this is a really exciting evolution which we are seeing more people take on.
I would also like to see the trade continue to unite, work together, and learn more from each other. There are some great people in our industry who are so interesting in so many different ways, I truly believe we can all learn a lot from each other and put this into practice in each of our individual businesses to strengthen them. I think with the changes in our industry over the last couple of years it has truly shown many of us that uniting and working together brings many rewards.
APRIL 2022
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