AWARDING ACHIEVEMENT


FRIENDLY CABBIES ARE A REAL DRIVING FORCE FOR YORK


Photo courtesy of the York Press


Gillian Cruddas presents the certificates to the drivers


Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of Visit York, presents certificates to York taxi drivers who gained a national qual- ification which marks their commitment to customer care.


In a presentation at


York College, the driv- ers received certificates for the Level 2 Road Passenger Vehicle Driv- ing (Taxi and Private Hire) qualification. Mrs Cruddas told the York Press: “Everyone has a role to play in


welcoming York’s seven million visitors to the city and none more so than York’s taxi drivers. We’re delighted to congratu- late the taxi drivers in York for embracing these training pro- grammes with open arms and ensuring York’s visitor welcome really is first class.” Driver Wayne Glaister said: “I have enjoyed the course and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of new knowledge that I have acquired.”


Over the last three years, nearly 400 cab- bies in the York area have taken the course.


Taxi drivers have been rewarded for their safe driving, cus- tomer service and reliability.


Oadby firm Direct Taxis won the private hire operator of the year award at the Oadby and Wigston


TOP OADBY DRIVERS ARE REWARDED the council.


Borough Council good practice awards. Taxi driver Narinder Chopra was handed the best driver award. Residents nominated their best firm and driver, and the winners were chosen by a panel of judges from


Councillor Helen Loy- dall, chairman of the council's licensing and regulatory committee, told the Leicester Mer- cury: “The council would like to congratu- late Mr Chopra and Direct Taxis.”


GAINSBOROUGH’S FINEST CABBIE


A top taxi driver is cel- ebrating after winning an award in recogni- tion of all of her hard work.


Eve Russell from Geordie Cabs in Gains- borough has been awarded the accolade of Taxi Driver of the Year by Lincolnshire County Council in con- junction with the Max respect scheme within the transport services group.


Eve does a lot of con- tract work with young people for the county council, and it was those youngsters who nominated her.


Eve said she was sur- prised and delighted to be recognised for her efforts.


BLACKBURNTAXI FIRM’S DRIVERS LEAD THE FIELD


All 50 drivers at a Blackburn taxi compa- ny have passed a new NVQ qualification. Staff at Hi-Field Taxis have recently been spending five hours a week with Blackpool and Fylde College tutors learning their NVQ Level 2 qualifica- tion in road passenger vehicle driving and licensing conditions. Boss Faruk Khan told the Lancashire Tele- graph: “As far as we’re


Photo courtesy of the Lancashire Telegraph


aware, we’re the first taxi company in Black- burn to do this with our drivers. “We wanted to lead the field, and promote safe


and responsible driv- ing. We know that our drivers are prepared for any situation and can carry out services professionally.”


PUPILS TRIUMPH WITH HUDDERSFIELD TAXI FARE SHARE IDEA


Young Huddersfield entrepreneurs could be en route to a for- tune. Their taxi sharing business idea won a top prize.


Business studies pupils James Clare, George Sanders and Lauren Cocking, from Huddersfield’s Green- head College, travel- led to Hong Kong to compete in the first PoIyU Innovation and Entrepreneurship Global Student Chal- lenge.


Eve Russell Lincolnshire County Council’s Taxi Driver of the Year


“Words can’t even begin to describe how pleased, honoured and proud I am to receive this award,” she told the Gainsbor- ough Standard.


“It recognises the ded- ication and commit- ment that I provide to the individual people that I serve through transport services on a


AUGUST 2011 PHTM


daily basis. This is a valuable service and I enjoy my job immensely.”


She added: “I would like to thank the peo- ple who nominated me, for appreciating the service that is pro- vided and for making me the proud recipi- cant of this award - thank you.”


Once in the Far East, the trio lined up against 30 other teams from around the world to compete for thou- sands of dollars of prizes and the atten- tion of a host of top business brains. The teenagers have now returned to Hud- dersfield with not one, but two prize cheques totalling almost £2,000 after they came third overall and won the award for Best Envi- ronmental and Sus- tainable Business. And the revolutionary idea is set to reduce taxi fares across the world by giving pas- sengers a discount for sharing with other cus- tomers.


The software, which has been designed by


Photo courtesy of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner


James Clare, judge Professor Alan Barrell from Cambridge George Saunders


A-level computer stud- ies pupil James, will direct drivers to pas- sengers travelling on similar routes.


Their idea would see fares being discount- ed by between ten and 20 per cent depending on the number of peo- ple sharing.


The concept will also help the environment by reducing the total number of journeys for drivers, saving thou- sands of pounds in fuel and maintenance costs.


Mark Mitchell, Head of Business and Eco- nomics at Greenhead College, said there was a very real prospect the students’ idea could make it to market.


Mr Mitchell said


James, who already runs his own web design business, was already busy writing the software ready for trial in the UK, possibly in Huddersfield or Leeds.


He said: “What’s very clever is the technolo- gy - people will be able to book by smart- phone, on the web or by telephone.


“Once the calls go into the company people are designated to the same taxi if they’re on the same route.


“One of the judges was so impressed he wants to come to the college to help market the software to taxi companies around the world. I think the potential for this is absolutely huge.”


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