HOW THEY ARE COPING WITH COVID
our contracted schools still running, and in cases where they haven’t run we have been covering work for other children whose parents are key workers and require transport to and from school. We have also worked with our local authority at East Suffolk Council to provide transport for individuals or families who have been affected by coronavirus and require support with transport, whether this is individual transport, transport to work, delivering food parcels or picking up and delivering prescriptions.
As well as providing these services through East Suffolk Council, we very early on started to offer these services to the wider pub- lic, and launched a drop off and pick up service for supplies, prescriptions or click and collect on shopping which has proved very popular, and has helped many people shielding who were unable to leave the home.
We have made use of the grant from the government which was a big weight of our shoulders and meant we could con- tinue to invest in our company with sup- plies of PPE and partition screens. Our local licensing authority made a change to payments of plates which allows the option of
drivers or companies paying monthly for a quarterly plate, which I believe has helped many drivers to continue to work whilst they may be earning less than normal.
We as a company have worked tirelessly to provide our usual a 24-hour service throughout with no down time. Having been established for over 30 years, always putting our customers first and ensuring our fleet of vehicles is new and comfortable, we believe this has put us in a good position for the troubling times during the Covid outbreak. Customers know they can rely on us regardless of what is happening and I believe we have truly shown this over the last four months. This of course comes down to so many people within our company.
John Lock (Stacey’s father) originally formed the company and is still a current working director; he built the foundations for a fantastic company which has grown year on year. I became involved 16 years ago and gradually took on more and more until becoming a director a couple of years ago and managing the company. ‘Our front line’ is crucial - the drivers who obvi- ously deliver the service have been brilliant working their socks off as well as being flexible and understanding, and last but not least our office team all working from home whilst still manag- ing to communicate with each other remotely seamlessly to ensure we deliver the highest service we can give. We have built a great team over the years most being with us 20+ years who all go above and beyond to meet our customers’ needs; this has truly paid off and we are very proud of our team.
Working during lockdown has brought on many challenges. As a mum of four children and a husband who also continued to work outside of the home during lockdown it has meant that juggling
AUGUST 2020
work and home life has been even more challenging. With three teenagers trying to eat me out of house and home and a young child who has no filters whilst I’m trying to make a work call or zoom call, it has been as some would say, entertaining.
The youngest child has been colouring in thank you posters for our drivers and the eldest who is nearly 16 has been trying to learn the system by watching and learning, I think she is after a job ha ha. It has certainly been a challenge to manage the bal- ance between work and our family life but luckily they are very understanding or probably used to me working non stop!
Although the time has been challenging I have been able to spend more time on focusing on customers and helping them first hand with more complex travel needs as we have continued to provide transport to all areas over the UK, Scotland and Wales. Again this caused separate challenges with trying to source hotels for drivers for overnight accommodation with the majority being shut, ensuring that the ratio of children in school contracts to seats are met or managing contracted journeys with complex travel needs.
The use of social media has been a vital tool for us, reaching out and informing our customers on how we are trying to combat the worries our customers may face whilst travelling during Covid, and to advise them of what we have put in place to aid safer travel. We have been innovative, we have adapted, and most certainly moulded to the ‘New Normal’ within the last four weeks seeing our numbers optimistically return near to normal pre-lockdown.
As a business and company we have definitely ridden the storm and are coming out the other side; with forward thinking, a lot of hard work and a great team we have recovered very well in such a short space of time with so many uncertainties thrown at us. We are now in a position to advertise for more drivers to join our fleet to ensure we can keep up with the demand of customers returning with confidence, as well as many new customers in both sectors of public and corporate journeys.
I guess we are still aware the ‘New Normal’ will evolve, and are still planning ahead and working hard to ensure that we can adapt and be responsive to any changes/needs that may arise.”
VERONICA BEATTY - WEST END LANE MINICABS WEST HAMPSTEAD
Now we’ll swing up to the Smoke, to chat (again) with Veronica Beatty, owner of West End Lane Minicabs in West Hampstead. You may remember that PHTM profiled her company a couple of years ago; it’s been a pleasure to chat with her once again. She goes by the name Dolly - I quite enjoy addressing her emails “Hello Dolly…” You will have heard her speak at the PHTM Expo during the “Company Profile Live” segment of our seminars.
You may remember that Dolly started her business over 30 years ago setting up a booking office in the stock room at the back of her clothing company. She still has loyal customers from the old “pen and paper days”… the same could be said of her drivers until Covid hit the country, and the world. Her story is probably the most dramatic; she calls herself a “bloody hero” and it’s no wonder!
61
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112
