HOW THEY ARE COPING WITH COVID
everyone back on by the end of the year. We have always prided ourselves in being a business that cares about our community, and Covid19 was no different.
As well as the NHS free hires we did the following: • Donations to local food banks, hospitals, care homes as well as customers in need - £1250.00
• Community group donations - £2,420 this included over 1,000 Easter eggs to local children and care homes. I put together colouring books and arts and craft sets and hand delivered over 200 to local children, cash donations to com- munity groups to provide birthday surprises to local children.
• 60 Free Wellman gift vouchers to our local McDonalds restau- rants to welcome the staff back to work.
• Competitions and giveaways throughout the period, to try to spread some cheer to our customers.
• To encourage our customers to use contactless payment and the App to book we have been donating 50p for every con- tactless App booking each weekend for four weekends with over £900 shared between three local community groups and our local hospice.
Total donations are sitting at £12,603.71 so far. Along with our loss in revenue at over £100,000 and counting, this pandemic has been nothing short of devastating for the business but we have soldiered on and try to remain optimistic that we will bounce back and rebuild. It is important that we all stay safe and get through this together.
My family has been instrumental in keeping me going through- out this. My husband Frank works side by side with me, as do my son Blake (20), Brooke (17) and Savannah (16) my nephews Kirk (22), Nathaniel (17) and niece Georgia (20) as well as my ever supportive Mum and Dad. Lily and George, both in their 70s, have seen me go through many many hard days not knowing what to do and how to move on. My kitchen has turned into my makeshift office with zoom meetings at all times of day and night and drivers arriving at the house at any time for help with their equipment or more PPE - we have truly all pulled together.
I would also like to say how much iCabbi has supported us throughout this, especially our customer relations team of Glenn, Chris and Frank. iCabbi as a business has reduced fees as well as offered unrivalled support from their task force team they put in place to help us to reinvent our services, from offering the deliv- ery option to customers who are shielding to helping us with insights on how to rebuild.
We have had only £10,000 from a rates grant. We have taken on a bounce back loan to keep ourselves moving.
Our drivers and customers have had to wear face coverings for several weeks now unless they are medically exempt. Our local council has been closed so no taxi MoTs etc. and all deadlines have been extended.
Lastly our drivers who have worked throughout the pandemic have been without fail heroes, putting themselves at risk every
AUGUST 2020
hire and helping collect prescriptions and food deliveries for cus- tomers shielding and often doing this for free. They have shown me they care about the business and have supported me in every way possible.
Just a week before Covid-19 struck us all we were all out enjoying the STPH awards at the Radisson Hotel in Glasgow. We were acknowledged for our work with five nominations for customer ser- vice, community, marketing, en- vironment and uniformed drivers and received the award for Outstanding Achievement 2020. I look back on every- thing I have worked hard to build, and know with hard work and dedication we will return having survived a pandemic and realised that community and fami- ly are the backbone of the business.”
TRACEY WHITEHEAD - SWIFT FOX TAXIS LEICESTER
We made a point of talking with one the NPHTA’s longest-stand- ing members, Tracey Whitehead, director of Swift Fox Taxis in Leicester. Their company has been going for nearly 53 years; it was originally set up by Tracey’s father Mick Norton, who still is very much involved in the business as he runs the maintenance side from his garage.
As PHTM readers will know, Leicester was hit with a second lock- down over a month ago; we wanted to learn how the whole pandemic has affected their business: “We have seen a decrease of over 72% in trade which is very wor- rying in these trying times. All drivers are self-employed so it is their choice whether to work or not. Thankfully we had a small group of about eight regular faithful drivers still willing to work and they are still out there now, some of whom have been with us for many many years, to try to help the company continue to trade and survive. We now have approximately 30 drivers back but it’s still hard as work has not increased by the same percentage.
Leicester’s second lock down has not helped, although trade did not decrease too much because of this thankfully. However we still saw another 5% decrease in trade.
All day and night telephonists have been put on furlough and the office is being run by management and controllers, with me now taking calls on the call centre to try to help limit costs. We are still awaiting confirmation from both councils as to how they will be operating school contracts in September as in the numbers of pas- sengers per car but we did have one running as it was a key worker at the start of lockdown.
We are still using Facebook and Instagram to try to help cus- tomers know we are still here for them during this time of need. We are currently investigating protective screens and liaising with our local council as to the guidelines we must follow, although most drivers are owner/drivers. However all drivers are committed to try to help keep themselves and customers safe where possible.
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