NEW YEAR, NEW NAME, NEW HORIZONS FOR TRAFFORD CARS AS THE PASSENGER CARS GROUP
As any business-minded person will tell you, the name of the game in the taxi and private hire industry - as in any industry - is progress. And nowadays in the field of passenger trans- port, progress is measured in many ways: research, investment, expansion, change, profit. There is a company based in Greater Manchester whose endeavours tick all these boxes and more: Trafford Cars.
The history of this steadily expanding family enterprise goes back a fair bit: Ray Tandy owned two firms - Kartel and Anytime - in the nineties, and his brother Neil owned Magnum. They merged the companies in 2001 to form Trafford Cars with 75 drivers. As at the end of last year the company now has 250 drivers, split between Trafford Cars (190) and Luxi Walker, Northenden (60).
This is where the new name comes in: early this year the two companies will be merged under the name The Passenger Cars Group Ltd.; check out their website for more info that reflects this move forward. They cover an extremely large area within Greater Manchester - mostly on the south side - including Lymm, Knutsford, Stretford, Urmston, Sale, Flixton, Altrincham, and of course Manchester Airport. Trafford Cars are 80 per cent cash work and Luxi Walker are 80 per cent account work, so between them they cover all angles to the extent of a steady 20,000 jobs every week.
We are really pleased with the effect this has had so far on the busi- ness, both for staff and customers.”
That says it all! - well, mostly... except to say that, as mentioned at the start, the company is a big family firm - Ray has eight children and there are always at least three or four sons or nephews working in the offices or driving. Their admin
SORTED
Ray Tandy explains: “Trafford Cars had out- grown our old system - it was time for a change. The main business driver to make us change was that we wanted to invest in our future, and we felt that Cordic was the only way to do this. We researched many auto despatch systems and from the start, Cordic always looked to be the best for our purpose; a lot more advanced than the others, with many more features that suit our business - the iPhone and Android Apps, Web Booker Pro, credit card payments, and especially Interactive Voice Response (IVR).
“The salesmen at the show all had the right answers to every question we asked, and did not leave one unanswered. As for the training and installation, Cordic held our hands all the way. We had bespoke training, “one-on-one”, and were given advice whenever we needed it. Still to this day, when we have any problems or enquiries Cordic help you in an instant.
When it came to analysing the performance of their business, Ray Tandy last year realised that Trafford Cars (as then) was falling behind the competition in the region, due to the shortcom- ings of their previous computerised booking and despatch system. The addition of 100 vehicles to overcome this difficulty meant that the IT - and the folk who were manning it - was/were strug- gling to cope.
So Ray applied due diligence, and carried out a tremendous amount of research to find the best, most reliable replacement auto despatch sys- tem to tackle these issues. And he found it at the Private Hire and Taxi Exhibition at EventCity, Manchester last May, where he first saw the Cordic cPAQ system.
“The team that trained us and installed the sys- tem could not have been more helpful and professional. They assisted with every depart- ment of our company from drivers to operators; this is especially important as most of them were fearful of the change. When the system was fit- ted we did have a few teething problems, but they were not as bad as we had expected, and Cordic’s technicians were to help us throughout the changeover process.”
Ray continues: “The immediate benefits to us in having the Cordic system are many. Before we changed to Cordic we were thinking of increas- ing our telephonist staff by one on each shift, but we now find that the IVR is taking a large part (over a third) of the workload so we have no need to increase the number of telephonists.”
PRIORITISE
“Because the system is more automated it frees up the operators so they can handle other cus- tomer calls and deliver a higher level of customer service without the need for employ- ing additional office staff.
“Funnily enough, initially we were getting mixed feedback from some of our customers, but most of them are loving the new system. If any are just struggling to come to terms with the new technology, we leave them off the IVR as required and carry on. We see Cordic as a massive investment towards our future plans.
PAGE 26
PASSENGER CARS GROUP (to be formed out of Trafford Cars & Luxi Walker)
Address:
Unit 4 Manway Business Park, Canal Road, Timperley Altrincham WA14 1TD
Telephone: Website:
0161 928 1111
www.pcgcars.co.uk
Year firm started: 2001 No. of vehicles:
250
Types of vehicle: Private hire: saloon, estate, MPV, luxury/ executive
Licensing Authority: Trafford MBC, Manchester CC
Cost of –
Operator licence: £623 Driver’s licence: £81 Vehicle licence: £94 Standard fares
staff totals 30 including dispatchers, telephon- ists, accounts and secretarial personnel.
Ray Tandy is the sort of person that when he commits to something, he does so fully. So when Trafford Cars decided they wanted to heighten their own profile in the region, they went all out - with the company merger, the new website, and most importantly the change to Cordic cPAQ.
And so far it’s looking like win-win all around. Happy New Year, Passenger Cars Group!
£2.50-3.00 first mile; £1.80-1.90/mile thereafter
Booking system: Cordic cPAQ Phone system: Avaya IP Office
PHTM JANUARY 2014
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