112 PRIVATE HIRE AND TAXI MONTHLY
JANUARY 2009
‘N’ APART FROM THAT... THE 10,000 MILE FARE
SEPTEMBER
August saw three stu- dents shaking off their home comforts as well as much of their com- mon sense as they embarked on a 10,000 mile journey from the UK to Mongolia in - yup you guessed it - a taxi; and all in the name of charity.
The intrepid trio will have to travel across much of Europe, then work their way through Poland, Ukraine, Rus- sia and Kazakhstan before reaching Mon- golia in their LTI Fairway. Tom, Nick and Alan will have to climb five mountain ranges, cross two deserts and over thousands of pot- holes as they attempt to break the record time for driving to Mon- golia as part of an organised rally.
Speaking about the rally Nick declared, “We must all be totally insane to even think about driving all that way...but on a more serious note it’s all to raise money for a good
cause”. The boys will be raising money for Save the Children, who have been educating, supporting and protect- ing vulnerable children in Mongolia since 1994. The team aim to raise £2,000, of which they are already halfway towards their goal. Then upon reaching Mongolia the taxi will be auctioned off with all proceeds going towards the Children’s Development and Pro- tection Fund who help shelter Mongolian chil- dren from poverty and disease.
The team have also had a great deal of support from within the taxi industry, from spare parts offered by local drivers, to insurance from taxi specialists Tradex - just in case they have any mishaps along the way.
The
vehicle also needed a lot of work to transform it from a licensed taxi to an off-road machine capable of being taken off the beaten track, so
SEPTEMBER EWE MUST BE JOKING!!
Farmer James Barclay is preparing for his craziest mission to date- per- suading his sheep to get into a London taxi. The Lincoln Longwool sheep wfll be travelling to London and attempt- ing to fit into a black cab - and to raise the profile of Lincoln local produce. Select Lincolnshire, which aims to spread the word about their fantastic home pro- duce, is trying to persuade more London restaurants to serve their high-quality food and drink.
So to ensure everyone gets the message, Mr Barclay from Stixwould near Woodhall Spa, is driving a team of his ‘best ladies’ to a top Lon- don hotel for a photocall. The idea is to get them to pose for the cam- eras, jump into a cab and bleat about Lin- colnshire fare.
Events manager for Select, Kathleen Codd, revealed the sheepish stunt is taking place at
The Goring in Belgravia on September 16. “The Goring is the old- est family-run, five-star hotel. It has high-profile clients like Michael Winner and other celebrities,” she told the Lincolnshire Echo. “We will be photo- graphing the sheep near a cab, or in it, to answer the age-old question of: How many sheep can you get into taxi? We also want to make cafe and bar owners aware of what we grow and rear in the county. Lincolnshire- plum bread will be served at the session.” The ancient Lincoln Longwool is distinctive for its heavy ‘dreadlocks’. Mr Barclay breeds them for meat, and also rears Lincoln Red cattle and Jacob sheep.
He is now eyeing up his ewes, each weighing up to 60 kilos, to decide who is up for a day out with a difference. “I have done some very interesting things to
promote the country- side and farming activities in the past, but never been asked to put sheep into a Lon- don taxi,” he said. “This is quite the most unusual publicity exer- cise I have undertaken, but I will be making every effort to make sure farming comes out of it extremely well. “This breed is good natured and docile, but I don’t like getting into a London cab, and I don’t know if they will.” Select Lincolnshire has more than 100 members, such as cheesemakers, vegetable growers and livestock farmers. Manager Jill McCarthy said: “There are 12,000 restaurants in London. The photocall will high- light our best produce, which many may realise that they already serve. “The Restaurant Show attracts 12,000 chefs and buyers, and is a big opportunity to take our food and drink to a much wider market.”
thanks also to Stanway Engineering’s make- over and generosity. PHTM readers also have an opportunity to help too. Until the end of the month Wheres- MyTaxi - the UK’s largest taxi directory - are donating £5 to Save the Children for every new taxi company that upgrades from a free advert to a platinum listing for £19/month, which places you at the top of Internet search results and also gives you a personalised website with the option of taking online book- ings. And as a way of saying thank you PHTM readers will receive 12 months for the price of ten by entering the fol- lowing promotional code: PHTM0908. Speaking of their spon- sors, Tom said, “I’d just like to take this oppor- tunity to thank all our friends, family and indi- viduals who’ve backed us so far and especially to Stanway Engineer- ing, Tradex and
WheresMyTaxi for their generosity,
without
whom our journey couldn’t even begin... hopefully we’ll go on to make a real difference to children in Mongolia where a third of the population still live below the poverty line.
“It’s going to be tough as previous years have seen participants arrest- ed for spying, stoned by nomads, rammed off the roads and have even been shot at en route...” So with a bit of luck we’ll hopefully hear more from the boys next month if
SEPTEMBER
FROM JOHN O’GROATS... TO LAND’S END... BY TRACTOR! A Burbage taxi driver
has completed a jour- ney of more than 1,000 miles by tractor.
The 20mph trip from John O’Groats to Land’s End took Dave Neal two weeks and 25 minutes - half the time Mr Neal had expected.
He hopes his effort will have generated between £8,000 and £10,000 for the Huntington’s Dis- ease Association, supporting research and helping people who have the disease which killed his father, David. Mr Neal’s two uncles - his father’s brothers - have also been diag- nosed with the condition, which is a neurological disease that can attack
any of the body’s func- tions and senses, from speech to balance. Anyone with a parent who has the disease stands a 50 per cent chance of getting it themselves.
The long tractor trip - 1,163 miles with diver- sions to overnight accommodation - gave Mr Neal a wonderful adventure as he stopped off at locations all the way down the country with his back- up companion Brian “Brad” Bradford. He told the Leicester Mercury: “I am absolute- ly over the moon. “When we got to Land’s End there were people waiting and they were
OCTOBER DUNDEE CABBIES’ BLOOD BID
Twenty-five generous Dundee taxi drivers went off the meter recently to donate blood at Ninewells Hospital. They were the first of a hundred cabbies who will give to the hospital’s Blood Donation Unit in the coming weeks. The scheme has been
organised by taxi driver Roger Peterson. “The idea actually came from reading the Tele,” he told the Dundee Evening Telegraph and Post. I saw the paper’s appeal for good news stories and thought that was something the trade could get involved in. I
feel the taxi trade is looked down upon by some organisations when we do a job a lot of people wouldn’t want.” More than 90 drivers have already signed up and Roger is confident a total of 100 will donate blood before the end of the campaign.
they manage to return home in one piece. For your free or plat- inum listing on WheresMyTaxi or for more information on the adventure, a sec- tion has been dedicated to the team at:
WheresMyTaxi.com
shaking my hands, tlhrowing money into the pot. We raised roughly £1,800 on the journey. “I really liked the differ- ent scenery we saw all the way down the coun- try, it was lovely. Then there were all the peo- ple we met, some right characters. It was absolutely wonderful. “As for my favourite place, I enjoyed Scot- land, and a place called Newton St Boswells on the Scot- tish borders.
“There was a lovely little country show on there so we put the tractor in and won a rosette.” Anyone who would like to support the charity can call 07774 833127.
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