68 PRIVATE HIRE AND TAXI MONTHLY
JANUARY 2009
METRO CARS: COVERING ALL THE ANGLES IN CRAWLEY
This month we swing down south, to pay a visit to a very forward- thinking and progressive transport provider in an area that is noted for being one of the UK’s foremost transport hubs: Metro Cars of Crawley.
Of course Crawley is the home of Gatwick Airport, one of the UK’s busiest airports which, together with Heathrow, accommodates over 42 per cent of all UK air travellers. Indulge us in a mini-history lesson: Gatwick first became popular as a flying venue in the early 1930s because of its proximity to Gatwick
was opened at Gatwick to cope with the ever- increasing use of the airport, including wide- bodied transatlantic jets. Improvements have continued during the ensuing decades, and whilst Gatwick still caters extensively for the leisure traveller, the growing emphasis over the last few years has been on the provision of short and long-haul services suited to the needs of the executive traveller.
The airport’s reach now extends to nearly 300 destinations, with scheduled airlines cov- ering almost half of these; in fact Gatwick
As you might imagine, a large proportion of Metro’s journeys emanate from Gatwick; however, they cover the whole of the South East, from the south coast to Heathrow and central London as well.
INCENTIVES Attracting business in these credit-crunched financial times is never easy; however, Metro seem to have a suc- cessful approach by offering incentives to both account and cash customers. One rather innovative feature is their “Fiver from the Driver” loyalty card scheme, whereby regu-
above-mentioned Mer- cedes and BMW,
to
Audi A4 and VW Trans- porters/Sharans/Passat s, to wheelchair acces- sible vehicles, to a range of other multi- seater vehicles with five, six, seven and eight seats (a 16-seater minibus is available on request). Baby seats are available if pre- booked, and new MPV’s have built-in booster seats. So fami- lies and large groups are well catered for.
racecourse. It officially became an airport on 6 June 1936. Several innovative design fea- tures were incorporated, including an underground pas- sageway to the railway station and a circular terminal building (known as the ‘Bee- hive’) with covered walkways to the aircraft stands.
After a military interlude during the Second World War when it host- ed the Royal Air Force, Gatwick underwent major commercial expansion in the 1950s with the addition of the South Terminal. Even further and massive expansion occurred during the sixties and seventies when it became obvious that Heathrow could not cope on its own with the growing volume of UK air travellers. In 1988 North Terminal
now provides services to more cities than Heathrow. According to Civil Aviation Authority statistics, Gatwick had over 35 million passen- gers go through its airport facility in 2007; by 2030 it is predicted that those numbers will top 40 million.
While Metro Cars’ histo- ry doesn’t span the same number of years, their growth rate is every bit as impressive. They started out in 2004 with four vehicles and one account; through various company takeovers the following year, coupled with an enterprising approach to their local transport needs, today the fleet totals 110 and they have over 100 account customers. Their pas- senger movement volume amounts to some 8,000 jobs booked on average every week.
lar cash customers are given a card and collect a stamp on this card every time they use a Metro vehicle. When they have accumulated ten stamps on their card - for any length of journey, no minimum amount required - they can collect a fiver from the driver. Can’t be bad! Certainly Metro is the only Crawley firm that offers this incentive. They also offer £1.50 discount vouchers to customers; these are printed in the local papers every week. Their account cus- tomers are indeed satisfied as well, by the standard of service and the availability of an up- market vehicle fleet... for instance, Metro is the only transport provider in Crawley that offers both Mercedes and BMW vehicles. Metro also boast a Price Match facility: they will match or beat any locally based com- petitor on price and service. All journeys taken have a fixed rate, regardless of the route or time taken.
Still on the subject of their vehicle fleet, Metro offers a wide range of all-under-four-year-old vehicles from the
RIDING HERD Here comes the com- puterised bit of the equation: how do Metro keep track of all these vehicles and passenger movements? Through Marandy’s ‘Future Taxi’ booking and dispatch system, which suits Metro Cars down to the ground. Literally. The system automates the booking, dispatch and invoicing; provides management informa- tion for controlling costs, thus enabling Metro to run an increas- ingly efficient, more profitable business. As there is a long asso- ciation over many years since Metro’s concep- tion, Marandy have
grown a system tailored around them. We’re talking about fast, accurate and efficient call taking (including Metro’s CabAlert facility where they call the cus- tomer when their car is outside) and job dis- patch; state of the art Telephone Interface using Microsoft’s TAPI protocol; reprogramma- ble data heads with intelligent callback functionality on the mobile units including call status report. Phew - heavy going! - but effective and efficient. So who deals with all this technical stuff? Besides managing director Zaffer Khan, accounts manager Peter Hartfield and office manager Marla Rowland, some seven dispatchers and nine telephonists, a secre- tary and two maintenance staff. It
A METRO CARS Address:
Telephone: Website: Email:
Website:
54 High Street, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 1BW
01293 415415
www.metro-cars.co.uk
fleetlinecars@hotmail.co.uk Under construction
Year firm started: 2004 Number of vehicles: 110
Types of vehicle: Mix of private hire and hack- ney carriages: Mercedes, BMW, saloons and multi- seaters
Licensing authority: Crawley Borough Council Cost of -
Operator licence: £2,100 Driver’s licence: £57.30 Vehicle licence: £251.10 new/£229.10 renewal
Radio rent fee: £115 Standard fares: All set fares: £3.00 minimum Booking system: Computerised - Marandy Phone system: BT + Marandy
Radio system: Marandy + O2 connected XDA units
sounds as though their work is cut out for them, by virtue of the increased size of fleet and job rates. However, it also sounds as though they cope admirably.
Their licensing authori- ty, Crawley Borough Council, seems to agree with this premise; they are “very helpful” to Metro Cars who in turn work with them in every way possible. What about the future? Certainly an ever increasing number of transport movements is on the cards, as Gatwick hosts hun- dreds more air travellers each year. No doubt Metro Cars will maintain their high stan- dards, and continue to come up with further incentives to attract more business; they’ve done a very thorough job of that so far!
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