ECLIPSE SETS MERCURY RISING IN SHEFFIELD
How about this for an intro: Mercury Cars currently have 375 cars, but they are sure to have 400 by Christ- mas, because they are going to add some from their waiting list. Yes, from their waiting list – which doesn’t even include those they have turned away outright. This is, of course, partly a reflection on the eco- nomic climate – but also of Mercury’s determination to expand their business at a speed that is right for them. As General Manager Dermot Griffiths explains: “It’s a combination of two things: we want to give the new drivers time to bed in, but we also need to spread the work around. You don’t want to reduce the work for your existing drivers.” An industry expert of some 20 years, Dermot is ide- ally placed to comment on this unusual situation: “Ten or 15 years ago you couldn’t get enough driv- ers; now it’s the opposite,” he says. “It’s the first time I’ve known it like this: we have put some on the waiting list, and turned others away.” It is all quite a change for the company which started out with one red Lada as recently as 1988. Mercury was opened by the father of present owner Andrew Eales, and he and wife Lorraine have together over- seen huge expansion since taking over the reins. Today’s management team consists of Dermot Grif- fiths, Jonathan Eales (Accounts Manager), Ian Godbehere (Call Centre Manager), and Duty Man- agers Melvyn Howden and Terry Hussain; with Andrew and Lorraine still very much involved in the running of the company. And if you’re interested, you’ll find a photo of that Lada on the company’s website, providing a sense of history and, under- standably, pride.
even employ a PR company, and have progressed projects including an e-newsletter, DVDs for cus- tomers, company profiles, and interviews with local radio. “We aren’t just doing the same old traditional mar- keting that everyone else is doing,” explains Dermot. “We’re heavily involved with student events and local fairs where we can have direct contact with the public,” he continues. “The deputy leader of the city council recently paid us a compliment at an event, saying that he liked the way we market ourselves.”
THUMBS UP
Is it all working? You bet. At Fresher’s week this year, Mercury’s job counts jumped from 22,000 to 29,500. “With two main companies in Sheffield, and the other one expanding via acquisitions, you might worry that we’d be squeezed out, but we’re still growing,” Dermot says.
Once they were sure they’d got the right tariff, Mer- cury set about installing their entire fleet with the Drive 360° Eclipse in each car – along with Trapeze’s innovative Drive 360° Connect to provide primary communication via PMR, so they could keep GPRS just for fallback.
And it seems Eclipse is a dream to install, too: “We fitted 350 cars in a week,” says Dermot. “We worked out it was taking eight minutes to remove the old kit and install the Eclipse and Connect. It’s extremely easy to do.”
Asked about the decision to convert to Eclipse, Der- mot offers a telling response: “We were still using the older CT3000s,” he reveals. “The problem for Trapeze was that the CT3000 was so good, and last- ed so long, that we never felt the need to change to the CT4000.”
But there was no danger of that happening this time: “We needed an edge over the competition. Eclipse looks nice; customers like it; and it makes us look like the modern, forward thinking company we are,” Dermot continues.
Despite its meteoric expansion, Mercury has retained a sense of being a family-run business. “We are all about personal service,” Dermot insists. “We’re a big company, but we like to offer that per- sonal touch. We are approachable, and go that extra mile to ensure we are offering the right service.” And the approach appears to be paying dividends, with some 500 account customers relying on the quality of service which Mercury prides itself upon supplying.
In 1996, Mercury went computerised with Trapeze’s (then called Auriga, of course) Sirius System. This coincided with huge growth, and they later upgrad- ed to Trapeze’s flagship Windows dispatch system, Evocab. As a tried and tested Windows dispatch system, it’s no surprise that Dermot cites Evocab’s reliability as significant: “It runs itself,” he says. “It doesn’t fail, which is important with a 24/7 business like ours. And when people want to ask about their job, the system’s Audit Trail means we can provide complete tracking – so it’s easy to see if something untoward has happened. It’s a good tool to manage the business.”
THE REAL DEAL
But it’s what is in the vehicles that has really set tongues wagging, because Mercury has installed Trapeze’s new Drive 360°Eclipse units in the entire fleet. “We tested a couple of units for a couple of months, as we wanted to see what the GPRS costs would be,” Dermot reveals. (£1.70 per month, in case you’re wondering). “Sheffield is quite hilly, with lots of radio black spots, so we wanted to see how much GPRS we would need,” he continues.
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And word from the field suggests Eclipse is meeting expectations: “Drivers are always reticent when it comes to new technology, but the feedback we have received has been very good,” concludes Dermot. “What’s great is how configurable it is,” he contin- ues. “We have been testing things with Out of Car, to see how long we want to allow the drivers to leave their vehicles. It’s good because you can test things out and then tweak them after.” The Jobs Soon feature is going down well because it allows drivers to see what work is coming up, but the really big thing is on-board TomTom 7: “Now the driv- ers have no excuse not to use it – and that’s another selling point to our customers,” Dermot explains. Eclipse also boasts Wireless Updates for painless system changes, but it’s the forthcoming Signature Capture and Fare Calculator features that excite Dermot most: “One thing missing in the Private Hire industry is the ability to make sure your customer always knows what they will be paying,” he explains. “It will allow us to be up front and honest, and get rid of some myths about how we operate.” Being open is something that Mercury are very keen on; just take a look at their website (
www.mercury-
taxis.com), which even has a section entitled ‘Dispelling a few myths about taxis’. “We are always keen to receive visitors to our office, as we want to change the image people have of a taxi business,” Dermot says. “Our office is a modern, clean, pro- fessional environment – and our website projects that further.”
He’s absolutely right, and in fact Mercury is probably the most forward thinking company that Trapeze has seen in terms of embracing its web presence, and communicating with its customers directly. They
Mercury is maintaining its goal of organic growth, and remains successful. “The biggest challenge we have is ensuring we keep the quality of driver as high as possible,” Dermot explains. “We need to remember that this is a different type of business, and as the taxi company we’re effectively the broker between two customers: the drivers and the paying passenger. We need to make sure we’re keeping standards high for them.”
Continuing on the theme: “Our driver waiting list is good, because it allows us to cherry pick the driv- ers. We can choose those who understand that this is a competitive business. We’re not just in compet- ition with other taxi companies, but with other forms of transport: buses, trams and so on.” Summing up Mercury’s immediate goals, Dermot says: “We want to expand at a rate that suits every- one: the staff, owners and drivers. We are looking to use different areas of our existing dispatch system, as the multi-fleet will enable us to expand into other areas, and other types of business.” Despite the economic difficulties, this is a family business which is still successful, and still expand- ing. It is following its own path of organic growth, and doing so in the right way. And with that driver waiting list to fall back on, who can say where they’ll be in another 23 years’ time?
MERCURY TAXIS SHEFFIELD
Address:
Telephone: Website:
Year firm started:
116 Northfield Road Sheffield S10 1QS 0114 266 266 2
www.mercurytaxis.com 1988
Number of vehicles: 375 Types of vehicle:
Private hire, hackney, minibuses,
Saloons/estates/ 16-seaters
Licensing authority: Sheffield City Council Cost of–
Operator licence: Driver’s licence: Vehicle licence: Standard fares:
Booking system:
Phone system: In-vehicle units:
£1,200
£155 (first 18 months) £210-new/£135-renewal £3.80/1st mile,
£1.40 per mile thereafter
Computerised – Trapeze’s Auriga Mytel
Drive 360° Eclipse in each car – along with Trapeze’s innovative Drive 360° Connect
PHTM NOVEMBER 2011
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