DRIVER PROFILE BOUNDLESS ENTHUSIASM NORTH OF THE BORDER!
We have recently had the privilege of work- ing with a great group of guys in West Lothi- an, whose enthusiasm is surpassed only by their ability to organise meetings and harbour more enthusiasm... and this is largely down to Glenn Waters and the steering group of the newly formed West Lothian Private Hire Association. Fortunately when Glenn agreed to be our latest profilee, despite suffering with an exceedingly nasty cold, he waxed lyrical down the email - which proved to be more than fruitful. We’ll let him take up the story of his life and how he got into this crazy industry, as his narrative is bet- ter than anything we could pen for him. “I was born in Brox- burn, West Lothian, which is 12 miles west of the capital, Edin- burgh. I started off my working life as a ware- houseman delivery driver for Alexanders’ wholesale sweets and tobacco company. I was driving 7.5 ton- ners all over Scotland by the time I was 18, and picked up a good knowledge of the road system at quite an early age.
“Getting bored with the driving, I went to Napier University in Edinburgh and did the HND in computing for three years - and loved every minute of it. I went on to get a job as a Stock Investigator with Brake Bros frozen food company in Brox- burn; then moved from that position to a ware- house manager. I got so fed up of the work load and doing so much for that compa- ny that I decided to take the plunge and go on my own.
“I started in 1998 with a courier van, working initially for CitySprint in Edinbugh, then moving to TNT and Business Post in 2000.
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By 2003 I was again doing long hours, sometimes 30 hours- plus in a single shift, and after a time you get fed up sitting on the M25 and the M6 on a Friday afternoon traf- fic jam. So I decided enough was enough - I thought I would tackle the taxi trade.
WE’RE OFF!
“By the 1st September 2003 I had my private hire licence. I went to two of the biggest companies locally in Livingston and got no response from either; they said they hadn’t any vacancies for driv- ers. So off I went and bought my own car and started Glenn’s Private Hire, based in Broxburn.
“It didn’t take long for the word to get round that I had started on my own, and before long I had a very good small business. Thanks to the local people of Broxburn, and my friends and family and a great bunch of drivers, I was able to keep expand- ing until I was starting to hire other drivers and buy more cars. “After getting so busy so quickly I now need- ed to start to compete with some of the big guys for some regular contracts, so I attend- ed the Taxi and Private Hire Exhibition at the Ricoh Arena in Coven- try, and got speaking to the guys from Exel Management. “They
got me set up with a computer and phone system; these guys really do know what they’re talking about. They had us up and running with a new fully computerised system within a month of the show. We have now moved on to take more vehicles onto our system; we have ful GPS tracked vehi- cles, textback facility, call recording - every- thing that the more expensive systems do, I can pretty much do as well.
I now own six cars of my own and have eight-seater vehicles with full wheelchair access. We do every- thing from normal taxi work to tours of Edin- burgh and the Highlands, and I’ve recently started anoth- er company solely covering airport trans- fer work.
COUNCIL CONUNDRUMS
“For a while West Lothian Council used to have a focus group for taxi and private hire drivers to air their views with regard to everyday working. Most of the time I would just go and lis- ten to the taxi and private hire propri- etors having a complete slagging match and gaining absolutely nothing from the meeting. After a while I think our council, as with many others, got fed up with
the usual rabble. “Then the communica- tion from the council fell away. We then had no way of keeping up with what was happen- ing; the two trade associations were run by the larger compa- nies in the area and drivers could never really vent their true feelings, so after hear- ing a few rumours about what the council were proposing for the Private Hire Car Review we got some of the local companies and drivers to set up the West Lothian Pri- vate Hire Association, and affiliated our- selves to the National Private Hire Associa- tion, where we have had some invaluable advice. (Cheers, guys!)
“Our council was in the process of making changes to the licens- ing conditions and vehicle criteria, which we felt was not being filtered back to the drivers; so with the help of Donna and Bryan we have made connection with the council, and are cur- rently involved in the review at the moment. “At the same time we have started spread- ing the news to other drivers, and in a mat- ter of weeks WLPHA has grown in size, now representing more than 20 of our local companies. We have begun by taking the advice of Donna and Bryan in not having
any one person steer- ing the Association to cut out rumours of hid- den agendas. We want to offer a fair platform for every driver to be kept up to date with the changes the coun- cil propose to make, and at the same time we want drivers to tell us what they want, allowing us to take these points forward to the council and hopefully set up a good working relation- ship with all involved. “Even I have been sur- prised by the amount of people turning up to meetings, and every person is saying the same thing: there’s no communication from the council. I am sure this can be rectified, and eventually we can have everyone up to date.
FUTURES
“Concerns about the future: I hate to see restrictions being placed on the private hire industry, such as no eight-seater vehi- cles in our area. Why?? Why should private hire companies not be allowed to com- pete for trade on an even footing? Why should private hire vehicles not be allowed to advertise on their vehicles? Other private busi- nesses such as joiners and electricians can advertise on their vehi- cles... As with any other industry there are good and bad firms involved; we don’t all pick up ille- gally in the street. “I’m sure that with the support of our mem- bers and the good communication all round, we can now go forward and have a good working relation- ship with the council in West Lothian.
TAXI TALES
“Here’s a story for you: Picture the scene - heavy snow, driving snow, roads becoming
difficult. A job comes in for a regular dis- abled customer to be picked up from the local bowling club. To put you in the full pic- ture, the customer has two wooden legs. “After the control put the job out to one of the drivers, Graham, I get a call on my phone 15 minutes later to say that Graham needs a hand with the disabled customer - the cus- tomer has fallen in the snow and Graham can’t lift him on his own, can I assist. “I headed to the cus- tomer’s house and on arrival I burst into fits of laughter - so much so that a local police car pulled up and asked if everything was okay. I replied, Yes - fine... at which point the police- man looked towards Graham and he also went into fits of laugh- ter. Neither of us could move.
“Graham had the cus- tomer back on his feet and balancing on the icy pavement, but when the customer had fallen over his two wooden legs had come off, so Graham being Graham, helped the customer attach them again and lifted him to his feet.
“What’s so funny about that, I hear you say? Graham had attached the wooden legs back to front, so that the top part of the customer’s body was going home and the bottom part was head- ing back out. It still gets a laugh to this day.
“There is a lot more I could include in this profile, but all that remains to say at the moment is - thanks to you all.”
And thanks to you, Glenn, for your sup- port and enthusiasm. There are a lot of developments hap- pening in Scotland, and the NPHA will assist in any way pos- sible.
PHTM OCTOBER 2009
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