..WOMEN IN THE INDUSTRY
across a wider area with offices in Walk- den, Prestwich, Manchester and our hub in Salford. The company continues to devel- op and grow despite the challenges it has faced, and continues to face, and will con- tinue to develop its approach, its service and it people to ensure this happens.
“The business has changed significantly from when I started with computerisation, apps, PDA’s and hybrid vehicles. The De- regulation Act, the increase in ‘no-access’ areas and the increase in bus lanes along with the rise of Uber and the like has made this period for the industry possibly one of the most challenging. The business has met many of these challenges face on, investing in technology, recruitment and training, creating positive relationships with soft- ware providers.
“I have worked in the industry for over 35 years and continue to believe that there is more to do. Salford and Manchester are vibrant cities that people want to live in, work in and visit and if we can help them get from A to B then we will continue to try to do that to the best of our ability.”
GENDER NEUTRAL? HOW TRENDY
We next visit with National Private Hire and Taxi Association Boardmember Odette Ott- away and her daughter Michelle, who together run A1A Taxis Ltd in Welwyn Gar- den City. Odette has been in the industry for “too many years to count”, so has a few words to say about women in the trade: “We are of course the fairer sex and greatly appreciate being treated with kindness and respect, but when we are in work mode we are gender neutral and expect to be treated at least as equals.
“Very few women are drivers because they are very vulnerable alone in a vehicle with a stranger or strangers who could have a par- ticular agenda. In our experience this ranges from being ‘chatted up’ by the pun- ters to being groped by them. It is very difficult to fend off physical
contact whilst driving safely. Michelle Ottaway
“The general consen- sus is that passen- gers are pleasantly shocked when they get a female driver. We would love to run a women-only ser- vice alongside our company, but we cannot recruit any female drivers, as either they or their
OCTOBER 2018
families deem them to be too vulnerable driving a taxi, particularly at night.
“Women controllers are frequently given verbal abuse by callers, who are often intox- icated; however we have to say that female callers are generally the most abusive.
“Over the past twenty years there has been an influx of mainly male Asian drivers com- ing into the industry; without them the trade nationwide would not be able to ser- vice demand. Yet still there are very few Asian women joining the industry.
“Again historically, themen within the trade generally are and have been of dominant character, who have an image of females that is not commensurate with women’s status in today’s society.”
BACK DOWN THE SMOKE or our final example of Girl Power, we
come back down south to chat with Veron- ica Beatty, proprietor of West End Lane Minicabs in London’s West Hampstead. You may have heard Veronica speak at the most recent PHTM Expo during the “Company Profile Live” segment of the seminars on the first day. Also, we recently profiled her com- pany in PHTM, so we thought she’d be a good addition to ourWomen in the Industry feature.
The way Veronica became involved in the industry was somewhat unique: “What is now our minicab office I was originally run- ning as a clothing shop. One day there was transport madness due to a series of train strikes; nobody could get anywhere, and people kept coming into my shop asking where to get a minicab.
“That was around June 1995;my husband at the time was an actor, and our good friend Nigel Long was out of work, so I bought my husband a very cheap runaround car (a Maestro) and we got started.
“I then turned my stock room out the back of our clothing shop into a minicab compa- ny: one telephone line and two drivers. I knew nothing about minicabs, only from using them myself. To get drivers at the beginning I didn’t charge a rental fee; I just wanted to learn from the drivers and get the work coming in. I used to sometimes sleep in the shop, as we became busy very quickly.
BALANCING ACT
“At the beginning I couldn’t get the balance of drivers and work together: either I had work and no drivers, or drivers and no work. It took hard graft, and two years for
me to get the right balance and good staff to control. We then applied to the council for planning permission; we used radios from London Communica- tions and pen and paper… the good old days, right?
“Then I got a computer sys- tem for book- ings which was great; we were still on radio, butmuchquick- er with the computers. We expanded very quickly: I went from two drivers to ten, then 40 – then up to 110 drivers until four years ago. I’ve lost half my drivers since Uber came along, sadly, but I’m starting to get a few come back my way as Uber has flooded their circuit.
“We offer all types of vehicles. We are pet friendly, pregnant-women-in-labour friend- ly, we do school runs… All work is welcome at my office.
“I look at my drivers and they are all like family. I do not accept any bad behaviour, and I have to say that I have some of the kindest and caring drivers. We’ve always had great customer service, but since Uber came along I now concentrate even more on high customer service.
“I make sure we are the best, as not many elderly people have the app, and they still like to talk with humans likemyself.We deal with a lot of older customers and they love to chat… a lot of my customers have been very loyal. I’ve still got customers from when I started.” Dare we say it: women may have the edge on the caring, TLC aspect of this industry.
We’ll leave the last words to Rachel Beckett: “If as an industry we work together to encourage more women into our world then we can all only benefit.”
Speaking personally as one of two women who head the National Private Hire and Taxi Association, and as the editor of this paper (which is published and primarily typeset/news-sourced by women), yours truly cannot do anything else but heartily agree!
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