My local taxi drivers formed a coop

[madd0ct0r]

https://www.gmb.org.uk/long-read/life-driving-seat

Last year a group of Cardiff GMB taxi drivers took a big step of launching their own Co-operative, Drive. The Co-operative is fully owned by it’s members, and they all have a say on how the business is run. GMB member and founding partner of Drive Paul O’Hara gives us a Q+A on their journey over the last year, what they’ve seen, learnt and how they're responding to the challenges of the Coronavirus.

Why are you GMB?

As self employed individuals we felt there was no unity within the taxi trade and as such we had no power over our own destiny. Going down the union route was the best way to achieve that.

Why did you decide to start a co-op?

We started the co-op primarily to take back control of our trade, the traditional companies had a stranglehold over drivers. They had archaic rules like putting drivers on stop for 24 hrs if they couldn't complete a job they'd been given for whatever reason.

How does it differ from a standard company?

The member-drivers own the company, and have complete control over it.

WE make the decisions.

We keep members fees at a bare minimum as we run the company on a not for profit basis, so there is no-one profiting from the work we do apart from the drivers themselves.

How did you come to the decision, was it quite quick or did people need some time convincing?

It was something that had been discussd by a few drivers for a while and a question was asked on social media if there would be anyone willing to help set up a driver owned co-operative. 8 drivers formed the company in the summer of 2018. After a lot of planning and preparation we launched the company on 1st March 2019

Who helped you along the way?

The GMB put is in touch with the relevant people at Wales Co-operative Centre and Co-opUK. The greatest assistance we have had though, is from another taxi co-op. Mark Jenning at 333444 taxis at Southend he has been an enormous help.


DRIVE Taxis Cardiff
@letDRIVEtakeU
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What are your plans for the business?

Our plan is to grow the business slowly but surely, attract more drivers along with more customers. We will do this by offering first class customer service that the public will appreciate and return to us when they need transportation.

How has it been so far?

In our first year we have gone from having a zero customer base to taking over 17,000 bookings generating over £145,000 for member-drivers.

We have attracted 18 corporate account customers, many AMs from the Welsh Assembly, indeed Bethan Sayed AM was our very first account customer 3 months after we launched. And it has snowballed from there. We now have organisations such as SightLife (Cardiff Institute for the Blind) and The Sherman Theatre holding accounts with us.

How has the business changed because of Coronavirus?

We lost 95% of our bookings almost overnight, we deal a lot with the elderly and the vulnerable, especially the visually impaired, down to our relationship with SightLife.

All activities that people had booked taxis for well in advance were obviously cancelled. So this crisis has had a huge affect on the business and member-drivers earnings.

As we are all self employed we are getting no help from the Government until at least June so we have about 75% of member-drivers still working.

We’ve had to find new ways of generating an income for our members. over the past year we have accumulated cash reserves to go towards a more advanced dispatch system that we were planning on purchasing later this year. We decided to postpone that and instead use the money to offer free local shopping trips to the elderly and vulnerable in our community.





Our free shopping trips are proving to be a lifeline for many. People who are vulnerable and have little or no support network available and are self isolating know they can rely on us. You only have to look at our reviews on Facebook to realise the impact we are having.

This has proved to be very popular and has attracted custom from our regular customers as well as new customers that we hope to hold on to when this crisis is over, and obviously it generates work for members because they still get paid from the companies cash reserves.



This won’t last forever though, unfortunately if the money runs out then we will have to cease with our offer. So we are hoping there is a way we can carry on with the free shopping trips with help from the Welsh Governments and Cardiff Council.

We also introduced a 25% discount for all NHS workers, as well as carers and support workers who are so often overlooked. These key workers need to get to and from work and our members are happy to offer this discount.



Away from coronavirus, probably our greatest achievement is the relationship we have formed with the visually impaired. For too long guide dog users have been getting a raw deal from taxi drivers with them often being refused journeys because they have a dog. They now know they have a company they can trust, and that will place their needs first.

It is not only during this coronavirus outbreak that we have been offering discounts, Since we started we have offered 10% off fares for everyone who has a concessionary travel pass (free bus pass) This includes the disabled, infirm, visually impaired as well as the elderly. This offer will always be in place, well after this crisis has subsided.

We feel that this offer as well as the 25% off for all NHS staff, carers and support workers shows that we are a company that has our community at heart.

We feel it is important to help those that need assistance the most and to show appreciation to those that are fighting this crisis on the frontline.

[Zaune]

And why not? I hope they start a trend; we've gone from four or five cab companies in this area to just two, and that's bad for drivers as well as customers.