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Since 2013, the England-based industry magazine Professional Driver has honored the private car, chauffeur, and taxi industry with a black-tie event that recognizes the companies, teams, and individuals who maintain the integrity and high-touch service that exemplify luxury chauffeured transportation.
This year was no exception. On November 23, a crowd of more than 450 guests included the chauffeurs usually waiting in parked cars outside galas and special events who found themselves in the middle of the action—often, right in the spotlight—as well as the decision-makers who have navigated their companies through the perilous, uncharted territory of existing alongside TNCs and were celebrated for their myriad successes.
An independent panel of four industry-entrenched judges—including ProDriver Editor Mark Bursa—selected the honorees, who were recognized for everything from creative marketing approaches, community contributions, and continually elevating the perception of the U.K.’s private car industry from the busy streets of London to the remote northern corners and everywhere between.
Chauffeur Company of the Year, 1-10 vehicles
Gold – Orion Luxury (London)
Silver – Cole Executive Hire (Malmesbury)
Bronze – Chauffeur Travel (Bath)
Chauffeur Company of the Year, 11-30 vehicles
Gold – iChauffeur (London)
Silver – Driven UK (Horley)
Bronze – Herts Executive (Welwyn Garden City)
Chauffeur Company of the Year, 31+ vehicles
Gold – Club Class Chauffeurs (Hailsham)
Silver – Brunel (London)
Bronze – Little’s Chauffeur Drive (Glasgow)
Bronze – Premiere Chauffeur Drive (London)
Private Hire Company of the Year, 1-80 vehicles
Gold – Go Green Taxis (Didcot)
Silver – Cabs Smart (Ipswich)
Silver – Location Cars (London)
Bronze – Castle Cars (Tonbidge)
Private Hire Company of the Year, 81+ vehicles
Gold – Parker Car Service (London)
Silver – Royal Cars (Oxford)
Silver – Carrot Cars (London)
Marketing Award
Gold – GLH (London)
Silver – Addison Lee (London)
Bronze – Go Green Taxis (Didcot)
New Start Business
Gold – Orion Luxury (London)
Silver – London Luxury Chauffeuring (London)
Bronze – Myhills Mini Coaches (Cambridge)
Community Award
Gold – Street Cars (Manchester)
Silver – GLH (London)
Bronze – Solway Private Hire (Silloth)
Environmental Award
Gold – Addison Lee (London)
Silver – Greentomato Cars (London)
Bronze – Cloud Cars (Nottingham)
Professional Driver of the Year
Gold – Hilary Hutchinson (Lakeland Chauffeurs)
Silver – Simon Peacock (Capstar Chauffeurs)
Bronze – Marc Brodie (GLH)
Bronze – Bogdan Tepes (Herts Executive)
While the Professional Driver of the Year is a hard act to follow and typically serves as the evening’s grand finale, there was a surprise last call this year. The Special Recognition Award, befitting its name, had a particularly significant meaning in the wake of the tragic, fatal bombing at a concert in Manchester this past spring.
In a time of chaos and confusion, chauffeurs from all over the region prioritized people over profit to safely ferry dazed concert-goers and bystanders to safer grounds free of charge. According to Bursa, who presented the award, among those leading the rally to help was Sameer Arshad of Street Cars—the evening’s 2017 Community Award Gold medalist—who "asked all his drivers to pick up as many people in need of rides home or to the hospital as possible." He reportedly told his drivers: "This is our city, at the end of the day. Money’s not everything."
"On May 22, a suicide bomber murdered 22 people and injured more than 60 as they left an Ariana Grande concert at the MEN Arena in Manchester," Bursa said before inviting Arshad up to the stage to accept the award "on behalf of all the north-western taxi and private hire companies and drivers who went well beyond the call of duty" to become the city’s fourth emergency service on that terrible night.
Bursa added: "Many drivers and operators turned off their meters and offered free rides to get people to safety. Some drivers abandoned their cars and went inside the police cordon on foot to find their frightened customers and escort them out of danger and back to the car. Drivers from all across the region offered to help. Companies from Liverpool sent cars to Manchester, and the local taxi firms worked through the night, without pay, to get people home safely."
The evening also saw the eighth presentation of the Professional Driver Car of the Year awards, selected by readers of the magazine after a full day of testing more than 60 vehicles back in August. This year’s big winners were:
Chauffeur Car of the Year: BMW 740Le xDrive Exclusive
Green Car of the Year: Hyundai Ioniq Electric Premium SE
Luxury SUV of the Year: Volvo XC60 D5 Inscription
Executive Car of the Year: Mercedes-Benz E220d AMG Line
GMPV of the Year: Mercedes-Benz V250d AMG Line Extra Long
Estate Car of the Year: BMW 530d Touring xDrive M Sport
2017 Professional Driver Car of the Year: Mercedes-Benz E220d AMG
Visit prodrivermags.com/qsi-home for more information about and photos from the award ceremony. [CD0118]
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"We've had 1.4 billion impressions in just 14 days," said NLA Secretary Scott Solombrino of Dav El/BostonCoach regarding the PSA. "In comparison, all of the press releases that NLA produced last year barely hit 1 billion impressions, combined. We've had a massive impact on these companies that have tens of millions of dollars for public relations."
This is the second PSA that the NLA has produced with Anderson. The first, "The Driver Game," featured a flirty Anderson interviewing drivers in the style of the "The Dating Game." This time around, "The Signs" PSA—with a more serious tone and a focus directed toward corporate customers and corporate travel buyers—caught the attention of media outlets like The New York Times, Today With Megyn Kelly, the U.K.'s Daily Mail, and was even featured in entertainment website TMZ's daily rundown. Millions have seen the video.
"When I first embarked on my quest to raise awareness about the safety risks associated with ride-hailing apps, I had no idea about the frequency or disturbing nature of the incidents," said Anderson. "It is digital hitchhiking. These apps are optimized for predators and will remain so until common sense safety measures are put in place."
Kelly had a sit-down interview with the actress, where she recalled times in Hollywood where she was promised cars or homes if she would be a director's or a producer's "number-one girl," but that she walked away without exception. Anderson has also been open about her abuse by a babysitter and a later rape when she was a preteen, and she now works closely with nonprofit PAVE, which aims to empower students, parents, and civic leaders to end sexual violence with prevention education. PAVE, founded by rape survivor Angela Rose in 2001, also cosponsored the PSA.
"The question is, whether [Uber & Lyft's background checks] are as tough as ones you get through a pre-arranged service. The bottom line is be smart, be safe, and never get into any car with someone who is a stranger to you," said Kelly during the program.
When the NLA's Ride Responsibly campaign was announced in 2015, the association leaders knew that it was going to be a battle for the future of the industry—but one that pitted a small but respected association against a multi-billion-dollar company with a lot of free, positive press and a public that loved it. (Lyft at the time was riding on the coattails of Uber, allowing the larger company to front the battles with legislatures.) Society is changing so quickly that legislators and the general public are usually more fascinated by what technology can do rather than being concerned about its potential negative consequences, and that certainly seemed to be the case with TNCs.
"I've had numerous meetings with California legislators and they get it, but they won't stop or slow down the progress of these companies for the sake of innovation," said NLA President Gary Buffo, whose company, Pure Luxury Transportation, is based in the Bay Area. "And if they have to ignore safety and regulations for innovation, then they will—and do."
But the cracks began to appear in the façade in 2016 and 2017, especially regarding Uber, and the media has steadily been waking up to the dirty underbelly of less regulated app companies posing as transportation providers. Compounding a very bad year, which included proven claims of sexual harassment and a frat-like working environment at its headquarters, Uber quickly scrambled for its PR life and ousted longtime CEO Travis Kalanick—but not before a #DeleteUber hashtag caught fire.
Buffo and the NLA Public Relations Committee, co-chaired by Solombrino and Jason Kaplan of The Driver Provider, have been working with EVINS Communications for the past three years to develop a multi-tiered strategy to combat TNCs in pursuit of a level playing field—and to have regulators take notice of the dangers that the riding public is subject to without one. The timing for this PSA, however, couldn't have been better as sexual harassment scandals have exploded across numerous industries, spurring the #MeToo movement.
"Pam deserves a lot of credit," said Kaplan. "We're not a huge conglomerate that's paying her tons of money to be a spokesperson. It's not about that. It's a personal and passionate cause for her, and she has gone above and beyond to take on this battle. She believes in this so strongly that she's become a better spokesperson than we could have ever hoped for."
While the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Solombrino, there has been some pushback that the PSA is "anti-driver" rather than an attempt to level a playing field for all. In fact, the NLA launched a summer 2017 partnership with nonprofit Jobs With Justice, to highlight the responsibilities that Uber and Lyft have shirked regarding their drivers—often leaving those drivers chasing trips far from their homes or working insane hours for a low payout. The Huffington Post took notice of that campaign and reported on it in August of last year.
"We are not anti-TNC just for the sake of competition ... that has nothing to do with it," said Kaplan. "We as an industry are regulated much more than they are and we all take training and passenger safety very seriously for anyone we put in a car driving our passengers. And none of that comes into play with TNCs."
Solombrino agreed: "We're on a mission to get fingerprinting and drug testing as a standard in all states for all TNC drivers. We're trying to elevate the level of consciousness of the general riding public. No sane person would ever get on an airplane if they didn't think that the FAA had drug testing requirements for pilots."
Aside from assaults and kidnappings, lax regulations have exposed several other potential issues with TNC drivers: legal recreational and medicinal marijuana use, and hours behind the wheel—which is strictly regulated in states like California.
"We had 22 Uber drivers apply at our company in a one-week period and 21 of them failed the drug test so we couldn't ever hire them," said Buffo. "They likely went right back to working for Uber. We're hearing of drivers who come in from Tracy—about two hours away—to work in San Francisco for four days, sleeping in their cars and working 20-hour days. We have a one-on-one relationship with the people we are interviewing and ultimately hiring, and that's why our industry—on a good day—hires maybe one out of nine people who apply. That's why we don't have the problems that TNCs have. Regulators haven't stopped going after this industry, and all we can do is continually educate the end-user about the differences between them and us."
Solombrino will host a one-on-one discussion with Anderson at the Las Vegas show, which he said is sure to garner lots of media attention for both the association and the cause.
The NLA is also working on another PSA that will be released later this spring, one that Solombrino says will hit on all the pillars that they think are important to get across to the riding public and regulators. He says that the next will ultimately build on what they have wanted to communicate so far.
"In 2017, we created and built upon the public's awareness of the downside of TNCs with EVINS' guidance. In 2018, we're making that impact. And now with the #MeToo movement, it's helped to make it a global issue where TNCs are a landscape that need to be examined and truly made safer for consumers," said Kaplan.
Visit rideresponsibly.org or limo.org for more information on the campaign. Visit youtube.com/watch?v=bb9ZxP4rgSk to view the latest PSA in its entirety. [CD0318]
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As members have been seeking a way to inform their clients about the dangers of TNCs with specific examples and facts, Wisconsin operators have begun utilizing the TNC position papers issued by the NLA’s Ride Responsibly initiative—and learned some unsettling things themselves in the process.
“From our meeting, one of the members asked for something simple to show customers about the percentage of TNC assaults compared to limousines and taxis,” WLA President Mike Hartmann of Stardust Limousine said. “From what I see, authorities do not keep track of where assaults and other incidents happen. What I do find interesting in the NLA paper is that the customer can be found liable if the TNC driver does not have the correct insurance and the TNC denies liability. We could tell our customers that they may be at risk for liability if their TNC driver causes injury and give them an example, like if their TNC driver hits a bike rider while a customer is in the vehicle and then the bike rider goes after the rider for damages.”
AB-918 called for the “regulation of taxicab companies and taxicab dispatch services, extending the time limit for emergency rule procedures, providing an exemption from emergency rule procedures, granting rule-making authority, and providing a criminal penalty.” On February 22, the Wisconin State Assembly voted 7-1 on it.
Papers were submitted to the state senate March 1 regarding SB-759, Streamlining Regulation of Taxicab Companies. The senate bill aims to “simplify the regulation of taxicab companies and dispatch services in Wisconsin” via a standard regulatory structure that would help “create a level playing field” and highlights the fact that companies offering similar services should be legislated the same way.
The next WLA conference call will be March 21.
Visit wisconsinlimo.org for more information.
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