The minicab industry hasn’t had the best start to 2010, and whereas January is expected to be slow, an equally slow February was not as widely expected. Most of my drivers are not unique to Leading Route Cars in that they also work for other companies as a single company cannot seem to provide enough work for them to live on.
When I first started out, I was chasing drivers regularly to fill the jobs I had coming in. However during these quiet times, I get regular daily calls from my drivers asking if there’s any work. It seems even their other companies are relatively quiet.
This week has seen a significant improvement in business, with increased airport trips and long distance journeys. Our new booking system has been delayed, however will be launched in April. A much simplified online booking process to give you quotes directly online without needing to contact us by phone or use our enquiry form.
The hope is that this will reduce email and phone enquiries for prices and increase sale conversion rates. The next phase of development for LeadingRouteCars.com is to enable customers to open Company Accounts and Credit Card accounts online…watch this space…
WedStress.com
If you haven’t already, take a look at our recently designed WedStress logo at www.WedStress.com. A sister company of ShaadiStress.com dedicated to the UK market and launching next month.
The Facebook fan page is live and you can follow us on Twitter too at http://www.twitter.com/WedStress. In our first month of launch, we will be offering all leading wedding suppliers an entire year of free advertising so make sure you don’t miss our launch.
The not so new office
Arav has now visited the new office a few times and each time turned it into his private playroom. It was quite amusing when our landlord knocked to deliver some mail – Eric must have thought he walked into a nursery: toys everywhere, a little boy with food all over his face and minicab calls going off in the background (errmm ok scrap that last one!).
Our broadband problems have been resolved, however many billing problems with BT remain. Over the space of 24 hours, I submitted 10 individual complaints to their various departments each covering a different issue – you would think I was working in some customer service department than running my own company!
On a related note, I was very surprised to receive two charge-backs on card payments made for bookings back in December! Supposedly, the payments were fraudulent and the only proof the bank would accept were signed receipts for each transaction. As these were both payments taken over the phone, no such receipts existed, and the bank would not even consider that on one of those, the pick-up address and billing address were the same, making the transaction all the more genuine. Scoring the web, I did find some effective ways of combating unscrupulous customers who genuinely pay and then claim foul-play when they see the transaction on their statements to get their money back. When and if this works, I’ll post more on this topic.
Lots more is happening in Q2 this year and I’ll post back as and when I have more…
Latest posts by Anand (see all)
- Are you sure your home is not on the market for sale? - February 5, 2017
- How We Fail Charities - February 3, 2017
- The simple trick that helps me stay away from my smartphone - January 2, 2017