Taxi Driver Online

I wish them well, and hope they succeed where the dozens and dozens of similar firms have not.

Women-only taxi service looks to expand

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg2mjljgkpo



A taxi service that only hires female drivers and aims to make passengers feel safer is hoping to expand into other big towns and cities.

Women's Wheelz Taxis was set up in Milton Keynes in December by former driving instructors Sharon Gorham and Chelsea Booth.

They said they had heard horror stories of women's experiences with some drivers and that they wanted to expand into Northampton, Bedford and Oxford.

Milton Keynes City Council has previously been told about complaints from female passengers. A spokesperson said the council ran "undercover operations" to monitor the quality of local drivers.

The pair told the BBC that the company - which has three drivers - was often used by schoolchildren, hospital patients and people with disabilities.

Finding new drivers was one of their biggest challenges, they explained.

Gorham said she felt standards in the industry were "pretty low" and was left feeling "nervous" after her own experience.

A male driver was "racing into the roundabouts", she explained, and singing along to "love songs" on the radio.

"I think the more that [we] talk about it, people are going to realise that actually there is a little bit of a problem out there and maybe it's time things changed," said Gorham.

In 2024, Liberal Democrat Andy Carr told a Milton Keynes City Council meeting, external that it received a "high proportion" of complaints from women in regard to "inappropriate behaviour or language by taxi drivers towards female passengers".

The council encouraged all taxi drivers in the city to become White Ribbon, external ambassadors, and to display White Ribbon stickers in their vehicles as a show of solidarity.

Last year, over in Norfolk, a survey by the University of East Anglia students' union found 24% of respondents felt unsafe using cabs after dark.

Jane Whild from Milton Keynes is a member of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for women's rights and gender equality.

She praised the Women's Wheelz Taxis venture as "great news", in the face of a "much bigger, urgent problem" around violence against women and girls.

Co-founder Booth also explained that the company had a lot of male customers who sometimes felt unsafe in taxis.

"I've had men comment to me about the driving standards of some of the taxis that they've been in and that they would prefer to be driven by us, and they're welcome," said Booth.

Bookings for their taxis can be made via a mobile app.

Vicky West, who runs a female-run taxi service in Dorset, also said: "I am all for the female drivers getting their businesses up and running and giving ladies a chance to feel safer in a taxi on their own."

A Milton Keynes City Council spokesperson said it was "proud" to be an accredited White Ribbon organisation "due to our actions tackling violence against women and girls".

They added: "Drivers licensed in Milton Keynes must meet strict standards and we run regular undercover operations to monitor compliance in a range of areas."

This month, taxi-hailing firm Uber launched a women-only feature for female passengers and drivers in the US.

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IDFIMH

As happens in the rest of the trade, both male and female.

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IDFIMH

here's an idea Stuart a research project for you.

How many of these pink ladies taxi firms have been set up since 2000 and how long have they lasted ?

it would be an interseting spreadsheet

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

It would certainly make for interesting reading, Edders. And think I did a bit of Googling last year and posted some stuff in another thread about some earlier firms, most of which seemed to have fizzled out.

Trouble is, to do something comprehensive would require too much effort and, while maybe of interest to a few people on here, would probably serve little wider purpose.

Would certainly be easy enough to compile a list of such firms starting up and publicising themselves via the press. But the difficult bit would be finding out what happened to them...particularly since I'd guess most would just carry on at a very small scale, or just fizzle out after a year or two, if even that. Although no doubt some will stay around for a few years, but not much in the way of 'upscaling' or whatever.

On the other hand, it's easy enough to find out what happened to the big one, but that was a bit different because of the various attempts to keep it going, and because it disappeared in a blaze of publicity, as compared to all the rest...

...anyway, almost started blabbering on at length about this one last night, but had to go for a lie down first, and by that time thought the better of it

But as regards the usual formula for this kind of thing, it's possibly one of the worst in terms of the negatives. But probably no point wittering on about it, because it would just be the same kind of wittering on as per numerous previous posts over quite a few years

But had a look at this one's website last night. And for a three-driver start up firm it's got a remarkable amount of detail about the badge application process, and an intricate commission rate system etc, which depends on length of service etc. But the usual happy clappy stuff (they sit round campfires at night singing Kumbaya, or something like that) and what they plan to do in future etc.

Check out this, for example:

https://www.womenswheelz.co.uk/become-a ... incentives

And some bits and pieces I noticed is that they seem to be encouraging 'licence shopping' and cross-bordering - what would Baroness Casey think?


And they're at least clear that the drivers are self-employed. On the other hand, they're equally clear about displaying their own door stickers (although that's maybe at least partly due to council requirements):


According to their spiel they've both come from being driving instructors with their own driving school. But there's no way their website has been constructed without insider knowledge of the trade, from whatever source.

https://www.womenswheelz.co.uk/

Oh, aye, forgot about this one on the homepage:


Don't they know you're not allowed to say something is 'manned' these days because it's sexist? True story