Taxi Driver Online

Evening News (Edinburgh)

July 12, 2006, Wednesday

HEADLINE: Taxi firm hopes to coin it in with new adverts

A TAXI firm has adopted an innovative way of drumming up new business - by displaying its contact details on GBP 1 coins.

Central Taxis, based at Gilmore Place, Tollcross, has attached circular stickers emblazoned with the name of the company and its phone number to hundreds of GBP 1 coins. The coins are then handed out in change to taxi customers.

The method of advertising is popular in Holland where many pubs, restaurants and taxi companies advertise this way. A spokesman for the Edinburgh Coin Shop, on West Crosscauseway, said: "I have never seen this in Edinburgh before, but it is popular in The Netherlands. Stamping coins used to be common in Scotland hundreds of years ago, when workhouses did it to turn coins into tokens to pay their workers."

It is illegal to deface coins, but stickers are acceptable as they are easily removed.
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Have I missed something, cos as a punter that would really p*** me off?

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IDFIMH

The only thing you have missed is the desperate attempt to drum-up work. Check out fasties, CRT is referred to as the new EMPTY CABS. This once premier company is now losing work like it’s going out of fashion. The committee’s answer to everything was to buy work through increasing radio dues and now they are in the shi*. I think it’s fair to say there’s a mass exodus going on with owners and rented sets looking to jump ship. The last I heard ComCab had about 30 owners looking to join and the majority coming from CRT.

The guys I know are taking bets as to how long CRT is going to last, and one things for sure increasing radio dues will sink them even faster.

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

CRT's problems are only part of the equation.

As a streetcar, I well remember times when I pulled onto a taxi rank behind cars from CRt and City cabs. I considered my self to be at the head of the rank, because I knew that before the next walk up customer arrived, these guys would have been pulled off for a radio job.

Not now.

They're sitting as long as I am. So are Comcab's guys.

I've gone from averaging 3 to 4 jobs per hour, down to 2.

In any man's language, that's a depression.

Tony Blair, and his local sycophants on City of Edinburgh Council can tal;k it up as they want - we're supposed to be grateful and vote for them - but, as Private Fraser rightly says, "we're all doomed".

Daily Record

August 12, 2006, Saturday

HEADLINE: COIN ARTISTS; MINT BLASTS TAXI FIRM FOR STICKER ADS CAMPAIGN

BYLINE: By Oliver Coleman

A CAB firm have been slammed by the Royal Mint for slapping stickers on pounds 1 coins for a new advertising campaign.

Bosses claim the ads "bring down the dignity" of the coins. They also fear the stickers could lead to blocked vending machines and confuse foreign visitors because the writing is covered up. But Mint chiefs admitted they could only ask Central Taxis in Edinburgh to remove them.

The firm slapped vinyl stickers with their name and number on each pounds 1 coin given out in change over the past month. They printed 100,000, hoping to drum up business as the coins spread across the city from person to person.

But one outraged customer reported them to the Mint.

A Royal Mint spokesman said: "As far as we are aware, there are currently no legal powers to prevent people from putting stickers on coins. "There is no issue with defacing the coin simply by putting a sticker on it. "However, we do not like it and we plan to be in touch with Central Taxis to ask them to stop doing it.

"There are practical considerations because it can cause complications with vending machines. "But we are also unhappy about it because it brings down the dignity of the coins. "They are the coins of the realm. It would be a shame if people started plastering them in advertising."

Central Tax is general manager Alastair Garvan said: "This is simply a promotion to get our name and number out there.

"We think it is a reasonable way of gaining a commercial edge in a competitive marketplace. "The idea came from a member of our staff who had seen stickers used in Europe. "We have had no adverse reaction so far - in fact, we have heard a number of very positive comments.

"We are not defacing, drilling or scratching the coins, and if people do not like the stickers they can simply remove them." He said that the company would consider the Mint's request once they get in touch.
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I've had a few with a pub advertised on them, and I wasn't too amused but they were all the punter had so I took the stickers off.

With dud coins and the like going around I'd like any coins I have to be as nature intended, so if I was a punter I wouldn't like them, and they're a bit 'in your face' anyway.

Is that the best CRT can come up with?

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