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The veterans get a free taxi, but the real value is the trade’s ability to organise on a grand scale for a community cause
London’s volunteer taxi drivers provide more than free journeys on Remembrance Sunday, demonstrating how professional drivers, local knowledge and coordinated transport can deliver a service that would otherwise be difficult to arrange.
There are occasions when the taxi trade does itself considerably more good by getting on with the job than it ever could through another public relations campaign.
Taking military veterans to Remembrance Sunday events is one of them.
Nobody needs to explain why helping former servicemen and women attend commemorations is worthwhile. An alternative interesting industry question is how a group of working taxi drivers can organise transport on that scale without turning the whole exercise into an administrative nightmare.
In a recent news TaxiPoint describes how volunteer drivers provided free journeys to commemorative events across the capital via the initiative, now known as Cabs for Veterans, which began in 2009 under the name Poppy Cabs.
The service is co-ordinated by the extraordinary cabbie Mike Hughes, and helps hundreds of veterans each year, with volunteer drivers collectively covering thousands of miles.
The journeys are provided free of charge, but that does not mean the transport has no cost. Vehicles still consume fuel or electricity. Drivers give up time they might otherwise spend working. There is also the administrative effort involved in arranging collections, managing passenger information and ensuring people reach the right place.
Those costs are being absorbed or supported by people who believe the service is worth providing. That is pride in their profession and community.
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A free journey is not a journey without economic value. It is a journey for which somebody other than the passenger bears the cost.
The trade is familiar with that arrangement in other settings. Many cabbies give free fares at their own discretion in other scenarios for families travelling to Great Ormond Street Hospital or take sick children on trips to Disneyland Paris.
The difference here is that the service depends heavily on voluntary effort. Remembrance Sunday brings large numbers of people into central London, including older passengers and people whose mobility may be limited.
The event also involves road restrictions, security arrangements and considerable pedestrian activity around important commemorative locations. A driver may need to know which roads are accessible, where passengers can be safely collected and how long it will take to reach a particular location.
The value of local knowledge is often discussed in terms of choosing the shortest or quickest route. For an operation of this kind, its value extends further. Knowing where a vehicle can stop safely, which approaches are likely to be restricted and how to reach a passenger without unnecessary walking can be just as important as knowing the route itself.
There is another feature of voluntary taxi work that deserves recognition.
Drivers are providing their own professional skills, not merely donating the use of a car. They understand passenger collection, safe boarding, luggage handling, journey planning and the practical realities of working around major events.
Those skills have commercial value even when the driver chooses not to charge for them.
The success of a charitable initiative does not establish that similar journeys can be provided indefinitely without payment. Drivers have businesses to maintain and households to support.
A council or transport commissioner should not look at a volunteer operation and conclude that professional transport can be obtained for nothing whenever a worthwhile cause is involved. The lesson is about organisation and capability, not the removal of operating costs.
There is also a mammoth reputational benefit for the licensed taxi trade.
Much of the industry’s public facing coverage concerns the perceived competition with private hire platforms.
A well-organised charitable service demonstrates a different side of the trade without requiring an elaborate marketing campaign.
The passengers and wider community receive something useful. The public sees the service being delivered. The drivers have a direct connection with the outcome.
That is a stronger demonstration of value than simply claiming that taxis are an important part of public transport. It offers a lesson for operators seeking closer relationships with local communities. Transport businesses can support charitable events, community organisations and vulnerable passengers in ways that use their existing capabilities.
There is a tendency to measure the value of a taxi solely through the fare displayed on the meter. That is understandable in a world that is being hitting with huge rises in cost of living and where the drivers income must cover substantial operating costs.
But a professional taxi service also provides reliability, knowledge, flexibility and the ability to move people who may struggle with other transport options.
On Remembrance Sunday, those qualities are being used for a purpose that has nothing to do with maximising the day’s takings.
The industry should be proud of that.
