September Update from CCO

I would like to start my blog this month with a tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen has been a mainstay in our lives, and she has been a source of stability and leadership through the 47 years that Addison Lee has operated in London. It is evident how much the Queen meant to everyone by the sheer size of the crowds that came out to pay their respects. She will be greatly missed.

As the Summer draws to a close, September traditionally sees a return to business travel and an increase in demand for our passenger and courier services. Back in June, I told you of our efforts to improve service with the implementation of various operational trials. Feedback from customers, drivers and our operations team demonstrate that the trials have had a positive impact. We will continue to implement improved service delivery initiatives and work with you, our customers, to ensure services are delivered to a high standard. Thank you for your support and please continue to share feedback and insights with us.

Since 2020, the number of Private Hire Vehicle (PHV) drivers licensed by Transport for London has continued to fall. We continue to prioritise driver recruitment efforts and are seeing some positive increases. Drivers are at the heart of our business, so we are really doing all we can to support any new drivers that want to enter the industry and to help existing PHV drivers as they reapply for their licenses.

While driver recruitment is a huge focus for us, we shouldn’t forget all the positive work that goes into layering excellence over our end-to-end customer experiences. From Product to Brand Standards we have the best people in place to ensure that customer satisfaction remains at the forefront of everything we do. Our people combined with the Addison Lee fleet and technology are what really sets us apart. Please look out for our AL-Together campaign that will run throughout Autumn. You will see some familiar faces and hopefully learn something new about the brand you’ve trusted for over 47 years.

Finally, our roll out of electric vehicles is something I am really proud of. It was recently World EV Day and since November 2021, we have introduced 450 EVs onto our fleet. In that time, we have covered over 4 million EV miles and saved 1 million kg of carbon emissions from London’s air. This is the impact of us introducing EVs onto our fleet, so you can only imagine the improvements to London’s air quality once we begin the next phase of the rollout.

There is lots more to share with you as we enter the last quarter of 2022 and I look forward to updating you next month.

Wesley Bishop

Chief Commercial Officer