Ambitious taxi operator, Take Me, which was created by David Hunter of Leicestershire’s ADT Taxis has added two of Plymouth’s former rival taxi services to its group.
Take Me is a national group of taxi companies, with sites in Leicester, Birmingham, Brighton, Liverpool, Crew, London, Farnborough and Cambridgeshire.
Plymouth company, Taxi First, is the newest addition to Take Me’s rapidly growing list of acquisitions. It joins fellow Plymouth taxi service, and former company rival, Tower Cabs in becoming a part of the larger group.
David Trace, who has been running Taxi First for over 30 years, acknowledged that the pandemic and Brexit has caused taxi companies major problems but feels that the merge with Take Me offers a great solution. On the move, he says:
“I think at the end of the day, being part of a big group will add security to all concerned.
“It has been an emotional journey here in Plymouth but let me reassure all my team and customers that it is very much business as usual for us all here at Taxi First.
“We are all looking forward to the benefits of being part of a larger group and using their resources to offer a better service to our customers and to ensure our drivers have the latest technology and systems to help them.”
Peter Bresland of Tower Cabs which previously joined Take Me, echoed this sentiment, saying:
“I think the taxi trade, particularly in Plymouth, but also nationwide, have suffered through the pandemic, it’s suffered because of Brexit.
“Joining together, we will become bigger and stronger and it’s the Take Me group that have enabled this to happen.”
Amongst some of the benefits of merging into the larger group, one of the first initiatives that Take Me will be helping Taxi First with is to develop a taxi academy in Plymouth, which will be to train the next generation of taxi drivers.
The academy is open to anybody aged over 21 with a driver’s license and the team will help people of all ages get a taxi driving licence, and a vehicle as well as offering them plenty of work from Taxi First and Tower Cab’s workload.
Managing Director of Take Me, David Hunter, concluded:
“It is exciting times at Take Me as we keep expanding and adding brilliant local businesses to our network fleet.
“Together we can bring our skills and infrastructure from being a national brand but build on the local expertise of these amazing well established taxi operators.
“It seems to be a great combination, and we are already working on adding to the network over the summer.”
By Gita Sarasia
