Arrow Taxis started in 1985 and originally started providing taxi services. Undertaking Council contracts almost from day one, in 2010 they rolled out DaRT and provided the first semi-timetabled service to Broomfield. The following year they started the DART 5 service. This started fully DRT as a no time table operation. It successfully provided 170% passenger growth in the first year of operation. Moving onwards, they took on whole tranches of North Essex, from Bishops Stortford in East Hertfordshire covering all the way up to Cambridgeshire, and across to Haverhill and Sudbury in Suffolk, and Braintree in Essex. Their latest route provides transport between Southend and Chelmsford and had 500% passenger growth over the first year.
Speaking to Andy Ambrose, General Manager and Jas Haley, Chief Operations officer, the pair work together closely organising and scheduling routes, day to day work, accounts, managing drivers and more. Andy retrieves the work while Jas reviews and over looks everything and their booking team, dealing with all booking requests. The company operate with a small team but it works well. Their on-site workshop is run by 3 service advisors which give them the ability to increase performance and act on problems very quickly.
Currently they operate 14 buses, 5 of them being EVM Citylines. Andy tells me “Everybody loves them. Passengers like them. Drivers like them. Workshop likes them and with 20+ miles to the gallon, we like them as well’. Functionality of the EVM models is essential. He explains the ‘EVM low floor Cityline is unique. Other manufacturers, while having similar offerings, haven’t got the same arrangements or customer service”. It’s practical for their work and perfect for assisting wheel chair users.
To keep her going Jas explains ‘I love my job and the benefits it has on others’ which she enjoys. Whilst working behind the scene ‘the drivers are brilliant and keep the business running whilst giving back to the community. They have incorporated many of their former Taxi services into DaRT routes. They are a mix of scheduled and demand led, which has helped to be more flexible. For people that struggle to get out, they can ring the office directly to know how many people are on the bus. Jas explains it reassures customers and helps build their confidence in travelling again. That human interaction is still hugely important for them and their customers. Jas explains her to go quote is ‘treat others how you would like to be treated’.
When COVID started to bite, food was being wasted because restaurants had to close. Within the first day of lockdown, Jason, normally in charge of bookings, diverted these supplies to local care homes and vulnerable customers, while other spare vehicles were placed under NHS control, covering the whole of Essex for pharmacy deliveries.
The “beauty of these buses is size and the flexibility to adapt to circumstances”. Discussing with Andy he tells me as a company they are a “cross between community transport, taxi and conventional bus company. We’re not your average bus company – we will always put the customer first by doing small things to help someone”. An example was helping an elderly lady put her bins out. Little tasks that make a difference encourages Arrow Taxis to stand out and build customers confidence.
We all jokingly laughed about what they’ve learnt in their career so far and with life challenging everyone with a range of dilemmas right now. Jas – to be more confident in her ideas and Andy – to stick at something and go with your heart whatever you choose to do. Both very valuable points.
EVM was known to Arrows Taxis via another operator who was demonstrating the Cityline. This led them to trial the Cityline themselves and were introduced to Peter Flynn, Sales & Marketing manager who ‘was really helpful in the process’. Within a few weeks, they ordered two and haven’t looked back since.
Andy explains ‘it’s a good bus for that capacity, I don’t think you can better it’ and goes on to tell me the quality of it in such a growing market is impressive. The passenger volume recovery is unknown and unpredictable and everyone in the industry won’t get the same numbers as before. Commercial routes will begin to look at how efficient they are to operate larger vehicles and a lot may go into DRT or into small operations. Peaks were lost completely and now a lot of people will lose commuters because people are more likely to work remotely. It’s worked for a year so why would it change considering the potential overhead savings. ‘Shopping trips were big market for us, but there is also a lot of competition right now’, Amazon are delivering 200 parcels per day per van and that’s tough to compete with when everyone is ordering literally everything online.
Looking forward to the future, Andy tells me they have several DRT services in the pipeline that they are working on in conjunction with Essex and other County Councils, with the concept to reach more rural areas but is dependent on funding. They are also trialling a booking app which they hope to launch very soon once they tee up everything which they hope will improve accessibility for their customers.
So how did they get to where they are today? Andy – Had a few jobs when he was younger, ranging from the USAF in the 1960s, Bus Company traffic clerk in the 60’s, a brief spell with British Rail, Deep Sea trawlers, Writer and Editor, and various work in the transport industry among other things. Whereas Jas took an Apprenticeship from school joining Arrow Taxis, and has been there ever since. Starting the day of with a cup of tea, they work overlapping shifts but come together throughout the day to discuss the day to day running of the business.
Away from work, Jas enjoys reading crime thriller books, while Andy is a Model Railroader, and a member of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) which in April 2020, started NMRAx, which kicked off with a 24 hour non-stop Facebook live stream and has since then done numerous streams. It’s now had over 1 million hits and can be accessed via various social media platforms, and Andy plays a small part in this.
When I asked them both who inspires them, Jas was quick to answer. For her it was Andy. She’s always looked up to him and he’s taught her a lot along the way and for that she is forever grateful. For Andy, it was Dave Abeles, someone he had only ever met virtually, who is another Model Railroader and a senior manager in his daytime job with New Jersey Transport.
It’s been a delight talking with both Andy and Jas and we look forward to working with them in the near future.
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