Premier Airport Cars, London

Company Profile
Name	Premier Airport Cars
Address	95 Church Street, Stoke Newington, London N16 0AR
Telephone	0207 249 9999
Website	www.premierairportcars.com
About	Premier Airport Cars specialise in transfer services from and to Heathrow Airport, Gatwick Airport, London City Airport, Stansted Airport and Luton Airport. They also cover all the main cruise ports such as Dover, Southampton and Harwich.

Emphasis on Youth, Innovation and Quality

For this edition we introduce readers to a London- based firm that has an unusually young management profile. Premier Airport Cars has been operating from its Stoke Newington base since 1995; it was first owned by Steve Mclean, and then, due to his ill health, it was taken over by his daughter Deniz Oner in 2005 when she was 23. So Deniz might well be the UK’s youngest female private hire company proprietor. However, Steve is still very much involved in the business; he and Deniz’s husband Saim are in charge of recruitment, whilst Deniz’s younger brother and her uncle also work in the office - so it’s a real family firm. This business has developed in leaps and bounds since its inception; today their fleet numbers 100 and covers not only airport transfers but any kind of journey. Their call centre is on the go 24/7/365, and deals with around 10,000 bookings per week at their busiest periods, from all over London - and of course their airport transfers can be from anywhere. Again, Premier’s office staff are quite young - about 95 per cent of the staff are in their twenties - with a high proportion of female staff, which is not normally seen in a minicab office! Including Deniz there are six women who work in the office. The nature of the business is a mixture of account and credit, and they are expecting a huge increase in account work this year due to their international salesperson who is working very hard for the firm.

"With previous systems in the past we could only take on experienced people, who can be hard to find. With Cordic’s ease of operation and solid support, our entire work flow from job booking to invoicing is far more efficient"

Ease of Operation

Now then, you guessed it: enter the I.T. behind the success of this growing firm. In the case of Premier Airport Cars it is the Cordic cPAQ computerised booking and despatch system, complete with the full array of equipment including in- car data units and voice guided navigation, GPS vehicle location, on- line direct job booking and wireless job booking, efficient invoice and account charging system, the whole works.

As Deniz Oner points out, “Cordic has helped us to take on people who have never done this kind of job before, as the system is so easy to learn and operate. Drivers appreciate its ease of use in the cars as well, with the minimum of training."

“With previous systems in the past we could only take on experienced people, who can be hard to find. With Cordic’s ease of operation and solid support, our entire work flow from job booking to invoicing is far more efficient.”
No doubt cPAQ ticks another box for this company, and that is its high standards.

As Deniz tells us: “We are a family business as you know, with a great team. The control team is amazing; they all undergo an extra training course based on telephone skills, and we believe it pays off and we have the best call centre in the area. Our staff are polite, friendly and knowledgeable and we believe it is making us stand out.
“Our drivers - who are all owner/drivers - are asked to work to our strict guidelines to keep the standards high. We also offer incentives for the drivers such as “Driver of the Week”, where we reward drivers for the most positive feedbacks received...we collect customer feedback daily and it helps us to focus on areas that are weak, and to know where we are going right.

“It’s those little extras the customers appreciate; for example, we offer a range of babyseats and booster seats, which is unusual as many other offices do not do this. We also have an executive lounge available for our customers. Another feature we have just introduced is the airport representative, which we hope to have at all UK airports one day.”

Approval

No need to worry about this company’s relationship with TfL’s London Taxi and Private Hire licensing department: Airport Premier Cars has been appointed as one of their topographical skills testing centres. As it happens the company is currently updating their website with even more detailed information, which is going it some
- as the existing website contains more info than that of a good many PHV companies we’ve seen. One very helpful page shows not only the range of vehicles available to hire, but also explains to potential customers the seating capacity, and even arrangement, of each type of vehicle. That may sound like a very basic element, but it is really helpful when customers can pre- book the vehicle that suits their needs, and avoid the disappointment of a vehicle turning up that doesn’t fit the bill.

There is also a very detailed FAQ page that is second to none. This is the kind of attention to detail that has made Airport Premier Cars a popular choice for customers and drivers alike.

Matched with Deniz Oner and her staff’s enthusiasm and hard graft, the company has great plans for the future - and there’s no doubt whatsoever that it will achieve them.

 

Profile from Private Hire & Taxi Monthly, April 2011 www.phtm.co.uk

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