Addison Lee

Addison Lee is a London-based private hire company.

John Griffin

Co-founder John Griffin was born in Ireland to a civil engineering contractor father. He was raised in Kilburn from 9 years old attending Finchley Catholic High School. However he left school with no qualifications after contracting tuberculosis from drinking the milk of a cow he had milked on a school visit to a farm.^[1]

While training as an accountant, his father's road and sewer building business got into financial difficulty. Griffin left accountancy training to help salvage the business with some success.^[2] During this period, and wanting a flexible job to create extra income, Griffin started working as a minicab driver which turned into a full-time job.

Foundations

Griffin eventually decided to move on from driving minicabs, deciding he could do a better job of running a minicab business. Together with another driver, he set about starting a company which today is known as West One Cars. However, Griffin was convinced to stay on with his original employer after his salary was quadruppled and only later decided to form his own company.^[1]

Convinced that his new company needed a name which started with an "A" for it early in telephone directory listings, a colleague who lived in Addison Gardens said people seemed to think this was a very posh address, which Griffin supplemented with Lee. Addison Lee was founded in 1975, with half the company owned by investor Lenny Foster.^[2]

In 1976, Griffin founded the Private Hire Car Association in response to the Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1976. As chairman of the association, Griffin was vocal in the debate that led to the licensing of private hire operators in the UK.^[2]

Operations

The company operates a fleet of 3,500 vehicles with over 2,200 drivers and an annual revenues of £180m.^[1] As well as being a private hire operator, Addison Lee also operates a private coach company with a fleet of 100 coaches of various sizes.^[1] The company carries out over 20,000 jobs every day.^[3]

Addison Lee has achieve both the ISO 9002 and the Investors in People accreditation.^[3]

Griffin remains the chairman of the company, with both of his sons joining him on the board. Lenny Foster died in 1992, but his son Daryl Foster is chief executive.^[2]

Technology

Addison Lee relies heavily on information technology to automate and streamline the process of managing the large number of drivers and jobs, through the use of driver PDAs, GPS tracking and text messaging. The company annually spends £2m on IT, employing 24 programmers, 16 of whom are based in Russia at the offices of Addison Lee's software partner, Haulmont Technology.

Addison Lee's use of technology has played an important part in reducing emissions and led to several awards, including Best Large Private Sector Fleet in Energy Saving Trust Fleet Hero Awards 2011^[4]. Addison Lee is a member of Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s “Green500” initiative^[5].

Addison Lee's software has also been applied to other industries by the company's software partner, Haulmont Technology. The first client announced was JBW, a bailiff company.^[6]

Controversy

In April 2012, Addison Lee's chairman John Griffin instructed all its drivers to begin using bus lanes, against the will of Transport for London. Griff argued that allowing only licensed black taxis to use the lanes was "unfair discrimination". Griffin also secured a judicial review against Hackney Carriage legislation saying it was archaic.

John Griffin said the firm would "indemnify any fines or payments" that the firm's drivers would incur. Transport for London's surface transport director Leon Daniels responded: "The letter from the management of Addison Lee is utterly irresponsible."^[7]

In the April 2012 edition of Addison Lee's corporate magazine Add Lib, John Griffin used his editorial piece to voice his opinion that collisions with cyclists were unavoidable, and not the fault of his drivers. He concluded: “It is time for us to say to cyclists, ‘You want to join our gang, get trained and pay up’.”^[8] This has caused a reaction from London's cycling community, including the London Cycling Campaign, CTC, Levenes Cycle and the London Fixed-Gear and Single-Speed forum, who have started taking action boycotting Addison Lee cabs by leaving negative reviews on the company's iPhone app, organizing protests, and calling for people to lobby their companies to stop their Addison Lee accounts.^[9][10]

Dr. Belinda Webb started a an e-petition with HM Government to have Addison Lee's license withdrawn^[11] This has caused a reaction from London's cycling community, including the London Cycling Campaign.

On 26 April 2012 the Chief Procurement Officer confirmed that the UK Government contract with Addison Lee would be terminated at the end of April 2012. ^[12]

References

External links

• Company website