History

Premier Cars was originally established in the late 1960's and the office was located on Kingsland passage, E8. There were 4 or 5 drivers and jobs were received by phone, written down, then either verbally told to a driver once he entered the base or given to him on a slip of paper. In those days, there were no rules, licences or guidelines for becoming a mini cab driver, as there are today. Almost anyone who had a car could become a driver, although it would be down to the individual proprietors to try to make sure that the drivers were suitable to work and that their vehicles were roadworthy and that they had insurance and MOTs (although more often than not this didn't happen). The office moved to several locations over the years. In 1978 they moved to Balls Pond Road, N1. There were between 25 and 30 drivers at this stage. Minimum fare was 1.20 pound, which covered you for up to 2 miles. Then it was 50p per mile thereafter.

CIn 1981 they moved to Stoke Newington High Street, N16 and in 1982 moved across the road to Farleigh Road, N16. By this time the amount of drivers had dropped to between 10 and 20. In 1982 they started using hand held radios to communicate with drivers, although there were more drivers than radios. In 1984 they moved to our current site, 95 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16 in a room at the rear of the building. It was your typical back street mini cab office.

In 1995 the company was bought by the present owners, and they inherited 12 drivers and a very basic radio system. The company was called Defoe Cars, as a homage to the famous writer Daniel Defoe who once resided in the building. Immediate changes were put in place to re vamp the business. The idea (radical at the time) was to change the image of the "mini cab office". Some members of staff were made redundant and drivers were told to smarten themselves and their vehicles. They acquired new phone numbers, printed new business cards and widely distributed them. They very quickly went from doing 50 jobs a day to 100, and then the increase continued to 120, then 150, then 200 jobs a day etc.

At this stage it became almost impossible to handle 300 jobs using a manual pen and paper system with no radios. They invested £10,000 in the latest radio technology. being able to communicate with every driver helped immensley. They were computerised in 1998, but were still verbally dispatching jobs to drivers via the radio. In 1999 they moved to into the front and basement of the building, due to the rapid growth of the company the need to expand was great. By this point they had 60 drivers. The building was refurbished, and as word of mouth spread, so they got busier and busier. It was quite a novelty to find a mini cab office that had a newly refurbished premises and were computerised. In 1999 they invested heavily in the latest data dispatch technology which meant being 100% computerised for the first time, plus with the ability to dispatch jobs to the drivers via the Data Dispatch Units that were fitted in every vehicle. New radios were acquired with a much wider range, so communication was easier. Jobs increased to 400 or 500 a day. Faith in the company was growing. In the same year they acquired the trading name Premier Cars and the company officially changed their name to Premier Cars and Couriers.

As more and more enquiries were made for deliveries, it was decided that they would invest in a few motorcylces. They became an airport transfer company also, and called this part of the company Premier Airport Cars. By this time, driver numbers had increased to 80 and they were doing up to 150 airport transfers a day. They decided to retain the name Defoe, and have these various trading names for different parts of the company under the umbrella Defoe Group.

What does the future hold for Premier Cars? We have invested in the latest taxi dispatch system, which will greatly improve customer service and make the process of booking a car a pleasant and easy one. We will be able to provide our customers with the most accurate pricing structure to date and customers will even be able to book a car online immediately. We hope to offer a much better service for years to come and hope to keep on improving.

Premier Cars is currently undergoing a driver training scheme, which is compulsory. Every driver, once qualified will receive an NVQ level 2 in Road Passenger Vehicle Training. By the end of the summer 2010, all of Premier Cars's 120 drivers will have completed this training course.

Premier Cars's 15 members of staff will also undergo training for the NVQ level 2 in Road Passenger Transport Operations, plus Team Leading.

Every future employee and driver will need to undetake these courses to be employable at Premier Cars.