A taxi office near Brighton Station is set to close after more than 60 years as more customers have switched to using their smartphones to book cabs instead.
Southern Taxis has had the office in Queen’s Road since 1963 but will be closing its doors for the last time next month.
Owner Andrew Cheesman said that it was looking to relocate to a smaller office because 90 per cent of its staff now worked from home.
He said that the office rarely had walk-ins anymore – and problems parking in Queen’s Road were the “final nail in the coffin”.
Mr Cheesman said: “It’s been a taxi office since the early 1960s. We have been here 25 years but with changes in the systems that we all use now, and covid really pushing work from home, the time has come to close.
“Most of our operators work from home. People don’t work in offices any more.
“We’ve all got apps and Uber’s made a big difference to the taxi industry – it showed that people wanted an app on their phone. We have got an app which works in a very similar way now.
“It’s a four-storey office. We used to have 10 people but not we only have three to five. We really don’t need the space.
“Parking around the station has got so bad that we can’t get to our own office to pick up our customers any more. It’s got very difficult.
“The final nail in the coffin was the parking. We are going to use smaller offices out of town.
“Twenty-five years ago, we would have 100 people walking in the office a day – they would walk down from the railway station. Now we get about five.
“People will phone you on demand or app you. The thought of having to walk into an office nowadays!
“Uber is still growing and bringing in cars from out of area. But we are not going anywhere. We are increasing in terms of size.
“A lot of people use our app now to get from A to B. And a lot of people still like a traditional phone call.”
Southern still has offices at Brighton Marina and in Longridge Avenue, Saltdean, and is about to open a new office in Warren Road, Woodingdean. It’s also looking for an office in Hove.
The owner of the Queen’s Road freehold, DSC Properties, has applied to turn the first and second floors of the building into a maisonette and the basement and ground floor into commercial space.
It kinda died when the counter was closed years ago. All that is in there is an intercom. We all have phones now. I think the real reason is cost of premises, as modern technology means taxi despatching can be done from anywhere now.
Why pay rent and business rates when your staff can be working from a bedroom anywhere in the world?
I absolutely agree with you Chris, I can’t think I’ve ever been into a taxi office. I had forgotten they were even a thing! It makes perfect sense why you wouldn’t maintain an office when decentralised home working is perfectly viable these days.
Even having homeworkers is an undesirable business practice. Uber has shown that people can be completely and effectively removed from the booking process. Until traditional taxi firms follow suit, they will continue to be at a disadvantage and will slowly but surely lose further market share in their business model doesn’t adapt.
Indeed. The only problem with Uber is how it is unregulated, and that puts taxi drivers at a disadvantage. The same argument I use comparing AirBnB and hotels.
Well, it isn’t actually dying, is it. They have 2 other offices and are opening a new one in Woodingdean, so all this is about is the physical office, which nobody uses, and is in area where parking isn’t permitted.
This is all a bit parochial, tbh.
More spin from the Spin Master. Nothing to do with the lease running out and the freeholder not wanting to renew the lease due to redevelopment plans and also selling out to another company then?