London's Cabs Head Overseas

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday November 26, 2005

BRENT DAVISON

THOSE of you who thought Middle Eastern roads were chockful of Holdens wearing Chevrolet badges should think again.

LTI Vehicles, maker of the ubiquitous London cab, is getting ready to open up new markets in the Middle East and has two vehicles on the way to Kuwait for evaluation purposes.

Naturally, the Coventry-built cabs have been given a bit of an upspec to make sure they can handle the minor changes in climate between downtown London and Kuwait and cope with the less-than-perfect road surfaces in some city areas. And the plastic "taxi" sign atop the roof has been made of a different material to stop it melting.

Marketing Management Group, the company taking the two evaluation cabs to the Middle East, has been working with LTI for the past year in the hope it can change the face of the Arabic taxi industry.

To do that it also needs to change the basics of the industry's management.

Regulations dictate that taxis and similar commercial vehicles must be disposed of after just three years' use. Which means Marketing Management Group has to convince the authorities that the black cab has been designed and built to last a lot longer than that.

Marketing Management Group plans to trial the cabs for about six months and, if all goes well, plans to open up the taxi industry in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

So just what is the Arabic translation for "wotcha, guv?" anyway?