Value Cars Taxis

What a great couple of months The Value Cars Group has won yet another great award. Go Skills at the Go For Excellence Awards awarded The Value Cars Group Winner of the Small Company of the Year Award for Excellence recognising contribution to training and development. This government organisation was set up to up skill the passenger transport sector which includes aviation through to Taxi and Private hire so competition was very strong. The awards were held at Wembley Stadium and Gordon Brown sent a letter to M.D Adrian Sainsbury congratulating him on the company’s success.

The Christmas period has also been great and lots of our great customers have sent in cards presents and good wishes which have been gratefully received by all the team. We are very fortunate at Value Cars to have such great customers.

Group Managing Director Adrian Sainsbury has been instrumental in instigating a major event for Salisbury and the surrounding areas in the New Year. It’s called “Its On in The Field” and is going to be Business, Sport and Music Event showcasing Salisbury Greatness. The Event is going to raise funds for the Stars Appeal so a New Children’s Wing can be built at Salisbury District Hospital. The Event will be held on the 30th May so if you wish to showcase let us know or register on line at our Website, Salisbury-valuecars.co.uk.

Our training division has also recieved the Matrix standard which is the unique quality framework for the effective delivery of information, advice and/or guidance on learning and work. The matrix Standard is useful for organisations that deliver information, advice and/or guidance to external clients as part of their business and also for employers who are committed to developing their people.

Let’s not forget as well our Eat out for less and Discount Club which is going great guns now with over sixty members this should now start to collect momentum as our second liveried Taxi is out there and the third is being done shortly. New business cards have been ordered which gives the concept clarity but simply show any members one of our business cards and you will receive the discount they offer. A list of all participating businesses is available via our website.

Value Cars group are also preparing our entry for the 2010 Chamber of commerce Business Excellence awards. We have entered in the Customer service catogory. The awards are to take place in February.We have also been nominated for the Spire Fm Customer Service awards so hopefully the New Year will start as the old one has ended. Merry Christmas to you all and Happy New Year from all at the Value Cars Group.

That’s all for this month!

Speak to you next month.

Adrian and the Team
Value Cars Group Ltd

01722 50 50 50

Welcome to The Value Cars Groups’6th newsletter. All of the news from our newsletters also appear on our website and we often include accompanying pictures, so if you would prefer to read the newsletter there, please click here – www.salisbury-valuecars.co.uk/newsletters.htm

Value Cars FC!

We told in a previous newsletter that we were taking over a local football team that one of our drivers, Andy Gillies has run for 20 years. Well, Value Cars FC has started its season and won it’s first league game against Devizes Inn on Saturday 5th September, 4-3. You can follow our progress at the following web address - http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/valuecarsfc/. We hope you will follow us and lend us your support!

Sponsored Golf

Value Cars sponsored a golf day at the South Wilts Golf Club in August. A great day was had by all – there is a picture of our team on the website. Click here to see it!

Our Blog!

We have updated our blog with full details of the Discount Club, so you can either click here to read all about it on the blog or click here to read about it on the website. We plan to have the minibus out on the roads of Salisbury soon with all of the logos of participating places all over it – so you wont be able to miss it!

Awards

After our stunning success in the South Wiltshire Business of the Year awards – where we were awarded Winner of Winners – a once every ten years award! We have decided to enter the GOSKILLS Go for Excellence award and hope to gain some recognition for the training centre that has gone from strength to strength over the past year. We will keep you posted on our progress.

Savings!

Don't pay more than you have to, remember Value Cars are the only taxi company in Salisbury charge the same rate Sunday to Thursday, 24 hours a day. Also we don’t charge for extras, like extra people and using the boot of the car! We are not just Value by name!

Plus…

We have just invested in two beautiful silver Jaguars for the executive and business traveller, that are also well suited for weddings or corporate days.

For a quote or to make a booking please contact our dedicated booking team who will be happy to help 24 hours a day. Call 01722 50 50 50 or book on-line using our fabulous website. Online taxi booking available at www.salisbury-valuecars.co.uk

That’s all for this month!

Speak to you next month.

Adrian and the Team
Value Cars Group Ltd

01722 50 50 50

Welcome to Issue 5 of the Value Cars Group Newsletter. All of the news from our newsletters also appear on our website and we often include accompanying pictures, so if you would prefer to read the newsletter there, please click here

Winner of Winners 2009!

Our most exciting piece of news is that we were awarded the prestigious Winner of Winners Awards in the recent South Wiltshire Business of the Year awards. This was the pinnacle of the evening and is only awarded every 10 years. The winner is chosen from all of the previous years’ winners and is the company who demonstrates the best level of growth, development and community spirit. Value Cars fulfilled all of these requirements and was highly praised by the Business of the Year awards head judge and host – Ceri Jones. We are absolutely delighted by this accolade and would like to thank our brilliant team for helping to make this possible – we would also like to thank our customers for their continued support and for keeping us on our toes!

Eat out for Less!

Our community discount club is going from strength to strength. We now have nearly 20 companies signed up offering some amazing discounts. This month we have signed up the Milford Hall Hotel and its restaurant the Salisbury Steak and Seafood Restaurant, who are offering a terrific 15% off the food bill and off the accommodation rate. Another one we are very proud of is the Lamb at Hindon, a beautiful restaurant – perfect for treating yourself and your loved ones, who are offering a whopping 25% off food Monday-Thursday both for lunch and dinner. To see the full list of participants, please click here.

Remember all you need to participate in these offers is a Value Cars Business Card which you can get from your driver.

Keep your eyes peeled for a Value Cars cab with all of the companies making offers displayed on, coming soon!

Training Centre getting stronger!

The Value Cars Group takes its role in training other taxi companies in the South very seriously and is delighted to have been officially recognised by the Learning Skills Council, the awarding body for the qualifications. Value Cars have retained their direct claim status for this qualification and have also been awarded top 8 status by one of our partners – Swindon College. This is a great reflection of the hard work that the team put into running the training centre. For more info, please click here.

Facebook Group

We have a group on Facebook with over 150 members. If you would like to sign up and receive advance warning of special offers and keep up with our news between newsletters, please sign up at Value Cars (50 50 50). Alternatively, email us and we will invite you to join. There are some great pictures of us winning our award on there!

Trade Fairs!

We have been busy exhibiting at local business trade fairs over the past couple of months. Most recently, the FSB Trade Fair held at the Guildhall in Salisbury. The weather was glorious and the event was a roaring success with hundreds of people visiting – both businesses and local people. We had a great time and met loads of our customers on the day! Just before that we exhibited at the Best of Salisbury trade fair which was also good but we weren’t blessed with fabulous weather!

New Executive Cars

Value Cars likes to keep on investing in the business so we can grow and offer our customers more and more service that they demand. This month we have increased our fleet of executive cars. These cars are high end models with full leather interior and a very high specification. For more information on our executive fleet, please click here.

Annual Barbeque

We held our annual company barbeque at the Cedars Golf Centre on the Wilton Road recently. We all played cricket and then was rewarded with a yummy barbeque and a few drinks! It was a huge success and greatly enjoyed by all who attended. We have some pictures that will be going in our website gallery. To have a look click here.

That’s all for this month – keep your eyes peeled for our adverts that have been placed in loads of local press recently and don’t forget us if you need a taxi to take you to the air and seaports for your summer holiday. We have vehicles with 4-8 seats and offer a reasonably priced, high quality service.

We look forward to seeing you then!

Cheers

Adrian and the Team
Value Cars Group Ltd

01722 50 50 50

Welcome to our 4th newsletter. It has been an exciting time here at Value Cars and we have some great news for you! Including the fact we are one of the sponsors for the FSB Trade Fair at the Guildhall on 23rd June. All of the news from our newsletters also appears on our website and we often include accompanying pictures, so if you would prefer to read the newsletter there, please click here – www.salisbury-valuecars.co.uk/newsletters.htm

Eat out for Less!

The most exciting piece of news we have is that our discount club is starting to take shape. We have approached lots of Salisbury and surrounding area based restaurants, pubs, bars and hotels to ask them to provide our customers with an exclusive discount and they have been snapping it up! All you need is a Value Cars business card, available from our drivers and from the office in Salisbury and you can take advantage of these fabulous offers. Visit our website to see the ones that we have signed up so far – there are lots more to come, so check the site regularly for updates. If you own a bar or restaurant and would like to be involved, please call Amanda on 07841 024240 and she will discuss the details with you!

Salisbury Rugby Club

As you know, Value Cars are very community minded and we are already involved with Salisbury City Football Club (more about them further on). Recently we have met with Salisbury Rugby Club and have agreed a sponsorship programme, which includes advertising on the pitch and in the programmes as well as being the chosen taxi provider for the club, with signs with our telephone number on by all of the exits and payphones in the clubhouse. Help us support your local rugby team by attending their home games and cheering them on!

Footie!

Not only do we support SCFC, we also play a bit of footie ourselves. We had a match at the end of April with Dunlop Hiflex at Bishopdown. It was a friendly affair and the score was 10-5 to them! We’ll let you know when the next one is, so if you want to come and cheers us on, you would be more than welcome!

Yet more footie!

Keep a look out for our specially wrapped car that has Salisbury City Football Club all over it. We are avid supporters of the club and want to see them do well. The ticket line number is on the car, so if you see it, book you and your family tickets to go and see the next home game – its very good value!

Expo-mania!

We attended the Best of Salisbury exhibition in April along with many other Salisbury based businesses. It's great to see so many great companies all in one town.

We are proud sponsors of the FSB Trade Fair – Keeping Trade Local on 23rd June at the Guildhall. Come and see us there and collect a freebie giveaway!

We were also at the Taxi Driver and Private Hire National Exhibition at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry at the end of May. This is where all the major players in the taxi world meet once a year to share best practice and find out what’s new in the industry.

Feedback is king!

We have produced our own bespoke feedback card, so our customers can tell us how we performed and whether there is any area we can improve on. Keep your eyes out for them appearing in the cars very soon!

And finally…

Our Training Manager and our Marketing Manager, otherwise known as Amanda Bryant and Tony Quinn from Banshee Events tied the knot in Italy at the end of April. All of us at Value Cars would like to wish them a happy future together!

That’s all for this month. As ever we would love to hear your feedback on our newsletter and on our service.

Adrian and the Team
Value Cars Group Ltd

01722 50 50 50

April 2009

Welcome to Issue 3 of the Value Cars Group Newsletter. We are delighted with the response that we have received from you and look forward to more comments from you about this and our blog – www.valuecars.wordpress.com All of the news from our newsletters also appear on our website and we often include accompanying pictures, so if you would prefer to read the newsletter there, please click here – www.salisbury-valuecars.co.uk/newsletters.htm

This months news includes some great offers, our 10 year awards, the growth of our training centre and our new facebook group! So, read on!

Eat out for Less

Value Cars are working closely with Spire FM to bring you some recession proof offers! The latest of these to go live is our page on the Spire FM website called Eat out for Less with Value Cars. On there, we have brought you discounts at many pubs and restaurants on production of the on-screen voucher and a Value Cars business card. All of our drivers carry the business cards and we have some in the office, so pick one up next tome you see us and take advantage of some great offers! Click here to have a look!

Discounted Fares

Value Cars are offering a £1 discount on any fare from the rear of Tesco's in the centre of Salisbury. Just give us call on the normal number – 01722 505050 and we’ll pick you and your groceries up and take you home for a £1 less than normal!

It’s getting bigger!

Our Value Cars Training Centre is growing. We have just taken on 5 new assessors to help us with the large numbers of trainees we are now looking after across the South and South West. Tony Quinn is doing a great job as Training Manager and has helped to streamline the processes so we can make the best use of our time with our trainees and help them achieve great results. Our trainees are working towards BTEC and NVQ level 2 exams in Road Passenger Vehicle Driving and will be able to work with hospitals, airports and government organisations as a result – this qualification is becoming mandatory in some areas and our trainees are getting themselves ahead of the game! If you would like to learn more, please look at our website www.valuecarstraining.co.uk or contact our training centre on 01722 333333.

Our Stars!

Salisbury and District Value cars (505050) celebrate four Driver/staff completing 10 years service. Alasdair Crosbie, Dominic Perry, Edward Lowe and Mike Smith. They each received a bottle of champagne at the Value Cars Group Offices on Tuesday 3rd of March.

Non-Executive Director, George Trystman, says "Adrian and his management team work hard to create a working environment and culture that our people will enjoy and prosper in. It's a great pleasure to recognise and reward people who have been with the company 10 years or more - we must being doing something right!"

Group managing Director, Adrian Sainsbury says "The Value Cars Group continues to go from strength to strength and is looking forward to rewarding more staff and drivers over the coming months and years. All our drivers and staff have recently completed a performance review, in keeping with our Investor in People status, and the outcomes have been very useful".

Annual Golf Day

Value Cars runs frequent staff and customer events and our next one is the ever popular Annual Golf Day. It will be Wednesday 29th April, and will be held at Rushmore Golf club with approximately 16 people attending. Photos will be on the website and blog afterwards!

Facebook Group

For those of you who are familiar with Facebook, you will be delighted to know that Value Cars now has a group called Value Cars (505050). So please, sign up and get exclusive news and offers that we bring through the Facebook group. You may also bump into to someone you know on there!

New Vehicle Livery

Keep your eyes peeled for our new Salisbury City Football Club livery on some of our vehicles! We should all support our local team and Value Cars takes footie very seriously! Tickets for home games are available from the Salisbury City Football Club box office and are great value – it makes a terrific family day out and you will be supporting your local team. Follow the Whites!

That’s all for this month, as ever we value your comments and will be back in touch in May!

Adrian and the Team
Value Cars Group Ltd

01722 50 50 50

March 2009

Welcome to our second newsletter! In this issue, we introduce our blog and the taxi driver stories in it; our brand new discount scheme; update you on our training activity and plenty more!

A day in the life of a taxi driver!

We have been collecting stories from our drivers and office staff to put in the blog so you can see what it is to be a taxi driver! Some of them are inspirational, like Guerich’s where he saved an elderly gentleman’s life and some are a bit scary, like Scott and Richard’s, where they had to call ambulances for their passengers because they were so drunk! We’d love to hear your thoughts on the blog – click here to go straight to the blog and leave us a comment!

Go Out for Less with Value Cars!

We are very community minded here at Value Cars; we sponsor the Salisbury City Football Club (see the back cover of the new Thompson Local) and often run charity events. In this spirit, we are starting a local discount scheme – the idea being that if people get a taxi to the venue they can use a Value Cars Business Card to gain an exclusive discount or extra service.

The Boot at Berwick St James is offering a set price meal exclusively to Value Cars customers. We are launching this on the Spire FM website – find us under the flashing banner “Eat out for less with Value Cars” on the home page. Spire FM ask that you print off a voucher and present that along, with a Value Cars business card to the Boot when you arrive.

We have had loads of interest in our scheme and plan to create offers with hotels, restaurants, bars, pubs, bed and breakfasts – in fact, anyone who would like to get involved.

If you would like to offer discounts to customers via the discount scheme, email us and we’ll happily add you and your offer to the list!

Industry Training

We have had a very busy couple of months, signing up new candidates from taxi companies across Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire who want to get a BTEC and NVQ qualification that is industry recognised and funded by the government. Value Cars is working towards direct funding status with the LSC to ensure the process is as seamless as possible. Our unique benefit is that we can come to the drivers place of work to run the training and exams rather than them go to college, so it is much more convenient. So far, we have enrolled over 250 people, many of whom have finished their qualifications already. This is something we are very proud of and are delighted to be part of the improvement of the standards of the taxi and private hire industry.

New online presence!

We are working on a splendid new website – which we will email you a link to as soon as it is live. We have signed up with Spire FM website, who are supporting our ‘eat out for less’ scheme, as mentioned above, and also with the Best of Salisbury website. Both have unique offers, only available to you if you visit the sites and get the information from there. We like to keep trade local – so please support your local facilities!

The next newsletter will be out in April and we will email you a short message as soon as the new website is live so you can have a look and let us have your comments.

If you think anyone you know would like to be part of the distribution list for the newsletter, please pass this email on and ask them to contact us to be added to the list.

Until next time,

Adrian and the Team
Value Cars Group Ltd

01722 50 50 50

January 2009

Welcome to our first newsletter. The plan is to introduce you to all the services we provide in addition to our fabulous taxis. For any of our services just call us on 01722 50 50 50.

Our Blog

Firstly, let us introduce you to our blog click here to visit it – we would love your comments! The first entry is just an introduction to who we are and what we do and what the plan is for the blog. It will be updated monthly with stories from the world of the Value Cars Group.

Value Cars Training Centre

We train hundreds of taxi drivers across the South to gain the level of excellence that we have. We received direct funding from the Learning Skills Council to provide BTEC’s and NVQ’s in Passenger Transport. Increasingly, taxi companies have to have this level of qualification for their drivers in order to take children to school, or enter hospitals and airports. At the moment, these qualifications are largely taken on a voluntary basis but like Bournemouth, each area will eventually make this a mandatory requirement to be a taxi driver. What this means is that we can all expect a professional, safe service from our taxi service – something you are already guaranteed with Value Cars!

Value Airport Transfers

Feel like getting away from all the doom and gloom? Let us get you to your air or sea port with no fuss and no hefty parking charges. Plus none of the inconvenience of getting on a bus from the car park to the departure lounge, with all your luggage and your family. You can pre-book both journeys and we can carry up to 8 passengers in one vehicle – ideal for those group skiing holidays. Click here to book your transfer now!

Bottle Shop!

Do you know that we can deliver wine, beer, spirits and mixers to your home address at a moments notice? If you are having a party or don’t feel like going out into the cold winter weather, Value Cars are there to save the day! Just give us a call and we will deliver anything you need for the price of the items plus the taxi fare – no inflated prices – you pay what we do!

Investors in People

We are very proud of the fact that we have recently renewed our status as Investors in People. We had some great comments from the assessor including,

“There is evidently pride and passion for the industry demonstrated by all staff and especially from the MD who drives the high level of professionalism through the organisation.”

“The wearing of uniforms and ensuring cars are very clean and tidy is also seen as a method for establishing an identity setting the organisation apart from the competitors.”

“Everyone interviewed explained that the customer relationship is crucial to the success of the business.”

Our own staff made some great comments to – that make us very proud.

“I think it is fantastic here, really welcoming and professional.”

“Our job is to make the customer feel important.”

“I love it here, I have got to know the customers well, we all work as a team.”

“We want to be the best taxi company in the area – and I think we are.”

Offers

We are working with the Chapel nightclub to being you a fabulous offer. If you pre-book your return taxi journey from anywhere in the surrounding area, we will offer you the best price on up to 8 passengers. An example would be £40 return to Amesbury; this equates to £10 per person for 4 people and £5 per person for 8 people – and that is return! In conjunction with this offer, The Chapel are offering free entry on a Thursday night, entry for £4 on a Friday night before 11.30pm, £6 entry on Saturday night before 11.30pm, FREE entry all night on Christmas Eve and a free drink voucher on New Years Eve – all of these offer require presentation of a Value Taxi Voucher. Call us on 01722 50 50 50 to book your night out and claim your voucher now!

We also have great taxi rates for New Years Eve – contact us to get a quote for your night of the year! 01722 50 50 50.

And finally...

We plan to send our newsletter monthly, keeping you up to date with offers and news from our organisation. If you think anyone you know would like to receive these, please forward on this email covering in the sender and we will ensure that they are added on to future mailing lists.

Best regards

Adrian and the Team
Value Cars Group Ltd

01722 50 50 50