After a challenging couple of years in the Taxi market, we’re starting to see positive changes in demand in 2023.
At the middle of 2022, we welcomed Liam Holland, a graduate from the ERS Underwriting Academy into our Passenger Carrying Vehicles team. This is now a great opportunity to reintroduce the team and share our thoughts on the vehicle trends this year.
Let’s introduce our Passenger Carrying Vehicles team
Darren Shulver: Senior Underwriter with a wealth of experience, particularly in the Taxi market
Sam Beamish: London based Underwriter with ERS for 6 years. Our subject matter expert for London PCO and Executive Hire
Morgan Cadogan: Swansea based Underwriter with the team for 2 years following her graduation from the ERS Underwriting Academy
Liam Holland: The final member of the team, Liam has recently joined after a background working on various propositions within our Swansea Operations Unit
Which taxis are the most popular in the market at the moment?
Skoda Octavia - The Skoda Octavia to be a huge hit with the UK’s taxi drivers, and it continues to offer plenty of cab appeal.
Toyota Prius - The Toyota Hybrid continues to be as popular as ever, especially for Private Hire drivers in highly congestion cities.
What do you think are the drawcards for these taxis? Why are they so popular?
Sam: Prius hybrid has the advantage of being a hybrid and as such the alternative fuel drivetrain will allow access to most low emission zones attractive not going fully fledged electric but getting best of both worlds, savings on fuel etc. Good build quality of Skoda Octavia and reliability with low running costs also.
Liam: Given recent challenges in the supply chain of vehicle parts both the Toyota Prius and the Skoda Octavia are vehicles that appear to have more readily available replacement parts and as such the increased cost of repair, for both us and or the customer is not as severe as a lot of other vehicles.
Morgan: In the conventional public & private hire space we have seen a rise in Skoda, with the Octavia and Superb demonstrating their value in affordability and reliability and I would expect that to continue throughout 2023 for new and experienced drivers alike.
Darren: Skoda also offers contract hire options targeted at the Taxi market, the competitiveness of which is one of the main reasons why the Octavia and the Superb being so in demand.
Why does ERS stand out as an attractive partner to brokers?
Sam: We are an A+ rated Lloyds syndicate and part of an experienced underwriting team with subject matter experts across all classes.
Liam: Our key strengths are quality customer service, specialist motor insurers, highly experienced underwriting team and we maintain excellent existing broker relationships and always look to add new relationships when the opportunity arises.
Morgan: We trade all our Commercial products through eTrade however we have specialist underwriter knowledge for more complex risks. We are always here to help brokers with any queries they may have and assist with anything they need.
Our strong underwriting team understands the Commercial risk appetite to be able to give you the best advice possible. We strive to go above and beyond to assist as best we can and maintain great relationships with our brokers. We are stable, reliable and price fairly.
All underwriters across ERS work together as one team, regardless of what products we cover. We will always strive to do our best to cover what we can, it doesn’t fit within our appetite we will contact other teams to see if it might fit under Fleet or Agriculture for example.
Finally what vehicles do you think will rise in popularity in 2023?
Sam: With the increased push towards greener solutions and the increasing push of Local Councils in introducing Low and Ultra Low Emissions Zones, for example Glasgow) my prediction is that we will see far more demand in the EV space.
Darren: Manufacturers are already reducing/discounting popular models in favour of an EV. Recently Mercedes announced the end of the V Class, a hugely popular vehicle in the Chauffeur Industry, and BMW are primed in the space with the release of the I7. Volkswagen’s new Multivan and the Mercedes EQV will likely prove popular in the MPV space.
Morgan: In the conventional public & private hire space we have seen a rise in Skoda, with the Octavia and Superb demonstrating their value in affordability and reliability and I would expect that to continue throughout 2023
Liam: As above, I would expect to continue to see a lot more of the Toyota Prius and the LEVC Black Taxi.
Looking for a Commercial motor quote? The fastest way to access our A+ rated Taxi product is online via ERS eTrade and Software Houses. Find out more about ERS eTrade and how to sign up here.
Already have access? Login today.
