London Hire – 25 years at the top

Innovation

London Hire has always been innovative as far as vehicle specification is concerned and that is down to the influence of Peter Moxom. ‘I want our vehicles to be as safe for the passenger and the driver as possible, that is why we always specify to a high level,’ says Peter. Examples of this are the wide availability across all models of automatic or automated transmissions; entrances with easy entry arrangements assisted by the use of extra steps or fold out step systems complete with handrails; where practical powered doors; reversing cameras and/or reversing sensors; tail lifts with a 400kg load capacity and which require the very minimum or no intervention by the driver; and extra lighting to ensure entrances and the rear loading area are well illuminated.

‘When I first got involved with this market I was appalled at the attitude of many operators and vehicle builders towards the passenger,’ said Peter. ‘It was as if because these people were mainly disabled or had special needs that they should be treated differently. People were building and buying vehicles where the standards of internal appointment were woeful, way below what would have been considered adequate for vehicles operating on a commercial service. I was determined to change that and give these people the dignity they deserved.’ Peter was as good as his word and over the years London Hire has steadfastly worked to raise the standard of internal appointment for accessible vehicles. ‘I wanted to bury the ‘welfare vehicle’ image,’ he says, ‘it has taken some time, but we have done it.’

I believe that Peter, with the backing of Rob Evans and the London Hire team and the co-operation of the vehicle builders and equipment suppliers has done more to raise the standards of accessible vehicles than any other person. Many scoffed at his ideas, many thought he was mad. Imitation they say is the sincerest form of flattery – just look around, who runs ‘welfare vehicles’ now? Look at any modern accessible vehicle, whoever builds or runs it, and you will instantly see the London Hire influence.

‘Over the years we have improved all aspects of the interior of the vehicle,’ says Peter. ‘We looked for better seats, seats which were safe and comfortable with things like good headrests and good seat belts. More recently we have been looking at the problem of taking seats out of vehicles in order to accommodate wheelchair passengers. Seat removal has always been a major problem for accessible vehicle operators. They were heavy, cumbersome and easily damaged and people were getting hurt manoeuvring them. Clamping systems were cumbersome, difficult to use and prone to problems because of dirt ingress.’

Peter acknowledges the enormous efforts of the supply side of the industry which has made huge strides in these areas in recent years. Companies like Phoenix and Rescroft have spearheaded the development of lighter weight seats. Seats which are not only lighter and much easier to manoeuvre but are far more comfortable and give the passenger better support. Belt systems have improved out of all recognition thanks to the efforts of companies like NMI, Unwins, Koller and Q Straint. Similarly with seat clamping systems, recent quick release systems from NMI, Unwins and Koller have made that task much simpler. Typical of Peter though, he has looked for another solution. ‘I hate removing seats,’ he says, ‘they are the bane of our life, we have containers full of the things. I felt that in many cases there would be no need to take the seats out if we could come up with a system whereby seats could be packed together to create the wheelchair space.’ Working with Rescroft and NMI they together devised the CT-Lite Space seat, an adaptation of Rescroft’s lightweight CT-Lite Plus seat. The seat cushion can be tipped up and held in that position and a modified NMI track fixing system allows the seats to be simply slid along the tracks and packed together thus creating the wheelchair space. It is so simple you wonder why nobody thought of it before. The seat has been fully tested and is now in production.

London Hire was one of the first rental companies to introduce soft trim into the interior of its vehicles, rather than more utilitarian fabrics, and to use bonded glazing and air conditioning to provide a better ambience inside the vehicle. It also introduced the use of special colours which can promote calmness amongst passengers with serious disabilities. The driver or passenger assistant are not ignored either. Equipment like the wider use of automatic or automated transmissions, reversing cameras or sensors, better mirrors, lifts that require little or no intervention by the crew and more recently Safe Guard barriers from PLS that prevent crew from stepping out of vehicles if the lift has already been lowered, have all been trialled and introduced on the fleet. Peter is constantly evaluating new systems and equipment that can improve the company’s offering. Much of this comes from his own experience. Outside of his work for London Hire Peter has long been actively involved at a voluntary level with organisations that look after disabled or seriously ill people.

Vehicles

London Hire buy a lot of vehicles; on average between 60-80 new accessible vehicles join the main rental fleet every year. With such a large fleet they tend to stick to certain types of vehicle and certain builders that they find suit their requirements. ‘We are demanding,’ said Peter, ‘We insist on high standards of construction and aftercare. Our vehicles are worked hard, they are driven by a succession of drivers with differing skills and therefore we need maximum reliability and durability. We can’t afford to have vehicles off the road. That is one thing we have seen really improve over recent years. Vehicles and equipment are now far more reliable than they used to be.’

At the smaller seven to nine seater end of the fleet, they favour the Renault Master with automated transmission. Conversions are usually carried out by Stanford Coachworks. ‘We’ve used Stanford for many, many years,’ says Peter. ‘They understand our ethos and they work very closely with us. They are also located very close to us just on the other side of the Thames and this can be a big advantage.’

However, they are constantly evaluating the situation and have recently placed contracts with GM Coachworks of Newton Abbot for some Peugeot Boxer based minicoaches and also have a batch of Ford Transit vehicles being built by Kent based Euromotive.

A large part of the fleet is made up of 14 to 16 seater van conversions. These vehicles are predominantly Mercedes-Benz Sprinters although they also operate quite a lot of VW Crafters. These are almost exclusively produced for them by Stanford Coachworks. Specifications vary and include manual or automatic or automated transmissions. Entrances can be at the front or in the side, the latter generally fitted with power doors. Tail lifts can be either in-board mounted or rear underfloor cassette style, with the preference for the PLS product.

Whilst Peter is very happy with the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter he is concerned about the escalating cost of the base vehicles. Because of that he has recently put into service a batch of the new 4.5 tonne twin rear wheeled Renault Master LHL45TWs. Specifications are identical to the Sprinters but the base unit cost is substantially less.

London Hire operates a large fleet of coachbuilt 16 seaters, generally built on the five tonne Sprinter but again Crafters also feature. For many years they used Treka conversions built for them by UV Modular (now Trekabus) and indeed there are still plenty of Trekas in the fleet. In more recent times they have been buying this class of product from Mellor Coachcraft and when I visited recently were just commissioning a new batch of Euro6 Sprinters from them. Built to a standard specification the current specification is powered entrance door, 16 Rescroft CT Lite-Space seats, double glazing, full Eberspacher climate control heating and ventilation and a 400kg PLS tail lift.

The largest vehicles on the fleet are the coachbuilt Varios offering between 22 and 32 seats. These generally have a very similar specification to the coachbuilt 16 seaters except for the increased seating. Many of the lower seated versions were built by UV Modular and continue to give good service. More recently a batch of 31/32 seaters have been built by Mellor Coachcraft.

The contract hire fleet can see a wide variety of vehicles added to it since the customer can exercise a much greater degree of choice. An example is Bromley Borough Council for which London Hire has been providing vehicles for many years. Bromley has long had a low, flat floor, directly wheelchair accessible policy for its fleet and London Hire has taken them progressively through various styles including Talbot Tri Axles, Rohills and currently Bluebirds.