Raffe recently brought to my attention a controversial squabble that is going on between taxi companies in Wellington, New Zealand (my home town). As it turns out, a new player on the market, Green Cabs has introduced a fleet of Hybrid vehicles that are cheaper to run due to their consumption of less fuel that most other road vehicles (including those vehicles used by competition). The result of this efficiency gain is greater profits. Obviously the competition is fuming.Read this post at the Wellingtonista for further details on this little feud, including hints of some rather underhanded tactics going on.
The latest development in this saga is where it gets interesting. Combined Taxis (the incumbent market leader) is scrambling. Like a wounded animal, they've splashed their website with numerous nonsensical advertising. One article criticising the Prius as ugly and not as 'green' as claimed, within two clicks is another claim that combined are now trialling that very vehicle, amid a series of quotes of how efficient these cars are!
Another superbly transparent piece of green-wash on the combined site is their claim to be working towards Carbon Neutrality! Yet there's no timeframe for achieving this. That's like me claiming I'm working towards becoming the 10th planet in the solar system. There's no estimate of current emissions posted and no information tracking any actual progress towards their goal.As a result of this fiasco (and partly becasue of the behaviour of Combined Taxis), I've now included a link to Green Cabs on the right-hand side of my page as a Virtualphill Preferred Environmental Supplier!
18 Comments so far. Click here to comment:
Nice (and prompt) work Phill - funny about the contradiction from Combined about the utility of the Prius...
Cheers Raffe, thanks for the tip-off!
Be interesting to see how this plays out. Combined Taxis ("CT") sure are making arses of themselves. I might do a follow-up post on tha vagaries of Carbon Neutrality (a service my firm offers) soon . . . just to show how 'greenwashy' the CT statements are.
They r always making areses off them, keep looking they r real "greenwashy", when the greens arrived on the block managers wrote to ct drivers screaming hybrids are "dinky toys" and the next thing we start to get some serious business and a real threat to em, and yep, hybrids r allowed in ct. ask tere drivers.
http://nztaxiblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/taxi-firm-told-off-for-greenwash/
greeniewash gurellias.
I think it is interesting that prior to the advent of green cabs there were no africans in combined taxis. Now however, not only do they accept africans, but there have been a number of african green cab drivers that have been approached by combined taxis to try and bring them over to their company. Very interesting indeed!
By the way, what happened to "If its not blue, its not for you!" I guess they wont be happy till they own all the colors!
Justice, I notice you have been posting your African Drivers comment accross the internet. Please supply some employment / diversity figures before you make these statements.
& while u at it look for some Seeks with headwear as well.
well done phil if you click on some of those links it appears they removed the item rubbishing what they have been preaching!!!!!!!!!!!!! how long have you been away form NZ?
Abba,
I wondered if those links would be taken down. ..
I've been away since August 2007.
I hopped into a green today in Auckland, no issues, pleasant driver, etc / he suggested to me that big ones had laid the first complaint of greenwash and misleading advertising etc.What's that old saying/phrase about making sure you're own house is in order/- how's that old saying go again?
I've put some thought (rare for me) into the WC green claims on their website.
http://virtuphill.blogspot.com/2008/06/taxi-schamxi-green-schmeen.html
Well p style, Im afraid I cant supply you with any figures as such. My information comes from an african driver friend of mine that drives for green cabs. He tells me he was approached by Wellington Combined about taking his new prius over to their fleet. However I would think that green cabs would have clauses in their contracts preventing such a move.
no need to repost a link already referenced in the main article anonymous.
http://wellingtonista.com/green-cabs-answers-our-questions
http://getenergysmartnow.com/
update article posted here;
http://virtuphill.blogspot.com/2008/07/catch-up-with-taxis.html
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