Basil Jet wrote:

On 2012\10\23 00:42, Bruce wrote:
Basil Jet wrote:

On 2012\10\22 20:39, Bruce wrote:
The company that makes London Taxis (LTI) has called in the
Administrators.

http://tinyurl.com/8fqam4x


No doubt Addison Lee's retiring boss will tell his drivers that if they
can write off one of the existing taxi fleet, he will pay their fines...


The LTI cabs are built like Army trucks.

Wasn't it you who showed me up last time I said that? You poured scorn
on the ladder chassis IIRC.


I did, but weren't we discussing survivability of the occupants in an
accident?

In which case, give me a modern design any time, with progressive
crumple zones front and rear and a rigid safety cell for the
passengers rather than a primitive army truck with a ladder chassis.
In a contest between the two, I would far rather step out of the rigid
safety cell of a car-based design that looks wrecked (but which saved
my life) than be carried on a stretcher from a truck that looks
relatively undamaged but transferred much more of the energy of a
collision to its occupants.

One of the car programmes on television (can't recall which) tested a
1980s Volvo against a 2010s Renault Modus in an offset head-on
collision. Survivability was far better in the lightweight Modus,
which looked severely damaged, then in the Volvo. The
state-of-the-art design of the Renault meant that its crumple zones
absorbed most of the energy of the collision leaving the rigid
passenger safety cell intact.


I have a feeling that it
would take more than one of Addison Lee's vehicles to write one off.

They have dozens of the things unused in their Granby Terrace yard,
allegedly because they are haemorrhaging drivers since Hailo started
eating Addison Lee's lunch.


The trouble with Addison Lee's business model is that it is there for
everyone to see, to emulate, to copy or improve on. It's dog eat dog
out there.