Forging new paths and keeping Alert at the head of the taxi fleet is something directors Paul Cafferkey and Robert van Heiningen - who bought Alert in 2002 - take very seriously. Both men knew they’d bought a great brand - one which had been around since the 1960s - but it was one that needed reinvigorating and modernising in order to cope with the deregulation of the industry and the changing needs of clients. And that’s exactly what Paul and Robert have done. They’ve streamlined both dispatching and operating and have taken care to recruit the right people for this very people-centric business. It helped that both men come from a driving background in the taxi industry, and knew exactly what goes on out there in the street.

"It's pretty hard to run a taxi business from the office,” says Paul “it happens on the road. It's not like a factory where you go touch and feel, you can’t see a product, it's out there on the road, it’s happening while you're asleep. There are lots of things that can interfere with that process so to be able to be out there and see that is good.”

Originally tradesmen, they started driving taxis part time at night to earn some extra money . They drove for an opposition Auckland taxi company for nearly 10 years.
They were young, in their late twenties, and very idealistic. They thought they could do something incredible, and they did - turning it around within six years and booking half a million orders in the December before they left. "We had 550,000 taxis booked in one month. It was phenomenal," says Paul.

They bought Alert Taxis in 2002 and haven't looked back.