Started by someone who's actually run the desk.

I spent over fifteen years in UK private hire before starting Veitch Ops, most of that running the day-to-day operation at Apollo Taxis in Kent, before eventually taking over ownership myself.

That desk taught me a lot more than how to route cars. Corporate accounts that stuck around for years. Quoting jobs so they actually made sense. Calming someone down who'd had a genuinely bad night. Making a call fast when there wasn't a good option, just a least-bad one.

It also taught me how brutal this trade can be. One controller off sick and the whole shift's in trouble. Miss enough calls and that's not just lost money, it's a competitor's driver picking up your regular customer. A reputation built over years can take a real hit from one bad Friday night if the phones ring out and nobody's there.

When I sold the business, I had to work out what came next. For a while I thought about leaving the industry completely. Then I realised the experience I'd built up was too useful to just walk away from — and the actual problem independent operators have never really went away. Most smaller firms don't need another full-time wage on the books. They need someone reliable to cover the phones when things get mental, when a dispatcher's off, or when a busy shift needs an extra pair of hands that actually knows what they're doing.

So I started Veitch Ops, and put my own name on it deliberately. Anyone can set up a generic-sounding dispatch company. I wanted mine to be one you could actually hold me to — if something goes wrong, you're not calling a number and getting whoever's free, you're calling me.

I want this to be the team I'd have trusted with my own phones and my own drivers, back when I was the one running the desk.