Conflict between taxi drivers and their minicab counterparts is not new. When minicabs first appeared drivers and operators were subjected to dirty tricks and violence in what the media called ‘the minicab war.’

Minicabs hit the streets of London in the Spring of 1961. The first operator was not Welbeck Motors, as is sometimes claimed. Although Welbeck was formed in the 1940s, it did not start its minicab operation until June 1961. A company called Carline began operating minicabs in Wimbledon on 6 March that year and, in the same month, Pimlico-based Sylvester Car Hire, run by Tom Sylvester, took its first bookings.
Nevertheless, Welbeck became the most high profile of the early minicab pioneers. The company was well funded, not least by the prominent businessman Isaac Wolfson, enabling an initial fleet of 400 Renault Dauphines, making it the biggest of the early minicab companies. The fleet was highly visible as the vehicles carried third party advertising and the Welbeck minicab became something of a poster child for the new trade, spawning Dinky toy models and serving as a prop in the odd fashion shoot. For a few months Welbeck’s boss Michael Gotla was the media’s face of the trade.

The new mode of transport generated a lot of publicity in these early days. There were debates on television and in the House of Commons about what it could mean for the black taxi trade whose fears were soon realised. “Little Cabs off to a Big Start” read the headline in the Westminster and Pimlico News as Tom Sylvester claimed his 25 minicabs were almost fully booked in their first week of operation. At the launch of Sylvester’s company MP Rupert Spier said that minicabs were needed as overseas visitors to London were not getting the service they deserved from London’s black taxis, of which there were around 6,500 at the time. In its first week Carline took 500 passengers in its 12 Ford Anglias. A journalist from The Times went across Wimbledon with Carline. He found the smartly-dressed driver “efficient and polite”, and the fare about two-thirds of the black taxi equivalent.

The minicabs could only legally be booked by telephone but this led to things quickly turning sour. Within a week of launching Sylvester said that he had received hundreds of bogus requests for cars. One of his vehicles was hemmed in by black taxi drivers in their Austins for around an hour in Belgrave Square. After the driver radioed for help the police arrived to sort things out. The driver told Time magazine: “There must have been a hundred or more [black taxis] in the square and side streets.”

Other incidents in ‘The Minicab War’ followed the Belgrave Square encounter, including cases of wilful damage to minicabs and violence against drivers. Some of the offending taxi drivers and their associates eventually received jail sentences but in most cases there was a lack of evidence. Meanwhile taxi drivers were complaining that some minicab drivers had been illegally plying for hire and in 1961 the Metropolitan Police secured 24 convictions for this offence.

The Minicab War remained newsworthy for a few months. The Foreign Press saw a juicy story with articles appearing in Time magazine and German magazine Der Spiegel. There were also questions in the House of Commons to the Home Secretary.

By and large the new mode of transport was welcomed. The Times leader column of 20 June said: “The reaction of the hard-done-by travelling public to the coming of minicabs is – the more the merrier.” In another editorial in August, under the headline “What the Public Wants”, it wrote: “It is fairly obvious that for many people in London finding a taxi has become too chancy and paying for it too stiff.”
The minicab pioneers met with other obstacles. Carline manager RW Heath said it was difficult for him to find good drivers taking on only three from 181 interviewees in one recruitment drive. Meanwhile Michael Gotla felt his profile could be harmful to the business and he stepped down in November 1961 as Wolfson sold his stake in Welbeck.

However, Tom Sylvester remained upbeat, boosted by demand “We are proving very popular on the longer runs,” he told the Westminster and Pimlico News, “taxi cab drivers do not seem to like undertaking these fares.”

London’s minicab trade has undergone many changes since those days. Austin taxis, Renault Dauphines, Welbeck Motors and Michael Gotla are no longer on the scene, but as this look back almost half a century suggests, some things do not change!