It is with great sadness that at the end of November, Geoff Wright – LPHCA’s Chief Grading Officer, and as many will know, my father, best friend, and mentor – sadly succumbed to recent illness and poor health. Geoff (Dad) was instrumental in helping to make the LPHCA what it is today.

Notification regarding the funeral and post-funeral arrangements will be conveyed when the details are finalised with our family.

Today’s LPHCA would not have been possible without Geoff’s guidance, hard work and attention to detail. This, alongside his retirement at about the same time as I took over the LPHCA as its Chairman in 1993, was very fortuitous.

In 1993, the Association was known as the London Private Hire Car Association; it was on its knees with around ten remaining members willing to re-form and carry on. This was partly due to repeated failed attempts to get London Licensed by previous London Trade bodies.

Fortunately, there was the will to change the old LPHCA and make it professional, commercial, proactive, and effective. A new constitution was drafted and agreed unanimously upon by all the founding members. That constitution was the catalyst for running the Association differently.

Again, very fortuitously, there was a new Government Minister for London, Steven Norris MP, whom we agreed to meet in Westminster. He suggested that the Conservatives favoured de-regulation rather than regulation, but he said he would back us if we took the self-assessment route.

At that point, we began the task of setting up the assessment criteria for vetting LPHCA Members, but there was a substantial problem - all the founders were busy running their companies and were unable to undertake visits.

I mentioned this to Dad, who immediately offered his services, citing he was bored post-retirement and needed to keep active and meet people. He knew the remuneration would be minimal and the workload tough. His only asks were that he would be called the Chief Grading Officer for what would become the LPHCA Operator Grading system, and he would be instrumental in its management.

Instrumental he was, and before the pandemic, he had undertaken thousands of Grading Visits and managed even more Grading Reports (in the region of 4,000). Recently, we have been working towards re-launching the Grading System, and we have a waiting list for Gradings. Geoff, being Geoff, wanted to know how that was progressing regularly as he never departed from being a Taxi & PHV Industry well-being person.

Along the way to our current association, he inevitably made some great friends in the industry, and Grading Visits were often followed by a trip to a restaurant or what he referred to as watering holes, better known as pubs.

The genuine affection and hospitality shown to Dad by the industry would absolutely not affect his integrity nor his solid belief that he would never be compromised. An example of him being a stickler for his professionalism was when he noted at a Grading Visit that a public liability insurance certificate was not displayed on the wall as required. The operator (one of the founding members) was distraught that Dad would dock points from the report because of this error. So, whilst he continued the assessment, they got the certificate in a beautiful frame permanently displayed in their front reception and pointed this out to him as he departed.

He responded: “It wasn’t on the wall when I arrived, so I’m docking you points!”

There are many other stories and anecdotes, not for now, which we hope to share at a Geoff Wright Memorial Event to be arranged in the future. Meanwhile, via the link below, we have set up a simple condolences link, allowing those who knew Dad in the industry to say a few words.  

This link gives people who knew Dad the option for private messages for our family or more publicly usable words that can be mentioned at the Funeral and/or the subsequent Memorial Event.