Stanley Taxis was founded in 1961 by Robert McGill Scott when he operated two taxis from a wooden ‘hut’ located in Stanley where the Louisa Centre now stands. He, along with his wife Ann and two sons, Andrew and Ian, still own the business today, running a considerably larger concern but with the original family values that were inherent during those early days and operating a fleet of over 60 vehicles, employing in excess of 100 people, making it the largest taxi operator and one of the major employers in the North Durham area.
Over the years, the company evolved into much more than a mere taxi operator. Following the introduction of several 12 and 16 seat mini coaches, Stanley Taxis and Mini Coaches was born. Building steadily and reinvesting into the company and its employees, Stanley Taxis and Mini Coaches continued to grow and before long were also operating 24 seater coaches. In 1988 saw a milestone in the company’s history and a significant move forward when we were awarded our first bus service contracts by Durham County Council. This was the start of an entirely new element of the business and the bus services began operating under the name of Stanley Buses.
Continually looking for areas of new growth and opportunity saw the expansion of the coach fleet with the addition of 33, 53 and 57 seat coaches, as well as a 51 seat wheelchair access coach (one of only a handful in the area). This diversification meant that the name Stanley Taxis and Mini Coaches was no longer suitable and prompted new branding into three main areas: Stanley Taxis, Stanley Coaches and Stanley Buses.
In 2007, the bus services were performing well but had reached such a high level of demand that it was decided that in order to focus on the core activities of the business, it was in the greater interests of the overall company to accept an offer to purchase from Go North East. The takeover was completed in October 2007 and Stanley Buses became Venture Buses.
This led to an exciting new era. We were now in a position to fully concentrate on our core taxi and coach businesses, enabling us to develop our day trip and holiday portfolio. In addition, through the sale of Stanley Buses, we had created extra capacity within our dedicated workshop and this Stanley Fleetserve was created, catering for external clients through our Department of Transport standard workshop.
At this point, it was decided that this was the ideal opportunity to rebrand the company and to update and revive our image. Stanley Travel was created as a parent company forming an ‘umbrella’ over the brands of Stanley Taxis, Stanley Coaches, Stanley Fleetserve and The Bike Bus.
When you deal with Stanley Travel you are benefitting from years of experience, customer-focussed and traditional, value for money services from a team of people who are committed to putting you, the customer first. In addition to this, because we only use high class, quality vehicles from reliable and respected manufacturers, you can rest assured that, as well as our staff, the taxis, wheelchair accessible vehicles, mini coaches and full size executive coaches, will more than match, if not exceed, your expectations. Operating in a sector which is often blighted by stories of rogue or ‘cowboy’ drivers and companies, we pride ourselves on the quality of service and value for money that we offer. More importantly, our core concern and focus is to provide the ‘personal touch’ to all of our customers, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
More recently in our history, we reached another significant milestone in 2009 when we joined the UK Coach Industry’s most elite operators by becoming one of only 38 in the country to be awarded the Coach Marque accredited by the Confederation of Passenger Transport in recognition of the quality and consistency of our services.
