CTU Insurance on the Commuter Transport Market: Taxi & Bus Pressures, Insurance Gaps, and Risk Management

Basically, CTU is an underwriting manager.

We are the center of excellence for commuter transport insurance for Hollard.

In the main, Hollard is our underwriter, but Hollard is not just our underwriter.

They're also a shareholder within our business, Tony, alongside a few other corporate shareholders in the shape of Alirius who's also a shareholder in our business.

But the major shareholder is a Black investment firm Senayo Global.

There's also a couple of individuals that are shareholders within the CTU environment, Tony.

CTU has been around for just over 35 years, Tony, servicing the commuter transport, particularly in the taxi sector, Tony.

And then just to progress onto the second part of your question in as far as how's the market, and I'll break this down into two parts, Tony.

I'm talking more the taxi side of things.

I'll start with that.

I'll lead with that and then I'll talk a little bit about the bus side of things.

In terms of the taxi sector, Tony, that, that market is under pressure.

We come from a, an era about some two years ago where the biggest manufacturer in the taxi sector being Toyota used to sell in the region of about 1,400 Toyota Quantums a month.

That number, Tony, has shrunk to around 6 to 700 a month.

Part of the reason for the dip, Tony, is the tightening of lending criteria from the banks.

I think banks have suffered major losses from an absconding perspective.

We've also had issues with people who finance vehicles purporting themselves to be legitimate operators, but it turned out they were not.

So banks have had to write off a significant amount of money, Tony, and from that perspective they've had to change their scoring.

So a lot of people that would historically qualify to buy a taxi are no longer qualified.

Mm.

Hence those numbers have shrunk.

From a production perspective, the likes of Toyota even have reduced production because what you find is when you transition from an era where you're selling about 1,400 a month to 6 to 700, you've got an overstock at the plant.

You therefore have to limit that production.

The other issue that you have, Tony, is that you've got passenger, passenger numbers dropping.

People that-