A cab driver in Northampton, England found his choice of Hyundai iMax was ideal when he got a booking to collect a fare from Barcelona in the recent volcanic ash flights ban.
The eight-seat Hyundai iMax meant the journey to collect a group of stranded holidaymakers and their luggage from Spain was a breeze, even with two drivers on board.
“We got the call at 9.30am on Tuesday (27th April) and were on the road within an hour to collect four people,” said iMax owner Garry Smith. “I took my son Ben so we could share the driving and booked the Eurotunnel crossing en route. When the passengers heard what car we were in they asked if we could take six people which because of the car, we were happy to do.”
Stopping only to change drivers every few hours, re-fuel and answer calls of nature, Garry and Ben arrived in Barcelona on Wednesday morning. They didn’t even turn the ignition off before they were loaded up and heading back.
After the 2500 miles (4000 kilometres) round trip, Garry and Ben got back to the UK on Thursday morning with the cab’s meter reading a whopping £4,600.05 (AUD $8,305). However, Garry billed the group a pre-agreed £1,850 (AUD $3,340), which worked out at just over £300 (AUD $550) per passenger. “It wouldn’t really be fair to charge them the meter rate,” said Garry, who bought his iMax from Kingsley Hyundai in Bedford last year.
He added: “It’s been perfect and it’s now got 65,000 miles (104,607 kilometres) on the clock. I’ll definitely be buying the commercial van version (Hyundai iLoad) for my Clever Cogs carpet and upholstery cleaning business when my current van needs replacing.”
Garry originally picked the iMax because he specialises in executive transport and longer journeys. He wasn’t surprised to be called on for the rescue run as he narrowly missed out on a job to Geneva just before the Barcelona trip came up. However he added this journey was his biggest trip ever.