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NEWS
NORTH EAST
TAXI FIRM CELEBRATES
60-YEAR MILESTONE
The region’s leading taxi firm and one of
the North East’s most iconic businesses is
celebrating its 60-year milestone.
The company was launched by Audrey
and Colin Shanks from Wooley Street in
Wallsend in 1958 with only one car. Their
rst car was an Austin Morris with a single
blue coach line along its side – a motif
that inspired what has become one of the
best-known brand names in the North
East. Blueline now completes more than
3.5m journeys a year across the North
East and has become the most iconic taxi
rm in the region.
With a combination of mergers,
acquisitions and organic growth, the rm
is now consistently able to provide an
ecient transport service across the
North East, operating in Newcastle, North
and South Tyneside, Sunderland, Durham,
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Northumberland and Gateshead. On top
of taxis, Blueline Group now incorporates:
Blueline Property Services, Blueline
Insurance Services, Blueline Telematics,
Fisher Street Ford Garage and Blueline
Media.
To celebrate its growth, Blueline has
recently launched a commemorative
online and TV commercial. Blueline, still a
family-ran business today, has used its
#60YearsOfBlueline campaign to
celebrate the fact the company has been
bringing friends and family together safely
for 60 years. The project saw ‘The Social
Co’, a creative agency based in the NorthEast appointed to create the
advertisement, which aims to promote
Blueline’s core values.
Ian Shanks, Managing Director said:
“Blueline Taxis has gone from strength to
strength and we have seen signicant
expansion over the last few years. With
the growth of mobile technology, we
knew the next step was to move into
developing our own app which provides a
high quality and ecient service to our
customers. As a rm, we passionately
believe in driving innovation in the
transportation sector, making taxis easier
than ever before.”
Blueline has now partnered with other
organisations across the UK and parts of
the USA to form an international taxi
consortium – Riide. Together, the network
PORTFOLIO MAGAZINE
