Tristar Worldwide was a chauffeur-driven

private hire Taxicabs are regulated throughout the United Kingdom, but the regulation of taxicabs in London is especially rigorous with regard to mechanical integrity and driver knowledge. An official report observed that: "Little however is known about ...

car provider. The UK-based company operates in around 80 countries with an annual turnover of £48m and 650 employees. It was founded in 1978, originally for use by business class passengers of

Virgin Atlantic Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and w ...

. Tristar operates a fleet of 415

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

and

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

cars. In 2008, Dean De Beer led a management buyout, which left him as the owner of the company. In 2012, Tristar acquired M7 Worldwide Transportation, a US company operating in the same premium market. This significantly expanded their presence in the US. In June 2016, Tristar was acquired by Addison Lee and in September 2020, during the COVID pandemic, the company and fleet was merged into the Addison Lee operation discontinuing the Tristar brand.

Fleet of vehicles

, Tristar had a fleet of 415 vehicles. In 2013, they acquired their first hybrid cars: three

Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid The Volvo V60 is a compact wagon produced by Volvo Cars related to the S60. The vehicle was first released in autumn 2010, facelifted in 2014, and is in its second generation since 2018. The second generation V60 was launched in 2018 based on t ...

diesels for an eight-month trial to assess whether they would reduce fuel consumption, CO₂ emissions, maintenance costs and company car tax. Until 2014, they divided their purchases between Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. In 2015 the company changed its purchasing policy, commencing the transition to a fleet of 450 Mercedes-Benz cars exclusively. These will include

Mercedes-Benz V-Class The Mercedes-Benz Vito is a mid-sized light commercial vehicle (LCV) produced by Mercedes-Benz, available as a panel van, chassis cab, or multi-purpose vehicle (MPV), carrying cargo or up to eight passengers. In the Mercedes-Benz van lineup, it i ...

extra long vehicles which provide seating for up to eight passengers.

Safety initiatives

Tristar has piloted a number of safety improvements for their fleet. In 2005, they were the first fleet operator in England to trial "

DriveCam Lytx is a San Diego, California based technology company that designs, manufactures and sells video telematics products used by commercial and public-sector fleets to help improve driver safety and business productivity. Products include risk det ...

" devices which would automatically capture 20 seconds of video before and after an accident. In late 2013, the introduction of forward-facing continuously recording video cameras, combined with GPS data to record the vehicles' speed, reduced accidents and also saved money on insurance premiums and disputed claims. In 2014, their close association with Volvo gave them early access to

Autonomous Emergency Braking A collision avoidance system (CAS), also known as a pre-crash system, forward collision warning system, or collision mitigation system, is an advanced driver-assistance system designed to prevent or reduce the severity of a collision. In its ...

(AEB) technology for a six-month trial, which was reported to reduce rear impact collisions by 28 per cent. In 2015, in conjunction with the change to Mercedes-Benz exclusively, they adopted "Collision Prevention Assistance Plus", which warns the driver if they start to drift out of their lane or approach too close to the vehicle ahead, and can brake automatically if the driver fails to respond.

Awards

The company was awarded the United Kingdom’s

Queen’s Award for Enterprise The Queen's Awards for Enterprise is an awards programme for British businesses and other organizations who excel at international trade, innovation, sustainable development or promoting opportunity (through social mobility). They are the highest ...

in International Trade for 2012. In 2013, it received two awards from the

Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is a British charity that aims to save lives and prevent life-changing injuries which occur as a result of accidents. In the past, it has successfully campaigned on issues of road safet ...

(RoSPA): a Gold Award for Management of Occupational Road Risk (MORR) and a Silver Award for Occupational Health and Safety. In 2014, it won the RoSPA's MORR Technology Trophy for “the best use of technology in managing work-related road risk across all industries", and the "Eco Fleet" award at the 2014 Brake Fleet Safety Awards, as well as being highly commended for the "Company Driver Safety" and "Road Risk Manager of the Year" awards.

References

External links

* {{official , http://www.tristarworldwide.com Companies based in the London Borough of Hillingdon Transport companies established in 1978 Taxi companies Taxis of London 1978 establishments in England