Viv Beck: Heart of the City CEO on the taxi service designed to help Aucklanders explore the city

Aucklanders are about to have short-term free taxi rides to the heart of the city.

The 'Straight to the Heart' service launching tomorrow - across Ponsonby, Newmarket, and Takapuna - lets people hail a retro red taxi, with no booking needed.

It'll take passengers to a surprise - or requested - central location. 

Heart of the City CEO Viv Beck says this is running until November 16, and it's a way to rediscover what Auckland has to offer.

"It's about the experience, getting people back into the rhythm of coming here."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now this is a cool idea from Auckland City. From
this week, there will be a bunch of retro taxis
cruising around giving people rides. This is an Auckland giving
people spontaneous rides into the CBD from nearby suburbs. The
taxi will then drop passengers at a surprise location around
town where they might even get vouchers to use in
this location while they're there. Viv bec is the CEO

(00:20):
of Heart of the City, who are behind the idem
with us. Now, hey, Viv, yeah, good after it's a
very cool idea. Have you seen this being rolled out
somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
No, No, we were looking for a fun way to
get people back into the habit of coming straight to
the Heart.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
So the taxi, the taxi pecks. You do you just
stand there waiting for the taxi basically? Or can you
hail it? Like like you.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hail it like yeah, yeah, No, you don't need an
app or anything. It's a hail. You've put your hand up,
look up the drive roong they'll stop and take you.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
So you could be standing on that street corner for
a long time waiting for that taxi.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well you could be, but it's a fun things. It's
about the experience, getting people back into the rhythm of
coming here. And and you know what cab drivers are like,
they've got lots of secrets. You'd love it. They tell
you all the things that they know about the city
and they take you to surprise. Okay, or you can
say where you want to go, but we're trying to
sort of yeah, you know you can. If you really
really wanted to go somewhere and protect it in our area,

(01:18):
you could. Yeah. It's it's largely it's about of surprise.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Like do we have a lot of little nooks and
crannies and hidden bars and stuff like that and.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
All there you did, I reckon people who even think
they know the place would have a lot there'd be
a lot of surprise.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
And tell me that you've discovered lately?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Was that?

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Tell me when you've discovered lately?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, this wasn't sort of a hidden one. But I
tell you what, I think. It's very exciting that Favartia
back in Debrett's Hotel and I've just been reading about
the heyday of high Street. They've got their centenary at
the hotel and that's pretty exciting. Was going, well, they
were talking about it sort of in the eighties. Really,
the sort of a lot of the article was about

(01:56):
the eighties, you know, the big hair here days, but
lots of lots of fun to be had around the
High Street area and vatchi back in Debrett is very
cool development. You know, a sad story through COVID, but
a very happy one and they're very very welcome. Can
now be back with us?

Speaker 1 (02:13):
How do we know what taxi work like so that
we're not just randomly hailing like a flash gangster's car.
How do we know what we.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, they're pretty distinctive. They're sort of a retro look.
You can't miss them. We can send you a we
can send you a little teaser to see what they're
they're about to look like. They'll be in select locations,
but you can. We'll be sort of tracking their stories
a bit on our social media and we're looking for
people that just want to have a bit of fun

(02:42):
and like experiences.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
It's a great idea of thanks very much, Vivvekhart of
the City CEO's kind of cool though. It's like one
of those mystery weekends in New Zealand used to do
when Near New Zealand was still Cool.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
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