20 April 2018

Making London a greener city

A few months ago we were approached by one of our friendly players. James, the then Marketing Manager (now MD) of DriveNow, had the bright idea to work together and so this week, we were delighted to launch our official partnership. 

Partnering with DriveNow not only means we're doing our bit to make London a greener place, but with their help, gives us more time to spend improving the way LTL works for you. 

'I’m now onto my 4th round of Local Tennis Leagues and have already signed up for the next one!' says James.

Having primarily worked in the business of marketing pharmaceutical companies for 15 years, James fancied a change and was pleased to jump in as DriveNow's Marketing Manager in 2018.

'I liked the sound of the role, the fact it was a new company and a new concept for London so I applied. Fortunately I was successful and I’ve been with DriveNow for over 3 years now. Last May I took over as Managing Director so it’s been an amazing 3 years and I’ve loved every minute of it.'

And while James has spent the majority of his time building DriveNow's reach across London, he's found Local Tennis Leagues a great way to play some tennis.

'I think Local Tennis Leagues is such a great idea. It’s a great way to meet new people, test yourself against different tennis players and play some enjoyable games. I think LTL is very good at matching you to players of a similar level. In every round I’ve played in, I’ve always had close matches that could go either way – it all depends if everything works on the day!

Then came a game that sparked a lightbulb moment.

'I live pretty close to a tennis court and most of my matches had been played there, so I’d always walked to matches. I then had a match at a court I couldn’t walk to and it wasn’t easy by public transport. It just made sense at that point that DriveNow would be a perfect partner for LTL! 

The best thing about DriveNow is that you can park for free in pretty much any on-street public parking space within the DriveNow Zone, so you don’t need to worry about the match going into a third set and having to pay extra for parking. 

I love what we’re trying to achieve. Everyone knows that London faces issues with congestion and air quality – car sharing can help this. We have a fleet of low emission cars, which includes the fully electric BMW i3. We also see that users make different choices when they join a car club – walking, cycling and using public transport more. It’s a positive thing for the city. 

With our partnership it’s free for LTL players to join and they’ll get 30 free minutes as well so they can take a spin in a BMW or MINI and test the service out for free. There’s no ongoing membership fee once players have joined – they just pay when they use the service.'

While we're helping to make London a greener city with our new partnership, James believes LTL can help to give the UK some great match practice.

'The best way to improve is just to play as many matches as possible – watch how other people play, identify what your own strengths are and try to play to those strengths. At the end of the day it’s about having fun, getting some exercise, meeting new people and playing some great tennis matches!'

To find out more about our partnership visit https://localtennisleagues.com/DriveNow