This is taken from The Guardian:

BBC spends £11.8m on taxis

by Tara Conlan
Thursday September 1, 2005

Spending on taxis by the BBC increased last year by 3.5% to £11.8m, despite attempts by the director general Mark Thompson to cut back.

In the year 2004-05 the cost of taxis paid for and arranged through the BBC's central booking system cost £11.8m - up from £11.4m in 2003-04.

The above-inflation increase may actually be higher, as the figures exclude those cabs that staff may have arranged and paid for through other means.

Taxis have long been a bugbear of BBC director generals. Mr Thompson's predecessor, Greg Dyke, famously tried to ban them - introducing shuttle buses to try to save money.

In the year to April 2000 the cost of taxis for staff and guests on BBC shows was £13.1m. The following year it was £11.3m, then £12.7m in 2001-02 and £11.7m in the year to April 2003.

A BBC spokesman said the increase was due to more people using the corporation's central booking system to hire taxis.

He said: "This has arisen primarily through BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland now using the central taxi booking system, and greater compliance with the system by BBC staff throughout, which in turn enables the BBC to benefit from negotiating better deals with suppliers."