Credit hire · Non-fault expertise
11 Consulting is an independent advisory practice for credit hire operators, insurers and claims handlers. Senior counsel from a senior practitioner — direct, confidential, without the overhead of a larger firm.
Arrange a confidential conversationAbout
11 Consulting is led by Steve Bilham, drawing on four decades of experience across the UK motor industry. The practice combines hands-on technical grounding — toolmaking, body repair, automotive engineering — with senior commercial leadership in legal expenses insurance, personal injury, non-fault claims and credit hire.
Most recently, sixteen years co-founding and leading two specialist businesses in the credit hire and non-fault claims sector — CabAid and Sovereign — both taken through acquisition by larger groups. The practice therefore brings direct, lived experience of the M&A process from the seller's side, across two completed transactions: preparing a business for sale, working with buyers and advisers, negotiating terms, and navigating integration once a deal completes.
Particular depth in the taxi credit hire market — a sub-sector with its own operational rhythm, regulatory environment and commercial economics — sits alongside broader experience across the mainstream credit hire market. Useful where a client's question touches the taxi space; not a constraint where it doesn't.
That breadth is unusual. It informs advice that is operationally realistic, commercially sober, and grounded in how the industry actually works rather than how it is described in trade press. The practice now exists to make that experience available to the wider market — directly, independently and without conflict.
Services
Process design, GTA compliance review, operational efficiency, claims handling workflows. End-to-end review of how a credit hire business runs and where margin is being given away.
Review of claims operations, partner relationships and recovery performance. Practical guidance for businesses moving into, scaling within, or exiting the non-fault sector.
Operator capability assessment, market dynamics, exposure analysis. Insight from someone who has run a credit hire business — translated into commercial terms an insurer can use.
Direct experience of the M&A process from the seller's side, across two completed transactions — preparing a business for sale, engaging buyers and advisers, working through diligence, and integrating with a larger group once a deal completes. Practical counsel for owner-managers considering exit, succession or strategic acquirers, and for buyers approaching the sector.
Mentoring and non-executive support for owner-managers and leadership teams in the sector. Periodic engagements rather than ongoing retainers — the work is most valuable when it is concentrated.
Approach
Engagements begin with a confidential conversation. If there is a fit, a short scope is agreed in writing — fixed fee where possible, time-based where the work demands it. No long-term retainers, no minimum commitments, no fixed templates. Each engagement is shaped to the question being asked.
Contact
The practice takes a small number of engagements at any one time, prioritising work where its experience is most directly relevant.
steve@11consulting.co.uk