Silicon Valley and Las Vegas provide backdrop for limousine journeys by BBC whizz behind the iPlayer
As the BBC's director of future media and technology, Eric Huggers is accustomed to wrestling with the most tricky questions relating to the corporation's role in a rapidly changing digital age.
But even he may find himself struggling to answer one conundrum thrown up by his newly released expenses claims: how is it possible to justify spending £638.73 on a taxi?
That was the eyebrow-raising sum claimed by the Dutch-born Huggers for a 'minicab' on 12 June last year, a day after he'd spent £538.45 on another cab, also charged to the corporation. The claims are among the latest wave of expenses to be claimed by BBC top brass, publishedtoday.
Huggers, who sits on the BBC executive board and was behind the introduction of the iPlayer, is responsible, according to his official biography, for 'helping audiences enjoy a seamless experience of BBC programmes, wherever they may be'. On the occasion in question, a spokesman said, the audiences enjoying a seamless BBC experience were in Palo Alto, California, and the claims classified as minicab fares related to limousine hire, when Huggers, who earns £223,000 a year, required transportation from the 'picturesque water and flower gardens and koi ponds' of the Sheraton Palo Alto hotel, where he stayed for three nights, to meetings at locations around Silicon Valley.
The claims, which calculated at the exchange rate of the time total $889.52 and $1,036.42, 'reflect typical day rates for the hire of a car with driver during Erik's business trip in the US,' said the spokesman. 'This ensured time spent was used as effectively as possible, enabling the maximum number of meetings to be scheduled and to enable work to continue between appointments in the car.'
Thanks to its strict policy on endorsements, alas, the corporation is unable to reveal the supplier or type of car used by Huggers, but a brief investigation by the Guardian hints at the level of ingenuity required to spend more than $1,000 in one day on a cab.
San Francisco Car Service, for instance, quotes an hourly rate within the Bay Area of $50, exclusive of fees. At Virgin Limo, an eight-hour hire in the San Francisco area of a chauffeured sedan 'with full leather interior, dual climate controls, power points for laptops computers and cellular phones', inclusive of fuel surcharge, tolls and tip, would cost $626.40. Ten hours in a 'Turtle top limo-van', however, with DVD player, conference player, and 'luxurious reclining leather seats', would take his bill to $1,010.25.
The corporation was happy to explain that the reason Huggers had stayed, during a separate US trip in January last year, at the famous Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, spending £647.50, was because he was attending the annual Consumer Electronics Show which was being held in the hotel. BBC guidelines permit stays in luxury hotels such as the Bellagio (where 'contentment and opulence are the hallmarks') if the claimant needs to be on site to attend a conference, said the spokesman, adding that executives often hold meetings in their rooms.
And the explanation, given his many meetings in the Bellagio, as to why Huggers required a car and driver for two days on that trip at £812.24 per day? 'This was the most cost and time effective way to travel from meeting to meeting while on that particular business trip rather than booking ad hoc taxis,' the spokesman said.
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