are improved, then most drivers
will be able to cover more work and satisfy more customers.
Laurence Kelvin (W88)
See Keith Cain's report...Ed
TALK OF LONDON
Could you on our behalf thank the Talk of London for the four tickets
that we won in Call Sign at Christmas, we went Saturday 26th February and
all had a great time. The food was good and the cabaret and dancing was
excellent. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good night out.
Jane and Melvyn Harvey (E87)
AND AGAIN...
I would like to thank you for the four winning tickets that we won in Call
Sign to go to the Talk of London. My wife and I, together with our two
friends, had a great night out. The food, service and entertainment were
excellent and I would recommend it to anyone who would like a good night
out. The drinks are reasonably priced, which means that you can recommend
it to your customers with confidence.
Bill Hand (G14)
Nothing is totally for nothing in this world. The management of the Talk
of London have been very good to Dial-a-Cab and Call Sign. All they ask in
return is that you recommend them to your passengers if they are looking
for a good night out. They even pay you commission...Ed
DELGRO, DIAL-A-CAB AND PLC?
As an avid reader of Call Sign, I was very interested in Chairman, Brian
Rice's column in the March issue; in particular his comments on the Delgro
Corporation's take over of Metroline buses and the apparent benefits to
Metrolines' employees.
Brian reiterated his previous statement that so long as he is
Chairman of Dial-a-Cab, he would never personally resurrect the PLC issue
and although the article he wrote did not directly do so, even he would
surely admit that the article was intended to keep the matter to the
forefront.
According to Brian, Metroline's 800 employee shareholders
would share £6 million between them, about £7,500 each, not an
insignificant sum I agree, but hardly an earth-shattering amount either.
However, of real interest was the fact that the four managers
who originally invested £100,000 (between them) would be made
millionaires overnight. As Brian said when finishing his article,
"Totally irrelevant, but nice to wonder about..."
Terry Hamston (B24)
Brian Rice replies:
I was wondering aloud, but I did want to bring to members attention the
latest acquisition within the London Transport industry. Regarding the
four managers, if press reports are to be believed, then they invested
£100,000 each and not between them. I assume that in order to raise that
kind of money (they are not all the Chairman of Dial a Cab!) they would
have had to mortgage their futures i.e. houses etc. They took a gamble on
their futures, it paid off and they became millionaires overnight and good
luck to them. However, there are more things in this life than money, such
as the privilege you enjoy, not only living in Blackheath but also living
opposite Allen Togwell.....aaah just dreaming.
CONGRATULATIONS
May I congratulate you on being given a further three-year contract with
Call Sign. The magazine is now livelier, informative and does not hesitate
to address itself to controversial points. Although I no longer drive a
taxi, I still read the trade newspapers but I look forward to each issue
of Call Sign and especially enjoy your Editorial page - I almost feel as
if I am having a conversation with you! May your contract continued to be
renewed. Call Sign is now definitely the best magazine in the trade -
thanks to you.
M.A.Stanton
Ilford, Essex
As it happens, I've been looking for a good publicity agent...Ed
GOOD LUCK IN THE SAHARA, BOB
I have enclosed a cheque as a donation towards Bob Woodford's MND
appeal. I knew Paul Bishop through Dial-a-Cab and was upset to hear that
he had died so quickly after being diagnosed with MND.
My late mother and Paul were both in Oldchurch Hospital when Paul was
having tests and his MND diagnosed. Although they were in separate sides
of the same ward, Paul, my mum and myself used to have chats in the
Oldchurch patient's day room.
I wish Bob every success in the race and good luck with the appeal.
David Marks (R22)
You can read about Bob Woodford's last minute plans regarding his run
across the Sahara Desert elsewhere in Call Sign. This is also your last
chance to help Bob raise much-needed funds for Motor Neurone Disease. If
you |
would like to donate any
money to the appeal, make your cheque payable to Call Sign and send
it to Call Sign at Dial-a-Cab. And by the way, although he didn't want it
mentioned, I'd like to thank Call Sign's computer wizard Vince Chin who
has sponsored Bob's trainers at £75...Ed
A CORRECTION FOR TOM?
Please convey my apologies to Mr Whitbread for misquoting him as saying
that he advocated using minicabs for taxi work. However, it was actually
in the May 1999 edition of Call Sign - not July's - that he wrote:
"The Society may need to employ non-taxi drivers (?) at
a much lower rate for the limousines (?) to capture this work."
Sorry if I misinterpreted "non-taxi drivers" in a
limousine as a minicab driver in a car. I stand corrected. Perhaps Mr
Whitbread could clarify the terms so that I do not make any more mistakes
in the future.
Mark White (B86)
Tom Whitbread replies:
Thank you Mark, it takes a big man to apologise and I accept...
PARKING SCAMS - CONTINUED
Dear Alan,
Many thanks for sending me the correspondence from Brian McKenzie and
publishing the "Parking Scams Update" article (March Call Sign).
I am enclosing a copy of a letter I have sent to him. May I ask you to
print a letter in the next available Mailshot asking any members having
the same or similar parking problems, to send you the details. If you can
then send them on to me, I will keep them on file and if any of those that
I have written to contact me, I will have plenty of
information to give them.
As I have said to Brian, it may take a while to get results,
but we really do need to get something done.
Roy Martin (R42)
Anyone who has information that they would like passed onto Roy re
"parking scams", send them to Call Sign with a note asking for
them to be passed onto Roy Martin and we'll do the rest. Below is a copy
of the letter Roy sent to Brian McKenzie (A63)...Ed
Dear Brian,
Many thanks for the correspondence sent via Alan Fisher regarding the
parking tickets and well done for pursuing it to the Appeals Service. It
would be so easy to just pay up for a 'quiet life' but the job is hard
enough without adding fraud (which is what this is) to our problems.
I have only had an acknowledgement from the BBC's Watchdog
program, so I would imagine that we will get no coverage from them.
However, I have decided to write to The Commissioner at the Public
Carriage Office, the Fraud Squad at Scotland Yard (they may at least
advise us who else to contact) and most of the national newspapers. I
really can't see the point of writing to the local authorities involved -
they are obviously going to admit nothing.
I am sending Alan a copy of this letter and will ask him to
put a note in the next available Mailshot asking members to send details
of any further 'scam' tickets that are issued. If Alan then sends them to
me, I will have (hopefully) plenty of evidence should any of the above
contact me.
This may take a long time to get results, but I would suspect
that this is just the 'tip of the iceberg' and that it is probably not
only cab drivers that are being targeted.
Regards Roy.
As you will have read elsewhere in Call Sign, the Fraud Squad is now
involved...Ed
PRE-BOOKED CASH RIDES
I can understand the reasons that Brian (Rice) gave at the AGM for not
accepting pre-bookings for cash trips, but is it too much to ask that when
a cash trip is taken ASAP, that the call taker takes as much information
as possible in order to make things as easy as possible for the driver to
make contact at the point of pick-up and to complete the job. I do not
think that a street number is sufficient particularly in the City and West
End where a building may have several hundred people working in it and
often many different companies. Even more so as the client may just be
visiting the building.
My congratulations on your first three years.
Eddie Lambert (V27)
Your comments have been passed onto Melissa Khan who is the Senior
Training Co-ordinator and responsible for staff training...Ed
AND AGAIN...
As a driver who starts work early in the morning, I am very dismayed
at the decision not to take pre-booked cash rides anymore. I drive around
the Chelsea and Kensington areas most mornings and all I see is an ever
increasing use of mini-cabs whilst I can wait up to 2 hours for |
a radio job. In the past I have
found many early cash bookings to Eurostar, Gatwick Express etc to help
the meter click over, but now this work has dried up. While our trade is
entering uncertain times, I feel this move is very silly as all we are
doing is giving the scabs another slice of our work on a plate. When I
joined this society over 13 years ago, I did so believing that I would
receive both cash and account work. As we do not seem to advertise our
cash line anymore, this is now obviously not the case. I would like to
point out to the decision-makers that the current level of account work
will not last forever, so by getting rid of these customers now it will be
lost to the scabs forever. I hope other drivers have similar views and
this decision can be reversed.
B. Spear (Y16)
Allen Togwell replies:
Last months Call Sign printed a copy of a newspaper article which detailed
the story of a newly wedded couple who had sued a cab firm for failing to
honour a pre-booked cash trip. To be perfectly honest, I am surprised that
none of the three main licensed radio circuits in London has been sued
well before now for committing the same sin. Cash users, unlike our
account clients, do not sign service agreements debarring us from
liability in the event the cab doesn't arrive on time or at all. I have
been aware for a long time of the legal obligation when accepting
pre-booked cash rides and the amounts we could be sued for losses due, for
example, to flights being missed. Hence the reason we chose not to take
pre-bookings. But in taking this action, it doesn't necessarily mean we
lose the ride altogether because, when speaking to the client, we explain
that if they book the cab ASAP, not only is there a better chance of the
trip being covered but we can also tell them at the time of booking the
situation regarding the availability of cabs. And as a point of interest,
our coverage of cash trips has improved since suspending the pre-bookings.
THANKS FOR THE GOOD WISHES
I would be most grateful if you could insert in the next issue of Call
Sign a few words on my behalf thanking all at Dial-a-Cab - staff, drivers
and members of the BoM - for their good wishes and cards during my stay in
hospital. Quite often Trevor would be totally inundated with messages to
bring to me at the hospital! They were all gratefully received and I now
feel a great deal better. Thank you all...
Jeanette Clarke
Delighted to hear you are on the mend, Jeanette
PHOTO IDENTIFICATION
In the March Call Sign (page 15), you published an old photograph from
1967 that featured among others, Bill Tyzack, Sam Harris and Jack Taylor.
There were two people on the right hand side of the photo who you couldn't
identify. I recognised them instantly. The male was former Dial-a-Cab
driver Benny Landau (his call Sign was A99) and the lady was his wife
Bluma. I remember Benny well, as it was he that started me on the
Knowledge in 1960. Sadly, Benny died several years ago and I haven't seen
Bluma for some time, but she was well the last time I saw her.
Sid Gold (E20)
WESTMINSTER ACCOUNT
In the March Call Sign "Looking Back", I notice that the
numberplate is reading backwards! Is this a pun or did the PCO used to
pass cabs like that! (Thank you... I can't get away with anything...Ed)
On a more serious note, I was recently driving down Wilton Road SW1 on a
Saturday evening. There were lots of people milling around - some wanting
cabs. There was a man standing in the middle of the road trying to hail a
cab. On getting close to him, I noticed that he was leaning on a walking
stick. I had already got passengers in the cab but he didn't spot them and
as I approached, he spotted my DaC door logos and called out: Ah,
Dial-a-Cab, thank you..." Unfortunately I had to drive past. After
passing him, the lights changed to green and cars and buses were passing
either side of him. It was quite disturbing to see.
I then got to thinking - if it hasn't already been thought
of, could there not be in conjunction with the Westminster, a flat plastic
wallet about 4 by 3 inches with the DaC logo on it in a florescent colour
with a couple of Braille dots to represent the top of the wallet?
Cardholders could then stand on the pavement or at a rank and drivers
could easily spot them with headlights or streetlights picking out the
Day-Glo coloured logo. Just a thought...
Brian McKenzie (A63)
Your suggestion has been passed on to the relevant departments...Ed |
