It's Monday June 22nd and as I sit at the word processor staring into space knowing that in ten days from now this magazine will be dropping into your letterboxes, I'm wondering just what to write. As you know, Call Sign publishes eleven issues a year and unlike previous years when the February issue dropped out, this February contained the AGM so I decided that as many of you go away at around this time of year, the July edition would be the missing one. So it was important that I said everything that I wanted to say or else keep it under wraps for two months! So here goes...
Fuel Increase
I don't have much more venom to direct onto fuel increases.
I've said several times that I feel the petrol companies and HM Government
are ripping us off, but as no one else seems to care, I've become the same
as them. The trade press has stayed remarkably quiet on the subject and I
do not have a fraction of their clout.
So I'm just passing the following on for interest: The 2p a
litre (9p a gallon) increase on Friday 19th May was due (so I am told) to
the falling pound. They tell me that the pound was too high anyway (yet
another load of bunkum, just because we do well, we have to hope that the
pound goes through a crisis? Rubbish).
Anyway, back to the fuel increase, can anyone show me where
the fuel companies consistently dropped their prices when the pound was
getting stronger? No, I thought not.
The following comes from the June 1999 Call Sign. I wrote in
the 2000 price as a guess and several drivers told me that it was rubbish.
They were right; it should have been 81.9...!
1st June 1994 -
48.9p per litre £2.20 per gallon
1st June 1995 -
51.9p per litre £2.33 per gallon
1st June 1996 -
51.9p per litre £2.33 per gallon
1st June 1997 -
54.9p per litre £2.47 per gallon
1st June 1998 -
65.9p per litre £2.96 per gallon
1st June 1999 -
72.9p per litre £3.28 per gallon
1st June 2000 -
???? 80.0p per litre ???? £3.60 per gallon ????
Fixed Prices
The subject of fixed prices fascinates me. In my real job of
driving a licensed taxi, I am registered for accepting fixed price trips.
Very occasionally I've been lumbered and just as occasionally I've had a
cracking result, but for 95% of the time, the fixed price equates closely
with the fare.
I recently spoke to a friend of mine who works in a large
City company that use us and also minicabs - mainly for longer trips,
although these are not too frequent.
I asked him if the clients had specially requested the cars
for longer trips and the answer was that some preferred a car, but most
just got into whatever was ordered. I also asked whether cost came into it
and the answer was a big yes. We were perceived as being much more
expensive on long trips, yet no one had even bothered asking us.
I remember last year being in the reception of a large account that use
DaC, but also use cars for longer trips. I was standing next to DaC driver
Bernie Silver (G8) and the receptionist was just
ordering a car to go to Glasgow.
We asked if they had thought of using a taxi and the answer was
that we were too expensive on very long trips. They usually phoned three car
companies and took the cheapest quote. So we got him to phone DaC for a
fixed price quote ... and he was right, but only just. Out of the three car
quotes, only one was cheaper than we were and that wasn't by too much
either.
Now back to the first company. I asked for an example of a long
trip price and was told that they had just sent someone to Leeds for £400.
I have now convinced them that it is worth phoning DaC as well, we may not
always be cheaper, but we are close and may well be cheaper on occasions.
So if any of you have the time and are happy to do fixed price
trips, perhaps you could write to me at Call Sign and tell me whether you
would go to Leeds for £400? Or was I being silly...?
Fare Increase
Call me naïve, but it seems to me as though the DETR, in their
last bash at taxi fare increases, have said to the trade that, yes, you can
have 6 % but you have to have it on the back end even though you really need
it on the front. Can anyone out there understand that logic? We are too
cheap at the flagfall and too expensive once you get over 10 miles. So why
did the DETR do it? We didn't want it that way. The LTDA didn't want it that
way. The LTB didn't want it that way. So who did... and why?
Happy Birthday Bonnie
From all at DaC and Call Sign, a very happy birthday to our
founder Chairman Bonnie Martyn who is still bouncing around like a youngster
even though he recently celebrated his 91st birthday. Congratulations
Bonnie...
And as a reminder, Call Sign will be back in August.
