Have you ever seen an editor tearing his hair out from the roots, well today was one of those days for the Editor of Call Sign. He had been chasing me for the past week to submit an article for the magazine, but due to the pressure of work I have had no time to sit and compose one. He came in today just as I was just finishing the 22^nd telephone call in four hours; this wasn’t including the others that were still waiting on my voice mail!

Important
All of these calls were important to the drivers or their wives that had phoned me. The problems varied from drivers who had not received their payments so they could pay their mortgages, problem jobs, drivers involved in crashes where the other driver had absconded, problem terminals, irate clients and drivers who had been hospitalised - to one who had sadly died. These were without the free ticket offers or the television company who needed a driver for film work.
   The callers all needed a satisfactory answer before I could continue to the next, each one who had a problem was 100% right in his or her own mind. Quite often they could not see the other persons’ right to complain until we discussed and dissected the situation.
   I have not been described as the most diplomatic person working for Dial-a-Cab, as I do not see the reason to waste both of our lives beating about the bush and trying to give the other person false hopes. I believe in telling the truth, whether it is a hard pill to swallow or not. If a driver tells me the truth from the beginning, I will do all in my power to help them out of a situation.
   If I think a driver is lying to me and bringing the Society into disrepute, I will sift through all the available evidence to prove a case one way or another. I have now had 12 years of experience of sorting out driver’s problems and I think that I can usually ascertain the situation after speaking to the driver.
   Some problems take longer than most drivers want to wait, but I may have to contact other parties and not all of them return telephone calls as fast as I would like, so please help me by having a little patience.
   I listen to drivers who think that they should be paid another £1 for

a fixed price job, although they did not go the shortest available route.  Or complaining that a client shouted at them, due to them probably having had a bad day in the office and then seeing our driver as the first available lone target.  

Pride of Britain
I come home and try to relax by listening to varied types of music mainly opera, recently I happened to watch a television programme about the bravery of English children and adults.
   The programme was titled “Pride of Britain”; it was a recording of an awards ceremony at the Hilton Hotel. The recipients included Charlie Harris a five-year-old who has learnt to walk again on artificial legs after having hers amputated due to meningitis.
   Michaela Brown aged nine, whose little brother fell from a first floor window as their house was turned into an inferno and as he hit the ground, he rolled back into the fire. Only thinking of her brother’s safety, she jumped after him breaking her ankle but continued to drag him out of the burning building to safety. 
   The 17-year-old young lady whose parents were told when she was born that she would never walk or talk. But she defied all odds, aged nine, and walked onto the Liverpool football pitch as their mascot. She then started to raise money for other unfortunate children. This was achieved by getting celebrities to put on stage shows as well as other fund raising activities. She sat in her wheelchair on the stage, £53,000 short of raising a million pounds. Within minutes of hearing her story, the celebrities led by Chris Evans with tears in his eyes, stood and pledged to give her the money so that she could reach her target.
   One adult, Ron Dowson, an Arsenal supporter jumped down onto the tracks at Leicester Square underground station to drag a man trying to commit suicide to safety. This was as a train entered the station and screeched to a halt at the point 

where they both were. He then went to see Arsenal win their match and forgot to tell his mother when he went home.  

Not as Hard as I Thought…
The audience of heroes and celebrities were reduced to tears with these acts of bravery. I must admit that many people have called me hard and callous, but for only the second time that I can recall in my life, I also was reduced to a blubbering insignificant human being.
   The next time you moan, groan, rant or rave to your wife, husband or myself about a little problem that has upset you, just remember these people and see if you think it is justified to get yourself upset when you have your health and are able to go out to work and lead a normal life.

Tom Whitbread