You can also email your letters to: callsignmag@aol.com

STAFF OUTINGS
I would like to voice my opinion on the subject of staff outings ("Why there are Staff Outings" - December 2001 Call Sign). While I wholly agree with the concept of team building and good relations with staff and clients, I believe team spirit among drivers (DaC's biggest asset) is possibly more important that with any other group. If some drivers were to be involved, there could be many benefits to our company. It would give drivers an empathy with others in our organisation - whether drivers, BoM, staff and even clients. It would be an effective, informal way to sound our thoughts, problems and views in a friendly atmosphere. It would also stop any driver's feelings of exclusion...
Jon Trevor (W44)
Keith Cain replies: I think it would be an excellent idea. I did state in my article regarding the paintball day that next time we have a similar day, the staff may wish to challenge a group of drivers. I went on to say (with tongue in cheek?) they would not be holding their breath for fear a driver's team could not be established. From our experience, we have found that drivers have been reluctant to give up their time. However, being negative does not resolve the point. Should other days be arranged, I will certainly keep Jon's sentiments in mind.

DEMOCRACY AND CALL SIGN
As someone who has taken a keen interest in all the trade's papers over more than 30 years, may I agree whole-heartedly with your Editorial of January, wherein you state that Call Sign is the most democratic magazine in the trade. I include in that the 'TAXI' of the 1970's when I worked closely with Maurice Levinson, undoubtedly in my opinion, the finest editor this trade has ever seen. Of course, to have a democratic magazine what is really needed, at the risk of sounding like a creep, is a Board of Management who also believe in democracy and I believe that at a DaC we are the envy of all other trade organisations, for Call Sign is, in my view the ONLY democratic trade magazine.
   In the same issue, we were treated to a photo of Mike Son wearing his LTFUC hat donating riding tack to Charlton Park Riding School for the Disabled.   As a regular helper at this R.D.A. branch for a number of years, it gives me an added sense of pride each time I tack up Dizzy,
when seeing yet another fine example of the good work carried out by my colleagues.
   Finally, if any local DaC member has a couple of hours to spare on a weekday morning, Charlton Park are always seeking new helpers. I promise you can't spend a more rewarding couple of hours.
Terry Hamston (B24)
Thanks for the letter Terry. I'm not sure that everyone realises the amount of charity work this trade is involved with and how many of the workers within those charities who are involved with Dial-a-Cab...Ed

WITH OR WITHOUT VAT...?
I keep noticing at various taxi establishments that the goods and services on offer are generally unclear when it comes to the question of VAT. I know for example that when you take your cab into a garage and an estimate is given, the VAT element is rarely mentioned - could it be just to keep their verbal estimate as low as possible? It is only when the driver receives the bill does he then find the required VAT added. Apart from this and especially where a driver pays for any repairs or parts by cheque and even occasionally when paying by cash, VAT is added at the end but rarely commented on. It is something that I recommend all drivers check on when making any purchase of goods or enquiring about an overhaul or service.
   Some trade people do include VAT in all their prices and indicate this on their tariff, but unfortunately they are in the minority as the vast number of traders do not. This latter bunch give the impression that their goods or services are cheaper than their competitors by only showing or quoting their prices before the tax is added-on, possibly bordering on misrepresentation. I have also noticed a full page trade advertisement in another magazine which is quite impacting with it's various bold offers, items and prices, but when reading it thoroughly, which possibly the average person tends not to do, at the extreme bottom of the advertisement it states in small lettering: "Excluding VAT".
Ronald S. Colman (J09)

TO SURF OR NOT TO SURF...?
As a licensed London Taxi driver and new owner of my first computer I decided to 'surf the web' and look at the three main circuits websites, when I 'hit' yours. I was totally shocked to find not one, but two articles on the meter increase for night men denouncing its implementation and also giving a price comparator! Have you not thought that this is playing right into the hands of the 'little' people? These sites are available for every one to see worldwide!   Whatever your thoughts are on this subject, don't you think a site paid for by your members (of whom the majority are in favour of this increase) is the wrong way to go about announcing them? I suggest that you delete these articles asap.
   If you really want to know how to construct a good website, then may I point you to our good friends at www.addisonlee.co.uk. who once again seem to be showing us the way forward (and not shooting themselves in the foot in the process).
David Abel
Licensed Taxi Driver
Thank you for your input, David, and welcome to the Internet. Call Sign has been online for over four years and yes, we do have many taxi driving readers around the world who have little or no access to information. Over the years many have complimented this magazine on its truthfulness and honesty and if that includes articles against the increase, then so be it. However, I notice that in your comments you fail to mention the letters we also published from drivers in favour of the increase. That, David, is called democracy and if you don't like it, then perhaps towards your "good friends" at Addison Lee is the direction that you should be looking. So I'm afraid that I shall not be acting on your advice... Ed

DELICIOUS DONNA
As a regular reader of Call Sign on the 'net and a cab driver in Baltimore (the city that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner), I compliment you on the ongoing saga featuring your 'shooting star' Ms Donna Merry. Her achievements in winning medals at the World Shooting Championships in Texas (December and January Call Sign) must make you guys real proud. Add to that her great looks and you have an asset that you should share with us colonials! How about a shot of Donna in a more 'off-duty' pose?
Andreas Kostermanciou
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Sorry pal, if you're asking what I think you're asking, then the answer is no! Besides,
Donna's boy friend won 'gold' in the same World Championships for his shooting abilities,
so I'd be very careful!...Ed

RUDE EDITOR
Thank you for printing my letter (Jan 2002 Call Sign). Could you tell me why you or a Board Member did not answer my letter? How many jobs per terminal or how many jobs is each radio doing per year? Why did you come back with a sarcastic remark? It is a very important question. I don't know you, but you seem to be a very rude person. If you don't like your job then leave, but don't take it out on me. Also, can you print the number of jobs that were despatched from the 20 December to 1 January.
P.Levene (B21)
Firstly, I can't answer letters of this nature because I am not privy to information such as that which you require, therefore it has to come from a 

LTFUC AND DIAL-A-CAB
The January Call Sign was first class but I hope you wont mind me just commenting on a few items. Firstly, congratulations to Michael Son on becoming Chairman of the Underprivileged Children's Fund. He has a hard act to follow, but I'm sure he will do a fine job. Incidentally, the Fund's connection with ODRTS becomes even more astonishing the further back you go. When I went on my first outing, no less a personage than our first Chairman Bonnie Martyn was on the committee and in charge of the convoy throughout the trip. The late Joe Assenheim, a Board member from the very early days, also led the convoy for years. Yet another Board Member, the
late Danny Silvern, also served on the committee while in the 60s, my very good friend Monty Grant (then-L12) was Treasurer and an excellent one too. So, ever since the founding of the circuit there has been this strong connection. In fact in 1954, the ODRTS dispatcher on duty at our Pentonville Road office was linking up with the outing Marshall and the radio cabs in the convoy. Unfortunately, there were no mobile phones in those days!
   That 1963 price list in 'Flashback' brought back some memories too; I can only recall doing a few airport rides, but I do remember that the price to LAP from Earls Court was £1:15s (£1.75 or 3 Euros) - boy have things changed! If a porter rang us from a hotel, that would cost the driver another half a crown (12.5p). There was no M4 in those days, but invariably there was a chance that we could get a credit from our new account, the BBC at Brentford Studios in Windmill Road to the Lime Grove or Wood Lane Studios, or perhaps Ealing to Ally Pally. So you see, we could make a reasonable living...
   Onto Alan Green's article on Walt Disney; the man must have raised a few eyebrows, yes, he was brilliant in his field but was also, in my humble opinion, not a very nice person. I rank him in the same league as Howard Hughes. During the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994, my wife Martha and I visited the Normandy beaches, we have some lovely friends who ran a hotel at Ouisterham, (Sword Beach). That particular year we decided to visit all 5 beaches starting with the disastrous Omaha landing and right on to Utah, Arromanch, Courselles and Ouisterham. During the journey, we noticed a little village called Isigney and I have had it on good authority that is where the Disney ancestors came from!
   I also wish I was a few years younger, then perhaps I would be a lot more knowledgeable on computers and be able to understand Vince Chin's and Tom Carter's articles! I do hope I'm not alone in being a bit backwards on the old PC. Must be old thicko here!
   May I also take this opportunity of wishing all on DaC and their families a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year.
Sam Harris (S09)
Mike Son replies: Sam, may I take this opportunity to thank you most sincerely for your kind wishes on my new role as Chairman of the LTFUC. Having information about those that supported the Fund from the distant past is of immense interest, especially now more than ever, due to the fact we celebrate 75 years of the Fund's activities in 2003. However, as you indicated in your letter, so many that helped in the early days of the charity have passed on. The only source of information we have is from people such as yourself. This is so valuable and I thank you. I am pleased to tell you that we have produced our third News Letter and this is proving to be very interesting and valuable when promoting the activities the committee undertake throughout the year. An LTFUC Web Site has just been constructed and is also gaining interest; the address is www.ltfuc.org.uk .If you have some spare time, perhaps you would like to send me some more history on the Fund. My email is: chairman@ltfuc.org.uk. Once again, my grateful thanks...

WELCOME BACK JIM
By the time you read this I shall be back behind the wheel after 10 months off the road. It has been a difficult and traumatic time, but at least now I am as fit as I will ever be. How lucky can one be? I had a cancerous growth attached to my left kidney, which has been removed together with the kidney with no further treatment needed.
   Although I wrote directly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Board again for the flowers and fruit we received when I advised them of my illness.
   But my biggest thanks must go to all of you for the get well cards received, too many to reply to individually and the continued telephone calls of support and messages of encouragement from the regulars of the Finsbury Square rank.
   Hopefully before long, I shall be back marshalling the stations and look forward to the abuse when you get a local job and of course the inevitable complaints, please do not hold back because I have been ill! It all adds to the enjoyment of the job and keeps Allan Evans and Tom Whitbread in work, although I understand Lou has kept them busy anyway!
   Seriously, I could not work with a nicer lot and we both appreciate all that has been done for us. Sincere thanks once again and I hope to see you all on the road soon.
Be lucky...
Jim Pullum (C31)
Delighted to see you back Jim...Ed

VIEW OF LONDON TAXIS FROM SAN FRANCISCO
You might be interested in the following for Call Sign. I had a passenger from London in the cab today. I should say that she was a 30ish, intelligent woman, a white collar worker, as that may have some bearing on her viewpoint. On the way to the airport, we got to talk about ye auld London cabs, with me asking what her opinion of them was and also what she thought of the minicabs. I'd say she gave black cabs four stars.
   Of course the driver could be counted on to know exactly how to get to anywhere you wanted to go, whereas the minicabs often did not even know major landmarks. With the black cab you felt perfectly safe, but not so with the minicab driver who was unlicensed, uninsured, etc.
   Asked whether it was hard to get a cab, she said it was sometimes hard on Friday and Saturday nites around midnite, but otherwise, no.
   I asked her if she would take a minicab when there wasn't a black cab around, and she said never. I didn't ask and she didn't say anything about them being expensive.
Denny Kiernan
San Francisco, USA
Thanks Denny, always interesting to get views on London from the other side of the
proverbial pond ... Ed

REMEMBER ME...?
I am an ex-Dial-a-Cab driver living in Spain. I read the magazine every month on the Internet trying to keep in touch. I noticed in the December issue a mention of Joe Brazil (K16) who  I think I used to meet at the PCO when we were on the Knowledge together about 24yrs ago. We got our Green badges on the same day and I have not seen him since! If he remembers me, could you please give him my email address? I can't remember my call sign, but Mike Son also knows me.
   Thanks for a very interesting read...
Sam Stuart,
Torrevieja, Spain
Pleased you enjoy reading about your old circuit Sam, but sorry to say you have the wrong Joe Brazil. This Joe only passed out last year...Ed

ARE TAXI TRADE CHARITIES WORTH THE BOTHER?
When out and about talking to Taxi drivers, I hear all the different cries about the Taxi trade charities: "Some of the kids don't deserve it"; "I don't take my own kids out so why should I take someone else's kids out for the day"; "most of those kids look perfectly normal and there's nothing wrong with them, why should I lose a days money to take them out?" The excuses and cries go on, so let's see if we can address some of these issues by relaying some of the children's stories to you from my own perspective, being on the committee of the Albany.
   I can honestly say that from my own experience attending various outings with different charities that the men and women on these committee's work extremely hard giving their time completely free. I have heard all the stories of fiddling and the like, but from my experience most of these individuals would put their hands in their own pockets rather than take money from within the charities funds, and this I have seen happen on many occasions. I must say that my hat goes off to all the people involved with these outings.
   The children that are taken on  these outings are all very special in one way or another. I'm sure that we all consider our own children to be very special, but I hope that most of you are blessed with perfectly healthy children with stable and happy home lives and we all hope that our children live a long and fruitful life as most of them do. With some of the children that these charities try to help, the illness or disability is easily visible with them being in wheelchairs or their mental state making it obvious as to what sort of illness they have.     Unfortunately, many illnesses and problems are not as visible to the onlooker and many of these children never reach
adulthood.
   Two years ago I was lucky enough to attend the Company of Hackney Carriage drivers annual outing to Disneyland Paris. The children who were assigned to my Taxi were a little girl aged 8 and a boy of 12 along with their mother. Looking at the children, it was very hard to see anything wrong with either of them, in fact I could not decide which of the two was actually ill if either. I eventually plucked up the courage and asked the mum which of the children was ill, she told me that it was the little girl who was suffering from Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and was nearing the end of her 2 years and 3 months of treatment which consisted of chemotherapy and regular lumber punctures.   Her brother was perfectly healthy so many of you may ask why should he have been on the trip?  Well even though it was the girl that was ill he also suffered due to being pushed from pillar to post, staying with friends and relatives while his mum stayed in hospital with his sister. Basically he has been deprived of a normal upbringing due to his sister's illness. Both children thoroughly enjoyed the journey in the Taxi and the time spent in Disney, they both made so many friends on the trip and felt it was something that they would never forget. It was probably one of the best trips of their lives. Unfortunately the little girl relapsed in August 2001 which means that she will have to undertake a further 2 1/2 years or chemotherapy, radiotherapy and regular lumber puncture's. After the initial upset, she asked her mum: "Does this mean that I can go to Disney with the Taxi's again?" When I first met these children, the little girl looked like any other of her age, happy go lucky and jumping around like a normal 8 year old, the boy was very quiet which I have since learned is typical of children who have a sibling who is seriously ill because it affects them emotionally and psychologically.  My point in the story is never to judge a book by its cover. The child could have all sorts of problems ranging from cancer or some other serious illness to those that are sexually and physically abused by their parents or guardians, but this is not always visible to the onlooker.
   Last year when attending the trip to Disney, the child that was assigned to my Taxi had to pull out at the last minute after becoming very ill the day before we left. I spent the day with another driver and the family that he had assigned to him. The little girl suffered from all sorts of problems including Leukaemia, lung, kidney and heart problems. She really enjoyed the weekend including the Taxi journey and the day spent in Disney. The driver bought her a special princess dress which she wore to the dinner in Disney that evening, she made many friends that weekend and seemed to have an effect on everyone that came into contact with her - especially the ambulance men. Unfortunately on her return home, she was admitted to hospital with heart and lung problems. I was lucky enough to be able to visit her whilst she was in the Royal Marsden where she spoke of nothing else other than her trip to Disney with the Taxi drivers. This trip had really enhanced this little girl's life and her mum said that it was the best time that the little girl had ever had. Sadly she passed away in late November. The trip to Disney was the last thing that she was able to actively take part in.
   I feel extremely proud to have been involved with the Company of Hackney Carriage drivers outing to Disney and would like to personally congratulate everyone involved with the organisation of it. To have been a small part in making these children happy, if only for a weekend and see the smile on these children's faces makes the whole effort and the time spent really worthwhile.
   Once a month I attend the Albany's meetings; we regularly receive requests from children's parents asking for help in some way or another. This can range from their child wanting to come on one of our outings, to requesting financial help to purchase a piece of equipment like electric wheelchairs or computer equipment to help the child communicate with others.   Our funds are fairly tight and we usually send a token donation to help them along the way to their eventual aim, but we are always saying if only we had more funds available to us then we could help so many children in different ways. On our outings we try to take as many children as we can accommodate which is usually around 200. The excitement and happiness can be seen by just looking at the children. This makes all the hard work for our committee worthwhile and we
know from the comments that the drivers enjoy the day just as much as the children. All these outings organised by the trade charities are extremely worthwhile and rewarding for both the children and the drivers who take part. So if you can spare the time, which usually amounts to one day out of your working year or even to help raise the much needed funds to support these charities that make these trips possible, then please do. It should be remembered that each child is individual and as I said earlier, the problem is not always visible. You can help and really make a difference to one of zxthese unfortunate children's lives by taking part and supporting the Taxi trade charities.
Jamie Owens (S67)
Jamie is Vice Chairman and PRO of the Albany taxi charity and one of many taxi trade charity workers on Dial-a-Cab, all of whom do amazing work when you consider that they do not get paid. If you would like to help in any way, please let Call Sign know and we will pass your name on...Ed

Febuary 2002 Call Sign Home Page

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