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BALLS AND THE PCO?
At last someone has had the balls to publish just what is going on at the PCO (Editorial, April Call Sign). I was a victim of their work-to-rule at the beginning of  March, which through their pettiness cost me dearly. Over the years, I have had respect for the workings of the PCO (31 years in total) and that has now been destroyed in ten short minutes. A new cab every three years? No more! In fact the TX!! That I had on order has now been cancelled. Let's see if they like the next model of cab that I present better than my previous TX1, which they nit-picked until finally producing a stop note listing several minor defects.
   As regards waiting to be seen, I am sure that having to wait in an underground car park without any ventilation must contravene health and safety regulations. In addition, I assume that the 'no smoking' rule is for drivers only as I saw Carriage Officers walking along the ramp and smoking.
   I conclusion, I have never seen so much frustration and anger at the PCO from drivers and garages presenting taxis for inspection. If things change, it will only be for the better, the PCO are still living in the past and at £30K+ for a new cab, there is no room for this nonsense. May I recommend a standard MOT as the annual inspection?
Stuart Benjamin (B10)
Thanks for the letter Stuart. As you know, the PCO are now trying to cut down the backlog that they themselves were responsible for causing. The problem was that, as I said in that Editorial, their cause was just but that they were punishing the wrong people. We were just innocent bystanders ...Ed

TAXI SECURITY
After reading the April Call Sign and the item headed Safety, Security and Surveillance: Learn from what happened to Dial-a-Cab's Stan Carter, it got me wondering how the Board would feel about subsidising the fleet with a system similar to that advertised on pages 28 and 29? I feel that this could be a major coup on behalf of DaC, as we would be the circuit that cares about driver and passenger safety. This could also be incorporated into any sales pitches and/or tenders that were forthcoming. I think we could be the envy of every other taxi circuit, as I can't see them being in a position to do anything similar.
   Alex Constantinou (N05)
Brian Rice replies: Anything that enhances the safety of our members and their passengers must be a good thing, however, I have made some enquiries about the product you suggest and to equip the DaC fleet would cost in the region of £1.5m, something that we cannot afford at the moment.

SAFETY IN TAXIS
Sorry I jumped the gun in asking people on the Internet to checkout your safety and security article Sir (April Call Sign). Got pretty excited when I saw it in the magazine and well, the rest is history! Maybe I need to calm down and count to 10 first! Sorry if I caused you any inconvenience Sir. Great job you did on it...
James L.Szekely Sr.
International Taxi Drivers' Safety Council
Spokane, Washington, USA
No problem Jim, delighted that  you approved ...Ed

WHAT'S YOUR CALL SIGN?
I've recently been in serious road traffic accident but thankfully came out of it okay. It took me three days of being in a sort of daze before wanting to get back to work. Luckily I'm able to use a friend of mine's cab fitted for DaC on a night-time basis, but to my surprise I have encountered a number of small, but annoying anomalies with our prized computer system.
   In my friend's cab, I had a voice query and pressed the usual buttons. Imagine my surprise when patiently waiting to hear my call sign, I heard my dayman's call sign being called before the penny dropped. Even though I sign on with my badge number - which is unique to me as yours is to you - the host computer will only recognise me as the on board terminal's registered call sign. Nobody told me this would happen and apparently I'm the only one who didn't know!   Anyway, is it not somehow possible to have ones call sign recognised by his or her badge number? Even though I sign on with my badge number, the host computer does not recognise that I am not in my regular taxi and that my personal attributes are different. To explain better, I have opted out of accepting wheelchairs because of my own disability, which prevents me from pushing a wheelchair.  However, this is not recognised in the new taxi terminal and so it offers me jobs I cannot undertake. When I telephoned the Drivers Services department,  I was told this was because the wheelchair is a 'taxi attribute' and not a 'drivers preference attribute'. Now I don't understand this because all taxis since January 2000 are wheelchair accessible. You don't therefore need it to be a taxi attribute anymore, but not all drivers are able to do wheelchair rides for whatever reason. Where double team taxis are concerned, one driver may be able to offer wheelchair service and the other may not. It should therefore be a 'driver preference attribute' not a 'cab attribute'. Is this not possible?
   Also, the review facility will show both drivers' jobs at the same time, whether he signs in or I do. Again I did not know this and I know all you have to do is to delete all your job's in the review, but is it not possible to have a separate memory? There are occasions when I need to keep some job information for a later query and don't want my dayman to see my work any more than he wants me to see his. When my daughter uses computers at university, she signs in with her personal password (which is like our badge number) and no matter what computer terminal she uses in any building, it recognises her and all her preferences and does not let anyone else see her work.
   The dispatchers tell that all this is correct and that's the way it is. But computers and terminals are only responding to the way they have been programmed. Is it at all possible to make any of the above changes? I'm sure it would be of benefit to DaC drivers who use other DaC driver's cabs from time to time for overhauls, repairs and other circumstances.
   Apart from that the new terminal certainly does make my day that much easier...
David Ammar (L75)
Brian Rice replies: Sorry to hear that you were involved in an RTA, David, I hope you are now fully recovered. Regarding your letter, you are in fact correct; we do have two sets of attributes, one for the cab and one for the driver and if you think about it, that is how it should be. How can a 'driver' have a logo or six-seater attribute? That must belong to the vehicle. Equally, how can a vehicle have a fixed price or credit card attribute? That must belong to the driver. However, I do take your point about the wheelchair facility, that has always been a cab attribute but now that all cabs are wheelchair accessible, it could be a driver attribute. However, for the number of wheelchair trips we carry out, I do not believe that it is paramount to change it; after all you can always reject the trip. On the point of reviewing 'old' trips, I do not believe it is much of a hardship to delete your own trips after you have finished your shift. I am sorry that you find these attributes annoying, but I believe they are justified and after all where do we stop?

THANKS ALEX
I would like to inform you of a very kind act from a lady driver on Dial-a-Cab whose name I believe, was Alex. On Friday 22 March, my 80 year old aunt was discharged from the Middlesex Hospital in Mortimer Street at around 5pm. Using her Westminster TaxiCard, she called Dial-a-Cab and along came Alex. At my aunt's flat in Clipstone Street, Alex carried my aunt's bags upstairs for her and my aunt then paid her the fare and also gave her a tip as she was delighted to have had some welcome assistance.
   Alex then asked how long my aunt had been in hospital and when she said four weeks, Alex immediately went downstairs to the BP garage next door and bought some milk and bread etc for her and then refused to accept any money for it! The hospital had sent my aunt home early with very little notice and we were still on our way down there from Stanmore, unable to get there to meet her and to stock up her flat with provisions. So we are extremely grateful to Alex for her kindness.
   Would you please pass on the enclosed voucher to Alex to say a big thank you...
Carol Alexander
Stanmore, Middx
Thank you for taking the time to write. Praise is always welcome and of course, well done Alex Crump (H55) for maintaining our excellent reputation. Just so long as this isn't a plot to rename DaC as the Gentleman's AND Ladies circuit! ...Ed

BODYWORLDS
I recently visited the  

SELLING OURSELVES SHORT?
In reply to the letter from George Wilson (April Call Sign), I, like many others are wary of outside companies trying to buy into our business and take the cream for themselves. I have always thought that we as taxi drivers have sold ourselves short, how many successful companies stick to one product? We need to be more diverse. When Brian Rice became Chairman and was a passenger in my cab, we talked about my views. I believe that we should be operating a complete transport system to offer our clients: Knowledge Boys on bikes, employed drivers in OUR vans, trucks and dare I say it, Limos...!
   I joined this trade in 1985 and we should have been looking in that direction even then, but we have buried our heads in the sand thinking: "We are London taxi drivers - the world owes us a living...!" Well wake up guys! During the last ten years, minicabs have overtaken us in the running of their businesses. Mr Wilson says that our work will disappear to bikes and limos etc. Well hands up those of you that have done any good delivery jobs lately or perhaps had a "roader?"  I bet that not too many hands are going up. I would have certainly got a different response ten years ago; you'd all have had a story to tell.
   To get our transport company going will, of course, take investment and this is where we all come in. We are all members of this Society with one share each, so why don't we invest some money into setting it up?  Once up and running, this would create much greater profits for our company and some of that profit could be paid out to the  members as a dividend, annual bonus or call it whatever you like for all I care, so long as it's mine! I don't know about you, Mr  Wilson, but I would be quite happy doing the local work (as I am now) knowing that my employees were servicing all the clients' transport needs and that I was
getting a share of the benefits.
Mr Rice, you are intelligent enough to realise that we need to expand and move forward just to keep up. So stop messing around with third parties and start looking closer to home. The amount of money generated in this industry is huge and if we put ours to better use, we can achieve anything; but we always erect barriers...
   So I say let's not concentrate too hard on our history, but on our future.
Andy Cannell (S61)
Buy our own company? Interesting, but I wonder how many drivers would be interested in putting up the large amount of dosh required. Let Call Sign know if you think the idea is brilliant or silly...Ed

JEWISH HOLIDAYS AND STANLEY FRANKEL...!
Thank you for publishing my letter (Fixed Prices, Mailshot March 2002). By doing so you have encouraged me to write more. I really appreciated the reply from Mr Moll (K35) and I certainly didn't mind the gentle dig he gave me, or for that matter, your little bit at the end. I took your response as a bit of a compliment coming from you. I am enclosing another work of literary genius, which I hope you can publish, if not I will ask the CO's to pop round again. Here we go...
   In response to John Able's letter (Religious Holidays, April Mailshot), I can understand that not knowing the dates of Jewish holidays and festivals, leaves him at a disadvantage by not knowing of the precise days when to go to work. He is quite correct in saying that there will be a reduced number of cabs on the road during the Jewish New Year
and Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and with this in mind, 
   

TOM'S FARE INCREASE?
The general tone of Tom Whitbread's 'personal' views on the fares increase (April Call Sign) are that the increase is too high and not appropriate at this time (was/is there ever an appropriate time?). He suggests that in order to survive we need to compete with unlicensed vehicles and to appease our account customers by giving them more fixed (ie under the meter) prices. He also thinks we need a reasonably priced vehicle, obviously not our present choices. He then asks: "Has the  Mayor a hidden agenda?" My question is, has Tom Whitbread got a hidden agenda?
   Let's start from the beginning; the problem was that the differential between day and night time cab fares was not enough to persuade enough drivers to work anti-social hours to satisfy public transport needs in one of  Europe's greatest cities, with its wonderful night life. Public transport reacted by putting on all-night buses from Trafalgar Square to almost everywhere.   They paid their drivers more for working anti-social hours. Since taxi drivers are basically small business entrepreneurs, many of us have reacted by working later despite the increasing danger and in a capitalist democracy, that is how the market works, many drivers have not changed their working methods and that is their choice. Just as the customer always has a choice either to ride with us or someone else.
   No one is being cheated by a metered taxi fare, as Tom suggests, and the suggestions that others and I are 'cheating' the public is highly insulting and demands an apology. People like Tom's daughter also have a choice; to go into the West End or stay local, whatever choice they exercise, it is not my responsibility to ensure her cheap, safe return home in the small hours. If she gets into my cab, I will happily discharge that responsibility (I always wait until female passengers have opened their front door before driving away), but the cost to me and the rest of the trade from increased charges for fuel, insurance, overhauls, depreciation on my investment, down time as a self employed person, is only now being adequately remunerated, and as someone with more than 40 years experience, I know what I'm talking about.
So Tom, if the fares are high enough to allow us to keep a specialist vehicle whose appearance and quality have saved the cab trade from disappearing as a recognisable entity and part of London's uniqueness, and to have a reasonable standard of living, where in a Capitalist society that you endorse is the problem? Am  I being cynical if I find a call for sympathy for the costs of sons and daughters getting cheaply and safely home at night, synonymous with the apparent paramount interest of keeping certain account clients on board at a time when the Board is considering purchasing private cars and possibly staffing them with non-licensed drivers, while simultaneously considering an approach from an outside agency seeking an overriding majority share-holding in our company?  Does anyone need reminding that we live in a capitalist society, the ruthlessness of which has been exposed by reports from our financial pages and from America of blatant exploitation of ordinary peoples investments by many companies whose names are very familiar to us. Am I being invited to subsidise these companies and their people, while at the same time changing the character of our unique trade?
Jon Tremlett (Y32)
Just as you are entitled to your opinion Jon, Tom Whitbread is entitled to his - and he does say that those opinions are purely his. As for "cheating," he doesn't accuse anyone of doing that, but points out that when he speaks to clients, friends, drivers and street passengers about the increase, the tone "gets to one of being cheated." Why should he have to apologise for passing on the comments of others? Other than that, Jon, the rest is your view, which you are entitled to have and which I am happy to publish. But I have to say that although I have publicly said (as you can read in TAXI!!!) that I was wrong in thinking that the fare increase would damage us, and therefore my view differs from Tom's, it differs from yours even more Jon. Your view seems to be that it's up to the passenger if they want to use us, you are not going to do anything to encourage them (other than making sure that women safely enter their home before you drive off). I disagree with that view and believe that no one is purely going to keep using us because we are there, we have to work at it. But that is my opinion to which I hope that I too am entitled ... Ed

A MESSAGE TO TOM...
In view of the fact that Tom Whitbread doesn't drive a cab at night anymore, I don't think he has been able to see the full picture re the tariff increase. The object of the exercise was to put more cabs on the street at night and this has been achieved. We have won back loads of work from the touts, people are happy that they are able to get a cab and hardly anybody mentions the fare increase anymore. I think this fare rise was long overdue given the problems we used to encounter with night work.
   I don't think there is ever a good time or a bad time to bring in an increase; we have to just take it when it comes. I also don't believe we have to run a cheap service just because some people can't afford it.
M.Madden (Y97)

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