Mick Garner And KPM
You can read more about the very sad death of Mick Garner (D1) elsewhere in this issue of Call Sign, however, I owe it to Mick to repeat something that I mentioned briefly in the last issue of this mag and something that Mick begged me not to forget. His sincere thanks to London taxi garage, KPM.
   We rarely hear of anything good said about taxi garages. Many of them contribute to trade charities and offer various forms of sponsorships, what we rarely hear about are good deeds done for no other motive than to help someone - in this case Mick Garner.
   Death is always a sad loss to someone and Mick's is undoubtedly a sad loss to his many friends on Dial-a-Cab. But as a hardened 30+ year veteran of this business, I was still surprised when Mick told me just a few days before entering hospital for what we all hoped would be a successful operation, just how much KPM had helped him - much of that help coming recently when they looked after his taxi while he was unable to drive it (the PCO had suspended his licence pending a successful outcome to his by-pass). According to Mick, there was no charge for any of the storage help KPM offered, they did it out of respect for a long-time customer.
Had Mick's operation been a success, no one would have really known quite how much KPM had helped because it certainly wasn't KPM who told us about it, it was Mick himself who was insistent that if I wrote about him, then it had to include his special thanks to Peter DaCosta and everyone at the garage.
   Tragically, Mick never made it, but I am making sure hat his last request has been carried out just as he asked. A huge thank-you from wherever Mick Garner is now to all his friends at KPM for their help and his undoubted appreciation to KPM Chairman Peter DaCosta and Director Keith Marder for their attendance at his funeral at just a few hours notice.

Email Intrigue
So you thought emails were private! The Government's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act allows their security agencies to access electronic communications that ISP's and telecoms have to intercept and store by law. In addition to email messages, that also includes web surfing tracks and fax transmissions. So we can't help but wonder just what MI5 thinks about the 237 entries for last months Call Sign Picture View competition, because some of the captions were so clever and humorous that we haven't yet stopped laughing. But, other than Mr Bond himself, we all know that security agencies are forbidden to smile...!

Syd And Michael Delew
Barely a week after the sad funeral of Mick Garner, a large crowd gathered at Waltham Abbey for the double stone setting of father and son Syd and Mickey Delew. When Mickey died on April 11 2001 at the young age of 37, many on DaC went into shock at the utter sadness of losing a driver/friend whom they knew so well. Then when his father, Syd - also a driver on this circuit - died on the date that Mickey's stone was due to be consecrated, the shock became totally overbearing.
On Sunday October 6, the pair were given a joint consecration. From all those many at DaC who knew them both so well, goodbye Mick and Syd, it was a pleasure knowing you both...

Toilet Message?
The DaC printing club have made themselves known again by putting posters at several prominent places including the toilet at Horseferry Road. The 
 

wording read: "No Sellout, No Lies, Greedy BoM must go." To give it an air of "authenticity", it included a black and white copy of the DaC logo. As the DaC Board are always trying to push our corporate ID, I don't suppose they can moan too much! However, whoever the perpetrators are, did you have to put it on the Horseferry Road urinals? When Call Sign went to take a pic following a "tip-off," we couldn't get close enough because of the awful pong. But perhaps that's what was so appealing to those behind the senseless effort. Senseless? Of course it is. Call Sign is the only in-house magazine of any London radio taxi organisation that gives drivers the opportunity of having their say, yet this person / people would rather aim their comments at those who use the toilet? Perhaps they just can't stand the idea of someone responding to their little piece of aimless literature? This magazine published a series of Q and A with the MD of the company who have made a bid for DaC. Not one driver asked any other questions, but as many drivers told me that the article helped explain the situation to them, I assume that means there are no more questions until such time as the forums come. However, anonymous comments such as those on the posters suggest that the writer either has no point of view or more probably just doesn't know how to express them. Pity, because all opinions are welcome...

LPG Fuel
This issue contains an article on the new Euro emissions regulations and the problems one of our drivers - "Chinese" Johnny Tsang - faced after converting to LPG. But in addition to that, one thing worries me; if we were to all convert to LPG and started to save fortunes on the low duty, how long would it be before the Government increased that duty? After all, HMG are forever telling us that they have to keep fuel duty increases in line with inflation because the money raised is so important to their coffers. Will they be happy to lose such large amounts? I don't think so...

Alan Fisher