Dial-a-Cab Attacked By Pirates!
Over the past 6 months, many of you may have experienced some bad
reception from your radios, occasionally causing problems with data
transmissions. With the help of Motorola, BT and the DTI, I have been trying to
improve this situation.
We have an aerial site at Townsend Yard off Highgate High
Street, which acts as both our voice and a data channel. We have now discovered
that this site is not as secure as we thought and that intruders have been
accessing the mast for pirate radio stations! These pirates gain access and put
their repeater stations on the mast using the site owner's electricity. When we
have a problem, I contact either our Motorola engineer or the DTI Radio
Agencies who go to the aerial site and rip out the illegal equipment, but it is
often replaced within days.
The last episode as I write this article, was on Friday 16 August,
the pirates got onto the aerial mast and actually ripped our aerial down.
Whilst they were accessing the owners electricity illegally, they blew the
power supply for both our base station and the site. It was some 8 hours before
we were up and running again and it was very nice of BT to phone me at 04:20 on
a Saturday morning to say we were fully functional again...!
To counteract these problems, I have made an application to
another site owner in Highgate to move to their mast, this site is far more
secure as the BBC uses it. This can be a long and drawn-out process, so I will
ask you to bear with us until we can move the aerials.
New Terminals
Hopefully by the time you read this article, we will have replaced
all the old 7100 terminals with the new MP5 terminals. This will then allow us
to accomplish changes much quicker in the ever-changing market of account
clients. We have for many years been the leaders in the technology side of the
licensed taxi trade, our changeover completion will enable us to remain in that
position.
It will also allow us to look again at doubling up our aerial
sites, this means having 2 different channels on 1 mast. You could have channel
3 and 6 on Highgate and also on Guys Hospital, so if your terminal is locked
onto channel 6, it could look at both masts and choose the stronger signal for
your taxi.
We also have another problem that you, the drivers, could easily
stop from happening. Please turn your radio off completely when you have
finished work. You can
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do this by booking off a zone, signing off the system and then powering off
the radio.
If you do not do this, your radio continues to send out a signal whilst you
are not working taking up valuable space on the telephone lines from the
aerial site to our main computer. It also means that the main computer is
completing unnecessary work and working at a slower pace. If you live
outside the area covered by our radio signals, please try and sign off
before you lose contact. I also get complaints from drivers that their
terminals and computers are very slow. This is partly due, as I have said
many times, to drivers completing unnecessary functions. Why drivers have to
do a Queue Position every 10 seconds or an Advise Arrival as they get out
their taxi to ring the doorbell is beyond me. It may sound funny as you read
this, but it is making your working life harder and more frustrating.
Some of you may not realise, but the old terminals were dumb
and only had single function buttons, you now have a fully working computer.
So when you press the buttons, the computer has to recognise what you are
asking it to do, process the data and send it. It also has to inform you if
the operator has made a mistake, so if you press more buttons before it has
completed it's task it could act like a driver and get confused!
I am sure that the majority of you who have PC's at home have
encountered the same problems, but there you take your time and achieve your
goal. However, some drivers seem to think that the computer in your taxi is
a super one that you would expect to be equal to the ones at NASA
headquarters...
Westminster TaxiCards
We have a growing number of drivers who are refusing to accept
Westminster TaxiCards
from clients on the street. This is not acceptable and is against the
procedural rules set out by
the Society. If it is found that a driver has refused a TaxiCard without a
valid reason, a complaint will be issued by the Society.
Complaints
You will have noticed over the past few months that
drivers
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going in front of a Complaints Committee have received what many drivers
consider to be fair and just punishment for the
'illegal' acts they have committed against their fellow subscribers. This
is due mainly to the drivers who put themselves forward to sit on the
committee being taught how to read a logger and also understand the
capabilities of the V6 despatching system.
They also realise that drivers are committing the same
offences with greater regularity and that clients - not to mention the
Society's membership - will not stand for it. It is our work that is in
jeopardy from this small minority.
Dare-Devil Debbie
Many of you will have met Debbie Carter during her many periods
in London while working on our computer system. Debbie is the pretty one
of the DaC Software duo from Real Time Concepts in Indiana.
Someone may have also mentioned in this magazine that she had
a serious accident, whilst driving her husband's new pick-up truck. Debbie
received a broken arm, foot and facial injuries, something that naturally
was a great shock to her husband Tom.
After the news that Debbie was going to make a full recovery,
she noticed that Tom had tears in his eyes. She is still trying to work
out if this was for her or his brand new Chevy! Tom is not noted for being
Wyatt Earp - as in a quick draw for getting out his wallet - so the
write-off of the new Chevy pick-up did cause a bit of panic in his bowel
area.
I'm sure you will all join me in wishing Debbie a quick and
full recovery and look forward to seeing her in a few months time back in
London.
Success of GPS.
We are having great success with the newly installed GPS system
that allows us to see if a driver is cheating on his or her fellow
subscribers. May I remind you once again, if you are booking into a postal
zone you must be able to get to the furthest point within the given run-in
time. In any '50', '51' or '99' areas, you must be physically in that area
to book into it, whilst at Heathrow you must be within the Perimeter Road
or Taxi Park. If you take a journey out of the BID system, you must do a
delay as the journey will be running late.
Holiday Time
If you have not had a holiday yet, have a relaxing one. If you
have had your holiday, please assist us in covering all the jobs that are
offered.
Tom Whitbread
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