Mobile Phones
May I start by apologising as I'm going to start complaining from
the very first paragraph of this report!
The first problem is regarding mobile phones and the use of them
when you have passengers in the rear of your taxi. I have had numerous
complaints about drivers who are more intent on their mobile phone conversation
than with their driving. Whether you are using a hands free or not, in today's
London traffic it is unsafe to be distracted for even one second. In addition,
when a driver is using his mobile phone while hired, it really is the height of
bad manners. If the passenger suddenly espies where they want to alight, they
now have to say, "Excuse me" to the driver in an attempt to interrupt
his conversation!
We have some accounts that now state no phones are to be used when
their employees are in a Dial-a-Cab taxi, but we also have drivers who say they
have not seen the numerous terminal messages or Call Sign articles on the
subject. Those Call Sign articles appeared in November 99, September 2000,
December 2000 and September 2002 as well as other times in other Board members
reports. We have also had terminal messages going out for a week at a time.
When you see a chauffeur - not a private hire or minicab driver -
they are never on the phone. For the prices clients pay for a licensed taxi, I
think they should expect a professional driver who has full concentration on
his driving and road conditions, not some one-armed driving cowboy, with his
arm resting on the window and a mobile stuck in his hand pressed to his ear, or
earphones leading down to his phone as though they have hearing difficulties.
I know if a driver started to use his mobile to conduct his
private affairs whilst employed by me, I would ask him to pull into the kerb
and I would hail another taxi.
GPS
Drivers are now finding out that Tom and Debbie Carter
have added new software to our Data system which allows me to look back over
the past months to see if drivers were cheating on their fellow
subscribers.
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We have some drivers who, knowing a regular job is coming out, book
into a physical area when they are miles away. With our new software, I can
look back over past times when these jobs were completed and see if any
drivers were trying to cheat the system. I know most of you play fair, but
those drivers who cheat are not cheating me, they are cheating YOU! If these
drivers are shown to have been cheating, then a complaint will be issued and
passed to the next complaints meeting.
Some drivers have asked me what constitutes 'hanging up' for a
job for which they have prior knowledge. Well, booking into an area an hour
or two before a job is despatched whilst your cab is sitting on your drive
and you are indoors is certainly one! I've also had instances where a driver
is booked into an area 10 miles from his home for an hour and a half and
when I phoned the home concerned, our driver answered the phone! This call
was made because the GPS system showed the taxi parked outside the driver's
home address.
Email addresses
I recently asked drivers to send me their email address for
filing and sending out information. Although the address I gave was
slightly incorrect, our server picked them all up and accepted them.
However, we are still looking for many drivers to furnish us with their
email addresses.
It isn't compulsory, but if you would like to give us your
email address, then send it to: driverops@dialacab.co.uk . This gives us
an extra means of contacting you and to leave a message if you are a night
man. Or perhaps you are off and have gone for a day out. A message
can be left and possibly a document that has been scanned.
George Wilson (F17) mention in last month's letters page that Allen
Togwell had given his email address and what a wonderful idea this
was.
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If Mr Wilson had read my articles in the past, he would have known the email
addresses of Drivers Operations and also mine. So here they are again:
Complaints: TomW@dialacab.co.uk
Drivers Operations: KeithC@dialacab.co.uk
Training & Drivers Operations: AllanE@dialacab.co.uk
Roman Way & Waiting List: ShelaghA@dialacab.co.uk
Customer Services MichaelS@dialacab.co.uk
That Special Touch
We have at this moment, some very nice accounts with clients who are
very happy with the service that we supply them, but we still have a small
minority of drivers who believe that anyone who travels across London must use
a Licensed Taxi. These are the same people who wash their taxi once a week and
have 'bathroom' windows in the rear - or so it seems! The same drivers who seem
to wear the same clothes day in, day out? If that description fits a friend of
yours or a driver you know, don't be too shy to bring it to their attention.
This is the kind of driver who loses you the accounts that are your livelihood
and which give you and your family a reasonable standard of living. By telling
this one driver, it may momentarily upset them but you could be saving the work
of DaC's other subscribers.
Infiltrating Your DaC Terminal
We know that there are still some ways of getting into your in-cab
PC terminal. These accesses will soon be alleviated, however, until that time
anyone caught infiltrating their (or someone else's) DaC terminal will be put
on complaint. How will we know? Well, anyone who has given themselves a
different screensaver will be fairly easy to spot! If you are one of these, a
short amnesty will allow you to go to Roman Way to have it put back to
'normal', otherwise you will be put straight onto complaint.
Tom Whitbread
DaC Complaints Dept.
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