New Smart Cards
You will probably have read in the national press that it is the intention
of all major banks to introduce ‘Chip and Pin’ credit cards from January
2005. Instead of the credit card being swiped and a signature obtained, the new
cards will be inserted into a card reader and the customer will enter their pin
number. The reason for the introduction is that credit card fraud in the UK is
up to around £400m and the new system will go some way towards making
fraudulent transactions less widespread. A pilot scheme has just finished in
Northampton with great success.
As you can imagine, I’ve had to look
at the situation and feared that the whole of our fleet might have to be
upgraded in order to facilitate the new cards, as our own credit card
transactions have increased twenty fold over the past year. That fleet upgrade
would cost DaC somewhere in the region of £500k. As I progressed with my
enquiries, it became apparent to me that although the new Chip and Pin will be
introduced in January 2005, the magnetic strip and signature will always be in
existence and will continue to be used as well as the Chip and Pin cards. The
banks have said that if a fraudulent transaction takes place after January 2005
and the retailer is not equipped with the Chip and Pin facility, then the
retailer will have to stand the cost of the fraudulent transaction. That was
welcome news because I had been contemplating a significant expenditure. But
because our credit card transactions are validated at source, I am not
contemplating many - if any - fraudulent transactions, certainly nothing
anywhere near the region of £500k. So we will be staying where we are…
Steven Norris
You will read elsewhere in this issue a full-length interview by the Editor
with prospective Conservative Mayoral candidate for London, Steven Norris. On
the evening of September 15 I had the opportunity of meeting with Mr Norris and
had the chance to ask him some pertinent questions appertaining to our trade.
It was a very good meeting and undoubtedly Steven Norris is a very experienced,
articulate, precise politician who would undoubtedly portray the correct image
in an endeavour to ‘sell’ London. Whether or not he can beat Mr Livingstone
remains to be seen, but I have no doubt that he would make a very good Mayor -
he certainly makes all the right noises. Then of course,
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I do have to remind myself that, he is, after all, a politician!
Outsourcing PCO Medicals
I recently attended a meeting at the PCO where the discussion concerned
taxi drivers medicals being outsourced to Medical Centres. I must confess
that before attending this meeting, I was totally opposed to the
suggestion. However, after listening to the presentation I have changed my
mind - albeit with certain reservations.
The PCO carried out a study and
it would appear that Licensed Taxi drivers are paying anything between
£40 to £120 to their GP’s for medicals. Under the new scheme, there
would be a fixed fee of £75 and the thirteen centres in and around London
will be open until 11pm during the week and all day on Saturdays.
This sounds like an improvement to me with longer hours and a fixed fee,
but what of the possible drawbacks?
Under the current system, a GP has access to a patient’s
records and it would be practically impossible for a driver to make a
false declaration. Under the new system, the doctor at the Medical Centre
will not have access to the driver’s history unless that driver gives
permission for his own GP to be contacted, so possible false declarations
could be made. The PCO inform me that should this be discovered, then that
driver’s licence could be revoked. But so what, perhaps it should not
have been issued in the first place? This also applies to Private Hire
drivers.
Secondly, our trade needs to be assured
that should the fee rise by more than a given percentage, that the PCO
retain the right to put the contract out to tender again. But this must
not be seen as an instrument to raise more revenue from our
industry. Finally, the PCO need to confirm that
money raised from medicals should only be offset against the cost of the
Medical Centres, in other words there should not be a fee passing back to
the PCO for granting the contract. I’m sure that this is not the case,
but the PCO should confirm it. I have written to the PCO with my views so
let’s see what happens.
City Corporation and the New Ring of Steel
I have attended a meeting with the City
Corporation where they informed me that between December 20 – 24, the
‘ring of steel’ will be extended via
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Victoria Embankment through Essex Street, Chancery Lane and
Holborn. It will also take in Farringdon Street as it loops down back to the
Embankment and completes the new ‘ring’. It
will be for an eighteen-month trial period, however, I have been told that
realistically any changes can only be made during the first six months. I would
like to know what our driver organisations are doing about this - or do they
even know?
Do you remember when I informed you that the ‘booking
booths’ for Private Hire in the City had not gone away? Well, at the same
meeting the City Corp told me that there will be a trial with four ‘portable’
booking booths. These will be licensed as street furniture and will only be in
use during the night and removed during daylight hours. Approximately twice the
size of a cornflakes packet, they will be taken to different venues as and when
required. These new booths will be able to record the information that is
necessary to comply with the new legislation. What this actually means to me is
that there will be unofficial ranks of Private Hire vehicles queuing at the
booths and basically, it will be an automated "man with a clipboard."
Have our driver organisations heard about this either?
Signals
There is no need for me to inform any of you about the problems we have
experienced in the past with signals, but with the help of Tom and Debbie
Carter we believe that our problems have been resolved. However, that does mean
that the fleet will have to be recalled and the modifications installed when we
do the next upgrade to your terminals. Although we are fairly certain that we
have resolved the scanning and loading problem with the channels, we will only
know for certain once the whole fleet has been upgraded. You will be notified
when the upgrade is about to commence. Nervous? Who’s nervous…!!!
Westminster
Finally, I’d like to officially inform you that even in the face of some very
stiff competition, we have retained the Westminster TaxiCard account. The new
contract will run from April 2004 until March 2009 and I know that you will
continue to give the service that helped us to retain the account. Westminster’s
other three accounts, including the ‘Home to School’ account, are in the
‘tender’ process at the moment. Let’s hope that retaining the TaxiCard
account will stand us in good stead for the other three.
Brian Rice
Chairman
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