| Views on life as seen through the
eyes of David Kupkake at...
Kupkake's
Korner
Clear Day
London's shrinking, London's shrinking
it gets smaller for me and you,
so many routes I used to use
have disappeared from view.
Those cut throughs in the City
and the West End and the Strand
are lost and gone for ever
like they were never planned.
The pavements have been widened
and lanes reduced to two
in streets that once were rapid
like Northumberland Avenue.
Now going east on Bishopsgate
is for buses and push- bikes
and WE must fight more traffic
morning noon and night.
London's shrinking and I'm thinking
that there's some infernal plan
to drive we cabbies crazy
'cos no one understands.
Why don't they let the streets remain
what they were created for?
A thoroughfare for taxicabs
to go from door to door.
Kopyright Kupkake 2003 |
|
SANDIE GOODWIN AND TAXI GLOBE
An unidentified email has been doing
the rounds with many of those who have read it passing on the
information that Sandie Goodwin is no longer involved with either Taxi
Globe or National Taxi Globe (NTG). Some have even had a telephone
call asking them to re-divert the email onwards so that others may
read it.
Taxi Globe Editor Sandie has asked Call Sign to assure all its readers
that this is certainly not the case and that she is still the Editor
at both publications. The publisher remains JLP Publishing.
Now that you have survived your first rumour, Sandie, you can really
say that you've arrived in the taxi trade! |
|
We've read about the huge blackout that affected North
America, so on the next day Call Sign asked the harassed President of
Diamond Taxis in Toronto, Jim Bell, how their radio taxi business was being
affected by it...
HOW THE GREAT AMERICAN BLACKOUT AFFECTED
CABS!
Well yes, you could say there has been a slight effect in
our dispatch operations! Let's see...
the power went out throughout the entire city at the beginning of the
afternoon rush hour around 4 pm on Thursday. That put all the traffic
signals out, streetcars stopped in their tracks, subways stopped in the
tunnels with passengers stuck in the trains, elevators stopped and traffic
has been an absolute nightmare!
Our radio repeaters immediately went to their battery backups,
our dispatch computer went to its battery back up as well as the phone
system. However, the back ups started running out of juice after five hours
and from around 10pm, our entire system went down the tubes. No computer, no
voice facility and thankfully our phone system also packed it in so we were
unable to keep telling our clients that our service levels had been somewhat
impacted by the power blackout!
Then at 5am this morning and thirteen hours on, power was
restored in our power grid at the
office, no radio repeaters yet but our phones were back as well as our
dispatch computer. At 6 am, one channel site came up with two frequency
channels and we were able to dispatch over the computer at limited capacity.
The BSU has come up with a minor glitch interrupting the carrier signal. We
are also dispatching by emergency voice procedure on another channel. We
still have two repeater channels down as the power grid for the sites has
not been brought back on-line.
|
A harassed Jim Bell tells Call Sign about his company's
blackout problems!
Our staff are having a difficult time getting into
work as public transportation is severely limited with no streetcars or
subways yet running and we have sent cabs to pick up staff to man the
dispatch centre. The cabs are finding it difficult to get around as traffic
signals are still out in many parts of the city. Many of the cabs have come
off the road because gas stations are closed with no power for the gas pumps
and the few stations that can pump gas have long queues.
Our Provincial Premier has declared an emergency, requesting
all non-essential workers to stay home and to keep air conditioning off
while they are trying to get the power grids back up, while the city Mayor
has requested that we conserve water and not use candles!
Our local coffee shop is closed and I'm having a caffeine
withdrawal while trying to leave
messages for our radio support provider to get over to the repeater site to
clear up the BSU problem.
When this is all over, I will be reviewing our emergency
procedures as there have been a few bugs along the way. I think I will try
to find my "don't worry - be happy" badge and try to boost the
morale of our staff who have performed very professionally under a very
stressful and difficult time.
From the trenches of Toronto
Jim Bell
Diamond Taxis |
