Following a successful joint tender with ComCab, the two companies have once again proved how well they work together by being awarded the TaxiCard account for a further three years. DaC first became involved with the original account when it was set up by the old GLC administration under Ken Livingstone, starting life on a test basis around the Camberwell and Peckham areas. Since then it grown to become the largest Taxi account in Europe and is now funded primarily by 32 London boroughs with supporting funds from Transport for London.
   Contrary to some beliefs, the scheme is not means tested in any way and users of the account have to show that they are unable to use other main forms of transport due to their disability, rather than whether they can afford the trip.
   Previously, DaC subscribers could only pick up TaxiCards – not including Westminster which is exclusive to DaC -
from the outer boroughs if

the passenger phoned for a taxi, but now all TaxiCard users can use their cards for street hails with either DaC or ComCab, making life much easier for card users.
   We were able to do hail and ride from the beginning, but unfortunately were not able to indicate if the card had been swiped or manually input. This lead to the Association of London Government objecting and the DaC Board prohibiting hail and ride trips until we were able to indicate when a card had or had not been swiped but following a system update, DaC drivers can now do hail and ride on all TaxiCards.
   In addition, the most recent upgrade simplified the DaC authorisation procedure and the total fares for these trips are now automatically calculated when borough cards

 are swiped and the former process of clearing borough jobs twice (code 90 followed by CLJ) is now no longer necessary.  These trips can now be cleared in the same way as those on Westminster.
   Brian Rice told Call Sign that he was delighted to see both ourselves and ComCab working together on TaxiCard and added:
   "DaC are proud to be a supplier of inclusive transport to those who rely on the excellent TaxiCard scheme to help them get around that much easier."
   ComCab MD Mike Galvin echoed Brian’s feelings and added that previous experience has showed how well both ComCab and DaC work together.