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Printers
I have been writing for some time regarding the
change in PCO regulations, whereby as from 1 January 2005 all taxis presented
to the Carriage Office for passing will have to have a suitable printer fitted.
I have now received official confirmation from Mr Dave Stock that our printers
will be suitable providing we make a small software upgrade and I quote:
Brian,
The software upgrade, as demonstrated
to Barry Cook, my Senior Vehicle Inspections Manager, does make your printers
operate in a manner that would satisfy the receipt printer requirements due to
come into effect as of the 1st January 2005.
So there you have it, straight from the horses mouth, that our
printers will be acceptable providing that we make a software upgrade to your
terminal. You will have to make sure that your vehicle/terminal has the latest
software fitted before presenting it for passing. I will be writing to you all
individually in due course, explaining how the printer will work if you are not
‘signed on’ to the system. I suggest that you keep my letter for future
reference should a PCO Inspector not be au fait with our equipment and how it
works. However, Dave Stock has assured me that every Carriage
Officer will be made aware of how our printers operate. What we have done, in a
nutshell, is that the printers will go ‘live’ as soon as you press the
power button on your terminal, so that following the fitting of the new
software, it will no longer be necessary to ‘sign on’ for your printer to
go live – just ‘power up’. It’s very simple and there is nothing new to
learn, but importantly, it will meet PCO specifications. However, I do
sincerely hope that none of you will go to work without ‘signing on’ to the
system, with the intention of doing street work only as opposed to radio work.
Signals
Another topic that is close to everyone’s heart, bearing in mind all the
increased work that is currently going through our system, slowing things down
while not sending or receiving as well as they should, and that is our signals!
The big problem is not just of increased work going through, but also of ‘rejects’
going through the roof - increasing data traffic enormously and
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thereby putting extra
pressure on the system.
Anyway, you
will all no doubt be pleased to know that our
sites are being overhauled. This is not just a
simple process where the hardware is stripped
from an aerial site overnight and replaced
with new equipment so that everything works
fine in the morning, it is far more complex
than that. It would appear at the moment that
our sites are transmitting extremely well,
however the return signals from your mobiles
are encountering ‘noise’ at the aerial
sites, thus necessitating the need for you to
resend. The experts tell me that this noise
could come from computers, telephone networks
or a host of other things, all of which have
to be traced and overcome. For a start, we are
having special crystal filters manufactured,
fitted and monitored at each site. The
frequencies will be ‘tweaked’ and new
hardware fitted.
This all
sounds very easy, but the whole process could
take up to six months and even then there is
no guarantee that there will be a dramatic
improvement. However, my own feeling is there
will be a marked improvement.
There is no
question that operating your own Private
Network is the most cost effective way for us
to distribute work, however it is common
knowledge that we have for some time been
reviewing other methods such as Transcomm and
GPRS.
Basically,
Transcomm is a public network where you can
‘buy’ various amounts of time depending on
your usage - all of which is nationwide.
However, the downside is that if the ‘system’
ever went down, it would be completely outside
of our control with the added problem that it
transmits data but no voice. GPRS on the other
hand, does have the dual capability of voice
and data and is also nationwide, but again we
would not have control over any problems.
These would be in the hands of other people.
In addition, as most of you mobile phone users
well know, you can lose signals from time to
time – as
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indeed you do now.
So my conclusion is that we will endeavour to improve our
existing system as it is far more cost effective, before we look to any other
alternative. Also, and depending on which way you look at
it, if we were to ever change our means of communication to a system whereby
you paid for airtime, Boards of the future would no doubt be under pressure to
cut this time and thereby reducing the Society’s outgoings. So how could this
be achieved? Well how about all trips being A/D 24hrs per day and non-rejectable?
Please, please do not inundate me with letters saying that I am advocating the
former – I’m not, I’m just endeavouring to give you the reasons why
we will explore every avenue to improve our private network. However, of two
things you can be sure… there will always be bad signals, but there will be
jam tomorrow!
Work and Coverage
You will all have noticed that in recent times we have been very, very busy and
things will hot up even more before Christmas. Consequently, this leads to
complaints from clients regarding service issues and to a company like ours
which provides a service, that will always be the case during extremely busy
periods. But what has struck me recently is the number of complaints we are now
receiving regarding the lack of service at weekends. Taking a glance at our
figures tells me that although Dial-a-Cab takes less work at weekends, there
are far fewer cabs working out there so it makes the radio very busy. And with
some free time, the top brass from our top accounts do use our service at
weekends - or at least they endeavour to. I know all the reasons why there are
fewer cabs working the radio at weekends, but if any of you could work just a
few hours on a Saturday or Sunday and help cover some account work for us - or
should I say yourselves - then I know the situation could be helped enormously.
And Finally…
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a very
Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year and may Dial-a-Cab be as successful in
2005 as it has been in 2004.
Brian Rice
Chairman, Dial-a-Cab
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