|
‘BLACK CAB’ MAKES TOP 100 OF THINGS THAT
PUT THE ‘GREAT’ INTO BRITAIN! |
As much as Call Sign dislikes the use of the
phrase ‘Black Cab’ there are times when we will put up with
it. One of those times was during a recent ‘silly season’ survey
conducted by Tanqueray Gin, which lists the 100 things that put
the ‘Great’ into Britain! Others appearing in the list alongside
LTI Vehicles Taxi include newsreader Trevor McDonald, comedy show The
Good Life and Billy Connolly.
The Coventry-made Taxi – sorry, ‘Black Cab’ - came
in at joint number 57 on the list, alongside Sir John Gielgud and the
Queen’s head on postage stamps! Nineteen per cent of respondents to
the survey said that each of these three put the ‘Great’ into
Britain.
Just ahead of those three came Land Rovers and red London
buses, with the Mini and Aston Martin just heading those two.
Tanqueray Gin conducted the survey to identify
what the British public perceives to be distinctly British and to see
if consumers still view this as a positive in marketing terms.
Matthew Cheyne, Sales and Marketing Director at LTI
Vehicles, told Call Sign:
"We are
delighted that our Taxi has been recognised as something which
represents Britain and makes Britain what it is. It is also great for
us that ours is the only taxi on the list and that it is so clearly
recognised by people as a symbol of major British cities such as
London and Edinburgh. The purpose built taxi is recognised as a
British icon throughout the world and it is very gratifying that
people in Britain take pride in this vehicle too."
|
|
NO GRATITUDE FOR DAC DRIVER MUGGING RESCUE
|
It was just another working evening for Dial-a-Cab driver Alan
Jones (R40), he had dropped an account passenger in Ruislip and was
returning along the main A40 road back into town.
Then things changed. As he waited for the traffic lights on
Gypsy Corner to turn ‘green’, he saw a man running and carrying a ladies
handbag followed soon after by a seemingly distressed woman shouting for
help in stopping him.
Alan jumped out of his taxi and together with a passer-by,
chased the mugger and grabbed hold of him. The mugger was doing everything
to break free and eventually did – still hanging on to the bag - running
off down a dark alleyway.
Alan told Call Sign: "Had there been a few more of us,
I would have given chase but there was no way of knowing what was waiting
down the alley. I was also concerned that my cab had been left
unlocked. Unfortunately, the mugger managed
|
Mugging rescuer Alan Jones
to hang onto the girl’s
bag."
When Alan got back to the scene, he asked the young lady why
she had been walking alone in the dark on a trading estate?
"She told me to mind my own business," he
told us! "You can’t please some people…!"
So would he do the same thing again?
"I don’t know," he said, "she
was hardly grateful! But it’s difficult to leave a lady who is obviously
in trouble so I suppose that I probably would. After all, I have a logo to
support!"
|
