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Credit Cards
We’ve had many problems over the past
weeks with drivers not using the basic rules when accepting a
credit card. The rules are for street hirings and jobs through
the system...
1. The card must be scrutinised by the
driver.
2. The cardholder must be present.
3. The card and cash amount must be authorised through the system.
4. A receipt with the fare, admin and handling charges must be
given to the cardholder.
5. The signature on the copy retained by the driver must be the
same as that on the card.
When you swipe the card through the terminal and input the
estimated amount, if the card is valid you will get an
authorisation code. This code only informs you that there are
enough funds in the account to cover the estimated fare. If all
the other checks are not completed, then this authorisation is
invalid and payment could be rejected.
You will then need to keep the receipt in a cool place, preferable
in your house with your other taxi paperwork. Receipts need to
be kept safe for a minimum of 6 months, as you may be asked to
produce the receipt to prove the details above were checked.
In the past few months, we have had drivers accepting card
numbers over a phone from third parties while letting an alleged
friend of the cardholder sign the receipt at the end of the
trip.
If you have a credit card and use it to purchase any item, the
above rules should be commonsense. If you offer your card at a
checkout till, the assistant will take the card and not let you
have it back until you have entered your signature on the
receipt. They do not let you keep the card so that you can copy
the signature.
If a card is damaged, or the brown strip on the reverse side has
been tampered with, do not accept it.
The people who use stolen or cloned cards are not stupid, they only
use the card for about 6 transactions and then dump it before
the bank realises it is in the wrong hands. If the card looks as
though it has been tampered with, you could ask the client
diplomatically to use the card in a cash machine. If it is
stolen or cloned, they will refuse and most probably say they
will get another taxi. This will save you finding out after a
few weeks that you will not be receiving the fare.
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Cabot Square Rank (E14C)
Due to the numerous complaints
from drivers regarding a few drivers cheating on the E14C rank,
I invoked new rules for the rank that were published in the last
issue of Call Sign. But within days, we had so many calls saying
it was not working, that we put it back to the booking-in of 9
cabs. The next day I had another 2 complaints that drivers
booked onto E14C were not on the rank.
So I accompanied another Board member down to E14 to see if there
was an alternative to the rank we now use. As many of the
complaints were about drivers brooming away street jobs - many
from the nearby wine bar - I was looking for a nearby quiet
rank.
The one I thought looked very
good was the rank in Bank Street, facing 10 Upper Bank Street.
It holds about 17 taxis and was empty whilst I was there. It
gives easy access to Clifford Chance and has 3 other large
buildings surrounding it, Citicorp, Leman Brothers and one
other.
It also gives easy access to Morgan Stanley and if we have cabs
on the rank, it will encourage cash hirings from the adjacent
offices. This could also lead to further accounts. As no other
circuit uses this rank, it should be easy for drivers to police
and see if anyone is trying to gain an unfair advantage.
I would like to hear your views on using this rank. If you have a
PC, my email address is
TomW@dialacab.co.uk .
Cheating the System…
As many of you know, I have been the DaC
Complaints Officer for 16 years and in that time I thought that
I had seen every conceivable problem that drivers could become
involved in. Yet every day I come across a new problem and after
all this time I don’t know why it surprises me. Even when
drivers know that I have caught others trying to gain advantage,
they still try to cheat the system.
If you have any problems with taking credit cards, then contact
Drivers Operations. They can advise you or arrange for you to
come to the office and be given a 10-minute refresher course.
It really is embarrassing when I have to interview a driver with
10,
20 or
even 30 years on DaC and
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who has been caught cheating.
Please remember that our system gives me daily reports of drivers who have
input fares manually. If you do have reason to input a manual
fare, please make sure it is correct. Having this job on the
Board leads to 85% of the drivers I speak to having a complaint
being lodged against them.
Unpaid
Subscriptions
If you find that you are falling
behind with your subscriptions, please talk to us immediately.
Don’t let the amount grow until you are not able to cope with
paying it off. If any driver allows their unpaid subscriptions
to run into two months overdue, they will be de-authorised. This
also means you are no longer a shareholder as you have let your
subscriptions lapse.
A driver not completing the statutory 40 jobs-a-month usually
highlights this. Without the account work being completed, we
cannot collect the subscriptions. If you have a Credit Union
loan, we will not pay that either.
If you are unfortunately incapacitated for a long period and you
pay the Credit Union via your credit work, you must make other
arrangements. Perhaps you are going on a month-long holiday, in
that case please make sure there is sufficient funds in your
account to cover subscriptions and Credit Union payments. You
cannot expect other subscribers to give you a second
interest-free loan to cover your existing one until you return.
Meter Problems
If you receive a letter requesting you
to attend Roman Way due to your meter not complying with our
software, make it a priority to go within the following 7 days.
If the letter is ignored then you could also find your terminal
has been de-authorised until you do attend.
Call Sign magazine is sent to your home each month to keep you
fully informed of all that is happening on the circuit and
problems you could incur, but we still have some drivers who are
too lazy to read it! Why not put it into your taxi and read it
while waiting for an account ride? If a driver falls foul of the
Society rules, a Complaints Committee will look unkindly at the
driver if it is proved that they had been informed in this
magazine.
Drive safely and earn as much money
as your wife and children's Christmas presents expect!
Tom Whitbread
DaC Complaints Officer
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