You can also email your letters to: callsignmag@aol.com

Deliveries and Minicabs…
Two points; firstly I recently accepted an account delivery, which turned out to be a very expensive computer. This necessitated two journeys from the first floor office to my cab. Firstly I put the monitor in the back and returned for the main computer part. When I returned I found two youths trying to get in the back of the cab and assume they were trying to steal the monitor. This made me wonder, if they had managed to steal it would I have been insured? I phoned Driver Services only to be told that DaC has no insurance in place to cover drivers for deliveries. A quick phone call to Norwich Union told me I wasn’t covered by my cab insurance either, unless "the item in question is locked away out of site." We all know this is virtually impossible in a cab, especially an item like a computer. I should imagine all insurance companies would say the same thing. Not just theft - what if I had stumbled, dropped it and damaged it beyond repair? So if you accept an account delivery, you are almost certainly not insured for loss or damage to the item and we, the drivers, are personally responsible financially for any loss or damage. Surely DaC can sort out an insurance scheme for all our peace of mind, or do we stop taking delivery jobs?
   Secondly, Bolt holdings; it rankles me every single time I accept an account ride then find out on my details it is a Bolt Holdings or Lewis Day minicab ride. Time and time again we are told to cover account work at the busy times and they will be with us when it is quiet. It appears these people only use us at busy periods, i.e. Christmas time, rail and tube strikes or when it is pouring with rain. We are therefore keeping their clients happy and not ours. Every cab covering one of their accounts, is one not covering ours. During the recent Tube strike, there were messages galore about covering work… 54 jobs in EC2 and I am sitting outside a Bolt holding account waiting for their customer to come out. How many others were covering their work? Also, is this a reciprocal arrangement whereby they send a minicab when we cannot cover a job?
   A TXC code identifies a Westminster account, can we not be told on the job offer by code, that it is Bolt Holdings or Lewis Day account? We as individuals do then have the choice to cover it or not.
Steve Painter (K03)
Brian Rice replies: An interesting letter Steve and I must say your observations regarding insurance are totally correct. If you think about it, why would an insurance company offer different terms regarding theft to DaC than they do to you? I believe it is the owner’s responsibility regarding insurance because DaC is an Agent only. However, I must say I was surprised that Norwich Union said contents had to be 'locked away out of sight.' I can understand 'locked,' but I am not sure about 'out of sight' - but then who am I to argue with Norwich Union.   Regarding covering work for  Private Hire companies, my heart does have some sympathy with your argument, but my head says that it does (begrudgingly) make sense. I’d like to correct you on something else you have written because these companies do not just use us during Christmas and Tube strikes, they use us all the time and their average trip is in excess of £30 with an annual turnover approaching £2m. Also, if we did not cover that work - I wonder if our two main competitors would? However, rest assured I do share your concerns and it is something I am looking at. Sorry I can't be more precise as we have to be careful about cartels. 
   Regarding identification on the trip, it is something we could do Steve, but you know as well as I that the lucrative trips would get covered while the rest would 'stick' - but as I said before, it is something we are looking at.

Salieri Offer
I recently took advantage of the special Call Sign offer for a 25% discount at the Salieri restaurant in the Strand. To be honest, part of me wondered what the catch was; well I have to say that there was none! The meal was delicious, the restaurant warm and friendly and we had an excellent evening there.
   The staff and management of the Salieri appreciate the business that we Dial-a-Cab drivers bring them and their offer is not just in the form of a thank-you, but also to show us that we can be happy that our passengers will have been recommended to an excellent restaurant. I will certainly recommend it to my passengers and I’m recommending it to DaC drivers as well! My thanks to the Salieri and to Call Sign…
John Davis (F60J)
Thanks John. Having dined there with friends several times, I can vouch for your words. The only condition the Salieri place on the offer is that one of the diners in your group must be the DaC driver. If you lend your badge to anyone else to use, not only will you be putting this great offer into jeopardy, but you are also committing a licensing offence that could cost you your livelihood …Ed

A Lesson Learned?
I was recently paid to deliver a letter to a ticket shop next to Bayswater Station. We all know how keen the Westminster parking wardens are, so I parked the cab opposite the station at the front of the Taxi rank in Inverness Place, locked it and legged it over to the shop keeping an eye out for the wardens. As I handed over the letter, I saw the Jobsworth at the front of my cab about to issue a ticket. I ran back to tell him I was just leaving and said I hoped he wasn’t going to issue a ticket. "I was," he said "but a man has just broken into your taxi."
   "What," I asked in disbelief?"
   "I saw a man get in the back of your taxi. I said the taxi was not working as the driver had just gone across road," he continued. I thought he was winding me up, after all the cab was locked. But no, he went on to say that this person had kicked the inside window in, taken my money bag and ran up Queensway.
   "Didn’t you try to stop him," I asked? He just said no and walked off! When I looked in the cab, I found the plastic partition window had been kicked through and that my cash bag was gone. Apart from the £160, my credit and bankcard, the scumbag had taken 30 years of photo’s of my kids and grand kids. The cash can be made up, the credit cards were stopped straightaway, the window can be repaired… but those photos are priceless and irreplaceable. I just hope that scumbag never has a days luck in his miserable life. I know I need a brain scan for leaving my bag in the cab and I usually always take it with me, but honestly I was out of the cab for no more than 90 seconds and the bag was under the drivers seat with the cab locked. Needless to say I have learnt my lesson, but two things still bother me. First, I rang the police who told me not to move the cab and that they would have a car sent out to me straight away. One and half hours later, two coppers pulled up and couldn’t be less helpful. They asked for my name and address, what was stolen and any damage done.  They said there was no point in taking fingerprints or searching for the culprit but they would send me a crime number… so that was ok then! As I said, very helpful!
   Secondly, what sort of an idiot Traffic warden stands by and watches a scumbag break into a cab, kick a window in and then lets him calmly walk away with my money bag and start to issue a parking ticket? A Westminster idiotic Traffic warden that’s who!
John-Paul Pace
John is the former Editor of London Taxi Times and ex-General Sec of SPLT…Ed

London Cyclists
Re your Editorial on cyclists, who on earth could have sympathy  with the current batch of cyclists? They have no discipline, pull out when they like, ride in the middle of the road enticing you to drive closer to them so they can give you that moronic stare  - how dare you drive so close! They are a law unto themselves.

   I was fortunate to drive from China to London in a taxi, a total of 16,000 kms through 11 countries, 29 cities and not one single incident. Most importantly though, all the cyclists throughout the trip other than frigging London, observed a code of courtesy and discipline. As soon as I arrived in London, all the TV crew and contestants were shocked as to how cyclists rode here. Who do they think they are? We've become a nanny state and they get away with murder. Well not with me they don't - bring back bullbars!
   Cyclists are more of a menace than frigging mini-cab drivers. Cyclists pull in front of you, creep up on the inside, ride on the pavement and don’t bother with red lights. Red lights? What are they! Can't see a luscious lady leaning out the window? Ohhh look – it’s another cyclist…
Tony Arnold (F03)

And More…
I agree with your Editorial on cyclists. They don’t do themselves any favours. I saw one just today going along Oxford Street in the dark on the wrong side of the road and with no lights and going through a red light!
Peter Mulcahy (K02)

And More…
Thank you for saying what you did about London’s cyclists. Not only do they break most of the Highway Code laws as they please, but they become extremely bolshie should you get anywhere near them when in reality it is invariably they who are close to you.
Melvyn Green (E55)

And Even More (I think)…!
With reference to the article in your very interesting leader about cycles and cyclists, I can say I also dislike them having had my cab badly scratched by a speeding cyclist. In addition I dislike motorbikes, buses, lorries, cars, minicabs (licensed and unlicensed) and anything else on the road except taxis - and even some of them I dislike intensely!
Having said all that, I have a sneaky admiration for most cyclists who it must be said have a lot of guts riding their bikes in the heart of London, although it seems Transport for London is bending over backwards to make it safer for them with more cycle lanes and also, I hear, to have a 20mph zone in the City, making life even more difficult for we cab drivers.
   On occasion I have picked up cyclists who have had punctures, have just felt tired or have needed my services due to adverse weather conditions, or even if they have no lights and it’s getting dark. I’m thinking there may be some extra business for our circuit, especially with the increasing popularity of fold-up bikes. Cycling is a healthy and popular way of travelling and cannot be ignored.
   The answer is not to be aggressive towards them, but to tell them that our circuit is prepared to help them when needed. To tell our business clients that will bring us our just rewards.
Adrian Landau (T14)
I have been inundated with drivers giving their views on my Editorial on cyclists, so much so that I’ve also included a snap survey on the subject (carried out independently of me) elsewhere in this issue. But sadly, there was one driver who phoned and threatened to "smash my face in" because I generalised in accusing all cyclists of being as bad as each other. He was right, I did generalise and perhaps shouldn’t have, but that driver (whose name I won’t publish) lost the argument when issuing the threat rather than accept the opportunity I offered him to give his views in this issue. His answer was to call me and the magazine crap. I decided to end the conversation there, but I just hope that there aren’t too many cyclists with his attitude around. However, my offer to him still stands …Ed

Views on the September Call Sign
After reading last months ‘Reflections of the Chairman’, I am annoyed at comments made by ex-taxi driver, Clive Efford MP. Clive is wrong when he says that he has to wait longer for a taxi to answer ‘the light’ at the House as he believes that many taxis are now pre-booked. Firstly, I’ve seen many radio and non-radio taxis drivers ignore ‘the light’ as they don’t even know its purpose! Secondly, if Clive can manage to make the short walk to Bridge Street, that’s out the gate and turn right, then right again, he will see untold cabs plying for hire and his wait for a cab would be shortened considerably. Surely it is up to the individual driver if he wants to belong to a radio circuit; after all as Brian says, the average driver only completes 20% of their weekly work on the radio.  It’s a shame Clive has lost touch with the taxi trade. I am looking forward to his response to Brian Rice’s letter requesting a meeting and hopefully, like all good politicians, he makes a quick u-turn like he did in his cab in the old days. And to compare the licensed Taxi trade to the Private Hire sector…don’t even go there!
   Also re last month’s letter by Tony Lawyer (C51) in relation to low fixed prices at the HoC, I’d like to suggest a possible answer to this situation. Instead of our clients waiting around in the late evening/ early morning in all kinds of weather for their cabs to finally arrive and then venting their anger on the driver, why don’t we use some of the financial surplus we have accrued over the past year?  An FP trip to E1 at 11pm for a paltry £10 doesn’t look too appetising, but if the driver knew he would get what was on the meter then he/she would be swayed into accepting this particular job. On completion of the trip, £10 would be paid by the account while the shortfall would automatically be paid by our surplus funds. This would result in the passenger being a whole lot happier, the driver being appeased and the control room dispatcher not putting out messages to ‘please cover the House work’ and then offering premiums to cover a trip that has been in the system for a while.  We offer a premium when a job becomes unattractive to the driver and it’s then that the account goes into jeopardy. I think poor service will continue on this particular account until some positive action is taken. A ‘Please cover the House work Gents’ message was relayed onto our screens on Tuesday 7 September when there was no football taking place, no power strike and no tube strike…
Russell Hall (G44)
Brian Rice replies: I do not have a comment on the first part of your letter other than to say that I just brought the situation to member’s attention. Regarding the 'House,' the minimum fare is £10 for the first three miles, so if the job goes one mile then it is still £10. After that it is another £3 per mile for the next three miles. I think you will agree that the rates are not too bad, however, the 'House' does tend to rise during busy periods for us, so it is really up to our members to endeavour to cover this work. We do not seem to have a problem with the longer journeys, just the shorter ones - so what's new! Since I had your letter forwarded to me Russell, I have made it my business to look at the trips and the surprising thing is that many of the trips are less on the meter than the fixed price. Regarding DaC subsidising the shorter trips out of our surplus, where would this stop? If we were to subsidise all the shorter trips on all accounts (why should they be treated differently), then I can assure you that you would not have any surplus left to play with! When the message goes out "Please cover the House work gents," that is because we have probably just put 30/40 trips into the system and the Call Centre is bringing that fact to our driver's attention.

Emergency Moan!
Just prompted to have a moan after reading Nash’s Numbers (Sept Call Sign) re the sophistication of our data terminals in logging times, locations and meter readings.  Together with our GPS which can track a driver’s constant whereabouts, I must ask why then when a driver is on an ‘emergency’, can we not log his exact location?
   We undoubtedly have a system that is the envy of the trade, but can we not also have a voice channel that works?
David Brett (P93)
Keith Cain replies: There is no reason why we cannot have the system grab a driver’s coordinates when they have an emergency, David. I will be speaking with Tom Carter about doing this. As for the voice channel problems, it is no different to what we experience with the data channels.

Waxfantastic
I read in the September Call Sign about Waxfantastic, the all- in-one car wash. I must admit to

being rather dubious about it but decided to try it anyway. I found a store that stocked it and I have to admit that it does all the ad says and saves me hours. It is truly fantastic!
Mr A.Stanton
Ilford, Essex
Are you offering to clean everyone’s taxis then! …Ed

When is a Taxi Not a Taxi?
I would like to bring to your attention the discrimination that is occurring against drivers of Metrocabs, Fairways, and Aquwiths that are on the circuit. Firstly, that the BoM account has a bias against the stated cabs as the BoM will only use TX1 or TX2 to ferry them around town.
   Secondly, it has come to my attention that certain drivers are telling clients that are serviced by W101, to only order TX cabs for any good work as was proved last week when W99 and myself were sitting on the rank and at least four jobs bypassed us and were offered to TX cabs. So far as I am aware, Dial-a-Cab is still a friendly society and therefore all members have to be treated equally. Perhaps the BoM could please explain their pro-TX stance? All cabs are licensed by the PCO and all members and journeymen pay their full subscriptions and therefore should be treated equally.
   Whilst I appreciate that there are certain cases when a TX is required, eg. the swivel seat or in some cases when a six-seater Metrocab is asked for, these are the exceptions and not the rule.
If the BoM are going to persist with this unequal distribution of work, the drivers of non-TX cabs will of course expect a substantial reduction in their subscriptions.
P Samuels (T85)
Allen Togwell replies: Mr Samuels, firstly I would like to assure you that we do not operate double standards as you imply. It is perfectly true that one account does exist
which stipulates TX1 and TXII and is used by certain Board members as and when
required. In fact, initially, it was I that proposed the setting up of this account following several incidents that occurred whilst in the process of attempting to procure new business. On each occasion, after having spent two hours or so giving a sales presentation including highlighting the virtues of being a Friendly Society and the pride our drivers had in their personal appearance and their taxis, I invited the prospective clients to lunch.  When my cabs arrived, to say I was embarrassed is an understatement. Equally so is my description of the vehicles when I say they were like mobile dustbins - both inside and out.
   Another incident involved a taxi I needed for a marketing video I was filming at LAP. Society rules then forbade me from selecting a vehicle of my choice, so I had to follow your policy of "all cabs being equal" and taking the nearest cab available, which on this occasion was old, dented and filthy with a driver who was of an equal state. Needless to say the day was ruined and, I might add, extremely costly!
   Yet another incident worth mentioning involved a one-off project with a rank outside a client’s premises that involved all drivers using it having to wear a shirt and tie. It was extremely successful with the exception of the odd driver who arrived without a tie and who insisted that as he paid the same subs, he should have every right to the work irrespective of what the client wants.
   I mention the above, Mr Samuels, in answer to your letter as it gives an example of the predicament that I for one have with your policy that all drivers should be treated as equal. Please don't misunderstand me; I'm not suggesting for one moment that all non-TX1/II are not in a pristine condition.  Unfortunately, how can you differentiate? I'm sure you accept the power of perception and image and the important role it plays in any business, particularly so in the service industry. And whilst freedom of choice in the vehicle you drive or the manner in which you dress is your right, you also accept that the management has the right to be sure in getting the best of what is available to maintain the right perception and image for the protection of our Society as a whole.

Dial-a-Cab Charity Golf Tournament
Having been fortunate enough to be chosen to play golf at the Dial-a-Cab Charity Golf Day at Abridge Golf Club, I feel the need to write in and thank everyone involved with the organisation and smooth running of the day. The weather did not dampen our spirits and I’m sure I speak for my fellow team members (Jim, Brian and Bernie) in congratulating all concerned.  Hopefully subsequent events will be as successful and enjoyable as this one. Thanks again…
Jonathon Radcliffe (G09)
What I’d like to know is what happened to the Call Sign sponsored team (Dave, Peter, Chas and John)? I know there were a few drops of rain, but sunk without trace? Gimme a break! Incidentally, it is hoped to run this tournament annually with a different trade charity benefiting each time. This inaugural year saw the LTFUC benefit by around £2500. A full pictorial report can be found elsewhere in this issue …Ed

Computer Upgrade and Hygiene!
Next time there is a computer upgrade, in addition to the excellent map facility, how about a page for postal districts and another for clarification of attribute letters on job requirements when they are offered. This would eliminate the need to find bits of dog-eared paper and make for safer driving.
   Also, I think it is about time that we had better sanitation in the driver’s ground floor toilet. There should be two cubicles and always a supply of liquid soap or foam and at least two hand dryers that are faster than my E-plus! In addition there should be paper towels available as well. Let’s get sanitised!
Brian Spiro (S90)
Brian Rice replies: Regarding the upgrades to the terminal Brian, we can do almost - and I repeat almost - anything you require. But where does it stop? We endeavour to
prioritise and we will look at your suggestion before the next ‘release’.
   Regarding the toilets - two cubicles eh? Most people just use one at a time! And the ‘missing’ liquid soap? This is serviced by an outside company and on occasions when it has run out before their next visit, we have replaced the liquid soap with bars of soap, only for them to go missing - can't think where they go! Incidentally Brian, you may also notice that we have air fresheners on the wall, every so often they also go missing - well actually unscrewed and stolen - can't think who does that either. If we had paper towels in there, can you imagine what the mess would be like? It seems to me that the old adage still applies: "Please leave this ******* as you find it." Also, I’d like to remind you that we are the only radio circuit in London to offer this facility 24/7, consequently it should be a two way street and not just one way.
   The following letter was sent by Roy Ellis, Head of the PCO to Russell Poluck (T55), Chairman of the Taxi Driver of the Year Charity Fund

Taxi Driver of the Year Show – The PCO View

Dear Russell
   Taxi Driver of the Year Show 2004
   In the face of adversity you have yet again managed to stage the Taxi Driver of the Year
   Show and you achieved a big improvement on 2003. Last year Penton Street was obviously a last resort and Brent Cross provided much more space and greater opportunities. In fact, this year you were probably blessed with too much space. What a pity there were not more stands and better support from individuals and organisations within the trade. It would have been nice to see more drivers and their families, especially on such a lovely sunny day.
   With driving tests and football to watch, a funfair to enjoy (smaller than you intended but bigger than in recent years if I recall), refreshments (more varied than last year) and various charity and trade stands, there were, I think, signs of a revival. Hopefully the charity will be able to build on this next year.
   Congratulations to you and your colleagues.
Roy Ellis
Head of the Public Carriage Office

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