Introducing Concierge…
I wrote briefly in the last issue of Call Sign, in response to a letter, regarding the future scope of Dial-a-Cab. Well I am now delighted to inform you that we have built a trip distribution engine which we have named Concierge. At the time of writing, we are still in the process of piloting the system with a ‘live’ date in early October. At present, everything seems to be going quite well but no doubt we will experience some teething problems that will, hopefully, be resolved at the pilot stage. Initially a very large Bank - where incidentally we are not the main taxi supplier - will use this system...
   How does the system work? Currently, a client will telephone various companies to supply them with their Ground Transportation needs, whether that is a car or a taxi. In future, the client will only have one telephone number (Dial-a-Cab) and they will order their vehicles by telephone or the Internet and we will automatically distribute the trips via the Concierge system – untouched by human hand - directly into the other vendor’s systems. The benefit to the client is that they have one telephone number with only one monthly bill and just one set of MIS reports. Consequently, Dial-a-Cab will be the only Vendor that they will have to supply with information for our database regarding details of their personnel.
   The benefits for Dial-a-Cab will be that our taxi work will increase dramatically and we will actually be controlling the account regarding Ground Transportation needs - and of course we will be charging a fee for this service. As you can imagine, I am extremely proud that Dial-a-Cab have once again beaten everyone else in the Taxi and Private Hire Industry to develop a system such as this and again it will give us the edge over the competition.

End of Year
I did mention last month that the end of our Financial Year was at the end of August and our turnover was up a staggering £4/5m, however, what is particularly pleasing is that we have paid to you, the members, an extra £3.5m more than we paid to you the previous year! I’m sure you will all agree with me that this is a particularly pleasing result, especially as our surplus will increase by approximately £500k more than last year. Again it will be a very good year for us as we move on to bigger and better things.

Return of The Glums?
Many of you may be too young to remember The Glums radio programme, but it does so aptly describe a tiny handful of our members. I can just imagine them choking with frustration after reading the piece above, describing what a good year we as a company have had.
   It would appear that three of our members have got together with an outsider in order to attack me and the remainder of the BoM, however, I do believe that it is me that they really wish to vent their anger against – but I suppose that goes with the territory! I understand that literature is being distributed and that they are bending the ear of anyone who will care to listen. I have asked them to substantiate their claims, but of course they can’t. Their whole strategy is to sling enough mud and just hope that some of it sticks.
   I honestly feel some sympathy for these few people. Have you ever noticed that people who are a failure in their private lives are always attracted to lost causes? If the BoM and I have done such a bad job for the Society and these people don’t like it here, they can always withdraw the £50 they have invested in the Society and leave – I can assure you that they will not be missed!

DaC Corporate Golf Day
On Monday 19 September, Dial-a-Cab held a Corporate Golf Day at Abridge Golf Club. I believe there is an account of the day in the centre pages of this issue. In the past there was always an inter-radio circuit golf competition that I believe Dial-a-Cab won for the last seven consecutive years. As there was not going to be a competition this year for various reasons, Dial-a-Cab decided to hold one of its own with any proceeds from the day going to the LTFUC charity and I must say the response from the trade was magnificent. Every single organisation that we approached entered at least one team and sponsored a hole; it also gave us the opportunity to invite a few of our corporate clients as the guests of Dial-a-Cab.
   Although I am not a golfer, I did 

endeavour to play on the day – albeit not very well. However, on the upside it did give our clients the opportunity to beat me, which I suppose was a plus! I have always been told that you should never beat a customer at anything – that’s my excuse anyway.

Updated DaC Website
For any of you that are unaware, I’d like to inform you that we have replaced the old DaC Website with a new one - although the domain name dialacab.co.uk remains the same. The new site was designed in-house in its entirety and of course it will also be maintained in-house.
   It is extremely pleasing for me to see how far we have come in such a short space of time. Just a few short years ago, for us to even contemplate building and maintaining our own websites and systems ourselves, let alone also maintain them, was almost unthinkable. Gone are the days when the maintenance of such systems had to be outsourced.

Meters and Printers
I did hear a rumour that the implementation of meters with printers had been put back six months from 1 January 2005 as some of the meter companies were not ready with the new products, however this rumour has subsequently been denied. Our own position regarding printers is still unclear and we still need some clarification from the PCO. Although we are in a position to print receipts already, it would appear that under the new legislation there should be power to the printers at all times in order that a receipt can be obtained. However, in our case a driver has to be ‘signed on’ to the system in order for a receipt to be obtained.
   I am now informed that we can make a software change so that a receipt can be obtained with the terminal ‘powered up’ only and the driver not signed on. However, at the time of writing, it is unclear whether or not that would be acceptable to the PCO as a driver could go to work without ‘powering up’ his terminal, consequently, he would then not be in a position to issue a receipt. It would be nice if we can resolve this situation, as I am led to believe that to rent a printer could cost up to £120 per annum.

Brian Rice
Chairman, Dial-a-Cab