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Expensive
London?
I’m sure that I’m
not the only driver on Dial-a-Cab to have
noticed that the ultra-tip conscious
Americans, whose whole culture seems to be
based on tipping, are no longer
automatically doing it on this side of the
pond. Why? Well I’m equally sure that you
all know the reason without me having to
explain it – however, as I have to fill the
page I’ll mention it anyway! London is just
so hugely expensive! On top of that, the
mighty dollar is heading out to a two-to-one
exchange rate with the pound.
I don’t know how often you go into town and do what the tourists
do, but if you try it, you could be in for a
shock when adding up how much a typical day
in London can cost the tourist family. Linda
and I had continually put off our
long-awaited visit to the Saatchi Gallery at
Waterloo due to a multitude of intervening
reasons, but eventually we found a Sunday
afternoon with nothing on the calendar, so
off we went.
Trying to find a car parking space is ultra-difficult with wardens
using the area as a money-making exercise.
But help was at hand with the Festival Hall
car park charging around £12 for the
afternoon. My first car - a 15-year old
Vauxhall Velox in 1962 – only cost me that!
Walking along the Southbank by the wheel is
very pleasant – albeit a bit cold in March –
but the area has become very popular since
the millennium introduction of the wheel,
whereas before there was just the Festival
Hall to look around. Bars, galleries and
stalls to browse through add fun to the area
and so long as you just walk, you will go
home with what money you came out with! In
the real world, that rarely happens.
Linda and I had just the afternoon, so we made our way straight to
Saatchi. Two admissions come to £18, so that
put us down by thirty quid with the car
park. The gallery is well worth a
visit and the set-out along the halls of the
old GLC building is just magical. But at £9
each, a family could find it prohibitive.
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Then there is the food aspect
when you come out. We just wanted a snack and
had two sandwiches (not too bad), two of what
must be the most tasteless soups ever made and
one small cake, in a freezing cold sandwich
bar - £17! Again, there was just the two of us
and we were in there around 15 minutes. That
made £47 for around two hours or to an
American couple with no children, almost $100!
They then have to find something else to do
and spend even more money on.
Incidentally, we then had a walk to the Festival Hall and regretted
not having had our snack there. The food
looked ok, but in addition there was free
entertainment and a kiddies exhibition area –
also free. OK, so the Lebanese band weren’t to
everyone’s taste, but it was fun to watch and
cost nothing.
The bottom line is that if you don’t get a tip, blame multi-billionaire,
Charles Saatchi!
Overhaul
Time
It seems like only yesterday that I was
writing about my new cab and now it’s
already overhaul time! Mind you, even after
a ‘stop’, the whole procedure was fairly
painless because having booked it into M&O,
I was given a six-week old TXII complete
with DaC terminal to continue working. Even
after being told that the printer hadn’t
worked at Penton Street due to an easily
remedied wiring fault, it made no difference
to me as I just carried on working in M&O’s
cab. The biggest hassle as always, is having
to transfer all the collected tat from
one cab to the other and then back again!
M&O may not be the cheapest garage in London, but like most things
in life, you get what you pay for…
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Emissions
Implementation Delay
I’m pleased that the PCO have realised that
their time schedule to bring all cabs up to
Euro III was a ludicrous piece of
legislation. With no system having really
been tested and just the one available, to
expect drivers to pay £3000 was just
madness.
This was undoubtedly a case where the trade press made their mark.
Most of the papers played a part in getting
the rethink and I have no doubt that our
exclusive interview with Steve Norris last
month (later reprinted in Taxi Globe) made
Mayor Ken realise that he was banging his
head against a wall and that he was just
picking on the cab trade because he believes
we cannot fight back.
I may be something of a loose canon in that I do not admit, like
many, that London’s air had to be cleaned up
tomorrow. Yes, it isn’t very clean, but it
isn’t our fault. Not for one second do
I believe surveys from the Mayor’s office
that apparently show us to be the chief
culprits. With more and more TX1 and TXIIs
around, I think that the so-called results
came from the same hat as the rabbit!
The obvious answer was one of natural wastage and that any cab over
10 years old perhaps should need a
conversion – not one that is just a few
years old.
Lousy Week
One week in mid-March hit the depths for me.
I had to go into hospital for a procedure on
my ear that involved a general anaesthetic.
Just before going in, I heard that my good
friend Lenny Bell had died after fighting
cancer for many months. Just a few days
prior to that, another good friend, Chas
Kissin (Mr Grumpy), wrapped his 5-month TXII
round a lamppost and was rushed to hospital.
Three days later, after feeling that the anaesthetic had dispersed,
I decided to face the world again and went
out to work. I’d gone three blocks when a
lady went smack into the back of my cab!
A lousy week? No, total crap…
Alan Fisher
callsignmag@aol.com |
