The Performance of the PCO
This issue carries a questionnaire from the London Assemblys Transport Committee asking drivers for their views on the performance of the Public Carriage office since coming under the auspices of Transport for London. Drivers are invited to give their views on a number of points including the PCOs emissions policy and how that affects taxis.
   Call Sign is very pro-PCO, believing that should it ever be disbanded that will also be the day that private hire become equal and are allowed to pick up off the street. However, neither do we believe them to be infallible and this survey seems like a good way to get your point across and have your say.
   My only reservation is the Mayor himself. Any decisions will eventually have to be passed by him and if the West London Tram survey is anything to go by, then any comments on the PCO survey may well be totally ignored.
   In West London where it had been suggested that a tram service be brought in along the Uxbridge Road, TfL invited local residents to take part in a public consultation. Just under 60% of the 17,000 people who took part in the consultation voted against the 40 million tramline between Uxbridge and Shepherd's Bush, however, Ken Livingstone vowed that the scheme would still go ahead referring to the survey as "unscientific."
   Mayor Livingstone said at the time: "The decision to proceed is not really a referendum, there is a real congestion problem on

 the Uxbridge Road and you have to tackle it."
   He may have been right, but that suggests that whatever we say, the Mayor will do exactly what he wants to do. The London Assembly can only make proposals to the Mayor, he does not have to accept them. However, Call Sign still believes that it is important to get your feelings across in this survey.

Tickets, Tickets and then Tickets!
   As regular readers will know, Call Sign rarely publishes an issue that doesnt contain information on yet another driver who has been issued with a Penalty Charge Notice a PCN to you and I. This issue is no different, but I cannot help but wonder how far the councils / boroughs / TfL will go in this apparently never-ending search to collect more fines from the unsuspecting motorist, of whom taxi drivers supposedly as official transport providers - appear to no longer be an exception.
   I remember a time when Wardens would give cab drivers a few minutes because they knew we were either going to call out our passenger or having a wee!  There were a few nasty ones, but generally, if you had a ticket, you were probably taking liberties!  Now everything has changed; wardens are (apparently) not allowed to talk to drivers who have had a ticket issued and the few that do dont seem to have yet fully mastered the English language.
   In addition, we have the CCTV images that are now flying in at a rate of knots which tends to dispute the Corporation of Londons statement in this issue that nothing has changed and that PCNs are not being issued for any "new" parking offences and that there has been no change to any part of the parking regulations in the City. They add that CCTV contraventions are the same as any PCN issued by an on-foot parking attendant. If that is the case, then Im a Dutchman! What makes it worse is that some of the tickets issued almost verge on the obscene!
   My PCN for helping a one

 legged passenger into a shop whilst the Warden was standing next to the cab, has been well documented in Call Sign. We now have the story in this issue of John Shaw (R90) who received a PCN for stopping to pick up a passenger in a wheelchair! Fortunately Call Sign managed to get the ticket cancelled, but the question remains as to how the CCTV operator could possibly miss seeing the wheelchair?
   We realise that Dial-a-Cab are currently in negotiations with the Corporation of London to see whether we can be allowed to do our job no more, no less - without the necessity of having a spare set of eyeballs in the back of our heads and Call Sign would not wish to jeopardise anything, but our point must be made. According to Londons Mayor Livingstone, we are an important part of the capitals transport system. Is it not about time that we were treated as such?

The Muslim View
There is no use pretending that the ordinary, everyday Londoner doesnt view anyone looking like a Muslim is "expected" to look like (ie, Asian or Arabic), with far more suspicion than they ever have before. So we welcome the bravery of Dial-a-Cab driver, Mohamed Abed-Alaziz (N09), for coming to answer Call Signs questions on how, or indeed if his cab-driving life has changed as a Muslim driving a taxi since July 7 this year.
   Mohammed will hopefully change the stereotyped views that many obviously hold since that awful day. His views are in this issue

Taking Over at the "House"
One of DaCs most prestigious accounts is the one we have with the Houses of Parliament. Once the House went into recess, Dial-a-Cab were offered the chance of 100 tickets for DaC drivers and their families for an organised tour of the official Seat of Government.
   Tom Whitbread was the man at this end and thanks to the courtesy of the Keith Prowse ticket agency; Tom managed to get those 100 tickets. Tom thought that around half would be taken, but when it came to it, they were all snapped up at once. Denise, wife of Alan Yuchetel (L44), was so impressed that she wrote an article of their experiences. You can read about it in this issue