More and more client visits
As you know, Dial-a-Cab is the most successful radio taxi service in London. However, as with any successful organisation, it is inevitable that there will be service issues.
   The Call Centre is working flat out to answer calls quickly whilst the fleet controllers try to pre-empt possible pick-up issues by monitoring the fleet, arbitrating various trips and informing drivers which zones and what time those trips are to be dispatched. You are given traffic conditions and other information to keep the fleet moving. However, even with all this information drivers are still rejecting trips. This is having a profound influence on our service, especially during the evening.
   When questioning drivers about the excessive number of rejects within our system, the answer often comes that there is there is a tremendous amount of cash work on the streets.
   Well my friends, that work can dry up very quickly as we all know from past experience. Our account clients, some who have been with Dial-a-Cab for many years, deserve
a better service than they are getting at this time. The financial value of account trips offered by DaC is 

extremely valuable, nevertheless, rejecting account trips offered through our dispatch system in favour of street work is still causing service issues.    Having to visit more clients than ever, I’m finding it difficult to keep offering the same excuses and commitments time and time again that our service will improve and indeed, it is proving to be tiresome to the customers.
   You’ll know by now those drivers who were in breach of the 40-job rule and have now been expelled. Surely as a Dial-a-Cab shareholder, reaping the financial wealth would have been a prime goal? We are offering so much good financially rewarding work…
   This year has been the most financially buoyant year DaC has ever had. The Board’s duty to members is to obtain work. If you are not prepared to take the

trips offered, please let me know what you do want and we will do our best to accommodate. However, we cannot keep offering premiums to entice you to pick up account rides that already have the increased run-in of £4.20 and which are quite costly already due to London’s worsening traffic conditions. When the bubble bursts - which it undoubtedly will do - customers will take their business elsewhere.

Russian about…
On a lighter note, I recently took a cruise holiday to the Baltic. What a fantastic holiday visiting Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Russia.
   Although all the places we visited were wonderful, Russia was certainly an experience. We stayed two days in St Petersburg and visiting some of the former royal palaces was most certainly awe-inspiring. The opulence of the palaces showed the life style of the Tsars and their families at a time when the peasants were dirt poor. No wonder there was a revolution!

Mike Son
DaC Customer Services / Special Projects