As you receive this
issue of Call Sign, you will have
already had details of this year’s AGM -
including your copy of the 2005 Annual
Report, showing yet again another very
successful year for Dial-a-Cab.
They say success breeds success, which is very true because if
nothing else, it instils confidence.
Take Arsenal and Manchester United for
example; unlike in previous seasons,
their results this year are indicative
of two teams lacking confidence.
Conversely, Chelsea approach every game
with an attitude that they cannot
possibly lose. They don’t slaughter the
opposition and admittedly they have the
cream of their profession, but their
hidden strength is the confidence to win
- be it one-nil or six-nil. Either way
it still achieves the same three points
and winning is the primary objective,
which is also our objective at DaC. I
made a reference to football because
it’s a team sport and success is only
achievable if every individual in the
team is willing to work as a unit. That
in a sense, is the same way in which we
operate at DaC. None of our subscribers
are employees with employment rules or
demands on how they work, but we have
the cream of our profession. Everything
is done voluntarily but within a team
spirit that achieves success for the
individual, the client and of course the
Society. Leading the team is the elected
BoM to devise systems supported by
technology and procedures that operate
in the closest way possible to having
everybody working together as a unit.
The rest is down to you.
As individuals working alone, there is an obvious need for guidance
and awareness of what is happening in
the market place, the demands of our
clients and what’s required to put our
Society ahead of the competition. Over
the years as the person responsible for
Sales, I have attempted to play my part
by offering guidance on what’s required
to achieve success. For example,
stressing the importance of image, be it
attitude, manner or appearance. For many
it’s been a boring subject, but it’s
been necessary if we are not only to be
seen as a professional unit, but more
importantly for many of our subscribers
to feel part of a team. That, in
many cases, is the reason they joined
Dial-a-Cab in the first place, to be
part of the most sought after radio taxi
organisation in London.
As we enter 2006 on the back of another successful year, what lies
ahead? What dangers can we expect from
the competition within our trade, from
the PH sector and the unpredictable
authorities? More to the point, what are
we going to do to pre-empt those likely
dangers? If history is anything to go
by, then the answer is probably nothing
with the same argument repeated that
most of us heard when we were on the
Knowledge - no matter how many years ago
that was - "…the trade is finished!"
Well it isn’t finished, far from it and
it’s a great pity that so many within
the trade still harbour such negative
attitudes when there are still so
many positives particularly over the PH
industry that we should be capitalising
on.
For example, in the 2005 Annual Report the Chairman touched on the
issue of Female Safety when using
Licensed Taxis |
and it was also one of
the subjects
I chose when producing the graphics in
the report and equally so the service we
offer the handicapped. Now whilst both
these services are not the most
lucrative of work, to some drivers in
monetary terms they are both invaluable
when measuring what they can do for the
credibility of our industry - especially
against PH.
Barely a week goes by when we are not reading about assaults on
females using minicabs. The figures are
frightening and that’s just from cases
reported. Heaven knows what the true
figure would be if every unreported case
went on record. And with the new 24hour
drinking laws now in operation, I cannot
imagine the authorities releasing the
figures even if they knew them!
To those drivers who were not on our circuit during the early 90’s,
the reason I introduced our female
taxi card service was prompted by an
incident that occurred during the period
when we had just gone live with our new
computerised data system. A rogue
minicab driver was listening in on
another circuit’s two-way voice system -
something that is still possible – and
overheard a job involving a female
passenger.
He went to the address and sexually
assaulted her. Realising our computer
data details could not be copied, I
introduced a service aimed solely at
females travelling alone.
Over the years there has been a moderate request for this service,
but not as strong as it could be if
promoted with the bulk of our member’s
support. That is something you should
really all take an interest in because
the private hire industry as a whole
cannot copy it. Equally so, there is the
safety and privacy of our vehicles.
Then there is also the service we offer the handicapped, which is
truly unique because there is no other
transport service, public or private
hire that guarantees this facility.
In the January issue of Private Hire, there is a
four-page article on the need for PH
proprietors to form a forum similar to
our JRTA in the hope of agreeing a
common fare structure, including the
introduction of a 10% gratuity. No doubt
because since the licensing of PH, the
costs to both the drivers and
proprietors has risen by over 30%. We
knew this would happen and we knew that
when they were forced to increase their
charges to meet those costs, the PH
industry would no longer be able to
undercut our charges as they had done in
the past. So what are we left with? A
half dozen recognised professional
outfits operating a fleet of a few
hundred vehicles who as more TfL and PCO
controls come into effect, will be under
increasing pressure to compete against
established taxi companies such as ours.
The rest will resemble just a ramshackle
bunch of minor outfits who offer a
service in areas rarely covered by the
licensed trade, interspersed with
second, third and fourth tier pirates
which you will find operating in every
city in the world and who will never be
eradicated but could be easily
discredited if we make a concerted
effort to raise our profile.
The problem with our trade is that even though we have the
advantage that the London Taxi isone of
the most recognised |
vehicles in the world,
the drivers do absolutely nothing - and
I mean nothing - to capitalise on that
fact in a manner deserving of the trade.
All we ever see is the odd pathetic
whinge, a couple of dozen radicals
causing a minor traffic jam in protest
or a few banner-waving Tolpuddle Martyr
look-a-likes pounding the pavement
outside a rogue hotel which does nothing
to raise our image in the eyes of the
general public.
If every licensed cab driver in London donated just £20 each, it
would amount to over half a million
pounds. That is a tidy sum of money to
invest in a very creditable promotional
campaign on the benefits of using
licensed taxis against that of using
alternative transport. Of course it will
never happen because cabmen by tradition
are naturally apathetic, they might
agree with a multitude of issues in
their watering holes, but when is comes
to action, it’s zilch! Unfortunately we
have no control over the cab trade as a
whole, but we do have control over our
2000 plus members of Dial-a-Cab, a
section of the cab trade whose Society
over the past 10 years has gone from
strength to strength by giving at least
the corporate sector a service second to
none - and much to the annoyance and
chagrin of certain scribes in the trade
press. What we need now to do is go that
one step further by showing the guy in
the street, the general public, how
professional we are and not just by
giving them a service, but also by
acting as ambassadors, as sales
representatives and being identified as
belonging to a recognised team such as
Dial-a-Cab. This can be assisted by
wearing the DaC rain jackets or fleecy
jackets we gave you this Christmas. They
are practical and the logo very
promotional.
I’m not suggesting you should get into a sales pitch, our
reputation for waffling on about the
ills of the world is bad enough,
anything more and the passengers will be
jumping out of the cab mid-journey! No,
instead what you should be doing is
simply carrying advertising and
promotional material in your cabs when
it is available and at every
opportunity, distribute that material.
Say we cover on average one and half million trips a year, if we
were to assume every trip to equal 2
passengers per journey, we are looking
at a target audience of 3 million
customers - possibly a lot more if you
look at the knock-on effect of that
material when it finds itself
distributed further afield. The
financial cost of targeting that sized
audience would be considerable, yet it
need cost us nothing. All it needs is
for you to distribute the leaflets every
time a passenger leaves your cab or you
drop it in the letterbox either side of
your pick-up or drop-off address. Now
that’s what I call advertising…
Allen Togwell
DaC Marketing
allent@dialacab.co.uk |
