Freedom of choice?
Those DaC drivers that come to the
office on a regular basis to use the loo
or have a coffee, will know that
Driver’s Reception always has a choice
of freebie mags to take away with you.
Some, like Taxi Globe, Taxi Talk,
Taxicab News or Cab Driver are
reasonably free of any ties linking them
to opposing organisations. Others such
as Taxi, Cab Trade News, The Badge or
London Taxi Times are not quite so free.
Taxi is the mouthpiece of the LTDA –
which is a shareholder in our
competitor, ComCab. CTN is the
mouthpiece for the T&G and has often
gone into print about Dial-a-Cab – and
not always in our favour. In fact,
during the demutualisation debate, it
advised our drivers to vote against the
Board’s recommendation. London Taxi
Times is a front for the Radio Taxi
Group (formerly Mountview) and could
hardly be called non-prejudiced when it
comes to reporting on radio matters. The
Badge represents the views of the London
Cab Drivers Club and has never been
afraid to have a dig at DaC. But
Dial-a-Cab is happy to allow all of them
to be placed in our reception. And in
the view of Call Sign,
that is how it should be.
Now let’s cross over the ‘pond’ to Chicago and look at The
Chicago Dispatcher. Call Sign is
sent a copy of each issue and a very
interesting insight into the problems
faced by cabbies in the windy city it
provides.
However, one taxi organisation in Chicago -Yellow Cabs - has banned
the paper from their reception. The
company say that it will not be
available on their premises "for the
foreseeable future."
So why did the company's majority owner, Michael Levine, ban the
Dispatcher? His answer was that because
he wasn't currently advertising in the
publication, he claimed that it wouldn’t
make good business sense to allow cab
newspapers to be made available at his
garage when they carried ads from his
competitors.
The decision also came close on the heals of the Chicago Dispatcher
Editor asking Mr Levine to confirm or
deny a rumour concerning pensions at his
operation. The rumour was denied, but
was soon followed by the banning order.
I banned a letter from the last issue of Call Sign
because I considered it to be unsuitable
and based on unsubstantiated rumours.
The driver concerned was unhappy and
went to see a solicitor, who in turn
sent me a letter telling me that I had
to publish everything. I disagreed
because I am the Editor and I decide
what gets published and what doesn’t.
Solicitors do not edit Call Sign
- even if this particular one’s name
does seem to crop up quite regularly.
The letter was the first for several years that I hadn’t published,
but that does not |
detract from the fact that the duty
of an editor is to edit. But that is a
million miles from The Chicago
Dispatcher being banned.
Fuel prices…
Perhaps it’s just me, but why do I get
the feeling that we are being ripped off
by the fuel companies? I know that the
cost of a barrel of Brent Sea Crude
smashed through the $75 mark and that
across other international markets, the
price is on an equally upward spiral.
But I just have this niggling feeling
that we are being charged far more than
should be necessary.
US problems with Iran is suggested as the reason, but is Iran that
big an oil producer? And since when was
Nigeria such a big player? No, I don’t
think so…
If you go back to last September, prices pushed up to the verge of
£1 a litre, coincidentally stopping at
the 99.9p mark everywhere! Now they are
there again - yet last year’s roar is
this year’s whimper.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about this. It always seems
that the fuel companies put up the price
steeply, wait for us to get used to the
idea, then reduce the overpriced
commodity to allow us a feeling of
success and then put it back up in small
steps.
The result? You guessed it! We’re back up to the 99.9 mark with the
only difference being that public
pressure on the fuel companies has eased
even though just 6 months ago, we wanted
to string them all up! They pull the
same stroke time after time and always
get away with it because they know there
is nothing that we can do about it.
One driver even sent me a website where they were talking about
boycotting one fuel company at a time to
see whether that would force the cost of
fuel down. The answer is that of course
it would if we did it, but we all know
that most drivers would still go to the
forecourt that suited them. So the idea
– which comes up every year – would
never work.
Perhaps it’s about time that we asked the Mayor to represent us to
Her Majesty’s Government and for us to
not pay fuel duty? Impossible? Possibly
– but worth a try. After all, the Mayor
is constantly telling us how important
we are – that’s when he isn’t kicking us
in the teeth…
To golf
or not to golf!
For the second time in under a year,
Call Sign has sent drivers on
a wild goose chase by |
sponsoring them in
various golf competitions. Ray Scott
(T34) and Dave Spencer (V89) were the
two involved this time and were looking
forward to playing for this magazine at
the world famous Belfry course – home of
the Ryder Cup.
Sadly, and just like last time, at the last minute the organisers
pulled the plug leaving me with golfers
- but nowhere for them to play!
My apologies to both Ray and Dave, but this has confirmed my
thoughts that the only competitions I
now feel safe sponsoring are those with
cab trade affiliations such as the DaC
Open or the LTFUC event. And in future,
unless I get a cast-iron guarantee that
an event is taking place, then I will be
leaving it alone…
SGS and overhauls
Hopefully, you will all have read the
reports on SGS and the system they will
be employing when they take over from
the PCO in passing cabs at the end of
the year. As Call Sign
wasn’t invited, I cannot give you a
personal view, however, I did speak to
one garage proprietor who told me that
without doubt, if the second mid-term
check on taxis goes ahead, it would
definitely cost us more. He also added
that most garages would be travelling
much further to whichever passing
station they will be using, because in
the majority of cases, they will be
further away and more time-consuming to
get to than where the PCO is. And guess
who’s gonna pay for that? Bingo…!
Wayne’s
45K
I read with interest a recent Evening
Standard article (20 April)
on who earns what. I don’t know licensed
taxi driver Wayne Lock, but he
apparently told the paper that he earns
£45,000 a year. That made him 3K better
off than University Professor Paul Gregg
and 12K richer that Junior Doctor Simon
Williams. Sadly, though, Wayne finds
himself £595K worse off than Radio 1 DJ
Chris Moyles. Wayne may now have to work
his 5 days off each week if he wants to
catch up to Mr Moyles. You win some and
you lose some…!
Good news
and bad news?
Depending on which way you view life, I
have some good / bad / indifferent news
to give you. This was my last Call
Sign as Editor, next month is
June so there is no issue and I have
just been presented with a new 3-year
contract, so I shall be back in July!
For those of you going away, have a great time. Call Sign’s email
address (see below) will still be
working to take your letters or stories
and my successor – me – will see you in
July…
Alan Fisher
callsignmag@aol.com |
