Either write to Call Sign at Brunswick House or email us at callsignmag@aol.com

Thank you Colin
I just want to thank Dial-a-Cab for the courtesy extended to me during my travel from London City Airport to the Radisson in Trafalgar Square. The taxi driver's name was Colin Carruthers and he was extremely friendly and courteous. He made me feel welcome. I liked him so much that I wanted to pass along these comments. Please let him know that I appreciate his professionalism and courtesy. Thanks to all in your organization.
Philip M.Hronas
Houston, Texas
Well-done Colin (Y38). Mr Hronas is with the Shell organisation and as he comes from Texas, I just wondered whether he offered you any oil wells as a thank you! …Ed

Thanks again…
On 22 March at around 1pm, a Dial-a-Cab taxi took my friend and I from Arlington Avenue, Islington to the London Palladium. After we had left the cab, I realised that I had left my scarf on the back seat. However, I needn’t have worried because the driver very kindly returned it to my home. I just wanted to say thank you…
Jean Semaine
London N1

And yet again!
I would simply like to say thank you to Dial-a-Cab’s staff for their speed of reaction and kindness. Last Wednesday night, my boss called me at 8.30pm telling me she had left her briefcase in the taxi she picked up in the street just in front of our offices on Saint James's Square. She had no idea which cab company (if any) it was and she was desperate because she was flying to the US the following day.
   We decided to start calling cab companies and Dial-a-Cab was the second one I called. It must have been around 9pm by then. Your call centre staff were extremely kind to take all the details and they called me back about 15 minutes later saying that the briefcase was still with the driver (Charlie 84) and that he was doing a job in SW6 where I happen to live. The briefcase reached my house before 10pm and you can imagine the relief of both my boss, for having found the briefcase, and mine for not having to spend the whole of Thursday talking to more cab companies and police stations, etc!
Many thanks to Charlie 84 and many thanks to your call centre staff - they even called me back the following day to confirm whether the briefcase had been handed back.
Vincent Leconte
BP, London SW1
The driver was Tony Handley. Well done! …Ed

Not four thank-yous in one issue!
I’d like to thank both the Editor and Tom Whitbread for the wonderful article written about me in the April Call Sign. At the age of 74, I finally get recognition! My wife made some photocopies and I was able to give them to my family and friends. Dial-a-Cab has been a great part of my life and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Quite honestly, I am missing it very much and I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone associated with DaC many more prosperous years to come. If you are eventually involved in any takeovers, I would love to be included!
Steve Marks (Ex-G12)
Hope you are enjoying retirement, Steve. Tom is rather miffed that you left without giving him the chance to put you on complaint for something! …Ed

And thank you Cab Enforcement…?
We can all sleep safely now that the Cab Enforcement Section have confirmed that they will be coming down heavily on the miscreants among us who have to stop on a rank to buy a sandwich or use one of the many toilets provided in our capital city. Quite rightly, they indicate that the welfare of the cab trade is not their concern. Those weeks spent at the Hendon Police College were certainly not wasted! In fact I would suggest that the Cab Enforcement Section’s gain is the Serious Crime Squad’s loss! If they seek a further challenge, they could always start nicking cabs using Albert Bridge! Keep up the good work, says I…
Geoff Levene (K43)
Thanks for the letter, Geoff, it certainly made me smile – although I have to say that you are being a bit harsh. Yes, the article that Dave Hillson wrote in Call Sign did go on about unauthorised parking on taxi ranks by taxi drivers, but it can be unfair on drivers when they have to squeeze onto a rank because someone has gone shopping and left their cab there. Have you seen the busy rank at Russell Street, Covent Garden and how many taxis are usually parked there? Try watching, as I did recently while having a bite in one of the restaurants facing the rank. Of 4 cabs parked, 3 were still there over an hour later. Is that fair? It won’t always be busy and ranks such as that one could be invaluable. Yes, Sgt Hillson sounded quite cold in the article, but Call Sign has been out with the CES catching minicabs that were touting and believe me, they suffer far more. Cab Enforcement means them and us and if you are caught not wearing your badge, they may well nick you – although one would hope that a little "chat" would be sufficient if you actually have it with you. No one likes authority, but sadly as usual, the minority that don’t give a toss about anyone else are the ones to blame for the clampdown on rank parking …Ed

Heathrow scrubs … and non-rejectable trips
Re Peter Moll’s (K35) letter in the March Call Sign, I think he has got an almighty nerve to ask for a fixed price scrub of £35 for any job cancelled at Heathrow. Why should he receive any more compensation than a driver working in town? The fact is that ‘townies’ only get what is on the meter – which isn’t compensation at all.
   Most of us know why the car park at Heathrow is full-up most of the time, it’s because most jobs come back to town and are very lucrative. If occasionally one gets a wrong ‘un, then so be it. You can’t win them all. Mr Moll could always join the band of hard working drivers who cater for the public at large by plying for hire in town, where for most of the time they are crying out for cabs. If he does that, then our radio work will be covered much easier because I feel sure that the number of taxis filling the car park at any given time is quite unnecessary. That’s why when the ‘moaning minnies’ complain about there being too many cabs on the road, the truth is that many of them are to be found at Heathrow!
   So I invite Mr Moll to join us, the best cabbies in the world working in the greatest metropolis on Earth. If he isn’t quite sure where that is, let him take the M4 marked Central London or failing that, he could use the more picturesque route – namely the Old Bath Road.
   Can I also comment on Mike Son’s column in the same issue. He writes that too many jobs are being rejected, even though the average trip amounts to around £26. Surely the average refusal is because certain trips don’t pay very well – which includes those that go out of the way and where there is little chance of a return trip.
   But there is a way of solving the problem overnight. Why not make all jobs non-rejectable including those Westminster trips that are so popular with drivers. If you do that, then I can assure you that the waiting list for DaC will disappear immediately. Not only that, but there will be a queue a mile long at Offord Road of drivers waiting to have their radios removed.
Stanley Frankel (K46)
I’m not sure what Mike Son was referring to when he spoke of "drastic steps" being taken if too many trips were continually being rejected, but I’ve never really been one of those who worried about where I was going to, provided that my last trip had some sort of going home facility to it. Sometimes we reject out of fear – and I include myself – because we just don’t like certain trips and those aren’t necessarily "out of the way" ones either. I’d be interested in why some jobs that stay in town are constantly rejected. With no traffic and hand on heart, would you run from St John’s Wood to Maida Vale to cover a job to Kilburn? If you say no to that, would you run from Belgrave Square to Sloane Square to cover a trip to Kensington? If you have two different answers to the above two trips, I’d be interested in why and whether a no destination policy would terrify you? And to save anyone asking, no one has told me that one is to be brought in …Ed

Loof Lirpa?
About 10 days ago I was having coffee with a friend who works at City Hall (in

Back to fixed prices
In reply to Mr Rice’s reply (April Mailshot To Finz or not to Finz) and especially in regard to why I don’t do fixed prices, can someone explain to me why prices are being fixed within the London postal area? I don’t live in hope that it times out on the meter.
Patrick Noble (S55)
Brian Rice replies: The point I was endeavouring to convey to you, Patrick, is that you cannot be in a position to complain about fixed prices when you do not actually do them. Consequently, as the trip would never be offered to you, you would not be in a position to judge whether the FP was good or bad. Why do we have FP's? Well, for a start the client wants them and the vast majority of our members are prepared to do them, even though as a company so far as we can, we resist them. 

EC5 – cut down on wasted mileage?
I've been a DaC member for almost three years and I understand the reasons for the Finsbury Square rank, but I think that now you’ve taken the (temporary) decision to be able to book into EC5 without the need of the Finz, wouldn't it be more efficient to dispatch all EC5 work (except fixed prices) as directed, but giving a pick-up address with the reject option? It seems inefficient to have one cab running from the far east side of the city to the far west side to a pick-up and another cab doing the same thing in the opposite direction. Surely this would get cabs to clients more quickly and cut down on driver’s dead mileage?
Kevin Molyneux (B20)     
Keith Cain replies: Kevin, the point you raise regarding disbanding EC5 has been spoken about many times. It does make a lot of sense to dispatch the work into its original zone and I have requested this from our programmers to be done. Unfortunately, all work associated with EC5 will remain masked and non-rejectable because 30 /40 years experience tells us our service levels to clients after 21:00 hours is far better operating this way. I have asked for an update on this and was advised that we hope to be in a position to test it by the middle-to the end of May. If all goes well, it will be implemented straight away… 

Going home – or the happy hour!
On reading your lead article on ‘Going Home (Call Sign Editorial, April 2006), perhaps this successful proposition should be renamed Happy Hour! Please explain what part is ‘going home’ and what represents cherry picking, because as this successful proposition stands at the moment, it represents a cheats charter! A driver can put in Code 3 and cherry pick for 60 minutes. He or she can log onto EC2 and get an uncovered list of all jobs in all EC zones plus all back-up channels – SE1, E1, and N1 etc including all A/D jobs. Then at the end of an hour of looking at jobs going to Essex, Herts etc but wanting to go to SW London for instance, he or she can just decide to go back to work as usual! Surely, if all drivers played this game we would have a massive backlog of late and uncovered jobs and the bid channel would be full! So where does this leave the DaC drivers who are out there to work, knowing nearly all the jobs are being viewed by the cherry pickers?
   This successful proposition regarding Going Home represents a dangerous recipe for disaster and will result in a bad service, ie late cabs, which equals lost accounts, which equals no work! As many of you know, ComCab thought it had all the angles covered and sold Going Home as one of its plus points for joining ComCab, but this system was abused and look what happened to that circuit then. So maybe DaC should consider hanging fire on its new premises until it has had a chance to audit the effect the new Going Home system has on its service.
   Be lucky all of you and drive safely. From just another concerned old git…
Graham Ellis (S95)
You obviously agree with my Editorial comments on the subject, Graham, but the price we pay for belonging to a democratic organisation is that we must accept even that which we do not agree with if the majority vote in favour. As I also said in that piece, my real objection was that neither the proposer nor seconder turned up to explain their proposition. And yes, if what you say is the case, then this proposition will cause problems as against the old system of having one crack at getting something going your direction. Perhaps a better system would be for the Board to decide this type of procedure after asking for driver’s views rather than having it changed via a proposition and then changed back the following year? …Ed

Agreeing with the Ed
I agree with your April Editorial. Anyone putting forward or seconding a proposition should be compelled to put it forward in person.
Martin Freeborn (C67)
Thank you Martin. I’ve had quite a few phone calls supporting my view and (so far) none against, which beggars the point – who voted for it? …Ed

Freebies…
Can Call Sign please pass my thanks on to Tom Whitbread for the stream of freebie tickets he seems to get for us. I recently saw the Billy Joel show (Movin’ Out) and thoroughly enjoyed it. Any chance of Tom also sending me a few bob towards the dinner we had to have as we were out anyway!
John Davis (V41J)
Tom did send a reply, but this is a family magazine! …Ed

PowerPill and the PCO
I read with much interest on page 39 (April Call Sign - PCO emissions exhibition packs ‘em in), Roy Ellis's reply concerning use of the PowerPill. As I understand from the article, he may have acknowledged some limited tacit approval for their use provided a valid means of on-going testing methods can be arranged. This is exciting news, Alan! Has anyone contacted PowerPill about this important development yet? I am currently in touch with one of the largest cab proprietors in London who would be most interested if this goes ahead.
David Baker (D22)
I actually introduced the PowerPill representative to Roy Ellis at the show, but there is some way to go before the product can be used as an emissions buster. Firstly, it has to satisfy the authorities that it doesn’t just reduce smoke, because reducing smoke levels and increasing mileage on fuel isn’t what the Mayor is looking for. Fingers crossed! …Ed

Spanish Taxi
Although I have Espana, I buy Austin Taxi FX4R. I not have spare parts, neither photos, neither manual of functioning. Hence I resort to you that he be kind, can send me some manual and please tell me where I can spare parts for this model get. FX4R and of him I do not know absolutely nothing. He would need some manual, books, photos and some market where acquire of spare parts when he need them.
   If you may help oneself, he would thank it for life because I find myself in Cadiz, very far from England in order to be able to obtain information. If you or his wife collect something, or they desire some Hispanic object, not doubt in asking me for it, that with pleasure he would send it.
Joseph M. Basadre Montesinos
Puerto Real, Cadiz, España
 

No subs for holidays?
In January, my son married his Australian girlfriend in Sydney where they have made a home. As we had not seen him for almost three years, we all went over for a special 7-week trip. Coincidentally, before our trip I was reading how well DaC were doing with £4.5M in the Bank and thought (admittedly with little optimism) that with the strong financial position and under my particular circumstances, it might be possible to apply for a reduction or suspension of subs for the period I was away. But I received a letter from Howard Pears telling me that after lengthy discussion, the BoM had decided my case was unsuitable. Disappointed, I wrote back to Mr Pears to say that in the absence of any details in his letter, I imagine the Board’s decision was based, at least in part, on fears of setting a precedent. If so, then replication of my situation was unlikely and to appeal once more to the Board, adding that this might be an occasion to relent from being hard-nosed businessmen and allow our mutual status an opportunity to make a gesture that would have been very useful to me at a tough time financially.
   Don’t misunderstand me; this is not a whinge that I had to suffer 7 weeks in Australia during the depths of winter and still had to pay subs. For me, that particular issue is over. Essentially I want to take this opportunity to now go on and relay a personal slight by Howard Pears that I think ties in with my perception that drivers on the circuit are increasingly taken for granted.
   When I returned from Australia, I wrote again to Mr Pears to ask the content of the BoM’s lengthy discussion, but more importantly just an explanation why my case was unsuitable. I just wanted to know why! I delivered the letter by hand to the main reception. After a few weeks, I hadn’t received a reply so I wrote again this time using Royal Mail and assumed that the internal mail had gone awry. Another few weeks went by without reply and I have no doubt my letters have gone in the bin. I simply think that a letter from a member should be acknowledged and answered; after all I don’t think a letter from a client would be ignored - nor should we. This whole episode seems to me to be symptomatic of the way we drivers - the lifeblood of the society - are treated. It manifests itself in the way members’ legitimately raised questions in Mailshot are often ignored in favour of character assassination, with shockingly, details of the questioner’s work record displayed. It is simply not right that members personal work details are gratuitously shown in the pages of Call Sign. Members have every right to seek answers without the rest of the fleet having to know how long they have been on the circuit or whether they have completed 40 jobs per month or have ever done fixed prices. After all, I seem to recall that until recently, the BoM jealously guarded their privacy when it came to their pay rates.
   Equally the complaint notes sent out by Mr Whitbread regarding motor cab licences which rightly caused such indignation, is another recent example. I notice that Tom took the time to address this in April’s Call Sign, giving a detailed, cogent explanation of the problem non-production of the licences can cause. Dare I suggest that a letter sent to relevant members with that sort of detail, but emphasising the point that complaint letters would have to follow if the error was not rectified, would have been a more appropriate and respectful way to handle the problem. After all, I have no doubt that for 90% of members (including me), it was merely an oversight. Indeed, can you imagine an oversight by a corporate client being treated in such a way? Of course not! And why not? Because clients are important and here is the rub - so are we!
   I urge you to resist the temptation to dump a pile of verbal poo on my head and see this letter for what it is, a genuine attempt to highlight a creeping malaise that can set in when respect is lacking. Of course it may be that I am far too sensitive or completely wrong. It would be interesting to see what other members think.
David Brett (P93)
Company Secretary Howard Pears replies: David, I can confirm that I have not thrown your correspondence in the bin and in fact addressed this matter after my mother's recent funeral.
Yes the Society is doing well and the cash position is very strong, however, in order to maintain this success and consistency, the Board sometimes need to make decisions that may not be to the liking of individual members. In this instance, the Board made a decision based on consistency and fairness. There was no intention of being disrespectful to you and a course of action resulting in the fair treatment of all members was paramount in the Board's decision-making process.
   How could a question such as did Mr Brett receive an allowance on his council tax, car insurance or television licence at the same time be answered without attracting searching debate? Similar special case requests have been declined by the Board in the past and you can rest assured that fairness and consistency will be applied to all future applications.

Warning to SatNav owners
With more and more drivers fitting SatNavs to their cabs - especially Tomtoms - they need to heed the following warning. The removal of your SatNav at the end of your working day will leave a circular mark on the windscreen and is a sign for the would be robber that the SatNav has just been put out of sight and they will break in just to look for this very popular item. The easy answer is to take your SatNav out of the cab and clean the window before you leave the vehicle overnight. 
Alan Nash (A95)
There is an article in this issue which should be taken as a warning to drivers that there are miscreants out there who want your SatNav and aren’t too fussy as to how they get it …Ed

Powerpill tester’s update
Just to let you know of the improvements I have noticed after using the Ubiee Powerpill. As mentioned previously in the Call Sign report on the pill, I certainly noticed that my cab was running much smoother. The cab also showed a reduction in emission levels from 0.75 to 0.67. But best of all has been the improvement in fuel consumption that I am now getting. I used to get 29.5 mpg before using the Powerpill - which was pretty good anyway, but since using the pill that has improved up to 33.5mpg. Although following the original advice of using one pill at every other fill (I was using less than half a tank daily, but liked to fill up daily), my figures didn't show that much improvement with consumption going up to 31.5mpg. I now know that was because the pill was only treating half a tank of fuel, so I started filling up when my tank was more than 3/4 empty but then put the pill in at every fill. This has resulted in me now getting
33.5mpg.
   On a different note, could I take this opportunity to thank Pat O’Toole (T44) for bringing the QLink to our attention. My energy levels have increased markedly since wearing the QLink. I used to suffer headaches daily, which I don't do anymore and I feel more refreshed every day. Thanks Pat and also Alan Fisher for testing it via Call Sign.
Divyesh Ruparelia (V059)
Call Sign spoke to Powerpill and they confirmed Divyesh’s point that if you only treat half the fuel in the tank, you will only see half the savings and that it is more beneficial to use 3/4 to a full tank of fuel for each Power Pill. That way all of the new fuel put into
the cab gets treated. However, I’d issue a warning on that point. No fuel saving is worth running dry and breaking down because you let the tank get too low and then found that you were in danger of running out of fuel. Don’t leave it till the last minute …Ed

Thanks for the flowers...
May I through your magazine express the thanks of my family and myself for the beautiful flower arrangement received. Thankfully my operation is now behind me and I am once again back home, beginning what I hope will be fast recovery to full health once again.The good wishes of The Board of Management, Drivers and all the Staff have helped greatly in aiding my recovery and making one appreciate a sense of belonging. To all of you associated with Dial-a-cab, my sincere thanks and please be careful out there.
   I hope the above can be include in your next publication, keep up the good work on our behalf.
Roy Webb (D42) 
Nice to hear you are recovering, Roy ...Ed

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