Call Sign May 2006 - Page 5 - BRIAN RICE MEETS MARK WATTS AND ANNI MARJORAM - MANGANESE BRONZE UNAUDITED INTERIM RESULTS

BRIAN RICE MEETS MARK WATTS AND ANNI MARJORAM

As the signage battle hots up…!

On his seemingly never-ending quest to stop London private hire vehicles gaining signage on their vehicles other than a name board and PCO / TfL roundel licence in the front and back windscreens, Dial-a-Cab Chairman Brian Rice recently made yet another tip to City Hall. On this occasion, he spoke to Mayor Livingstone’s chief advisor, Mark Watts and to Anni Marjoram, head of the Women’s Transport Advisory Committee and spokesperson for Woman’s Affairs in London.
   Brian told Call Sign: "It was an excellent meeting and both understood our position. Mark Watts has been in the position for some time now and agreed that signage on private hire would probably be for commercial branding purposes rather than any other reason."
   Mr Rice also said that Anni Marjoram’s interest was connected to her position as the spokesperson for women’s affairs and her department is constantly involved in consultation on women’s priorities for transport in London and the signage issue was an important one to her.
   She told Brian that since the licensing of private hire in London, not one case of rape or sexual assault had been reported in a licensed private hire vehicle to which the Chairman asked why, if that were the case, would anyone want to change it? He explained that the proposals would create an image that any car with signage must be genuine.
   "That," explained the Chairman, "would not be true and should signage be allowed back onto PH vehicles, then all the good work achieved would be undone." He added that Anni Marjoram seemed supportive of that statement.   Brian then explained about the problems in cities such as

Anni Morjoram
Lincoln, Birmingham and Coventry - all of which had big problems following the easing of signage restrictions.
"It was another good meeting," Brian told Call Sign, "where they both seemed to understand our point of view."

And parking tickets…
Whilst there, Brian Rice took the opportunity of explaining to both Mark Watts and Anni Marjoram about the cost to DaC drivers and Dial-a-Cab itself following the cctv crackdown on waiting in many parts of London.
"They sounded extremely supportive even when the person taking the minutes pointed out that some camera shots seemed to show drivers sitting in their cabs reading the paper! I explained that those drivers had probably made contact and were just waiting for the passenger to arrive from their office and were probably passing the time by reading the paper!"
Brian finished by telling Call Sign that this was probably one of the best meetings he’d had so far as City Hall was concerned and that he was hopeful something useful would emerge.

MANGANESE BRONZE UNAUDITED INTERIM RESULTS

Manganese Bronze Holdings PLC, parent company of cab manufacturer LTI Vehicles, has announced its unaudited interim results for the six months up to 31 January 2006.
   During the six-month period, MBH saw their pre-tax profit double to Ł1 million on turnover – which in turn was reduced from Ł41.3million to Ł39.1million. It was achieved through the sale of 1,106 new taxis as against 1,104 in the equivalent period in 2005.
   According to MBH Chief Executive, Ian Pickering, the company saw a small fall in exports, but the Ł2.2million reduction in turnover was caused mainly by lower sales of used vehicles at the company’s main dealerships. However, the sale of new cabs has picked up since the end of the six-month period with UK taxi sales up from 414 to 421.
   The report also said that the company had been hit by the world increase
in the cost of steel together with higher prices for gas (used both to heat the production line and in the paint shop), but that these extra costs had not so far been passed on to customers and at this
stage, according to Company Chairman Tim Melville-Ross, there was no intention to do so.
   Mr Melville-Ross also announced the date for completion of the new M&O building in Brewery Road for November and tied it in with "the Euro IV compliant vehicle" – something the trade has anticipated following the implementation of the new emissions regulation for London as of July this year.
   Cash received from the Ł4.2 million sale of the old components property in Ipswich was not received until the second half and is not included in the figures.
The interim dividend went up from 1p to 2p. Trading in the shares saw a total of 53,000 changing hands in just six deals.

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