The fuss over the millennium seems to have only just receded and now it’s 2007! But what really brought things home to me was hearing that a young Arsenal footballer had recently signed a long-term contract to stay at the club until he is 28 – in 2014. Not only does the year sound so futuristic, but I’m not even sure how it will be pronounced… two thousand and fourteen or twenty fourteen! And he’ll still only be 28! And here’s me telling anyone who will listen about Spurs double winning team from 1961…!

Radio circuits and the future…
If anyone ever asks me which radio circuit is the best, I wouldn’t think twice about saying Dial-a-Cab. Besides being true, after 28 years officially and 4 unofficial years (only our Secretary of the 1970s, John Bernardout, knows where my papers are from that period and sadly John died many years ago), this Society has become a part of my life. Perhaps that’s why I jump when I hear criticism from those totally unconnected with us.
   For example, Peter Rose wrote in a recent Cab Trade News about what he calls the average radio job fare before going on to say in a rather sarccy tone that what the circuits don’t tell you is how long the journey took and any waiting etc. He then claims that the average radio job is falling "…because the jobs are getting shorter." And why? Because ‘still-mutual radio circuits’ (who could he mean?) are acting as a "Concierge" for account customers and who are happy to book a minicab for them if it makes the client’s day easier.  How did he get all this information? Apparently drivers "…talk to him because he is a member of the T&G." Well that explains it all. Compared to the total number of drivers on radio circuits, the T&G Cab Section must have a membership of at least 3 – 4% of that number!
   I don’t believe that Peter Rose has ever been on DaC, although I think I once heard that he had applied to come on. So what gives him the right to criticise something that he claims "…drivers told him about?"
   To save Peter explaining, it’s because the "in thing" is to bash success and something the UK Discuss internet list does plenty of. It is, of course, a free country and nothing gives more freedom that the internet, but ask anyone who dares speak up in favour of DaC on the list - they get shot down in flames for no reason other than, as today’s young people might say, it isn’t cool to speak nicely of us!

   Like most of our drivers, I like working with the meter rather than
with a fixed price, but on the one hand Peter asks whether the use of minicabs could be down to the cost, whilst later on he criticises
ComCab (without mentioning their name) for talking about more fixed price rides in order to compete better with minicabs.
   Then he trots out the same old stuff that we’ve heard 101 times before about the former head of a radio circuit who now works for Radio Taxis, although again not mentioning that he is referring to Geof Kaley. That strikes me as being rather cowardly. I suggest that Geof Kaley has done more for this trade than Peter Rose has ever done or ever will do in the future. Without Geof Kaley’s forethought in those early London Wide days, we probably would have been overrun by minicabs years ago.

Call Sign gets letters of criticism about DaC because it is a sad fact that contented drivers don’t bother writing, but I’d rather get 100 letters from our drivers having a moan, because they at least are on the circuit.
   Writers who get their info from "other drivers" are generally not worth listening to…

Taxis and MoTs
A disturbing report has reached Call Sign via DaC driver John Dixon (B67), concerning a friend of his who was driving his Fairway into work from Milton Keynes, when he was pulled up by the local police for what they claimed was a random test. They asked the rather shocked cabbie to follow them to a testing station where the vehicle was given a test akin to an overhaul.
   An "incorrectly fitted washer" was all they could find and the police in their wisdom slapped a PG9 prohibition order onto the taxi and said that they would lift it on production of an MoT certificate. The driver explained that we didn’t need one as licensed taxis, but the police claimed that it wasn’t a licensed taxi in Bedfordshire, where the test took place.
   Call Sign spoke to a member of the London cab enforcement section (TOCU) who, whilst expressing surprise that the cab should have been stopped, said

that in theory a PG9 required a
test certificate. Perhaps the PCO could give a definitive answer because as John said, Dial-a-Cab often do journeys from train
stations involving long trips. Could the above then happen to us on a regular basis?

Ken and the Zigzag lines
You couldn’t have failed to hear that Mayor Ken Livingstone recently won his appeal against a suspension from his position as Mayor of the capital, following his dispute with a reporter from the Evening Standard when he compared him to a Concentration Camp guard from Auschwitz. The quote was appalling, but the decision to overturn the suspension was probably correct – even if it doesn’t make him a particularly nice person.
   However, millions watched the news item on the television news and probably saw Ken coming out of the Law Courts with a big smile on his face and jump into a silver-coloured, street-hailed Dial-a-Cab taxi. And where did Ken – who is the head of virtually everything that happens in London regarding stopping, starting, illegally parking, speeding and fine collection – stop the cab in full view of those viewers? Got-it-in-one! Right smack in the middle of the zigzag crossing lines!
   Mind you, he is the Mayor, so that’s all right then…

LBC and Radio Scotland
I’ve been involved in several discussions / interviews on the London cab trade with BBC Radio Scotland and perhaps unsurprisingly, not once has anyone ever claimed to have heard it. But when I made an appearance on LBC – a station I listen to quite rarely – my phone did not stop ringing all day and late into the evening. I also had to delete the mounting text messages as there was a danger of a blockage!
   I guess that answers the question as to what radio station is the London cabbies’ favourite and will save LBC carrying out a survey!

James Whale for Mayor?
What is the world coming to? According to TalkSport presenter, James Whale, if elected into the spot currently held by Ken "I can say what I like" Livingstone, he will ban bendy buses and cyclists from the centre of London. If he provides London’s cab drivers with subsidised taxis (like five hundred quid each!), he can have my vote - and the other 25,000 of us!