Call Sign, DaC and
Wembley football club…
Call Sign
recently received a series emails from a
driver who questioned the wisdom of
sponsoring a football team. He asked
what benefits there were, how much it
cost and insinuated that it was really
Dial-a-Cab that paid rather than
Call Sign. He went on to ask me
what good the sponsorship had this done
this Society and questioned whether it
had gained us any more work, saying that
it must have cost DaC shareholders
something?
Although his was the only dissenting voice and after explaining the
situation, I believe he now accepts my
reasoning, it’s feasible that others may
also have shared that driver’s concerns
on whether huge amounts have been spent
and as a consequence, Call Sign
feels that it should explain the
sponsorship situation as regards to this
mag.
When I first went for an interview for the Call Sign
Editorship in February 1997, I was asked
whether I had any plans to change the
magazine’s format? At the time, it
usually consisted of 12 pages with each
Board member giving a report (8 of them
then), a page of Big Al "drivel," a
letters page and front/back covers.
Computers were a rarity then and even 12
pages was a monumental effort.
But PCs were coming in quickly and they made life so much easier
and cheaper. I told the interviewing
committee that I wanted to reach 28
pages (it’s now 40), I wanted Board
members to write only in every other
issue unless they had something specific
to write about and that I wanted drivers
to be able to have the space to
contribute more. I also wanted to accept
advertising and be able to use that
money to further improve Call Sign.
History says that I was given the job
and only you, the readers, can say if
the appointment was successful.
However, that advertising revenue – of which I am in charge but
with the need to get all cheques
countersigned – has enabled Call
Sign to sponsor many drivers
over the years in a variety of events
such as swimathons and marathons etc.
Some drivers have even used the mag to
help them start their own businesses by
accepting free ads that we have offered
if we thought their cause worthy. We
have also had the best prize
competitions in the trade by far.
The revenue received has also enabled me to help some drivers /
staff members progress further in their
given sporting field than perhaps they
would have otherwise. The only requisite
I need after agreeing that any ambition
is worthwhile, is that there is a
Dial-a-Cab connection and that I have
unlimited access so far as publicity is
concerned.
Last year Call Sign sponsored call centre girls in
the Hyde Park Moonwalk to help a breast
cancer charity and several drivers who
were taking part in various events in
aid of charity.
Also up until 18 months ago, we sponsored the call centre’s Donna
Murray. She, together with the late John
Wells, were both expert shots. Donna in
particular became
British and European champion
|
and made news in many
shooting
magazines that the average driver might
not have read, but which many clients
obviously did. Our sponsorship in the
name of DaC usually involved paying for
ammunition and came to around £300 a
year. Sadly, Johnny Wells died at the
end of 2004. His view was that Donna was
the best female shooter in the world.
Her further success at the world
championships where she won several
classes, which she accepted wearing her
DaC top, was testimony to John’s views.
Then earlier this year, DaC driver Lee Pierce (J71) – who is
the goalkeeper for Combined Counties
Premier league side Wembley – approached
Brian Rice about the possibility of
getting any of the fleece tops that
might have been over from the driver’s
Xmas gifts as the club could not afford
identical tops for the players to train
in. The DaC Chairman found 18 and handed
them over.
Then Call Sign heard about Lee and Wembley and as our
sponsorship of Donna had ended when she
left DaC, we spoke to their Chairman
Brian Gunn about a possible sponsorship
so long as Lee remained at the club.
I was told that for £1400 I could get a home and away kit for all
the players plus around £300 to print
Dial-a-Cab in bold type across the
fronts. I agreed and the cost again came
out of the revenue that Call Sign
receives for advertising. It was nothing
to do with DaC other than I did it in
the Society's name. Why would I want to
promote an in-house mag to which
outsiders cannot subscribe? Some will
correctly say that what is Call
Sign’s is really DaCs, however,
money received by this mag for
advertising could not have been gained
any other way, so it really does cost
DaC nothing to sponsor anyone in this
mag.
I also have to say that I was delighted with the results gained
immediately from the one-off amount paid
on behalf of Wembley FC. Dial-a-Cab had
6 minutes on the BBC's Football Focus, 4
minutes on Sky Sports News, a big photo
in The Sun, an article in the Sunday
edition of the Non-League Paper
and probably several others that I
missed. And on top of that, the 11
players of Wembley FC are running around
the southeast wearing tops with
Dial-a-Cab plastered across the front
and every local paper that carries
reports of their away games will show
the name of Dial-a-Cab if they show a
photo!
Hope that clarifies the situation for that concerned driver and any
others who were wondering.
Is the Mayor losing
the plot?
No doubt there were many taxi drivers
rubbing their hands together when the
latest exorbitant |
new year hike in
bus and train
fares were announced. Buses are up by a
third from £1.50 to £2, while tube
passengers in Zone 1 see a single fare
rise to an astronomical £4. Yep, that
does mean a five-hander going just one
stop on a train having to fork out an
astronomical £20.
In the short term, that will undoubtedly benefit the taxi trade,
but in the long term our main business
of ferrying around people who are
already in town will begin to decline
because many of those passengers will no
longer come in unless they are working
here.
Could it be that with London totally flooded by empty buses with
numbers that only the biggest anorak can
remember, someone now has to pay? It
won’t come out of Ken’s salary – that is
a certainty. His life’s aim of everyone
having plentiful and cheap public
transport is collapsing around him –
even though he has 100 paid publicists
to promote the system.
Now he is talking of having a 2009 celebration in London to
celebrate the – if he survives – 50th
anniversary of Fidel Castro’s Cuban
dictatorship following the revolution in
1959 in which Castro replaced another
dictator, Fulgencio Batista. According
to Mr Livingstone, Cuba has excellent
healthcare and a very high literacy rate
in addition to the Cuban people’s
sporting prowess. The Mayor added that
there was "…no reason why Cuba should be
picked on for controversy other than by
those with a right wing perspective."
One cab driver (Tony) is often heard praising Cuba on radio
phone-in shows and in a democracy such
as ours, everyone is entitled to their
say. But are stories of a happy people
with a health care service that leaves
ours standing, really true?
Well, Call Sign isn’t relying on the word of an
occasional tourist to the Caribbean
island. We asked whether any of our
Internet readers knew about Cuba and
found a young lady in California who was
born there and who still has family
there. You can read her views on her
native country elsewhere in this issue.
AGM Day
Well, it’s almost here again – AGM day!
The 11th of February will see the same
faces gathered at the same place,
probably talking about the same things
we always talk about. These hundred or
so hardy souls may well be wasting their
time, but are also undoubtedly the
people who care about this Society.
There are always some genuine reasons and you will never get a 100%
turnout, but we are owner-driver taxi
purveyors! We can do what we want – if
you want to change your shift or start
earlier / later than usual, most drivers
can. And if enough drivers cared and
bothered showing up, then perhaps you
would have the power to change anything
you don’t like or fine-tune something
you do like.
But if you don’t go, you have the right to cast your vote but
forfeit the right to moan about a
decision. See you there…
Alan Fisher
callsignmag@aol.com |
