New premises
We have now been in our new building for
just over a month and everything is
progressing extremely well. We are
currently in the process of employing
more call takers and would like to be in
a position where we have employed up to
another additional forty by the
beginning of September, so that we will
be in the position to grow your business
even further.
At the same time, we will be endeavouring to increase the size of
the fleet to accommodate the increase in
work that we anticipate. However and as
you know, we are very selective when it
comes to recruiting new members and will
be operating a scheme whereby preference
will be given to new recruits that are
recommended by existing members. As a
consequence, we will be operating a
selection process whereby we will offer
an incentive to existing members if they
recommend a colleague, the details of
which you will receive in the near
future and might in fact have possibly
received before you even read this
article.
But back to the move. We met at 2am on Saturday 5 May at Brunswick
House, the system was taken down at
3.15am and moved to the new premises. By
5.25, we were up and running at our new
premises and totally self-sufficient. I
cannot commend highly enough everyone in
our IT department that made the move a
seamless operation, because these things
do not happen by sheer luck!
John Bankes and his IT department spent six months planning this
move and it showed as we did not
experience one single glitch during the
process. To move an operation like ours
is a mammoth task and to say that I am
delighted with the way it went is an
understatement, especially as I had
sleepless nights wondering if we would
take the system down and then not be
able to re-instate it, or that the
telephone lines would not be switched to
the new premises! However, in hindsight,
I had a lot of worry for nothing
especially as we had Tom Carter and Jim
Moore on hand for extra insurance just
in case we experienced any problems! My
sincere thanks to everyone concerned. It
is always worth remembering - if you
fail to prepare, be prepared to fail.
Voice channel to data… |
In order that we can
continue to
grow your business, I applied to
Ofcom in an attempt to acquire some
extra VHF channels, but they came back
to say there were not any available and
there probably wouldn’t be in the near
future. Consequently, if we wish to
increase capacity then in all
probability we will have to convert
channel 2 - our voice channel - to data.
This will then give us extra capacity,
whilst improving signals when we are
busy and is something that we will be
doing in the foreseeable future.
At the same time, we will probably move some of our aerial sites to
give us a better spread and also
introduce multi-channel working from
each aerial site. This will benefit us
two-fold. Firstly, it will increase our
capacity and secondly, it should also
improve signals.
Reality check?
As you know,
we were the first in the market place to
have a Job Distribution Engine (JDE),
one we designed ourselves and which we
named Concierge. This breakthrough has
proven to be an unmitigated success for
Dial-a-Cab, so much so that all our
competitors have endeavoured to copy the
system themselves, which I suppose is a
compliment as they say that imitation is
the best form of flattery!
However, they do have certain advantages over us because they can
set these new facilities up as separate
companies in an attempt to persuade
clients that the new companies do not
owe any allegiance to the parent
company, which may or may not be true.
However, I am convinced they have taken
the correct route and it is something
that we would have done initially had
this company been structured differently
and I hadn’t spent the first year of
Concierge’s life fighting the dissidents
within our own Society, while at the
same time as making sure that the
Society progressed.
Because of the success of these
|
JDEs, a new threat has
entered the arena and that is the
scenario whereby not only taxi and car
companies are endeavouring to emulate
Dial-a-Cab, but totally independent
software houses are building their own
systems! This is a much bigger threat to
us, as they are approaching our clients
and persuading them that they are
totally independent of any taxi or car
company (which they are) and the client
can choose their preferred choice of
taxi and car suppliers, while the
software house can operate and run the
account for them without any affiliation
to the clients vendors.
To my knowledge, there are already three software houses in the
market with more to follow. This is
quite a frightening scenario and the
only way it can be derailed is for car
and taxi suppliers to refuse to work off
their systems.
I have already declined to work on one of these independent systems
that was being installed into one of our
smaller accounts. You can probably guess
what happened - they went out and
installed another taxi company!
This is an extremely shortsighted attitude and I am completely
aghast at the attitude of the Management
concerned. So as a consequence, not only
are we competing against taxi and
private hire, we are also up against
software houses! So we must - all of us-
try to be better than anyone else in
every department, otherwise this could
well be as good as it gets and the
future could be a gradual downward
spiral for the radio taxi business
Smoking and 1 July…
As you are all
aware, the smoking ban in all enclosed
public places comes into effect as from
1 July and this will include taxis.
Consequently, as from the above date
passengers and drivers will be banned
from smoking in taxis. This includes
even when the driver is not working and
is using his vehicle for social reasons.
I am led to believe that ‘No Smoking’
signs can and should be affixed - one on
the windscreen, with one each side on
the rear windows. We have a large supply
at Roman Way and of course, should you
prefer, you can always pick them up from
the PCO...
Brian Rice
Chairman
Dial-a-Cab |
