Agreeing with Grant!
Who’d have thought that following last month’s item on The Internet and the Cab Trade, I would have said that I agree with Grant Davis over anything! But, yes, Grant’s comments in The Badge on drivers who have their SatNavs on display mirror mine exactly.
   It is a form of suicide at a time when the difference between taxis and private hire is diminishing and will almost evaporate totally if PH get use of bus lanes and we ever get a choice of vehicle that includes saloon cars.
   In the July 2006 issue of Call Sign, I wrote of a DaC driver who had been booked to pick me up from the Victoria Palace theatre and take me to Brunswick House. He’d been on Dial-a-Cab just 3 months, had a beautiful cab and was dressed very smartly. But he did the trip using his SatNav. In the back of my mind, I soon expected to be on the Embankment.
   As we headed north up Park Lane, I was about to ask if he knew where we were going, but he then turned right into Upper Brook Street so I assumed he was going to end up going via Clerkenwell Road. But no! He then turned left into Park Street, crossed Oxford Street into Gloucester Place before turning right into Blandford Street.
   It was at this point that I noticed the SatNav system placed in the middle of his dashboard and realised that he was going by that. We went through to Portland Place, turned left and then right, ending up in the Saturday night Euston Road traffic going towards Kings Cross! Then it was straight down towards the Angel and City Road as I watched the SatNav’s mileage indicator head towards the zero mark.
   That article brought in more comments than any I had ever written. I had drivers phoning me up for months afterwards asking if I had yet found out who the driver was? I wasn’t really interested in who he was, I was just concerned that his use of a SatNav could – if

picked up by others – help to
 destroy our trade. Take a look at the above route on a map. It is nowhere near as bad as you’d think, but how many regular clients in a hurry to get to a meeting in the City at midday would agree with that? That’s why they use us – because we use our brains and not SatNavs.
   I have a SatNav unit that I take out with me, but it doesn’t go on show unless I get a trip out to the sticks. Yes, I’m with Grant on this one. Once passengers believe that we need these units, then the game really will be finished.
   And as a (sort of) last word on the subject, according to rumour, Grant Davis and I had a fight outside an account client’s address while a DaC driver videoed it with his phone and put it onto YouTube! Dunno about Grant, but I must have been looking the other way because I saw no fight! Still, think of the fun the rumourmongers must have had! It almost brings tears of joy to your eyes!

And one that I don’t agree with…
Having agreed with the LCDC Vice Chairman over SatNavs, I now wonder who it was at The Badge that decided to publish the press release regarding the Dodge Avenger as being appealing to the private hire market? Who cares what vehicles are suitable for their market? Certainly I’d expect Private Hire and Courier or Private Hire Monthly to run the article, after all, they cater to that end of the market. But for a taxi magazine that is constantly rubbishing the PCO to publish that article takes some believing.
   The Miles Better News Agency send out interesting stories regarding Licensed Taxi business, but this wasn’t one of them. That is why Call Sign refused to publish it and why I was surprised to see it in The Badge…

Punished for buying a new cab?
You sometimes have to wonder whether the Mayor of London and the Government actually communicate at all or do they both just go along their merry way doing whatever they want? There have been several occasions when Messrs Livingstone and Brown (Gordon) not only don’t read from the same song sheet, but attempt to sing in different languages.
   The latest example comes with Mayor Livingstone’s attempt to clean London’s air. As a result, many London taxi drivers have bought new TX4 taxis, which take them up to Euro 4 level, as against the TX2 and older cabs with fitted emission systems hat now reach

Euro 3. Last year Mr Livingstone said:
   "There is a growing sense of concern amongst Londoners about climate change caused by CO2 emissions, which is the biggest single problem facing humanity, and tackling this threat requires decisive action. 'Chelsea tractors', many of which are responsible for some of the highest CO2 emissions of any cars on our roads, have to be dealt with."
   By Chelsea Tractors, the Mayor was referring to gas guzzling 4x4s. He certainly was not referring to the new Euro 4 compliant TX4 that Gordon Brown has now labelled a gas guzzler and almost doubled the road tax levied on it. That leaves us in the ridiculous situation of the new TX4 costing far more in road tax than any of its predecessors from early TX2s down.
   "Gas guzzlers" have been determined as vehicles emitting 225 or more grams per kilometer of Carbon Dioxide. The TX4 has 226 grams per km whilst older cabs have less.
   Euro 4 relates to the health aspect of emissions. These are known as NOx and particulates (PM10). So the question has to be whether we agree with the Mayor and his healthy capital ambition by cutting emissions, or do we agree with the Chancellor and his policy on the phenomenon known as global warming and which apparently is responsible for anything that goes wrong with the climate and everything else.
   So can we make yet another suggestion to a Mayor who only pretends to listen when on radio phone-ins but in reality just goes along his happy way taking any money we have so that we can buy fuel from South American dictators and celebrate the Cuban Revolution’s 50th anniversary: Subsidise the cab trade as you do every other form of transport that you have placed under the TfL moniker. How? How about money? Yes, money! We suggest that you pay for us all to go Euro 6 and then leave us alone to wallow in it!
   As for Gordon Brown and his budgets – well the man who may have just doubled your road tax also wants you to vote for him at the next election. Nuff said…

Bye for now…
Call Sign is saying goodbye and thank you to two long-serving writers of many years, Russell Hall and Chas Kissin as well as our solicitor, Hope Liebersohn, who has been offering free advice to our readers since February 2006. To all three, a big thank you…

No June…
As is usual, Call Sign does not publish a June issue so I’ll see you all on 1 July. Those of you due to go on holiday, have a great time…

Alan Fisher
callsignmag@aol.com