Arbitrator required…
You will read elsewhere in the magazine
that the Society has a vacancy for an
Arbitrator. If you are interested and
fulfil the criteria of having completed
five years continuous service and of
course are a member and not a
journeyman, then you need to apply to
Company Secretary Howard Pears to say
that you would like to be considered by
the membership to fill the vacancy.
In the meantime, you can if you wish
send your CV to Call Sign
magazine so that it might be printed and
distributed to members. At a later date,
a postal ballot will be held so that
members can if they wish, select their
chosen candidate. I believe there is
more information available regarding
this topic elsewhere in the magazine.
Is there going to be a downturn?
You cannot pick up a newspaper or
turn on the radio or television without
seeing or reading about the global
recession that is going to take place
and the financial difficulties the large
banks are facing!
I must say it is all very worrying
and there is not any doubt in my mind
that the situation is made worse by the
media frightening members of the public
regarding talk of any downturn or indeed
recession. Consequently, members of the
public then become very nervous and cut
back on their expenditure, which then
just exacerbates the situation.
It has always been said that when the
USA sneezes, the UK catches a cold,
however it would appear that the US are
endeavouring to stem the tide by
drastically reducing their interest
rates, which hopefully will go some way
to restoring confidence in members of
the public.
As you can imagine, I am watching our figures on a daily basis to
see if there are any signs in our
business of a slow down in the economy,
because as you are aware we are
generally one of the first businesses to
be affected by
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any downturn. But I am delighted to say
that at the present moment our business
is holding up extremely well.
Whilst we are not experiencing the
huge amount of growth that we have
experienced in recent times, we are at
least maintaining the status quo, which
I am extremely pleased about. We are
just short of halfway through our
financial year and our turnover has
increased by £1.25million over the
equivalent period during the last
financial year. That represents an
increase of just under 6%.
I’m sure you will agree that if
current business levels can be
maintained, then we should have another
good year with turnover increasing yet
again over last year, which is a good
sign not just for us, but for our
economy in general.
It is always advantageous in any
business not to have any debt that you
need to service, especially when trading
becomes a little slower - even it hasn’t
at the moment. But as I’m sure you are
aware, Dial-a-Cab does not have a debt
to service and your business is in good
shape.
Finally on this topic; whilst you are
all capable of forming your own opinions
regarding general trading conditions and
the state of the economy, we as a
business have not experienced any
downturn to date and I hope that goes
just a little way to help dispel the
doom and gloom that surrounds us.
Mayoral Elections
This is probably the last issue of
Call Sign you will receive
before the Mayoral Elections take place
in May. If the pundits are to be
believed, then this will probably be the
closest fought election we have
experienced. I think it would |
be fair to say that the next Mayor will
be either Boris or Ken, with all other
candidates finishing well below these
two.
Obviously public turnout for the
election will have a big part to play,
as in previous years fewer than 40% of
voters bothered voting. What is also
quite a surprising statistic is that
less than seven thousand taxi drivers
live in the catchment area for the
election and so are eligible to vote. I
know that statistic to be true as I was
told it by Steven Norris, who
incidentally is a big supporter of Boris
Johnson and would have in my opinion
made an excellent Mayor himself - and politicians do not
normally get their statistics wrong – do
they?
What I find particularly fascinating
is that as a trade, we have experienced
more increases and variation in tariffs
under Ken than I can remember, yet I do
not know anyone in our trade that has a
good word to say about him and that is
quite strange. It just shows what image
and profile can achieve.
However, you have to say that Ken
appears to be made of Teflon, as nothing
seems to stick and he really has had
some adverse publicity of late regarding
funds that have been distributed - or
not, as the case may be - by City Hall.
Finally to Boris who I believe to be
an extremely intelligent man who likes
to portray himself as a buffoon; whether
or not he will make a good Mayor, I have
absolutely no idea - the same as anyone
else. We will have to wait and see, just
like the remainder of the electorate to
experience what transpires should Boris
become Mayor. One of the first things he
should do is get that haircut sorted –
what do you mean I’m jealous because he
has more than me!
Anyway, good luck to all candidates
in the election. I’ll tell you who I
supported once the results have been
announced – and yes, I bet I did support
the winner!
Brian Rice
Chairman
Dial-a-Cab |
