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Going home Mercedes Vito Florrie Culverwell Dear Alan, Paul Howe (O78) Thanks for the kind words Paul. So far as the phone is concerned, if you don’t press an extension number then you will go to the operator and they will then put you through. As for emails, take the first name and add the first letter of the surname with the addition of @dialacab.co.uk. So Allan Evans would be allane@dialacab.co.uk. Keith Cain is the exception and his complete name is used before the @ sign …Ed Who does what – part 2 |
take it as a personal insult and the red
mist that descended upon you stopped you making any comments to the
questions I raised. My complaint was against anyone that takes it upon
themselves to represent me as a taxi driver and continues to give new
legislation the nod without consulting those that they represent. I’m not
going to reply to the disparaging remarks you made about me, I am not
looking for a slanging match. It would serve no purpose and to be honest, I
don’t feel I need to. The several years I have been back with Dial-a-Cab
have been good and you have never heard one word of complaint from me
because I consider it well run and that is down to you and the board.
However, if I and others are not happy with things, we can complain, change
chairmen and board members, or leave. On a trade basis, that is not the
case. It was disappointing to read your rant, however it did show you hadn’t understood the meaning of my letter and you made one or two strange statements, which I will address. Firstly, you made great strides to ascertain if I had made contact with Lee Scott, my M.P. about my concerns. Lee is a good and willing MP and I do consult him on other matters. It must have pricked your conscience as to how your contribution to the Home Office meeting would go down as you contacted him to see if any complaints about the ISA had been registered with him. Why? Let me explain why I never contacted Lee Scott over the ISA. Let’s imagine 50 constituent taxi drivers were to complain to Lee that they were unhappy with further legislation, no doubt he would have got onto it right away and sent a letter to the Home Office about his constituents concerns. The reply would have been similar to: Thanks for your letter Lee, sorry to hear about your constituents concerns, but their representatives never objected so we’re going ahead, thanks once again for your letter. Then it would have gone into the bin. Can you understand that Brian? Do you understand the responsibility you have when you step outside Dial-a-Cab? Every month the Prime Minister holds a Q&A session with journalists at Downing Street. To gain entry you need a pass, all the press and major news channels plus a smattering of foreign journalists are there. They ask pertinent questions to a point, but they never rock the boat, otherwise the pass may be withdrawn. You won’t see the likes of Peter Hitchen or John Pilger there. The question therefore needs to be asked why were you and Bob Oddy the only ones there? Were others asked but never bothered turning up or were you the only two invited? Although you and Bob Oddy may raise questions - even become vociferous - do you think it was considered that you wouldn’t rock the boat? That’s a question and not an accusation. Another strange comment that caught my eye was that you and Bob Oddy were endeavouring to protect the good name of the trade. Pray tell me to whom? Surely not politicians, who at the moment are under scrutiny for exceeding their expenses? There have been those that have been named for declaring their second homes as their first, so as to receive much larger incomes and a couple were recently told they could keep the six figure sum they had over-claimed while sorting out their affairs. If you can tell me one organisation with 24,000 members who are more law-abiding, more honest and more decent than London taxi drivers, please name them. And you feel the need to defend our good name? How patronising. Then it gets worse. I read further on in Call Sign about the new touting laws - one strike and you’re out. I never saw any objections to the full implementation of it. Let’s look at it closely. The article starts off by stating the need to rid our streets of uninsured illegal vehicles and their drivers. Nothing wrong with that, it goes on to refer to licensed taxi drivers who hang up at hotels. As a night driver it doesn’t affect me, but it must be wrong. How it will be stopped is another thing, it’s all done on the phone nowadays, but nothing wrong in stopping that. However, it then goes on to threaten drivers that may stop at a bus stop on the way home with their light out, it doesn’t specify whether or not a hand has to come out to see if the person is going their way. It then goes on to mention those that park up with their light out - obviously a reference to those drivers at Liverpool Street. So it seems that in this politically correct asylum that we now live, if you’re going to be nasty to illegal minicab drivers, you must be nasty to London taxi drivers as well. A man or woman who has done up to 4 years on the Knowledge, may have worked hard all day or night paying £6 plus a gallon for a vehicle that struggles to do 20 to the gallon, tries to find one going home to offset his or her horrendous unsubsidised outgoings, stops to see if the hand that hailed him or her while their light was out is going his or her way, is actually the hand of Sergeant Hilson (remember him)? How absurd and as for the drivers at Liverpool street, what are they doing wrong, I’ve picked up young city kids in the early hours asking if I’d go to Chelmsford for £60, if not to drop them off at Liverpool Street where one of the boys will take them. I’d rather a taxi driver got one home for a deal than the alternative because these people are not going to pay the full fare and what about the public? Have they been consulted? Imagine on a miserable winter’s night, a queue in Charing Cross freezing to death and all the empty taxis going by, off home with their lights out scared to go in and ask if anyone is going their way, because you can bet your life these places will be the hunting grounds of the tout squad. The trouble is the suits that represent us now spend more time in the back of a taxi and not enough time in the front. All the things that Lord Denning said some 60 years ago must never happen, are happening. Councils are abusing their power, |
Governments are abusing their power
and we are getting no support from our representatives. Read my original
letter again, Brian and look at the content, not for something to get upset
about. This is serious, why should we be purer than the driven snow on
tenterhooks every time we go to work? As to what new regulation we’ve fallen
foul of this time, that’s not how the world works. If you choose to
represent us then stand firm against any further invasion of our daily
lives. As for your second point re ‘one strike and you’re out’, Call Sign doesn’t make the rules. The points you bring up make the case for more ‘going home’ ranks like the one in Cranbourn Street, not a free-for-all where we can all stop and ask passengers where they are going and say bog off if it’s the wrong way. You may not say that, but I promise you that some do. You may also approve of ‘hanging up’ outside Liverpool Street, but not every passenger coming out is just looking for a cheap fare and those drivers sitting with their lights off are taking the work of those who are passing by and who perhaps might also like a trip to Chelmsford – yes, even at a discounted price – and even if they don’t live close to it. They also turn down most trips as not being lucrative enough. What type of impression do you think that gives the licensed taxi trade? I admit that whenever I drive past those drivers, I feel an irritation that not only are they showing us up, but they are also stealing our work – and no, Mike, I don’t think they are much better than touts because that is exactly what they are doing - touting. Go up to them at night and ask them to take you to Mile End and they’ll tell you to get a passing cab because that trip isn’t far enough east for them. If a minicab then pulled up and took them, who do you think they’ll use next time? But it isn’t all moans from me; the new Transport for London Act (2008) that received royal assent at the end of May, gives the go-ahead for more going home and rest ranks. With some common sense by the PCO – not always a certainty - that could mean marshaled destination ranks at Liverpool Street where everyone would have the option of a cut-price trip to their home or something along the route. And Mike, please don’t take the above as an attack on you, it’s just my view …Ed Internet reader |
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