Christmas gift jackets
Some 1700 of you had collected your DaC Christmas gift (reversible jacket) by the first week in January, but we still have around 800 awaiting their new owners. We ask you to come in and try on the jacket personally and not have a partner or other person collect it as sizes vary. We’ve had drivers arriving home, trying the jacket on again and then coming back to ask for it to be changed. When we refuse they get upset, but drivers want a new, unused jacket. I’d be the same and would expect to receive one still sealed in the bag and not one that has been on somebody else’s sweaty body! If you are a night man who lives out in the sticks and does not come into town until late, you can order it by phone. Call before 5pm with your chest size in inches and it will be delivered to Dial-a-Cab House by 6:30 pm that day. Currently we only have sizes (L) 42inch and (XL) 44inch chest, if you are well outside these sizes please let me know. You can then collect the jacket on production of your badge to the Security person at East Road. It will have your name and call sign on it and will be the size that you selected.

Signals
We get drivers coming to Roman Way complaining about signals and asking what are we going to do about it? The truth is we can do nothing; we can work on the hardware in your taxi to improve the send and receive facilities. John Bankes, DaC’s IT Manager, explained last month what his department is doing to upgrade the aerial sites and equipment. We will check your taxi equipment to make sure that it is all working correctly, but we rely on drivers to make sure they keep their taxi in good working order; this means that battery terminals are kept free of corrosion. After cleaning the terminals, put on a light covering of grease or gel to make them waterproof. Make sure the battery is not past its sell-by date and failing to holding a charge. If you do not complete this easy maintenance, then when you are sitting with the engine turned off, you might not have enough power to send out a signal.

Safety and temptation
When or if you have to come to Roman Way for work to be completed on your taxi, would you please help us by keeping within the rules. Remove your moneybag, cash dispensers and wallets. Remove any breakable items, mobile phones, hand held computers and MP3 players. Also turn off any radio, satnav or television. This will stop any problems of shorting out whilst the fitter is working on your taxi. Whilst waiting, there are free tea/coffee facilities and some chairs to relax on while you update yourself by reading the trade
press. Please do not wander into

TOM’S ROMAN WAY HAPPENINGS…

the fitting area; this is due to strict rules imposed on us by Islington Borough Council Health and
Safety Officers. At the end of your visit, you will be asked to sign to say that work was completed to your satisfaction. Please
check your taxi for any problems before signing and leaving the building.
   During your visit, if you have a problem with any member of the staff, please inform me. I have the utmost respect for our staff and confidence in their standard of their work. They treat drivers with politeness and courtesy and I would hope that drivers reciprocate. Shouting and screaming will achieve nothing.

Theatre ticketss
A driver complained recently that he gets messages regarding free theatre tickets. Probably due to his quickness in deleting these messages, he deleted others that contained Society information. It’s easy to blame anything other than your own failures when something goes wrong. I am asked to put many messages out other than ones that will give drivers something for free. Some messages are knocked back, usually if it is illegal or it shows the Society in a bad light. One of those reasons is when drivers want to sell off tickets for events where the tickets are not transferable. This would show the Society acting as a tout. I may sound at times like Del Boy, but I can assure you that I am not like him at all.
   As I explained to the driver regarding theatre tickets, many drivers like to take their wives out for a night at the theatre and a nice meal. If I can acquire on their behalf tickets for a theatre, this will drop their bill down by anything up to £100. Some drivers are too lazy to take their next of kin out, but others find this is a great relaxation after a days work. Plus their wife is only too glad to get out after staying in the house cleaning and looking after the children day after day! As I related to this driver, during the year drivers have saved hundreds of pounds on taking their wives, girlfriends or partners out to see top shows in the west end - some shows they get to see as soon as they hit theatreland.

Overhauls
I have been asked by a subscriber to give a warning to drivers who are taking their own taxi up for the overhaul or half-year check. He got ‘knocked back’ on what he was told was a leak on the brake servo. He looked and saw it wasn’t a leak, but where the fluid had been topped up a dribble had trickled down the outside of the unit. He wiped it off and pointed out to the fitter that it was not a leak. The driver started to worry about his sanity, so he went to the

It’s a danger
Reading newspapers or listening to the news, you couldn’t be blamed for not venturing out after dark! With murders occurring almost daily and murderers being let out of jail after a reduced sentence, who would feel safe? There was a time when you were hung for committing murder, but the tree huggers have cried their crocodile tears and now you are lucky if they stay in prison for 10 years. Why? Because over the years politicians have not addressed the situation of a growing population, the influx of EU persons and problems of illegal immigrants. So no extra prison spaces were allowed for, which meant prisoners had to be kept in police stations. That meant more policemen and women had to look after them in the stations with less fully qualified police officers on the street. What we are now seeing are more plastic policemen on the streets (Community Support Officers) who cannot stop and arrest offenders. So I know whom I would like to be standing next to if I was having a spot of trouble. We are told they are bringing in new penalties for drivers using mobile phones whilst driving that could involve a custodial sentence. I’m sorry, but if the prisons are full, what will they do? Let a murderer out to accommodate an illegal mobile phone user? Do they really think that we are stupid enough to believe these lies they feed to us? The main problem is that if MPs do not stand up to be counted by imposing harsh sentences and supplying more prison spaces, how long will it be before a lone taxi driver is seriously injured or killed? It no longer matters which area you work nowadays, you get ‘head cases’ wandering all over London. I know that I never want to go to visit a driver in hospital or even worse, go to his funeral just because these spineless politicians do not want to lose the votes of the tree huggers.
   We pay more than enough for our taxes, so let’s get some more protection during our working life and also when we are out with our loved ones. Any politician addressing these problems will get my vote. When we get a prisoner, such as on one recent occasion, who refused to leave his cell to make an appearance in court because while there, prison authorities could allocate his single cell to someone else, it just goes to prove it’s the lunatics who are running the asylums now…

Tom Whitbread
DaC Roman Way Manager