Roaders…
A story in a recent Telegraph Online got me wondering. It wrote of the soaring cost of rail travel, which in many cases has now made it cheaper to travel by taxi if there are several passengers. If passengers can get hold of ‘cheapies’ then they can still get a bargain, but these type of tickets are becoming far more difficult to get hold of – especially at peak times.
   A standard single ticket from Euston to Birmingham New Street costs the passenger £61.50 plus taxi fare at each end. Is there anyone out there who wouldn’t take a four-hander to Birmingham for £260, which would also include door-to-door travel? Almost the same cost!
   A London to York day trip would cost a passenger £177.70. Is there anyone out there who wouldn’t do the job for £500 including being prepared to wait all day to bring them home again? A big saving to the passengers, plus less hassle with door-to-door travel.
   Ask DaC Chairman Brian Rice how much railway season tickets are! Those of us living in and around London probably don’t realise the enormous cost involved and on top of that, some commuter fares - supposedly capped by the Government – recently went up by around 11%.
   According to the Telegraph article, rises for non-regulated fares have been far steeper and as an example gave Arriva, which last year imposed a 30% increase on tickets whose prices were not capped.
   The Government has said that it wants passengers to pay more to maintain the network, which could well provide Dial-a-Cab with an opening to become involved. Of course if you aren’t prepared to do fixed price trips then forget I spoke! Your comments please…

London taxi heaters
I don’t know about you, but the days of heaters blowing out cold air, with some naughty drivers even using their tip-up seat ads to close off the radiator grill attempting to keep some heat in, seem to have gone with the recent batch of TX2 and TX4s. The only problem now seems to be that most passengers don’t know how to use them! Why? Because they are so complicated! In theory you have a heater and a booster, but in reality it becomes a chore because most push the booster first and nothing happens. Then they push the heater and the cab turns into a furnace. What then makes it worse is that the driver may attempt to switch it on or off and that could leave the passenger compartment switches facing different directions for the next passenger!
   I recently got into the passenger compartment of a Metrocab, along with Linda, on an icy winter’s morning and the first thing she reached for was the heater.

Fuel increases
We are still scheduled to have a 2p per litre fuel duty increase in April, adding to the Governments’ belief that drivers will always pay up in the end. Drivers might moan, have the occasional lorry demo and even sign the same internet list that has been doing the rounds for several years. But HMG are right – in the end we will pay up because we can’t be bothered with too much complaining.
   But forgive me if I’m wrong; hasn’t diesel been going up every month and doesn’t Mr Brown’s Government cop more tax every time that happens? Six years ago we were moaning about paying 75p per litre, now it’s up to 110p per litre. Mr Brown is right though, he will play the good guy in his budget by telling us how hard it’s been, but that we still do well compared to most of Europe and that to help out industry, he will delay the increase for six months – during which time fuel will continue to rise anyway and they’ll get their duty increase in a more roundabout way – via fuel tax.
   We’ve heard it all before and yes, we’ll always pay up like lambs to the slaughter. American politicians are suffering because their fuel has hit around 90c a litre - about £2 a gallon (shock, horror) and they know that the yanks won’t take it like we do. They would get voted out if fuel hit our levels. But we’re British and we’ll take it on the chin… and will those damn fuel companies stop trying to make their fuel sound cheaper by leaving the .9p on the end! Do they really think we believe that 110.9 is cheaper that 111p. They also believe we’re mugs and do you know what? They’re probably right…

Editor’s treat…
I rarely venture into non-taxi territory, but I can’t let this moment go by without a comment. For many, many years, I spent Saturdays standing in the cold at Tottenham Hotspur or stuck on a train on my way to some God-forsaken part of north-eastern England – Newcastle and Sunderland’s open grounds in the winter were real treats for

Congratulations LTFUC
Celebrating 80 years existence for any organisation is undoubtedly an achievement worth noting, but for a London Taxi charity, it is far more more than that. So congratulations to the London Taxidrivers Fund for Underprivileged Children who this year are celebrating their eightieth birthday.
   They did so in the manner to which we have become accustomed, with yet another amazing party at the Grosvenor House Hotel. How the Fund’s PR Officer Raymond Levy continues to draw such entertainment at hardly any cost still amazes everyone concerned!
   This year saw another 600 children plus their parents and carers enjoying the party, so how many children in total have been entertained by the Fund over the years, let alone those who have been helped, is a guess I would not want to pick out of thin air.
   So on behalf of all those kids, thank you to the LTFUC and happy birthday…

Christmas incentive alternative?
You can read about the Christmas incentive in the Chairman’s report on the next page and also later in this issue, but the total payout of over half a million quid was astonishing and got me thinking. According to a former member, now second in command with a trade organisation, early last year this Society was going to be sold to a French company. But we still seem to be here and no word has left his mouth about being wrong!
   So my idea? Well, with £500,000+ between us, we can go out and buy our own circuit! We could take turns of being Chairman and tell customers who disgree with our prices where to go! We could tell all our clients that we don’t believe in any Job Distribution Engine and we intend being the only circuit without one. Then we could threaten any account that dares use cars that they either give up the cars or we would no longer service them and they’d have to go elsewhere. It would be great!

Alan Fisher
callsignmag@aol.com