So now we’ll find out…
So the
election is now over for another four
years. As Call Sign was in
the post on Election Day, we have no
idea of who the winner is. All we know
is that Ken suddenly became pleasant
towards voting day, whilst his two main
rivals began the process of promising
anything that would win them a four year
term at City Hall. But to be honest, I’m
not sure whether any of them will be too
different from the other. This isn’t a
political election, it’s all about
running London.
However, I’d be interested in whether any of them intend keeping
their promises to Call Sign
should they be elected. Well, we’re
about to find out.
Grant me this…
According to the Vice Chairman of the
LCDC, former Dial-a-Cab driver Grant
Davis, he doesn’t want to bore The
Badge’s readers by going into
details of why he was expelled from DaC
before then doing so in an unsigned
article! "Lots of drivers," he says,
have heard the recording of a private
conversation that he put online and they
have all given him their support for
doing so!
Grant then goes on to ask why they shouldn’t be allowed to discuss
the contents of the call, after all,
they didn’t like the language used in it
– even though it WAS an argument and a
private one at that…
So let me make something plain for Grant. Anyone who records a
private conversation has no right to do
so without informing the other person.
And most certainly, just because the
person recording it gives you a copy of
the phone call, you cannot put it online
whether it is for a private discussion
group or an open website. In fact, you
cannot put it online… full stop! Three
DaC drivers obviously agreed and
expelled him - which now saves Grant
boring his readers with the details!
It now looks as though Grant Davis will be standing against Alan
Fleming for the Chairmanship of the LCDC,
so surely the question for members has
to be: Would you want to be part of an
organisation where the Chairman thinks
that putting a secretly taped phone
conversation online is perfectly ok? The
person who taped the original call
admitted to me that he had recorded a
conversation between him and me without
telling me. So remember, you could be
next…
And just for the record Grant, I didn’t give you a "slating" for
your part in Lunatic as you
claimed in The Badge. I said the movie
had failed and indeed, it WAS awful. You
were ok, although the star of the DVD
was undoubtedly the blue DaC taxi
outside the front door! It was the only
thing that didn’t swear every other
word…
Taxi pre-test
centres
I agree (almost) 100% with TAXI Editor
Stuart Pessok that taxi pre-test centres
are the way of the future. If garages
such as Beesley |
Engineering or Ascott
have the same testing equipment that SGS
do and know what that testing
organisation is looking for, then that
obviously is the way to go. If the
garage is close to the test centre, as
are the two examples, then even better.
However, as a famous man once pointed
out, it’s the equipment that’s
important!
But where I differ slightly with Stuart, I do not believe that just
because pre-test centres will
undoubtedly keep the cost down, that
half-yearly testing is now ok. Our
vehicles are the best maintained of any
on the road, but SGS still will not pass
anything less than 100%. Fine! But that
does not justify half-yearly testing.
If you have a legal tyre with – according to your garage - three
weeks tread left, are you going to take
a chance and leave it on for a
half-yearly? Course not! We do not need
the 6-monthly and neither do we want it.
Who benefits? Not the driver or the
passenger, because both know the cab
will be in good condition. The only
people that do well out of it is SGS and
no one but no one will ever convince me
that it wasn’t a long term plan when SGS
were awarded the contract to carry out
taxi passing, to eventually "double-up"
on business by including a half-yearly
check as well.
And have things changed that much? The PCO sent me the incorrect
leaflet regarding my half-year check. I
was sent just one for the overhaul so I
was unaware that you had to take your
certificate of meter installation
form with you. So even though it passed
the check, the cab failed because I
didn’t have the meter form with me.
As it passed everything else and it wasn’t my fault that they sent
me incorrect information, I asked if I
could either post the form or drop it in
the next time I passed? Some hope! They
were pleasant enough and gave me a date
later on in the day, but that return
trip totally messed up my plans. So no,
little has really changed and we need as
little contact as possible with them –
once a year will do fine thanks…
Who’s watching the
moving cars?
Yeah… we know
who’s watching cars and taxis that are
left unattended for more than two
minutes, but is anyone watching the
moving ones?
It was the afternoon of Thursday 3 April; a burst water main caused
Victoria Embankment to close forcing
traffic over Southwark or |
Blackfriars Bridges, both
of which then ground to a halt. DaC
drivers
saw the news on their terminals and
tried using the Strand going west. They
soon realised that route is abysmal even
without any extra traffic, thanks to the
clueless planners and their desire to
give everyone their own set of
pedestrian traffic signals. So we all
moved up to Holborn, where
trying to go west across Procter Street
and Kingsway is akin to driving through
the Brazilian rain forest in an
articulated wagon.
To complete a perfect day – including where every road is
apparently compelled to have its water
main replacement road works -
unfortunately the air ambulance had to
land in Parliament Square!
So London ground to a total shuddering halt. What was missing? Well
there wasn’t one policeman trying to
sort out the traffic at road junctions.
I remember in days of yore when a
policeman would take over if a set of
lights packed up. Ok, they weren’t
always marvellous at it, but at least
you would move. Now even total gridlock
won’t force the police out to where the
great unwashed masses are. We are an
inconvenience…
Running for charity
Yes, I know that if you work on Sundays,
then 13 April must have been nothing
short of a nightmare. The road from
Docklands, through The Highway, Tower
Bridge, Victoria Embankment, Parliament
Square, Westminster Bridge and all the
way back to Tower Bridge… all shut! Oh,
and did I mention that the whole of the
Royal Park in addition to The Mall -
which mysteriously still closes on
Sundays – was closed? Why? Well it was
the day of the Flora London Marathon.
Total traffic mayhem on the roads, but
unlike the previous story, you’d need to
be made of steel not to admire the whole
thing with some 35,000 runners pounding
the London streets, many of them doing
so for charity.
Among those 35,000 were quite a few Dial-a-Cab drivers supporting
their favourite charities and being
sponsored by Call Sign. I
think that with all the fun aspects of
the run, we tend to forget how far 26
miles is. I feel worn out just driving
that far! So to all those drivers, well
done!
But as one teensy-weensy word of complaint. How come cars can only
do 20mph if they do not want to be the
proud recipient of a PCN due to the
claimed weight limit when crossing Tower
Bridge? Yet amazingly 35,000 runners are
ok to cross it en masse? Ah well…!
Summer!
As usual, there is no June issue of
Call Sign so can I take this
opportunity to wish you all a lovely
holiday, or pleasant summer if you are
staying at home. See you in July…
Alan Fisher
callsignmag@aol.com |
