Call Sign November 2008 - Page 18 - IT’S AGM TIME AGAIN! - TAXI SALES SLUMP…

Notice of 2008 Annual General Meeting… All members should by now have received an individual letter advising them of the arrangements for the 2008 AGM and I would like to take this opportunity to remind members of the details. The 2008 AGM will be held as in recent years at The Brewery, Chiswell Street,	IT’S AGM TIME AGAIN!
	London EC1 on Sunday 8, February 2009 at 11:00hrs. This year, the AGM includes the election of officers and any nominations must be received at Dial-a-Cab House on or before 09:00hrs on Friday 14 November. If you do intend standing for election at the meeting and would like to offer Call Sign readers information about yourself and how and why you believe you could benefit the Society, then please let Call Sign have your details together with a photograph by midday on Thursday, 13 November. These will then be published in the December issue. The Editor requests that in order to be fair	to everyone, you keep the maximum number of words to around 300. Members wishing to put forward rule changes or propositions are also reminded that they should be returned, together with the names and signatures of the 25 proposers, by Friday, 14 November 2008. Questions or comments that members wish to have published regarding the CV of any individual standing for election or rule changes and propositions will be published in the January issue of Call Sign. Howard Pears Company Secretary

TAXI SALES SLUMP…

On a day when Bank of England supremo Mervyn King told the world what it aleady knew, that the UK was going into recession, companies like Argos proclaiming they were in for the worst Christmas in memory and the world’s financial markets heading for meltdown, all that was left was for those who many believe know how the future goes – London’s taxi drivers – to tell anyone prepared to listen how bad things were getting!
   So there couldn’t have been much doubt which way Manganese Bronze Holdings interim trading figures would go. With drivers finding conditions ever tougher on the road, LTI’s parent company announced that sales had fallen by 37.5% to 1,628 in the nine months to September. John Russell, the MBH Chief exec, said:
   "We sell 75-80% of our taxis to individual operators and have noticed sales clearly flagging as taxi drivers become alarmed and defensive about the price of mortgages and petrol."
   MBH have driven their break-even point down to 2000 vehicles this year by reducing operating costs, but are unlikely to go beyond that in current trading conditions. What they – and the drivers - could certainly have done without was the TX4 recall. This will figure strongly in the company’s full-year results with the total cost expected to reach Ł4m.
   Even though the current poor showing of the pound against the euro was making VM engines from Italy more expensive, John Russell was still

John Russel

optimistic about the MBH long-term outlook and gave promising Chinese figures in their joint venture deal with Geely in Shanghai, which is scheduled to begin full production later this year. He said the company had already signed memoranda of agreements for over 8,000 vehicles and expects to turn that number into sales in 2009.
Analysts anticipate a loss of between Ł6 - Ł7million. The group paid an interim dividend of 2.25 pence and will take a decision on the level of final payout at the end of the year.
Following the announcement, shares took a battering losing more than 25% in early trading. They later clawed much of it back to trade down 8.3% at 155p.

BORIS: I WILL REPHASE TRAFFIC LIGHTS

In the February 2008 issue of Call Sign, Boris Johnson – then just a Mayoral candidate – answered DaC driver’s questions. In response to Alex Constantinou (N05), Boris said he would get rid of the half yearly check if elected. It seems that promise is on the verge of coming true.
And in answering a question from Bernie Silver (G08) about traffic congestion, the soon-to-be Mayor responded: "TfL have deliberately installed more traffic light schemes, which they themselves admit are reducing road space and slowing down traffic. We have to focus on getting London moving."
He has now followed that statement up and informed Call Sign that he intends rephasing the traffic lights where they stay on red too long. His office said: "By rephasing, we will get the City moving again. Hi tech facilities will assist pedestrians to cross the

Bernie Silver asked about traffic in February - now the Mayor is acting on it

road safely." These could include countdown clocks informing pedestrians how many seconds before they can cross and speed up the crossing process.
He has now ordered TfL to look at the lights sequences and to improve the traffic flow that at some junctions such as The Mall / Trafalgar Square, Strand westbound by Charing Cross Station and Gloucester Place where it crosses Marylebone Road, cause traffic to almost come to a standstill.

   According to TfL, they will be able to get an average of two extraseconds for each light change and whilst that sounds like nothing, according to the RAC, it would make a significant difference. The motoring organisation added that correct phasing would mean that travelling at a steady speed could mean vehicles catching more lights on green.
   It was around two years ago that then-Mayor Ken Livingstone began the process of rephasing, so that pedestrians had far more time than vehicles and the reverse process has now begun with over 150 rephasings already completed – one of them being at Tower Bridge Road. However, we have also been told that the whole process could take up to 6 years with changes being completed at 1000 a year.
   The Mayor’s office has also agreed to allow motorcycles into bus lanes from next year.

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