Call Sign November 2008 - Page 9 - HOW THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ACCOUNT OPERATES

I am pleased to report that after the first week of servicing this account, it could not have been better. Coverage by drivers has been excellent and if it continues like that during the busier times, then I see no reason for any changes to be made to the current set up. The new five team members we have put in place in the Call Centre have also performed exceptionally well, considering it is the first time that any of them have been required to handle such a complex account. We are all very pleased with their achievements. For those who are interested, the HoC and HoL labour intense account and instructions come into the Call Centre via fax or phone. There are various departments with the Commons and the Lords, who both have their own account allocated. Each fax-booking request will have numerous numbers of cabs and it’s the teams’ responsibility to calculate the route to find the mileage and then work out the fixed price before the trip information can be entered in our dispatching system. It may all sound very straightforward and it would be if we were sent their requests within the time frames we requested. We had originally asked for the bookings early to give our team sufficient time to enter the trips into the dispatch system. All trips are entered as a TBA (to be advised) booking. The various departments phone when their department finishes work and the team then fire the TBA bookings into the system. What has been happening - and did so before when we were the preferred supplier – was that calls were received for ASAP cabs when we had not received any information prior. The pressure put on the team to get the trips priced and out to the fleet is enormous. On occasions, even when the information is sent early because of the workings of the Commons and Lords, if one rises before the other then trips have to be adjusted as most of the passengers don’t go. We simply have to recalculate the trips and put in additional ones for those passengers going later. With the best will in the world, these trips can take much longer to dispatch, plus we are carrying out the work twice. This is the type of pressure our team are under that you, the driver, would probably never ever be aware of. But as I said, we have handled the situation so far	HOW THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ACCOUNT OPERATES
	and we will be reviewing it in our first review meeting. We have had a few very minor problems with a couple of drivers. One was when the passengers felt the driver was unhappy about doing their particular trip and said they did not want grumpy drivers picking them up. Their reason for saying this was because the driver did not talk to them throughout the journey. I hasten to add that the trip went to Sidcup and Chislehurst and the driver lives in Sidcup. Who wouldn’t be happy doing a trip like that! Another one we had on a more important note, was a delay in picking up because the driver was waiting in the wrong place. It was the driver not viewing his full trip details that caused it. Please remember when doing one of these trips, all the pick information is there for you and may not be on the first page of trip information. If for any reason you do not get the full details, contact the Call Centre immediately. We have selected the work to be dispatched into SE75. It is offered with the destination and fixed price showing and each trip can be rejected. If for any reason	trips are unmatched, after two minutes they will go straight to the BID zone. Drivers are not permitted to book into SE75 with their going home facility already on and neither must they book into SE75 and then put their going home facility on. Drivers who are on their going home can BID for trips and will only be offered trips going to their home zone or one of its back up zones. You will see trips in C1. Disregard them, as they are the same ones as in SE75. Whilst the zone is non-physical, drivers must be within 10 minutes of the pick-up address before they are permitted to book in. If this is abused, then the rank status will be altered to ensure fairness to all drivers. Controllers have been given the task of monitoring where drivers are when they book in, so please do not put yourself in a position to be reported to Allan Evans. All the trips carry a 15-minute waiting time before the price becomes a meter reading. Everything has been done from within the Call Centre to give both the HoC and HoL the best possible service. It is up to the fleet to back this up by covering their trips promptly and giving them an efficient and friendly service. In doing so, I hope we can service them for another 30 years. Keith Cain Call Centre Manager Driver Operations Manager
	ELEMENTARY MY DEAR DAC DRIVERS!
	1. Although a prolific novelist, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is remembered more for his creation of Sherlock Holmes than anything else. 2. The French are lovers of ratiocination – the ability to think rationally. Accordingly, there are to be found in that nation, many admirers of the works of Conan Doyle. 3. Call Sign is a taxi mag, so what are we going on about? Well, just a little tale from the past involving all three... Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, following his arrival in Paris, had taken a taxi from the station to his hotel. On arrival, he was about to exit the cab when the driver said to him: "Merci, Monsieur Conan Doyle."	"How do you know who I am," asked Doyle curiously? The taxi driver explained his logic. "There was a notice in the paper that you were arriving in Paris from the South of France and I knew from your general appearance that you were an Englishman. It is evident that your hair was last cut by a barber of the South of France. By these indications I knew it was you." "That is extraordinary. You had no other evidence to go upon," asked Doyle? "Nothing," added the driver, "except for the fact that your name is on your luggage!" From A Thesaurus of Anecdotes by Edmund Fuller (Garden City Publishing Co. Inc, 1948)

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