Call Sign October 2008 - Page 23

St Pancras ‘shouts’
During the past month, I’m sure you will recall that Eurostar had serious problems with a fire in one of the tunnels. On that Friday evening (12th) we were contacted to arrange for a Marshal to be in attendance and have taxis on standby. My reason for writing about this is because of what happened on that evening, which found a number of drivers waiting for a long period of time without doing any trips.
   Unusual as this is, this particular ‘shout’ has proved that with all the best will in the world, the best laid plans do not always come to fruition.
   On that Friday evening, the call was received from Eurostar requesting a Marshal and taxis, because four French coaches were on route from Dover with approximately 200 passengers on board. Our Marshal arrived to assess the situation and found that Coach Road was set up with barriers in place for the taxis to pick up and that Eurostar staff were ready and waiting with clipboards and travel authorisation forms.
   Talking with their senior staff, it became apparent that the two front coaches were on their way but had been delayed because they were going via Heathrow. However, there was no direct communication between Eurostar personnel and the coach drivers. Messages were sent out from our Call Centre to drivers and everyone was waiting for the coaches to arrive. It was anticipated that going via Heathrow would delay them by around forty-five minutes. After about an hour, everyone was becoming agitated when the coaches still had not arrived. The second two coaches were also expected to arrive soon after, but there was still no sign of the first two. Eventually Eurostar made contact with someone who advised that the first two coaches

CALL CENTRE CHAT

Keith Cain

had arrived and dropped the passengers somewhere near the station. We all knew it wasn’t in the Coach Road where everyone was waiting. It can only be assumed that all the passengers found their own means of continuing their journeys and the exact same thing happened with the next two coaches. To date, no one knows where the passengers were dropped off.
This did cause drivers to be booked in to the NS1 zone for a long time, but hopefully they will understand that nothing more could have been done between ourselves or Eurostar to prevent this from happening. In hindsight, it could be said that cabs should not have been called in until the passengers arrived, but this would only have taken us longer to get the passengers away and would have caused more unrest, which everyone was aiming to avoid. Even though we believe this to be a one-off situation, it has been agreed that ES1 and NS1 will now be programmed as Ranks within a Zone.
They will continue to be used solely for train work from Euston and St Pancras, but while a driver is booked in they will be offered any trips in NW1E. It will then be the driver’s decision whether they continue to wait for a train trip or take a job from NW1E.

House of Commons
As you are all probably aware, the House of Commons and House of Lords have awarded Dial-a-Cab their account again. It is very unusual - certainly in my 18 years of being a Board Member - that an account won via a tender was cancelled during the duration of the contract. This gives our Society a second chance in servicing one of London’s most prestigious accounts. Therefore, when the Commons and Lords return from summer recess, we have to ensure we are ready to supply them with an exceptional service. All trips are calculated to a mileage rate and should a driver be kept waiting at the pick up for more than 15 minutes, then the trip will revert to a meter reading but will not carry a driver’s gratuity. It has also been agreed for the mileage rate to be increased annually in line with any increase percentage set by TfL. Due to the very good mileage rate we have been fortunate to negotiate, premiums will not be offered as additional incentives to tempt drivers to cover the work. It will be the service that you, the drivers, provide that decides whether we keep the account for a further 30 years or lose it within one year.

Keith Cain
Call Centre Manager
Driver Operations Manager

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