Sri Lanka and the Tamils
On behalf of the Tamil people everywhere, many thanks for the supportive article in the May Call Sign. 
Dana Thananjeyan
Manager, DaC Roman Way

And a driver’s view…
Having read the piece by our Roman Way Manager about the Tamil demonstration in Parliament Square, I feel we ordinary cab drivers have a point of view too. This cruel war has been going on for years and the Tamil tigers have committed their fair share of atrocities as well. So why continue this demonstration and disruption of London’s everyday life? We’ve got the message. If an indigenous British person had decided to starve himself to death in front of the Houses of Parliament, he would have been carted away and sectioned a long time ago! And before anyone starts yelling "racist" my best friend and golf partner is a Tamil and he’s off of 12!
Roy Martin (R42)
   It looks as though the demo began fizzling out once the Sri Lanka government claimed victory in the war against the Tamils. Yes, I agree with you Roy that it has been very inconvenient and that the demonstrating Tamils shot themselves in the foot by their ventures into the road, causing huge tailbacks. The length of their stay didn’t help.
   On the other side, Dana at Roman Way has been keeping me updated with news reports from Sri Lanka and what was going on there was appalling. The occasional hold-up compared to what many described as genocide? Not much of a contest. Like many others in the same situation, Dana doesn’t know the whereabouts of several family members. Other Tamils have lost whole families. The whole thing has been a tragedy…Ed

Unity at last - via the Taxi wars!
I feel I must drop you a line with what came about on Monday evening, 20 April at around 10pm. A DaC taxi driver pulled up outside Nobu in Berkley Street and waited in a gap between various minicabs that are always ranked outside such venues these days (probably taking Taxi’s Steve McNamara’s view that if they are making their own rank there, we need to join them). The next part becomes interesting; the doorman/clipboard Jonny working at that restaurant came over and told him to move as he was parked outside and preventing them from parking their minicabs there and stealing their work! With that, the driver had the sense to send a message over to drivers on our radio circuit and within minutes there was a rank of cabs outside! Then it became even more interesting as we cab drivers realised just how much work comes out of there throughout the evening. We really had no idea as usually it is all directed into their cars!
   The newly found makeshift cab rank carried on throughout the week and approximately 40-50 jobs per night went into our cabs rather than their cars! Drivers then started to do the same at Smiths of Smithfield - minicabs were using our rank and we had to keep cabs on there to stop them ranking on our taxi rank outside! Also, other venues notorious for using touts such as Abacus in Cornhill, were seen to have a new found presence of taxis outside, which seemed to upset some touts as one of them decided to reverse into a taxi that wasn’t going to be threatened and scared off as the touts had hoped for. Police had to be called.
   Keep up the fight back to reclaim the work, drivers!
G. Negus (Y73)
   Mr Negus letter arrived before the May issue came, out which detailed much of the above. But he is 100% correct in saying that in order to reclaim our work – after all, most of the people taken to these places went in a taxi – we will have to keep at it. I’ve spoken to touts and doormen and they all say the same thing… as soon as it gets busy, we’ll dump them again. Time will tell, but I hope we can prove that to be untrue. In the meantime, well done to everyone who was involved – especially the DaC dispatchers, without whom we couldn’t have done it and the Board who allowed it to happen …Ed

Thanks to Dial-a-Cab
This is just a quick note to say a huge thanks to your call centre staff and all the DaC drivers who led the way in targeting the clubs of London recently and rightly claiming our work back from the minicab touts that infest these venues. I've had a couple of out of town fares from the Nobu 'rank', both good earners and both completed at far less than the in house minicab service wanted.
Greig Smith (badge number 65476)
Greig is one of Call Sign’s on-line readers …Ed

Our work?
What euphoria! One can almost see the look of glee on the faces of drivers as they fight back against the minicabs. Without regurgitating the masses of messages broadcast on the DaC screen, it is quite heartening to see drivers uniting and fighting back. It has taken far too long for this to happen. It is only in hard times that individuals are forced to defend their income livelihood and/or status. Thus, it is hardly surprising that the recent stance taken by drivers comes at the time of the worse recession of recent times.
Of the many messages from drivers, the use of two words stands out in particular; 'our work' (repeated by Alan in May’s Call Sign Editorial). But I ask why is it our work? Why do we think we have a God-given right to any work? Or put another way, why do drivers believe they have the sole right to pick-up and carry passengers? When the Knowledge is passed and Green Badge obtained, it gives drivers the right to pick-up passengers on the streets of London and that's all. It does not necessarily follow that the work belongs solely to taxi drivers. Or am I misinformed? The Oxford dictionary refers to 'ours' as 'belonging to or associated with us, it is ours'. There is no doubt that members of the public who require taxis are usually associated with the Licensed Taxi trade; but not exclusively so. Yes licensed drivers have exclusive rights to pick-up on the street, but it does not follow that they have exclusive rights to all the work. Or does it?
Being a driver of 24 years, I am very aware that the minicab business has taken a hold and has become an integral part of the London transport system because of the inconsiderate and selfish actions of some drivers in the past. So we have to accept that they are here to stay. I am not saying we should put up with the so-called scabs and their intimidatory tactics that we are fighting so well. However, those drivers that work within the rules of the PCO / TfL, we cannot do much about. In relation to the clubs, bars and restaurants now being fought over, licensed cabs were not servicing them unless drivers were actually passing establishments when individuals actually wanted taxis. In fact I admit to not even knowing some of these places until the action of

Patrick O’Brien
My brother, Pat O'Brien (E57) was cremated at Islington & St.Pancras Crematorium on the 28th April 2009 and I would like to thank the BoM of Dial-a-Cab and the DaC drivers who sent flowers and turned up to see Pat
off. If I may, could I also send a special thank you to Allan Evans for his help and to David Creber, Gerry Dunn, Fred the fireman (Ex K42) and Stuart Benjamin. Also, my thanks to all the other drivers that knew Pat who attended.
   It was a simple service for a man who did not like a fuss being made, but who would have peed himself laughing when someone's mobile went off halfway through the Vicar's speech!
It was all very much appreciated by my family and myself and we were very moved when arriving at the Crematorium to see a long line of cabs that had turned up to pay their last respects.
John O’Brien (Ex-M44)

General behaviour and God…?
Reading Allan Evans and Allen Togwell’s articles in May's Call Sign, I must in part agree about showing professionalism and good customer care, especially in these uncertain times as accounts can so easily be lost. But over the past few months, I've had jobs that showed total disregard for me, my profession and property. I've had chips thrown over the carpet, empty beer bottles left in the cab, been moaned at because my cab was cold and the passenger didn't want the heater on. Then they had the audacity to complain to DaC about me and I’ve since had the fare removed. And in general, the rude nature that I've been spoken to by these people is leaving me to wonder if this is becoming the norm? Amazingly, these weren't cash rides or men in track bottoms and trainers – these were passengers from big accounts. I was so incensed with the chips and bottles that I really wanted to go back to their houses and post them in their letter boxes with notes saying: "I think these belong to you!" But I realised I’d just be lowering myself to their standards. 
   DaC too are not immune. I once picked up a member of our Sales team and after waiting was greeted with a Neanderthal type grunt. She then spent the entire fare on the phone with not even a goodbye or thank you at the end. It seems to me that this is not professionalism, just downright ignorance towards us. Yet they want professionalism shown to them? Respect gains respect, it’s as simple as that
   So I think Mr Togwell has got it slightly wrong. Just because you wear a suit and work for a large city bank and perhaps have done national service, it doesn't make you a pillar of society. What concerns me is Mr Togwell’s attitude; he seems to consider real men to be 6ft 3inch policemen. Are they the same police who cover their police numbers, or give innocent  bystander a hefty whack outside the bank of England, allegedly causing their death? If 1000s of 17 - 21 year olds are forced into national service, they would become cannon fodder for Gordon Brown and America’s world domination plans.
   I doubt if God minds that people visit his house in just jogger bottoms, as to him all men are equal and considering God’s own son spent most of his life in tatty old cloth, unshaven and sandals, does that not show that it is not your image, but your actions that count?
Michael Beevor (N76)
   Allen Togwell replies: Mr Beevor, I don’t know the details but your letter appears to be prompted by what seems like an unjustified complaint against yourself from a client. I can well understand your grievance, unfortunately like it or not you are a public servant and when dealing with the public you have to accept attitudes and manners not always to your liking. I don’t know how long you have had a badge, but in my 42 years of owning a bill I have come across arrogance, disrespect and despicable manners from the most unlikely of people, including knighted public figures, royalty, members of parliament and I might add, the clergy. As well as of course that small minority of clients who because they earn more in a week than you earn in a year, feel they can treat you with utter contempt. My attitude to these people is they have got a problem, not me. I complete the journey for which I’m paid, I say thank you. Then I concentrate on the next job. I cannot change the world so I don’t drive myself mad trying.
   As for my comments about police and national service, it was a different era, probably before you were born. An era when I can say from experience those two institutions alone played a major part in teaching people to avoid doing the very thing you are complaining about. And yes, you are correct, wearing a suit doesn’t make a person a pillar of society, but it does show self-esteem and self-respect. As for the state of the clothes that God’s own son wore - and I assume you mean Jesus - there is no record that his robe was tatty. It was probably a plain canvas robe as worn by men at that time (a woman’s robe by law had to be a different style, usually with a silk sash). Ornate robes as worn by priests came into being several hundred years later. Most men, particularly Jews, wore beards while sandals were the most common footwear.

Letter to the leader of the House of Commons…
Dear Ms. Harman,
   Re: My Second Home allowance
   May I call you Harriet? Thank you. I do not know if you are
aware, but 6 years ago my wife

Nash’s Numbers
Dear Alan,
Can I recommend the website provided by Alan Nash which contains so much useful information at www.nashsnumbers.co.uk. I went back to this site recently and it is now greatly improved. All the information from back issues of Nash's Numbers is now easily viewed and any section can be printed. A big thank you to Alan for the work he has put into this and for the monthly numbers and information he provides us.
Laurence Kelvin (W88)
   Thanks for that Laurence. I wouldn’t even contemplate itemising the info that Alan has written in Call Sign since July 1997. I get more phone calls asking for a copy of something he has written in the past than for anything else, yet a ‘thank you’ letter regarding Alan is unusual, so your taking the time is appreciated. For anyone who doesn’t know about the Nash’s Numbers website, go to www.nashsnumbers.co.uk for this issue and all previous issues back to 1997 in PDF format. All are in good quality for printing. You can also register for his Useful Information Document (UID), which has lots of info you may need regularly throughout your working day. Send an email to alan@nashsnumbers.co.uk with the subject line as UID. In the body of the email, write your name, call sign, badge number, email address and mobile number (in case there are any problems with your email address). And thanks again Laurence …Ed

Charlie Rubin
I was very sad to hear of the passing of Charlie Rubin. On my return to DaC, Charlie had the foresight to have sufficient confidence in me to allow me to go on and become one of the finest dispatchers the taxi trade ever had! The fact that he might have told that to everyone was irrelivent to me. May his dear soul rest in everlasting peace.
Tony Arnold (F03)
   Many drivers have told Call Sign how shocked they felt at Charlie’s untimely death …Ed

TX4 and fuel consumption…
In June last year, I sold my 7-year-old TX1 and bought a shiny new TX4. The first few weeks behind the wheel were a revelation; all the updates LTI had put in place over my previous TX1 became apparent. Improved steering, suspension, intercom and electrics, all making the job a little easier. At the time, fuel prices were rising almost daily, as I am sure you will remember. So I began to do MPG checks, just to see what it was returning. I was disappointed when my first test returned 21.6 MPG; I thought it would improve as the engine loosened up. Well it didn’t. That has been about the average over 3 months of daily checks and 15000 miles on the clock now. I rang LTI customer services, only to be told that’s what they do. I think that’s not good enough.
   A few years ago, I participated in the MPG tests using the Power Pill on my TX1, so I already had plenty of reliable results for it of around the 24-MPG mark. So my new allegedly greener cab is burning more diesel than the earlier previous model. Spending some time with a pencil, paper and calculator, I worked out that over a 25,000 mile year, I am spending £750 more on fuel, £200 more on road tax and with servicing costs much higher, it works out well over £1000 a year more to run my TX4 than my old TX1. All you drivers out there with TX4s are paying out that £1000+ as well. Most of it goes in extra fuel burnt, and this is ‘The cleanest diesel engine ever to beat at the heart of a London taxi` to quote from the LTI sales brochure. Well call me old fashioned, but surely the idea is to burn less fuel to be greener, you don’t burn more coal to get less smoke, do you! The price of diesel is not going to go down, so yours and my fuel bill will rise every year - look at it as putting another £1000 to your tax bill every year just for running your cab. Let’s hope when the Euro 5 TX4s come in, they are not even worse. LTI also say in their sales blurb ‘continually improving’ and the engine ‘packs a punch never before experienced in a purpose built taxi’. It is certainly punching our wallets!
   So what can we do? Well I can’t do it on my own, but please take the time as I have, to phone or write to Trevor Hattersley, the Customer Support Manager at LTI, and make him aware of the fuel consumption on your cab and how new models are always more fuel efficient than the model 10 years previous. It’s not right and are they working on it? With all that complex electronic engine management technology the TX4 has, the fuel consumption issue must be resolved. To call the TX4 the cleanest cab, it should be the most fuel efficient - not the worst. There are 4000 TX4 owners out there; it’s no good saying that someone else will do it. We must make ourselves heard. We are all pumping £750 worth of diesel out in emissions we do not need to. That is not a GREEN taxi fleet. If 4000 letters of complaint arrived at LTI, they would realise something is wrong with our iconic London Taxis. So get phoning and write those letters, you could save yourself money on your fuel bill. The TX4 is the best cab LTI have made - the job just needs finishing.
Paul Gane (H33)

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