Call Sign March 2009 - Page 21 - THE WORLD ACCORDING TO TOM WHITBREAD

I must start off by thanking all of the 1171 subscribers that had faith in me and cast one of their votes alongside my name. But that means that there are still some 900 members who either dislike me or have never heard of me. I have never gone around deliberately asking people to vote for me, except when you have to make a speech at the AGM. So I suppose that after twenty odd years of serving the membership, I should be happy to get elected again. I listened with great interest at the AGM as driver after driver came up to the lectern and related what I had been saying that subscribers should do, in my opinion, to retain or regain our taxi work. But as I‘ve said in past articles, if you ignore what is happening whilst you are earning enough money and do not look to the future, you are burying your head in the sand and there is only one thing that can happen whilst you have you rear end sticking up in the air unprotected! This being the case, many drivers stood up and spoke of private hire operators procuring what licensed taxi drivers regard as their God-given work. You are only able to hold on to that work if you protect it and do not act in a greedy way, which allows others to take advantage of you and your work. If you do not believe what I’ve been saying, make the effort and go into Alan Fisher’s Call Sign website; there you can look up my past articles. Of course, you also have drivers who are so blind or ignorant of the facts and who think it’s a badge of honour to boast that they never read Call Sign. How else will they know what is happening within the Society or what harm outside interests are trying to inflict on the Owner Drivers Radio Taxi Service? Do not leave it to others to fight off these vultures, you all have to band together and show a united front. I do not mean that you have to get poles and lumps of hardboard to produce banners, which you then use to parade along Whitehall. Get all of our cabs to show a united front, with taxis that are clean and shiny with windows you can see through, making it a pleasure for passengers to ride in them. Most reputable private hire companies have a contract with a car wash firm so that their drivers have no reason to turn up in a dirty vehicle. Their drivers wear clean trousers and shirts, where some of ours parade around client’s multi- million pound offices with ripped jeans and stained tee shirts. When you get into the back of these drivers vehicles, you are often confronted with the stink of leaking diesel and body odour. Thank God these drivers are in the minority, but ask your passengers which drivers	Another batch of views from DaC’s answer to Victor Meldrew. These do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone at Call Sign or DaC… THE WORLD ACCORDING TO TOM WHITBREAD
	they remember on our circuit and they will immediately recall the dirty and rude with a bad attitude driver. It only takes one bad driver to ruin the reputation of a thousand good drivers. I think now is a good time to bring in some emergency rules for our Society rule book, as it is now that you must be looking to get back lost work and retain what we have got. A rule that states a member has to have a clean and presentable taxi that would pass a visiting PCO inspector’s road vehicle check. Also that a driver during working time must wear a clean shirt and trousers with no smelly trainers. Nowadays you can get trousers and shirts even cheaper than jeans and tee shirts, so the matter of cost that some lazy drivers use as an excuse goes right out of the window. I’m not saying that you make a driver leave on the first offence, but if he has been caught 3 times without making any effort to change his ways, then he should be asked / forced to leave. If you think I’m being hard just because I have been re-elected as a Board Member, you are wrong; these have always been my personal views. Or if you think I	can say that just because I am sitting in a new office getting a large monthly wage, you do not know how wrong you can be. I only say what I believe and maybe this economic situation that we are currently in is the correct time to think - before you dismiss these changes from someone you think is far detached from the drivers. If we carry on losing work that pays for your living expenses, cab expenses, children’s expenses and house mortgage, it may come to a time when Bill the Bailiff rings your door bell and you think back on the words that I’ve written today. And while we’re doing that… Perhaps if we can sort out the taxi trade and get it financially stable, we should then look at the mess greedy MPs have dropped us into this time. It seems that the people at the top think they are a type of demigod and take advantage with their expenses and allowances. They care little for the man or woman who has just lost their job, but will waste money on making non-existent jobs just to gain votes or give millions in legal aid to people who have paid nothing into the system, just so they can stay here to thieve and defraud the innocent tax payer. As I have already written, these are my views, but I’m sure Alan Fisher hopes they will send many letters flying to his mailbag so that he will always have a topical, up to date, fresh Call Sign magazine for you to read each time. Tom Whitbread DaC Board member
	Black Horse is still lending to drivers And at competitive rates…!
	LTI’s financial arm, Black Horse Taxi Finance, is still helping drivers buy new taxis. While many banks have stopped lending or reduced the amount that they will lend to borrowers, Black Horse has continued to provide specialist loans and it is business as usual for drivers looking for a new deal in 2009. Rob Laidler, LTI’s Sales Director, told Call Sign: "I’ve been asked by some drivers if there is still competitive finance available to buy a TX4 and the answer is absolutely yes. This is an excellent time to buy a TX4. Dealers are offering some of the most competitive deals ever available and at a time when interest rates are really low and with VAT at 15%, drivers can get themselves a real bargain. Added to that, Black Horse Taxi Finance continue to provide funds for drivers to take the opportunity to capitalise on the current offers," said Rob. After being approached by a number of drivers who were concerned that there was no longer the available credit to buy a new cab, Rob said: "If drivers are thinking of getting a good deal on a TX4 but are worried that they cannot get finance, I would say to get down to their local dealer now because it is business as usual and there is finance available at great rates." For more information you can visit LTI’s website at www.lti.co.uk.

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