|
End of a tough Year As most of you are probably aware, the end of our financial year was 31 August and you don’t need me to tell you what a tough year it has been! The Auditors have been in the building and whilst I am aware of our results, our Auditors have not yet given them the official stamp, which is a formality. Consequently, I do not have any qualms about relaying information to you before it has been officially ratified. Our Accounting procedures are so good now, that the team of Auditors were only in the building for four days, yet I can remember being a new Board Member and seeing an army of Auditors in the building for up to a month. It just shows how far things have progressed during the past fifteen years and just how precise our accounting procedures are today. The last time we experienced a downturn of a similar magnitude to the last couple of years was in the early nineties. I know the mind plays tricks over the years, but I do believe the nineties downturn hit the trade far worse than the current economic climate has. I can remember hotels on Park Lane closing down whole floors due to a lack of customers, but thankfully that scenario has not been repeated this time. However, during the current recession the financial sector has been hit particularly badly, which in turn has had a dramatic effect on the account work that was completed by radio circuits, after all, they were big users of all the taxi radio circuits and Dial-a-Cab in particular. Consequently, I think it’s fair to say that although the whole trade has experienced a downturn, radio circuit drivers have been hit particularly badly this time. They in turn have been endeavouring to take more work off the street, which in turn must have an effect on the non-radio driver. In the nineties, Dial-a-Cab experienced a 17% fall in |
 turnover due to the recession, however, during the past year we have experienced a fall of just over 32%, which I believe goes some way to show that the current downturn - although not as bad as the nineties - has hit the radio circuits and certainly Dial-a-Cab, harder than the remainder of the sector. That, of course is due to the fact that we are heavily dependant on the financial sector. Nevertheless, there is a marked difference on this occasion compared to the last, when Dial-a-Cab lost in excess of one million pounds over a two year period and very nearly went out of existence. The Board of the day decided to pay members credits three weeks in arrears to help ease the Society’s cash flow problems. It also increased subscriptions by £20 per month - and as you can imagine, an increase of that magnitude almost twenty years ago was not very popular! At this point, I would like to assure you this thread is not leading anywhere, it is just a means of educating members to the difficulties that were experienced by the Society back then as compared with today. As I mentioned earlier, our turnover has fallen by just over 32%, which in monetary terms is just under £16m. For turnover to fall by that amount in a year is colossal by anyone’s standards. However, steps had been taken in advance to cut our expenses and a significant amount of overheads have been taken out of the equation. Although this has had a significant impact on last year’s figures, the full effect of the savings will not be felt until we |
reach the end of our current financial
year. Although we will show a small loss up until 31 August, we still have in excess of £6million cash at the bank, in addition to having no debts. This easily tides us over the current downturn. There is not any threat whatsoever to this Society’s financial stability and I am delighted to report there has been a small increase in work over the past few weeks, as you are all undoubtedly aware, so I am extremely optimistic it will not be too long before we are in the black again. I must say that, given the circumstances, our figures this year are quite satisfying and the whole point of building reserves is so that we can deal with a downturn, even one as bad as we have just experienced. Those of you that have been in the trade for several years will know, as I do, that business is cyclical and we should always have reserves to deal with any downturn. Goodbye and Hello… Brian Rice |
