 Continued from September… The year seemed long with my Low Loader. But never mind, at least I was learning to be a cab driver! One of the things I learned the hard way was how not to set the clock. My clock had an arm from the centre, on the end of which was a piece of red-painted tin with For Hire printed on it in white. The scenario went something like this. Goody, goody, a gentleman has hailed me! Pull up smartly… "Yes sir." The Eccentric Club. "Certainly sir." Whack the arm smartly, so smartly that it passed the stop at the bottom and continued round until it hit my hand. It did so hard enough to draw blood and I learned why it was painted red! Another thing I learnt was that if you forgot to wind the clock at the beginning of your shift, half way through it would stop running and until you noticed it, you would have had no waiting time. My memory is a little uncertain - it was a long time ago - but as I recall it, there were three ways to get a cab to drive. One: You could hire from a garage at 1/5d a mile (7.5p). Therefore if every mile cost you 1/5d, obviously you tried to do as few miles as possible without a bum on the back seat. So, find the nearest rank and put on it. This was no hardship as nearly all the work started from ranks. Few people hailed you on the streets; they would walk to a rank or phone. Two: Work for a garage on the clock. The garage would take the figures from the clock at the beginning of the shift and again when you returned. The figures taken were the number of jobs, units and miles. This way the garage was able to work out how much you owed them. If I remember correctly, the split was something like 60:40. It also made it easy for them to work out if you had done an unusual number of miles. If you had, it meant you were possibly doing stalkers! Stalking… |
At the age of 81, DaC
driver John Edwardes (H05) had to suddenly retire following a
heart problem. Now he has written about his life as a taxi
driver. Call Sign is serialising it… John Edwardes: My life as a taxi driver… |
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as stealing from the
garage; this meant you were not a fit person to drive a cab with
the result that your licence was revoked. Personally, after all
the hard work to get my badge, it seemed crazy to jeopardise it
in any way just for a few extra bob. Many drivers preferred one or other of these methods. They had no worries. When they arrived at the garage, the cab would be waiting for them - spotlessly clean and ready to go. They did not have the bother of washing, maintaining, insuring, taxing and fuelling it, all that was done at no extra cost to them. If the cab had a day and a night man, it had to be washed inside and out twice a day. The PCO made sure that garages complied with this law. Most did have day and night drivers. Three: You could own your cab. This had advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were that you could drive the cab any day and any time you liked. In addition, you could use it privately so long as you covered the meter with a towel. To buy a new or second hand cab, you had to apply for a proprietor’s license and ensure you had a lock-up garage for the cab. If not, then forget it. Unless being used, the cab had to be securely kept behind locked doors. The disadvantages included such items as the costs of the annual overhaul, insurance, HP, Road Fund |
every week to cover
these overheads. Another disadvantage - now it was you washing
and cleaning the cab each day! But that way was my choice and after a year I went to collect my new cab. The first thing was to find and rent a suitable garage to keep a cab in. When I found one, I trotted up to Lambeth Road to apply for my proprietor’s licence, having informed the Carriage Office of the address of the garage. Next it was off to Mann & Overton in Wandsworth Bridge Road to collect my first cab. In due course came the letter to confirm that the cab was waiting – passed, new and mine! I said goodbye to York Way and the low loader and arrived at M&O, paid the balance owed and drove off happily in my new FX3 that had just cost me £860. But what luxury! I actually had windows! There was also a sliding window between the luggage compartment and myself and a heater! Oh heaven, a heater! What more could any driver wish for? Then there were windscreen wipers that worked - even if you were accelerating - and brakes that allowed you to stop in a straight line and not try to pull right or left. Finally, the luxury of built in hydraulic jacks. If you got a flat tyre, you could lift up the front or back of the cab with a lever you just had to push backwards and forwards. This was the life… Continued next month |
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LMCPA AT THE PCO… |
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The London Motor Cab
Proprietors' Association
met recently so that the executive
could brief members of a meeting that took place at the PCO
regarding taxi emissions as part of the Mayor’s Clean Air
Strategy for transport. The Mayor proposes his MTS should
improve journey experience and improve the health impacts of
transport and his strategy talks of introducing or promoting
stricter performance standards for vehicles controlled, procured
or regulated by the Mayor and the scrapping of older, more
polluting vehicles. LMCPA Chairman, Ivan Kovler, told members that the executive had made clear their concerns to the PCO and had said that in view of the London Olympics in 2012, it would be unwise to take any older cabs off the road, especially as the trade had recently spent around £60million converting them to |
Euro 3. He added that it was the older generation
driving the old taxis and they could not afford to buy new Euro
4 taxis. He also stated that drivers and taxi fleets were only
just starting to recuperate from the enormous expense they had
encountered in complying with the recent conversion
requirements. Another issue of concern was that despite assurances from the authorities that only companies who would give the trade full back-up and after sales service were to be approved by the PCO to supply conversion kits, two of the companies went bust after having taken driver’s money, but leaving them with no warranty. Ivan continued that it was important the trade was united in its’ stance against any proposals that carried a large cost for the trade and that he would meet with other trade organisations representatives as he had in the past. |
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