Call Sign December 2010 Page 15 - Competing with the likes of Addison Lee!

Several times over the past year I have been contacted by journalists seeking to get some background to the on-going struggle between London's finest and the likes of Addison Lee and other premier PH companies, over the mega corporate accounts in the City and Docklands. Quite why they have contacted me I'm not sure, possibly they want a driver's perceptive to put alongside the views of people like Chairman Brian Rice. One thing that came up in conversation a few times was something John Griffin appears to be putting great store by - what they are calling SatNav Plus. From what I've been told, this is a computer programme that is used in conjunction with their booking system. When an AL driver is given a job, they have access to more details about the pick-up point than just the address. I'm not sure if these details are given automatically or the driver uses his equipment to request them if the address is not one they are familiar with. This speeds up response times by bringing their PH Vehicle to the customer’s door that bit quicker. Obviously those who were talking to me were just saying what they had been told, so my information at best is third hand, but it seems to work something like this. I'll base it on a job I did earlier this week as an example. A driver in WC1 is given a job in High Holborn. As we all know, High Holborn numbers up one side and then back down the other, so it’s not straightforward even if you know which end number 1 is. Also, some of it is one-way so you don't really want to get into that bit if you are not sure of the actual location. My pick-up was a national building society. Having located it, I pulled up outside and did an Advise Arrival. In due course I received a cannot contact, please make own contact message. Ok, no problem. I was able to leave the cab parked ok with no wardens in sight. I entered the premises to try and make my own contact. Two Customer Service counters are open but busy with customers. Another counter for enquires only was manned but dealing with an enquiry. Luckily I only had to wait about 30 seconds for this query to be completed, so I was then able to ask for my passenger at the desk. I was told my passenger was not in there but to try the frosted glass double doors just to the left of the their front entrance. It turned out the society had offices above with a reception just inside those frosted doors. No problem, I go in to speak to the receptionist and returned to wait for my passenger. Ok, it didn't take long but I might have had to wait considerably longer to make contact at the enquiry desk to be	Dial-a-Cab driver Eddie Lambert (V37) asks about a possible software addition to the next generation of DaC terminals – one we’d need to begin on soon... Competing with the likes of Addison Lee!
	directed to the actual pick-up point. What SatNav Plus does - so I believe - is that the driver would be given or can request more details if required from a stored database. These details would be available before a job is accepted so a driver might not refuse a job if they are the wrong side of a closed-off road or one-way system. I guess the stored message would go something like this. "In the one-way part of High Holborn offside (or perhaps north-side), west of Southampton Place just before the New Oxford St lay-by. Office and retail unit sharing same address. Frosted glass entrance east side of retail unit." These details may have only saved me a few minutes, but that can seem a long time to someone sweating on making a train or plane. Passengers are always pleased and usually comment when you are able to get to the pick-up point very quickly. The ability to do this frequently must help when it comes to retaining accounts. When an account changes hands, the new company's drivers servicing the account have to learn the pick-up, which costs time and perhaps gives an opportunity to regain the account if senior figures have experienced delays whilst waiting for a vehicle. I also think better details might help with coverage of Westminster work. As many of these jobs start in residential areas, there can be many separate addresses very close together. Also the names of residential blocks are often missing, vandalised or badly sited so light does not pick them up. A detail like "second block from corner with road / street etc. On left facing Edgware Rd" or simply a clue as to which end of the street and which side would help the driver find the block much quicker. We should also talk to account companies about better identification for their premises eg prominent numbers outside their office blocks and not just building names. This will help drivers know they are moving down the street in the right direction or looking on the right side of the street, as in any older areas numbers don't run odds and evens but up one side and down the other as per High Holborn. I won't even try to explain the numbering in Cadogan Gardens! If accounts have many pick-ups from residential addresses, perhaps the front door is well back from the road, so is there a number on the gate or pillars etc adjacent to the pavement so drivers can identify the house quickly? I think that with these accounts where we pick up from residential addresses frequently - if not daily - our system should be able to give driver better details as above. Some addresses even have the actual entrance round the corner in a different road altogether - I	know we often get this detail, but not always. So details such as WB Elgin Ave between Oakington Rd and Edbrooke Rd would speed up pick-ups. This would also help stop drivers possibly going to the wrong address if there are several addresses with similar names in close proximity. Or as I came across recently, two residential blocks sharing the same name, separated by a road with the individual numbers of flats so small on a board that one had to get out of the cab to be able to read them. My passenger was outside the other block, at an entrance around the corner telling the call centre they could not see me. A facility to do similar with set-down addresses when we are given them would also be helpful. Another help to drivers would be the ability to name a road, street, place etc from the postcode. I don't use a SatNav (yet) and increasingly customers are giving postcodes as destinations. It would also be a big help to be able to put the start of the postcode eg E1- SE18 - W13 etc after a road name as it's a right so and so trying to scroll down a full list of Church Rd or Station Place et al whilst on the move and of course if you accidentally go to the wrong one, you then have to start all over again! Very annoying if not dangerous, as it takes your concentration off your driving. I would call this built-in info Knowledge Plus, as we always make play on the superiority of the Knowledge over SatNav, so it would be superior to Griffin’s SatNav Plus. But how would we build up this Knowledge Plus? Firstly, get all drivers to report when they have a problem locating an address. Ask them to give Dial-a-Cab the details that would help the next driver locate the address much easier. Perhaps we could have a designated email address where we could send the info to or possibly have a box in East Road or Roman Way where drivers could leave the info for an insert in Call Sign? Maybe we could even use a couple of Knowledge boys or girls to go to addresses where problems with pick-ups often occur and collate better and clearer instructions? Some accounts are in awkward places such as Red Routes etc so perhaps a dedicated pick-up point just round the corner or perhaps outside the back door could be given to drivers? If you needed it, it would be stored and just take the push of an extra info button. Otherwise nothing else needs to change. Of course this would be a long-term project and obviously more suited to our new terminals when they arrive, but we could start collating the info sooner. It should not be overly costly and may well have financial value to DaC as a whole. But it would help drivers by enabling them to arrive at pick-ups quicker and thereby helping and encouraging them to cover more trips.

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