|
It was
interesting reading the articles of both yours and Mike Son in
the January Call Sign. Although I have only been
on Dial-a-Cab for a relatively short time, I have spent many
years on other circuits and in my experience they all have their
good and bad points. But I do think that DaC is probably the
best and regret not joining sooner. What is common among all the
circuits are the drivers. We all have our own views on how
things should be run - and why not! We are all self-employed
businessmen and on the whole do not like being told how
we should earn our day’s money. So how do we as radio drivers sell ourselves in an ever-changing market place? Firstly, we have to accept that we are different from non-radio drivers, we may hold the same Badge and drive the same type vehicle, but that is where the similarities end. The non-radio driver has no need to sell himself. However good or bad he does his job, it will not normally affect other drivers. If he decides to go to work dressed like a tramp in a dirty cab, he will still get fares just as if he was dressed in a suit and tie. If he were to upset his passenger and that fare claimed they would never use a taxi again, he won’t worry as it would be just one lost fare that he probably would never have seen again anyway. We as radio drivers do not have the luxury of a don’t care attitude; if one of us were to upset the wrong passenger and they were in the position to cancel the account, then not only would that driver lose - we all would. So how do we sell ourselves, or more to the point how can we expect our elected leaders and their Sales team to sell us? Before they decided to licence the so-called Private Hire under the same umbrella as us, it must have been quite easy to sell our services. One can imagine that we would have said to a potential corporate customer: "We have a fleet of police (PCO) checked taxis driven by highly trained police checked drivers, all fully insured with regulated meters. They are available 24/7. Or you could go with a minicab company who are unlicensed with unchecked cars. Would you really be happy for your female employees to be driven by someone who may have just got out of prison for rape?" It was probably no contest! Now fast forward; what a task the Sales team now have on our behalf. The scenario is a potential new major company; the Transport Manager says to our salesperson: "A PH company can supply a fleet of Vito and Mercedes cars all less than 2 years old, they are all licensed as are the drivers by the same PCO as DaC are, the cars are all air-conditioned and equipped with |
Another response to Mike Son’s article. This one from DaC driver Ian Connelly (T21) How can we win back our work??? |
|
|
the latest satnav to get
our employees to wherever they wish. The drivers will all be
dressed in a suit and tie, all fares will be on a fixed price or
on mileage and if we need a limo or even a coach, then no
problem! And just in case we do happen to want a Black cab we
also have a taxi company who can cover us 24/7." Then the potential customer asks our salesperson to be completely truthful and to give them our offer. Would it not have to be like this? "Well at the moment, unless we change some of our ways, the deal is this: We operate 24/7 with a fleet of owner-drivers, all licensed by the PCO. Most of the taxis are under 6 years old, but some are substantially older – perhaps 12 years or more. But all are checked to PCO standard. Some newer ones have air-con, but all have windows that open mainly being at the touch of a button. On the whole our drivers are reasonable smart, but if I were to be totally honest, come the summer and a few of our guys would not look out of place in an episode of It Ain't Half Hot Mum! Fares are recorded on the meter with a £4.20 maximum run-in, but we can do fixed prices although some of our guys are not that keen. Some drivers have satnav, but others don’t think it that necessary, because you see, we have the Knowledge and if they get an out-of-town ride, they all have maps - you remember, the books with roads printed on them! As a last result, they can always ask the customer which way to go. As for supplying other types of vehicles, I’m sure that if the members support us, we can sort something out. So have we got the contract or what?" Now if what I’ve written is to be believed, then to even the playing field out we have to change, and sooner rather than later. So if our Board decide to make changes for a better future, we should trust their judgement. I personally think that if it means we get more contracts, I would go further than Mr Son and would suggest all jobs are Non-rejectable and As directed, except for the last hour of your shift. You should then be given destinations and allowed to reject as many jobs as you wish, you should also be allowed do as many jobs in that hour to help you in your home direction, regardless of how many previous account rides you had covered. If you think about all jobs being A/D, it really is no different from stopping for someone on the street. As for fixed prices, if it |
means keeping or gaining a
contract then there should be no opting out. I can never
understand why these FP jobs are rejected, If I get an FP trip
for £25, I look at the time it will take regardless of whether
the meter s likely to show maybe £30, and if I can do it in 30
minutes or so, in my mind that's a good return. If I was stuck
in an unforeseeable jam, then I am sure DaC could and would sort
out some extra payment. As for the age of the vehicles we drive, we are in a recession and as much as it would be nice to boast to a client that all our fleet are new, it is unrealistic and unfair to us as owner-drivers to invest in newer taxis. But if a new driver wishes to join Dial-a-Cab, perhaps there should be an age limit on their taxi - if there isn’t one already. If we also accept that what we drive is built for short inner London type trips and the days of the regular roaders have now gone to private hire, perhaps we should concentrate on expanding all inner London type trips, even if it means doing PH work. A while back I saw around 6 ‘T’ attribute jobs on the bid screen, even though all the zones were full of cabs and it was stone dead out! Firstly you have to question why are they are so busy that they need us to cover their work, secondly why it is that we are not busy? Thirdly, why are we not doing it! I think I know the answer ... principle! So how do we solve that one? Like it or not, private hire is here to stay and will only get bigger. If we do not do their work they will either expand quicker or find other ways to cover their excess work. And all those that think that if we don’t do it, then their customers will get the hump with the service and come running back to us, well it just ain’t gonna happen! And as much as I admire a man of principle, sometimes you have to let go! It didn’t do the miners, printers, dockers and many others much good, so if we have to do more PH work to expand, perhaps we should bite the bullet and treat the jobs the same as we do our own. I think that with the above and our closest cab system, we may have a brighter future. Yes, I accept that I maybe looked upon as a defeatist and possibly worse, but my basic business rules are these: If your services are too cheap, you become a busy fool, if your services are too expensive, you become a broke fool; if you only charge what the market will accept and you’re good at what you do, you’re nobody’s fool... Ian Connelly (T21) |
|
 |
Powered by NetXPosure |
| Copyright 1997-2010 Dial-A-Cab Ltd, All rights reserved. |