Back again!
Well, I seem to be back following my month off! So a big thank you
to all those of you who phoned thinking I was leaving rather than waiting to
be reappointed. I guess the latter must be the case, as I appear to be
writing this!
As Call Sign is usually monthly, this first issue for
two months could contain some articles you may have already seen in the
trade press, but I have tried to keep them to a minimum. So here we go
again...How can we win back our work?
Call Sign may well be an in-house
magazine, but I believe that over the years we have gained a respect from
others in the trade as a forum that doesn’t just promote Dial-a-Cab, even
though we always try to, but as a magazine that allows freedom of speech. It
was this magazine that began the debate about Yellow Badge drivers
illegally working in town – one that TfL/PCO now take very seriously with
many of their teams out on the road specifically for the purpose of trapping
them. And in my view, Yellow Badge’s working in town are no better than
touts.
More recently, we asked the question how can we win back our
work? This led to an ongoing debate both in the mag and then spread onto
the internet! It even involved PH’s Martin Cox, with me being criticised for
allowing him the space to write, but I am still delighted that I did because
you can’t say you have freedom of speech but that it doesn’t include x, y
and z! It’s always better to know what you are up against and in all honesty
I have nothing against Martin Cox or many on the other side of our industry
- provided they work within their rules and just as importantly, within the
spirit of those rules. That doesn’t mean I have to like them, but I do
accept that they are there.
One thing many drivers, either through Call Sign
articles or via our Mailshot pages, regularly brought up in the
debate was the question of offering cheaper fares so that we could compete
more with private hire. Even the PCO joined in by permitting licensed taxis
to charge below the meter fare – although how many realised it was against
the rules to do so anyway?
Personally I don’t mind doing fixed price trips that work out a
little below the meter if they are of a reasonable distance and quite
honestly, my experience tells me that fares when passengers come down
straightaway are pretty close to the meter anyway. But things are changing -
and in my view dangerously - with the advent of not just fixed price trips,
but dangerously low-prices.
First came TaxiLight, who have come up with a good idea in
theory. If a fare is going your way and you are finishing, will you do it
cheaper? Well the answer from most of us would be yes, but that would be
unofficially on a one-to-one with the passenger. My problem is the scheme
isn’t just between a passenger asking the driver how much to wherever and
the driver cutting the fare drastically because he’s going that way anyway.
It asks passengers to make an offer and propose a fare for their destination
with drivers browsing through a list to see if any suit them. TaxiLight
also proposes a shared cab scheme mentioning places such as Canary Wharf and
Heathrow. These again are good ideas, but |
only in theory because how long will it
be before individual rides become decimated and passengers
just look for the cheaper rides. If a passenger goes from Canary Wharf to
Fulham – similar trips that many of us have done – on a regular basis, why
should he get a taxi from DaC or off the rank when Bill Smith says he lives
in Merton and is happy to take the job each night as a ‘going home’ trip at
a greatly reduced price? Before long the word will get round and a large
number of passengers currently using us will start looking for those ‘going
home’ drivers. And who could blame them, just as I don’t blame the
organisers of TaxiLight, because the idea has much logic. But to do
it to compete against PH is a non-starter because we just can’t compete.
Their drivers work far cheaper than we could ever think of doing and even
‘going home’ trips would soon be seen as a novelty.
And now there’s Radio Taxis new cut price fares idea. As
Editor, I very rarely comment on other licensed taxi companies. We all have
our own ways of working and it is far better that we all remain as close as
possible rather than compete as enemies. But they have also jumped onto the
cut-price bandwagon and plan on offering trips marked as discounted.
These will be cutting the fare rate once 6 miles has been passed from £3.28
per mile down to £2.50 a mile, with the noble intent
of competing with private hire. But again, how can we compete against a
group whose drivers work so cheaply?
Take a late-night 45-mile trip from the London Hospital to Reading
in Berkshire. On TaxiLight it could be as low as £30 if it takes you
home, but that passenger would never expect to pay anywhere near the full
price again. Then on RTG’s new discount scheme - account only - that 45
miles on rate 3, which would normally work out (without traffic) at £151
forgetting any run-in or gratuity, will now pay the RTG driver £125. Out of
that he will be using around £30 in diesel and taking up around 2 hours
including the return. That £95 clear may be more than he would have got in
town in two hours, but will that passenger ever be prepared to pay a normal
price again? Incidentally, as a cash ride, Addison Lee advertise that
particular trip on their website as £147 (figures courtesy Nash’s
Numbers).Mike Galvin with AL
My views on Addison Lee are well known.... I don’t like them! I
remember their comparison chart between them and us, where their fares
sounded reasonable while ours looked horrendous and were obviously either a
one-off exception with huge amounts of waiting time, or just made up! After
all, W1 to EC2 for £50! I don’t think so! Even allowing for a gratuity and
admin charge, this is nowhere near the norm. Yet they used it for a
comparison.
However, they are a reputable company and I should have no problem
with them just because they have the advantage of being able to do exactly
whatever they want with drivers. These men (I don’t think I’ve seen any
women) pay far more on a weekly basis |
than DaC charge for a month and then only
keep just over half the fare! Drivers can’t reject work, they cannot ply for
hire (!!) and as such their radio work coverage is high and getting higher.
In reality, AL probably earns more as a company leasing out their cars and
radio equipment than they do from the PH business! I suspect that if DaC
charged AL rates, it would be Addison Lee who were moaning about how cheap
our prices were – but then again we have this silly thing about not working
for nowt!
But taking all that into account, I don’t blame former ComCab MD
Mike Galvin for accepting a job with AL and I sincerely wish him the
best of luck. I don’t know his official position, although I did hear that
it might be as Chief Operating Officer. I’ve known Mike for many
years, going back to our time in the LTDA northeast branch
when we sat alongside drivers such as Cecil Selwyn, Steve Hawes and Richard
Massett. However, that doesn’t change my personal view of AL, I still don’t
like them...The C&G*
version of democracy?
At a time when I needed a smile, there turned up the cowardly
Nissen Hut internet blog to give me one! Pages and pages - not of news,
but of just criticising others without giving the option of reply. On their
hit list recently was yours truly; inferring that I am a DaC Board member
(!!) they wrote of Call Sign’s freedom of expression and
criticised it.
More particularly, they wrote of my decision to allow former RMT
Chairman and DaC driver Eddie Lambert (V27) to give his point of view
in answer to criticism in other trade magazines and constantly in the
Nissen Hut. That is called freedom of the press – something the
Nissen Hut wouldn’t have a clue about because you can’t respond to it.
They also tell their readers – I can’t imagine there are many – that I am a
regular on the LTDF internet forum, another group they constantly have a pop
at. I’ve been told that there is someone who uses my name, but that no one
seems to use their real names anyway, so why can’t someone use mine? In fact
I have never visited the site, although I quite like the Anderson Shelter
blog that seems to be linked to the LTDF and which, unlike the Nissen Hut,
actually gives taxi news and the opportunity to respond. However, according
to the NH, it is filled with BNP and EDL members! Well if there are, I’d bet
that it’s probably a tiny minority. And quite honestly, I no longer believe
the NH.
So the blog asked why I gave Eddie Lambert space? Well I would
trust Eddie – one of the trade’s nice guys – far more than I would trust the
NH authors, said to be two former DaC drivers no longer with the circuit,
one of whom who was helped on his way via three of his peers! If correct,
then C&G were two of the members that reported DaC to the FSA, instigating
an inquiry into it’s affairs and costing DaC a substantial amount. Not
surprisingly, the FSA could find no evidence to warrant further
investigation. But I’d still like to thank C&G for giving me a smile – pity
it has to be because they write such garbage and are obviously being used by
others...
* No, not the Cheltenham & Gloucester!
Alan Fisher
callsignmag@aol.com |
