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ALLEN TOGWELL’S MARKETING PLACE |
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This started off
as a sick note because in my 20 odd years on your Board, I
cannot recall ever failing to meet the Editor’s request to
submit an article for Call Sign. That is until
now. In fact it’s a surprise that Call Sign should
even be crossing my mind as I lay in my third week in a hospital
bed connected to tubes keeping me in the land of the living,
unable to communicate without pad and pen, a lost mobile phone
and an enthusiasm level of zero due to medication. For some reason, the date on the newspaper I was reading suddenly conjured up the vision of a visit from the Editor with a bunch of grapes and stern reminder that an article was due and my scribbling urgently on my pad requesting leave of absence. I’m not suggesting for one minute our Editor is heartless, but from experience I knew the response was going to be: "Get a grip man! What possible excuse can anybody have for not knocking out a lousy 1500 words, here’s a bigger pad and I’ll extend the deadline for seven more days!" And how do I reply without a voice and the knowledge that I’ve never failed in the past? In fact, when I think back to all the years of submitting regular articles for Call Sign, it really has been quite a feat really when one considers the subject matter being restricted solely to Dial-a-Cab and the cab trade in general. Its hardly surprising when I hear members say they don’t always read my articles, I don’t think I would either unless it was something contentious, then it seems the whole membership seems to have read it and the Editor is bombarded with letters, emails and phone calls demanding that I be hung drawn and quartered! In years past when I ran DaC Sales, there was always plenty to write about, much of it often negative, including of course my relentless pursuit in trying to raise our member’s image. But no longer. Times have changed, due mainly to the success gained under the leadership of our present Chairman and in part to the eradication of the militants amongst our membership when so much of Board member’s time was spent putting right the upheaval they were causing, rather than doing what we were elected to do – running a business. A prime example were our AGMs, where the majority were there under protest or be fined, the minority being there to do nothing else but protest. Looking back at that period, it’s a wonder the Society still exists and it could have been so different. It has been proven what can be achieved if everybody, drivers and the BoM, ignore politics and focus solely on the business and how doing so deprives militants an audience or a voice, forcing them eventually to move onto the only place available these days – blogs or internet chat rooms! Had something similar happened 30 years ago, imagine how far DaC could have developed. We could have quite easily have had a present fleet now in excess of 5000 vehicles and of such force as |
 to have prevented the big PH firms of today from becoming little more than the average minicab outfit operating from above a fish shop. Personally, I’ve never seen a blog or chat room, but of course have heard about them, including how so few subscribers use their real names, which whilst typical, what credibility can it possibly give to a grievance if it’s signed Mickey Mouse? But then I’ve never quite understood the mentality of militants anyway, how they seem to carry so much bitterness and spend a lifetime making everybody’s life a misery. Or their never-ending battle trying to beat the establishment. Easy done I guess. I remember as a young man I could so easily have developed such a mentality towards the police. It was over 50 years ago, I was standing outside where I lived on the corner of Camden Street and Plender Street. It was a Sunday with very little traffic when I spotted a little old van kangarooing down Camden Street. Behind it was a police car. As it neared where I was standing, the police car pulled the van over and asked the driver to get out of the vehicle. As the driver did so, I recognised him as my best friend so I said hello. I also knew he was in trouble because he didn’t have a driver’s licence. It transpired that he had borrowed the van to deliver some furniture for his mother. The police did not believe him and wanted my friend to take the van back to its owner and they would follow, but of course they couldn’t allow him to drive the van so they approached me as they now knew he was my friend, asked me if I had a driver’s licence and would I mind driving the van back to the owner - just a short way up Plender Street. I agreed. On arriving at the owner’s house, they all went inside while I sat outside minding my own business. A little later, one of the coppers came out and told me I was nicked! I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t. He said it was for driving a vehicle without insurance, so I ended up in a magistrate’s court, disqualified for 6 months and fined £25 - a substantial amount 50 years ago. Needless to say I was very angry and my hatred of the police and authority was intense, but I knew even at a young age that you couldn’t beat the establishment, so I simply put it down to experience. NHS and my tumour... |
be three days, but such was
the nature of the operation and how I responded that it ended up
as being three weeks. Originally I was a patient at the ENT in
Grays Inn Road where I have attended on and off for over 40
years - mainly for my ears. On this occasion it concerned my
throat. Some drivers on DaC who I’ve interviewed over the past
two years, would have noticed towards the end of the interview
the difficulty I was having with my voice from talking. So I
asked my ear consultant to look at my throat. He did and his
opinion was that a more in-depth examination under anaesthetic
was necessary, where it was discovered the problem was not my
throat but a tumour at the base of my tongue. A biopsy followed,
which was benign thank God and arrangements made for the tumour
to be removed by laser. I was informed that the procedure was
going to present a challenge, so much so that it was decided to
transfer me to the UCH, who had more state of the art equipment.
Two weeks later, I was up in the Head and Neck ward on the 14th
floor of the new UCHL Hospital with unbelievable views of
London. The beds were made up in units of four with plenty of
space between them and a 5-nurse’s station for each unit. Each
of the beds were fitted out with every piece of medical
equipment imaginable, including suspended from the ceiling over
every bed a TV, which was ideal as I was in there was during the
World cup and Wimbledon. Wards were immaculately clean, added to
which was the quality of the food. There were six choices on the
menu for lunch and dinner plus I had a visit from the manager of
the ground floor restaurant that supplies the food informing me
that if there was anything not on the menu that I would like,
they would get it for me! Unfortunately the nature of my
operation meant that apart from a tracheotomy in my throat to
breathe and a tube in my stomach to administer medication and
liquidised food, I was unable take advantage of the offer until
I was well enough to go on solids. I was also offered free
holistic massages, but more importantly above all else, the
doctors, nurses and staff were absolutely brilliant. I’ve been
in private hospitals on three occasions in the past and none
could match the quality and care of my stay in the UCH.
And Barclay’s bikes! Allen Togwell |
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