|
Having been driving a London
taxi for the best part of 33 years, of which approaching 30 have
been with DaC, I'm quite used to Allen Togwell’s rantings
about the sartorial elegance of some of our members - and on the
whole I agree with his comments. However, I feel so incensed by
his comments in the March Call Sign, that I
felt I had to put pen to paper… How dare he suggest that just because one makes the excellent financial decision to run an older vehicle, that I am a man whose dress code would be an embarrassment to the Society. Mr Togwell starts the paragraph with the words at a guess. As an elected member of our Board, I do not want to be inflicted by his suppositions, I feel that his Marketing Place editorial should be based on factual information and not personal prejudice. For Mr Togwell’s information, I run a 15 year old taxi, which like myself is always clean and tidy. In addition, I see myself firstly as a business man and secondly as a taxi driver, and in view of this I make business decisions based upon my professional peers. George Soros has always stated that a good business man leases a depreciating asset and buys an appreciating asset. In my case, the vehicle cannot depreciate any further as it only cost a little over £3500. Alan Sugar also supports the argument that the essence of good business is to keep overheads to a minimum. I feel that I ‘tick the box’ on both these points. Over a three year period, working on the basis that the average repayment for a new vehicle would be somewhere in the region of £750 pm, with depreciation of around £5000 per year, that amounts to around £42,000. Now I appreciate that one would be eligible for a tax break on part of that amount, but it still means the individual driver has to physically be on the road in order to take this sum, and in this financial climate I consider it to be total madness. I'd rather be on holiday or at |
DaC driver Barrie Smith to Allen Togwell… OLD CABS AND PIN STRIPES???
|
|
 home with my wife. I do so hope that Mr Togwell takes these points into consideration before we are subjected to any future diatribe. But in closing and looking at the March Call Sign cover, I'd like to point out that no gentleman would ever be seen wearing a striped suit and striped tie! I respectfully suggest he changes his tailor… Barrie Smith (K06) DaC Board member Allen Togwell to Barrie Smith PIN STRIPES AND OLD CABS??? It never fails to amaze me how statements can be misconstrued
and taken as a generalisation. In my article I said: At a
guess, I would say the vast majority of smartly dressed cab
drivers are those that drive new cabs, which makes sense. I
then went on to add: I can understand in some cases – and I
stress some cases – why when I see drivers sloppily dressed, it
could well be an extension of the state of their vehicle. |
only those that drive
new taxis are smartly dressed, I said the majority. I also said
in some cases sloppily dressed drivers could be an extension of the state of their vehicles. I find it difficult to understand how my comments reflect on smartly dressed drivers as you say you are and who drive clean, older vehicles. As a matter of record, the taxi I owned before Board members had the choice of taxi ownership was 15 years old and when I was working in that taxi, I dressed in a similar manner to how I was dressed at the AGM. Had I seen at that time a similar article in Call Sign, I would have taken no offence whatsoever as I wouldn’t have considered it in any way referring to me. And where, may I ask, did I mention anything about drivers being an embarrassment to the Society? If I wanted to use the word embarrassment, I could easily refer it to instances when we are tendering for new business and have to submit in detail the age of our fleet, knowing it is an important consideration when judging who gets the contract. And with regards your personal comment on my dress sense, normally I would have considered it impertinent and ignored it, but as a point of information you would be partly correct had the tie been a similar colour to the suit with a single stripe. However, a chalk stripe suit with a plain shirt and a multi coloured striped tie with a multi-coloured ‘kerchief is perfectly acceptable. If you have any doubts, I suggest you stand outside any gentlemen’s club and count how many visitors you see wearing striped suits and striped regimental or club ties. As for changing my tailor - Roderick Charles of Bow Lane - I’m willing to take your advice. Who would you recommend…? Allen Togwell |
|
 |
Powered by NetXPosure |
| Copyright 1997-2011 Dial-A-Cab Ltd, All rights reserved. |