The bad and the good…!
I know things are still tough out there work-wise and that is without the
added disadvantage of seemingly weekly increases in the cost of fuel and
what appears to be roadworks on every street in London! Being in the taxi
trade just appears to be getting tougher and tougher.
As the price of fuel continues to escalate, which it probably will
continue to do due to the conflicts in the Middle East with Iraq and Libya,
then the authorities should have introduced a fuel surcharge. I’m sure most
of you will agree it would be justified, but what with the 2.7% fare
increase I can see some sections of the media directing some unjustified
criticism at us. If things are tough now, they could become even worse if a
surcharge and increase were included in the fare. However, I hear that there
will be no surcharge unless the average diesel price hits £1.46 per litre
before the fare increase comes in – and no, LTPH don’t use the garage at
Sloane Avenue to base their average price on!
Coupled with the above, we now move into Easter with its’ extended
holiday and then May with the two Bank Holidays. However, with the Royal
Wedding sandwiched in-between, that could possibly bring some extra work
into London.
So now that I have thoroughly depressed you, I have some brighter
news! We are six months into our financial year and turnover is up 10%
compared to the corresponding period last year. I hope that continues
throughout the remainder of the year.
Also you will be aware that in the recent past, several of our
clients have put their taxi business out to tender and fortunately we have
retained the businesses for a further three years.
Those clients retained |
are JPMorgan, Citi and Morgan Stanley.
And the Westminster…
In addition, the Westminster account should have gone to tender two years
ago, but they extended the contract for a year. When that expired, they
extended the contract for a further year until April 2011. I have now been
informed it has been extended for a further seven months until November this
year.~
However, Westminster council have informed us that as from 1 April,
the contribution from the passenger will increase from £1.50 to £2.50 while
the contribution made by Westminster will decrease from £9.80 to £8.30. It
would appear that many organisations are having to economise to stay in
business and others such as Westminster must make economies if they wish to
continue with certain services. I believe a series of messages have been
broadcast to the fleet to make you aware of the above and also I believe
that Allan Evans has written about it inside this issue of Call Sign.
New terminals?
As you are probably aware, we are reviewing different types of hardware to
be installed into your vehicles in the not too distant future. Technology is
progressing at a phenomenal rate of knots and it looks very much as though
you will have a tablet similar to an iPad fitted to your
vehicle. However, what we have
|
to take into account is the heat from your vehicle.
Computers do not like heat and as not all taxis have air
conditioning in the front, it could be quite a problem as most of the
electronics will be in the tablet, whereas currently the electronics
are located inside the black box, which has its own fan.
As a consequence, there will have to be considerable testing done
during the summer (always assuming we have one) to ensure that everything is
robust and can withstand the conditions that are experienced in the front of
a London taxi during those summer months.
Meters?
Speaking of new equipment, we will probably limit the number of different
types of taximeters to three, because as you know there are a myriad of them
on the market. However, what can be done nowadays is fantastic; there is one
manufacturer who is now in a position to download any tariff increase.
Instead of having the chip posted to you or queuing up to have it fitted, it
can be downloaded via the GPRS network.
How will you know when it’s done, because with the tariff increase
we receive being so small it could be extremely difficult to notice any
change in the fare? The answer is that when the download has been completed,
the face of the meter will change colour so that you know it has been
installed. For example, the 2010 meter face might be blue and when 2011 is
installed it would change to red and then yellow for 2012 and so on. So
everyone including the authorities will know the correct tariff is being
charged – it’s all clever stuff nowadays!
Brian Rice
Chairman
Dial-a-Cab
|
