Page 18
Call Sign August 2011
The claim culture reaches DaC...
No doubt many of you will have had unso-
licited phone calls or texts from accident
claims management agencies `informing' you
A photo used by many
that there is a considerable sum of money,
insurance companies of
typically £3750, ready and set aside just wait-
a minor shunt yet it
ing for you to claim after an apparently
could involve thousands
insignificant bump that occurred with your
taxi. It may have happened so long ago that
of fraudulent pounds
you had completely forgotten about it! The
hawking his wares to every cab
caller / text message will cite whiplash, mus-
that passed, the company was
cle strain or various other medical conditions
located in - Liverpool!!
as the basis upon which you can claim.
No London office address is
Indeed, such is the extent of this Cash for
mentioned, so the accident
Crash culture of which Call Sign wrote of in
claims management specialists
detail last year, that BBC TV's Panorama recent-
must think it worth their while
ly aired a report highlighting the scam. It graph-
to travel to the capital to pitch
ically captured the scam on hidden spy cameras
themselves into the bargain.
their tent! Insurance companies are steadily
within a car being deliberately crashed to cause
This escalation of costs pushes insurance
becoming aware of these practices and at least
further damage than existed after an initial col-
premiums ever higher to the concern of the
one taxi insurer is including an advice pack to
lision. The repairers then claim far higher fees
honest motorist who cannot understand why a
drivers when renewing their policy with a view
than repairing the original damage would have
simple `bump' comes to mega-bucks to put
to minimising third party claims.
suggested. Indeed, Call Sign Editor Alan
right! `Set aside' £3750 per claimant and you
`Take full details of all vehicles involved,
Fisher is scheduled to be in court at the time of
begin to understand the scale of the problem!
together with photos if possible, names and
publication fighting such a claim where an acci-
But this claim culture was given a whole
addresses of passengers and note any injuries'
dent claimed for never actually happened not
new aspect recently when a Dial-a-Cab dri-
the leaflet suggests. How true, as it is not
to save himself money, but to try to avoid his
ver told Call Sign of an approach while on
unheard of for fictitious passengers to sud-
insurance company paying out on a false claim.
Kings Cross rank by an individual who
denly appear for the benefit a claims boost!
Politician Jack Straw also described this
suggested a £350 referral fee for personal
So to protect yourself and your insurer, take
fraudulent activity as `a racket' when he drew
injury claims and £250 for motor claims
whatever precautions and details you feel you
attention to the practice in the media a few
with the assurance of a replacement taxi
need to in order to make and respond to third
weeks ago. Personal telephone numbers,
`within four hours' while yours was being
party claims in order to keep insurance pre-
together with details of the claim, are acquired
repaired after an RTA.
mium rises to a minimum.
by solicitors and other interested parties for
"Bear us in mind if you hear of anything or are
considerable referral fees, with the expecta-
involved," was the comment as he handed a busi-
Alan Green (E52)
tion of screwing £000's more out of insurance
ness card to the DaC driver. But when the driver
© Call Sign Magazine MMX1
companies and making quite a few quid for
checked the address on the card of the gent
Discounting the biggest rumour currently circulating in the cab trade...
No cab companies have an Olympic Contract!
When Mayor Boris Johnson responded that he "didn't know"
to a caller's question on LBC asking whether Addison Lee had
won the contract to take athletes and Olympic representatives
to the 2012 Games and therefore would be allowed to use
the Olympic Route Networks, he inadvertently set into motion
the biggest rumour this trade has seen in years.
Drivers listening to the Nick Ferrari phone-in automatically
assumed that the Mayor's reply was covering up a true story
that AL had won the contract! The rumour spread like wildfire
and Call Sign had several calls each day asking whether the
story was true, but no matter how many times we denied it,
the calls just kept on coming leading to this article.
So let's just say it in print... IT ISN'T TRUE!
We'll be luck
In an attempt to put paid to the rumours, we asked
y to get our
passengers th
London Taxi & Private Hire Director, John Mason, to con-
is close!
firm or deny the story. He told us:
"I have no idea where the rumour came from, but I can confirm that no taxi or private hire com-
pany has been awarded a contract by TfL, ODA or LOCOG for the provision of transport services to the games. All games family
vehicles are provided by BMW and will be driven by volunteers and, with the exception of emergency service vehicles, are the
only vehicles allowed in dedicated games lanes.
"I understand that there may be some LOCOG contracts coming up for transportation for some VIPs and journalists, but who-
ever wins these will also not be permitted to use the games lanes."
But the rumours will no doubt continue and if, as seems likely, we are banned from using the Olympic Route Networks, be assured that no
other cab companies will use them either. But of course, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try because unlike Melbourne (1956), Rome
(1960), Tokyo (1964), Mexico City (1968), Munich (1972), Montreal (1976), Moscow (1980), Los Angeles (1984), Seoul (1988), Barcelona
(1992), Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) or even Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the London taxi service is, and always has
been, the finest in the world and deserved of being treated with the respect that means any taxi passenger wanting to go to the Games in
one of our vehicles should know that the ORN will be available to them.
After all, there are no parking facilities at the Games you will have to walk, cycle or use public transport and after years of being `primed'
into accepting that we are a valuable part of the London transport system, what better way of showing it could Mayor Boris have than to con-
vince the ODA that the world's best taxi system should have unlimited use of the Olympic Route Networks for the period of the London
Olympic Games of 2012...
Alan Fisher
