Call Sign February 2011 - Page 27 - CALL SIGN ONLINE HITS A RECORD!

Many Dial-a-Cab readers seem to like leaving their copy of Call Sign in the cab to read at quiet times, while glancing at the online version when in front of their PC at home. But it also appears that many non-Dial-a-Cab drivers seem to enjoy reading the mag and taking a look through DaC history in the magazine’s online library, which contains back issues going back to 1967. In fact, so many so that the latest stats have shown record numbers!
   Call Sign was the first taxi magazine by many years to go online – with our Internet guru, Vince Chin, first putting it up for us in February 1998.
   We have often had letters from outside of the UK, but never realised quite how popular it was until we recently glanced at our online statistics. That showed a single issue total of 8004 online readers – the first time we have pushed past the 8000 mark. Unsurprisingly, over 70% of those (5611) came from the UK, but we also had a not insignificant 1382 readers from the USA, where taxi mags aren’t always so easy to come by unless you live in a big city.
   The rest of the world come in much smaller numbers with 23 English-speaking French people taking a look, 21 from Australia and 10 from Canada. However, we are at a loss to know what the regular reader in Belarus is looking for or the ten Chinese readers. But it’s nice to know that Philippe in

CALL SIGN ONLINE HITS A RECORD!

If you would like to read the complete magazine, use the PDF link. The search facility will not work on the complete PDF version

Chile is still there!
However, we get more queries about how the site works from
DaC drivers than from any others. That query is usually why we only publish 19 pages online? Well, the answer is that since May 2006 there have been two issues of every Call Sign put online.
Firstly, you need to go to www.dac-callsign.co.uk and click on the year you want (on the left side of the page). Then you get an option. If you click on the cover of the month you want, you will get a 19-page version containing all Board reports, the Mailshot pages and a few other stories. With that version you can also use Call Sign’s search facility. Again on the first page left side towards the bottom, you will see the option of search Call Sign. Click that on with the 19-page version and you will find

the search box. Type in a clue
word and the facility will
hopefully find the article or letter you were looking for. If you want the whole mag, click on the small red PDF mark at the base of the selected cover and the complete magazine – ads and all – will appear - but there is no search facility with that.
Call Sign online has eventually dragged the rest of the trade press online, although none have bothered with a library such as we have where you can take a look at much older issues – as far back as 1967 - that came out when internet referred more to a way of catching fish!
Hopefully this article clarifies how you can get all the latest DaC info on your PC. If you still aren’t sure, just write to Call Sign…

Ron Yarborough
Call Sign online

The man with no name!

MR 07787 calls for a cab (we have deleted the account details).

It might have been writer George Orwell with his futuristic premonition of what life could be like in 1984, or perhaps it was a leaf out of sixties cult TV series The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan where everybody had a number rather than a name, that prompted this passenger to decline to give his moniker, preferring the apparent anonymity of a mobile telephone number when giving details to our Call Centre staff!
   Either way, the Nom de Plume presented our semi-amused driver with quite a conundrum.
   "How do I know I’m picking up the right person? Do I refer to them as Sir or Madam if I only have a phone number," came the vexed query to the Dial-a-Cab Driver’s Help Line.
   Continuing with his query, the driver – who of course is also known by a number, albeit with a single letter prefix – asked the Help Line: "Er, do I greet them with a ‘welcome aboard number 07787?"
   Of course, the DaC third floor operator remained in non-panic mode:
   "See if they offer the correct destination and check the account name," came the wise reply.
   A few minutes later the mystery was solved when the passenger appeared at our driver’s taxi window and did indeed introduced himself as ‘number 07787’ much to the amusement of our on-street ambassador!
   Not nominated for Call Sign’s most exciting story of the year, but the incident gave us a chuckle!

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