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Over far too many months now,
Call Sign has been in a battle with the London
Cab Driver’s Club (LCDC) newspaper, The Badge over
whether or not their Chairman/Editor, Grant Davis, went
to London Taxi and Private Hire (LTPH) and asked them to
look into Dial-a-Cab’s business, explaining to them why
in his view this Society should have to get a Private Hire
Operator’s Licence. That is the equivalent of him going to HMRC and asking them to examine one of his member’s tax accounts because he feels they are cheating. Of course, we aren’t saying that he would or wouldn’t do that. What Grant Davis does is what Grant Davis wants to do because as we’ve seen for some time, he considers that he is the most important part of an LCDC organisation that people such as Peter Bedford, Jim Wells, Terry Bezant and Alan Fleming built up from scratch into a machine that was feared by authorities. Call Sign often disagreed with Alan Fleming, but there was never a time when we didn’t respect what he was attempting to do as the last Chairman. Sadly, we can’t say that about the current LCDC Chairman. This magazine understands that some drivers do not approve of airing dirty laundry in public. We do not disagree, however, when you are accused in print of something that is totally untrue and there is no response forthcoming, those reading the article must assume that there is some truth to it. And the LCDC article consisted of wishful thinking by Mr Davis. His views on the Society that expelled him are well-known and will obviously continue at the expense of his members so long as he is its’ Chairman. In October 2010, Call Sign published an Editorial that questioned whether Grant Davis was "Snitch number one?" It went onto ask how far any of the trade’s magazine editors would go to get a story? We admittedly did not ask any of them because we knew that whilst they would not hesitate to publish a story about DaC if it were true, they certainly would not create their own story just to damage another organisation. But what the LCDC Chairman attempted to do to Dial-a-Cab was nothing short of disgraceful and worthy of being referred to as Grantgate! The September issue of The Badge asked in bold headlines: Could this be the end of Dial-a-Cab’s mutual status? It went on to add that the LCDC "...has learnt that Dial-a-Cab has been informed that they must apply for a private hire operator’s licence for their six year old Concierge booking system. The decision comes from Taxi and Private Hire following a detailed investigation into Dial-a-Cab’s business activities." Well, yes, DaC were asked to sign up for that particular licence. DaC’s problem was in wondering why they were suddenly being asked? After all, this Society has no PH drivers and operates no PH cars. But we know how much Grant Davis tried to damage Concierge. Many |
After months of denials, at last the LCDC admit it… "We snitched on DaC!"
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now realise that far from
giving away work, it has saved much DaC work from going into
cars. Some may still not like it, but few will not pick up from
any of the handful of accounts that operate it because it
provides a lot of taxi work. |
tactfully put it, "sent
intelligence?" Well, how about if we told you that Brian Rice
was called to a meeting with LTPH concerning this matter when
the subject was broached for the first time on 26 August 2010! So DaC didn’t even know about the matter until a least
one week after Grant had already written to LTPH. We should emphasise that John Mason is an innocent party to the matter and was doing what he should have done after receiving "intelligence" from Mr Davis. What then made the matter worse was that The Badge then went to print in their September issue with the article detailed above. But by then LTPH, following the meeting with Brian Rice, had agreed that their "intelligence" provider had been wrong and confirmed that DaC did NOT need a PH Operator’s Licence. LTPH Head of Compliance, Dave Stock, signed the letter. They had obviously originally gone by Grant Davis’ original letter. When we then went to print with an accusation that Grant Davis had "snitched" on another trade organisation (DaC). He waffled on about threats of legal action against us, followed by a statement signed by himself and their executive committee standing by their original article. So once again we ask Grant Davis just how he managed to publish an article in The Badge claiming LTPH had told Dial-a-Cab it would have to have a Private Hire Operator’s Licence some time before any letter was even sent out – unless it was the LCDC and their Chairman personally who informed LTPH in the first place? Call Sign would also be interested in why The Badge never published LTPH’s following letter that cleared DaC from the PH charge? But then again, we know why, don’t we? It was certainly nothing to do with journalism and everything to do with vindictiveness. As we said last month, DaC has nothing to hide and Dave Stock even thanked this Society for its co-operation in the matter. We wonder whether the LCDC’s head snitch – sorry, "intelligence" provider – was thanked when the truth finally emerged and it was realised he had been wasting their time? We also note the rather derogatory comments made by Grantgate of his predecessor in February issue of The Badge. One thing we do know is that Alan Fleming would never have lowered himself to the extent of deliberately trying to get another trade organisation into trouble. As a person, Grant Davis can be quite pleasant. As an actor he isn’t bad either. As the Chairman of a trade organisation, Grant Davis is a disgrace… Alan Fisher |
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