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| case. I also love travelling -
including driving - and given the opportunity, I am always looking at different sights. On
holiday when others are on the beach, I am looking around. If I go anywhere that I
haven’t been before, I have a look round. I was also instrumental in setting up Dial-a-Dream with Bob Heath, Harry Griver and a few others in 1991. Bob and I are still there but of course, take no money from it. Every penny goes to the kids to make a dream come true. It became one of the country’s fastest growing charities and is now very successful. CS: How about your views on Dial-a-Cab? TW: I was very disappointed at the PLC failure - I thought it would have worked very well for the Society. I know that some subscribers felt that the BoM would have gained most, but that wasn’t true. Drivers could still have voted the Board on and off every two years, but long-term drivers who had given much of their working lives to DAC would then have been in a situation where they could have left the Society and taken some money with them. As it stands, you put fifty quid in when you come and after 30 or 40 years of hard graft building up the organisation, you get your fifty quid back whereas the Society has made millions and millions! CS: Would you not be tempted to sell to the highest bidder even if it was Addison Lee? |
TW: Never. I am
licensed-cab through and through and although I know that some would, I think that the
vast majority would say no. Anyway, long term drivers wouldn’t just leave to sell
shares, they would never be worth that much. Most sellers would be the
short-termers who float around and would have very few shares to offer. CS: Disregarding PLC, how do you see things in say, fifty years time? TW: In the future, more and more of London will become inaccessible to vehicles - including taxis. The City of London Police will eventually close down everywhere to everything bar buses. We will have to fight to keep our access in the square mile. I hope we can make it, but I have some doubts. As for Dial-a-Cab, no one can predict the future because our future is our drivers and clients. If our service remains second-to-none, we’ll continue to grow from strength to strength. At present, we are busier than ever, but who knows what tomorrow may bring. A recession could be around the corner and the pendulum would swing back to the customer. At present, they are fighting to get accounts with us, but who knows? We must at all times act like self-employed businessmen who value our clients. Without them we have nothing. If you go into a sweet shop for a bar of chocolate, you wouldn’t expect the owner to increase the price because he is busy, yet drivers want higher run-ins to cover work |
because it is busy rather than
because they are running a long way. We are also looking at the future with regards to our technology. We are on the verge of getting our new terminals and they will knock everyone else’s for six. We have already turned down so-called state-of-the-art systems and have been proved right to do so. Our system will be not just for tomorrow but for next year and the years after that. It will be a system to build onto and will be the envy of the taxi world. We will also not be obligated to buy computer cards or equipment from outside companies. We will be able to do everything from within. I also see more and more passengers using plastic - our own or major companies. I see cash being used less and less be it pounds or Euros. Added to that, it seems that people will not be going out so much as more and more entertainment will be available in the home. More and more people will also be working from home via modems. One day in the future, the BoM of the day will no longer have to go into the office, but will work from home. When that day comes, I would expect DAC to sell Brunswick House and move outwards to a much cheaper area with lower rates. No one will really need to go there by then because drivers will also be able to sort out their problems via modem too… CS: Thanks Tom… |
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