I make no apologies for repeating myself this month because I am somewhat concerned about possible developments that may take place this year. By the time you read this, Sir George Young’s second reading on the regulating of minicabs (23^rd Jan) will have passed through the House and be ever closer to the statute books.
   I know that Brian Rice - through JRTA, the Taxi Board and privately, has now had talks with Sir George, Glenda Jackson and Linda Perham and although I don’t know what was said at any of the meetings, I do know that Sir George hasn’t had a change of heart. So from this side of the desk, it looks a though sometime in late ’98 or early ’99, London will join the rest of the country in having a two tiered cab service - ourselves and licensed private hire.
   Of course, we all know that a two tier system will really be a three tier system because the touts won’t just pack their bags and go. So where will we be when what currently seems inevitable, actually arrives?
   Well, for the first few months, nothing will noticeably change. After that, we (the licensed taxi trade) will be continually criticised by our London evening paper for bad service while prospective passengers will be informed by the same source that minicabs are really licensed private hire who now have the same degree of respectability as taxi’s. But the ES will also add one more thing. Licensed private hire won’t refuse you because they are going home or because you are going somewhere they don’t fancy. Neither will the old chestnut - and our saviour for so long - that they drive beaten up old rust heaps and have no insurance apply any more except to the non-existent third tier.
   Then, as we head into the new millennium, the shout will go out to license the private hire sector to respond to street hails. And make no mistake about it. London is one of the most important capital cities in the world and it is heading ever more quickly towards becoming the centre of the Universe. And, if we cannot provide a taxi service that the public need then they will go elsewhere - and can you blame them?
   So what is to be done? Day men tell me that it is still relatively quiet while night men can’t believe how busy it is for this time of year. But I have been out and about on Call Sign

business during day time hours and there are many times when there are very few cabs available. To turn around, shrug your shoulders and say that it is busy, just isn’t good enough.
   While passengers expect to wait slightly longer during busy periods - just as you would expect to queue for longer in the bank at lunchtime - they still expect to catch a cab within a reasonable time. We need, in my view, threefold action.

• More taxi drivers: Hopefully, the PCO’s new speeded-up Knowledge will help but we don’t just need another fifty or so. I’m afraid that the number has to run into many thousands. This will cause some problems initially but none that cannot be overcome with good organisation.

• A change in mentality: I know that many of you go anywhere and everywhere and help to maintain the good name that we try to guard so jealously with politeness - albeit sometimes under very trying conditions. Unfortunately, there are still many who consider themselves to be small businessmen who work for themselves. Well, the Inland Revenue may consider us to be just that, but unless we think and act as purveyors of Public Transport, we will NEVER be accepted as such. To be accepted as purveyors of Public Transport, we have to act like we belong. That means going anywhere and being available for hire if you are not going home or on a radio job. And, to make myself even more unpopular, I have to say that IF you are going home, then switch your light off unless you are prepared to go in the opposite direction. If you don’t get a radio job, then unlucky. Every time you tell someone that you

• can’t take them because you are going home, that is just one more nail in the coffin because nine times out of ten, they won’t believe you - or forget! We really need our own internal policing system away from the PCO.

• We must all belong to a trade organisation: I remember Ken Burns always saying that belonging to Dial a Cab and through it, JRTA, was enough. It may well have been then but it certainly isn’t now. We are now all represented by the Taxi Board through our membership of JRTA but we need more. In my 27 years in the trade, I have always belonged to one or other of the trade organisations. Not because I thought they were wonderful - believe me, I was the first to offer criticism and still do - but because I realised that without one, how would we ever get an increase in the clock or stop the PCO and DOT walking over us? Now, I am afraid, belonging to an organisation is a necessity.

I will not advise you as to which organisation that should be nor which one I belong to, although one is perhaps pushing it’s luck by constantly criticising us. You must make up your own mind as to who can help you and who can’t, but let’s not hear that "they are all the same" or "they are only in it for themselves". We need - desperately - to be organised just as much as we need to promote our image to show that we are not only worthy of being recognised as Public Transport, but that our service leaves other forms standing.
   Then, and only then, together with an accountable Taxi Board holding the umbrella for all to gather under, will we will start to get somewhere.
   Sorry for the lecture, but it had to be said so please don’t just look the other way and think that nothing will really change. Have a read of the centre pages before going back to the television. What happened in Stockholm shows that so clearly. Remember, organisation…

Alan Fisher

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