DISABLED FACILITIES
The first subject is one that most people overlook unless it directly affects their lives. Bernie Silver’s (G8) twenty year old daughter Melissa has to use a wheelchair. Most of us have no realisation of the problems connected to moving around on those two big wheels. We know they are not always easy to load onto the cab and I’m sure I am not the only person to have thought twice about accepting a job when the letter ‘W’ appears alongside it, but I hasten to add that more often than not I’ll accept. Quite often, it is only when you actually pick up the passenger that you truly realise that you are dealing with someone who is trying to lead as normal a life as possible. I’ve yet to meet anyone who wanted to be in their wheelchair! Melissa Silver completed in the Special Olympics last year in Leicester! How many of us able-bodied souls use our cars to drive around the corner just to pick up the daily newspaper!
If you read this issue’s Mailshot, you will see a letter that Bernie sent to the Marriott Hotel group’s Senior UK Vice President concerning the Grosvenor Square hotel’s lack of disabled toilet facilities and the reply that Bernie received from the VP’s office.
Let’s now move the goal posts slightly. Most of us have been inside the Marriott because we had our EGM there and it was usually the venue of our Dinner and Ball whenever we held it. It is a lovely hotel but as a five star one, they should automatically have disabled facilities. Although I am satisfied that they will now speed up the process, the point is that they will be doing it because they want to and not because they have to - although how

you can have five stars without disabled facilities nowadays is rather a mystery to me.
We, on the other hand and at our own cost, HAVE to have wheelchair accessibility in our taxicabs by the end of the decade even though many in this trade - especially non-radio drivers - may never even pick up a passenger in a wheelchair. There is something wrong with the logic that says licensed taxi drivers - all individual small business people - MUST have wheelchair facilities whereas a top London hotel doesn’t!
And as if to show what we are thought of, I notice that Camden Council have now made Upper street going towards the Angel into a bus-only lane. Buses, that do not have wheelchair facilities, can use a nice clear kerb lane whereas taxis that MUST have disabled facilities, now cannot and must crawl along with the rest of the cars and lorries. Doesn’t that just say it all? Shame on you Camden. Perhaps we should all become cyclists, pay nothing towards the road upkeep or anything else come to that. Then we would be given every right under the sun!
During recent issues of Call Sign, we have published an article on deaf awareness, we’ve told you that Call Sign is to be available to the blind on audio tape and we are right behind Bernie Silver in his fight to preserve his daughter Melissa’s right to have the same basic facilities as any else would expect. In other words, this mag supports the rights of the disabled. Not to get any more or less than anyone else would get. Just the same basic human rights, that’s all.
If you have any views on the above, please write or e/mail them to me. Call Sign is seen around the world via the Internet so let’s show that we care. And the next time you are offered a trip with a ‘W’ next to it, please remember Melissa and how she must have felt when the hotel said no…

FREEDOM
I am now going to turn everything I have just said onto it’s head! Having gone on about basic human rights, I’m now going to say the opposite.
A recent discussion with a driver concerning the EGM was on the question of outsiders rights to distribute leaflets at a meeting concerning Dial a Cab. The T&G made great play over the fact that they disagreed with DAC becoming a plc and would picket the hall distributing leaflets to those entering. The driver called it the basic human right of freedom - the freedom to picket. I disagreed. The world isn’t pure black and white and this was a real grey area - hence our discussion.
Rightly or wrongly, my view is unaltered in that it was nothing to do with the T&G. They
have but a handful of members within this organisation. The plc topic is now dead and the
T&G had nothing to do with it because drivers made up their own minds. But the point is that the T&G tried to influence what should have been purely a DAC decision. Our drivers are more than capable of making their own decisions without outside groups poking their nose in.
Had the Union campaigned for DAC drivers to accept a plc, I bet we would have heard ructions from those against the idea - and rightly so. How would the T&G like a group of non-members picketing outside their offices when a new General Secretary was being voted for? They wouldn’t and we all know it.
Incidentally, before leaving the subject, I am now satisfied that any leaflets distributed outside the Marriott other than those from the T&G, would have been by individuals representing themselves and not any organisation ie the LTDA or the LCDC. Representatives of both organisations tell me that there was no attempt by them to leaflet or interfere in any way with the meeting. A pity that the T&G didn’t agree…

AND NEXT MONTH….
Exciting news about a very special taxi insurance policy designed with radio circuit / owner drivers in mind….

Alan Fisher

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