REPORTING ACCIDENTS
If you are unfortunate enough to have an accident whilst you are completing
a journey that you have received through your terminal, you must inform the control room.
We have had two incidents where drivers have had minor accidents and the Society have no
record of them. Due to this oversight by the drivers, when clients have contacted us
regarding the accidents we have looked less than professional.
If you have an accident, first check your passenger and always offer to get
them an ambulance. If your passenger then requests medical attendance, the accident then
becomes one which the police regard as a personal injury and they are obliged to attend
after you have requested them via a 999 call.
When you have made sure your passenger, taxi or yourself are in no further
danger and you need the assistance of the police, fire or ambulance service, switch to the
voice channel, give your call sign and say emergency. You are allowed to do this even if
the despatcher or another mobile is talking; this is the only time you are allowed to go
to voice without doing a VR.
After the despatcher has informed you that the emergency services are on the
way, inform them that you are engaged on a data despatched journey. When it is convenient
phone the Driver Operations department on 0171 251 0581 extension 555 or 556 and give them a brief description of the incident. This allows us to have the
details if the passenger or account holder phones at a
later date with a query or complaint. We cannot defend you unless we know of the incident.
REJECT DISABLE
Many drivers are still confused about how to operate the reject disable
facility when they are ready to go home. Firstly, you must have been signed on continually
for 6 hours. You must also have completed 3 credit trips, cash rides are not included
neither are credit journeys that you have been scrubbed off.
CODE 21
There are still many drivers who are not doing a Code 21 when they arrive
at the pick-up point on a data despatched journey and this is causing many problems for
the Call Centre staff.
When I get drivers telling me that the phones do not get answered for clients
or their Advise Arrivals are taking too long, I inform them that most of the delays are
being caused by drivers themselves.
If a client comes on the line asking for information about the taxi that they
have ordered and you are in their reception without
doing a code 21, we tie up a telephonist and back channel
operator trying to contact you. By one simple action, you combat this problem and assist
the control room to run much smoother.
We also have some drivers who seem to have little or no intelligence, they do
a code 21 then an advise arrival and a scrub request all within 1 minute. Once again we
tie up one telephonist and the despatcher until they can get a response from the driver to
find out why he is acting like an idiot.
SIGNING OFF
Many drivers are still not sure how to sign off correctly; they are
powering the terminal down without clearing the last job whether it is a job through the
terminal or a cash ride off the street. The correct way to sign off is to make sure you
have cleared the last job if a street ride, then send a blank CLJ. Then press the Code
button, then 0 to select Sign Off. After a few seconds you will get a message at the
bottom of your screen indicating that the terminal has signed you off the system. You then
press the Form button followed by 9 to select the functions menu and to finish, you press
the Read button briefly.
May I take this opportunity to thank all of the drivers who assisted the
Society in covering the work during the recent tube strikes. I know that the traffic
conditions were appalling, but our dedicated drivers did a splendid job.
