The letter from Mr A.Nash (A95) regarding 'True As Directed' Jobs in this month's Mailshot, is the focus of the Call Centre report for this month.
It is true that controllers have used this function to disguise certain trips, but only to get them covered. You will be pleased to know that instructions have been given for this practise to stop. The reasons why controllers have done this is now described by Lee Moreland, the newly appointed Senior Controller (Day Shift ........ Keith Cain

Reasons Why - From Lee Moreland

I have been a dispatcher / controller with Dial-a-Cab for fourteen years and recently I was fortunate enough to be given the position of Senior Controller. You could say I've done my time!
   My main responsibility is to ensure the work is covered. Some days you, the drivers, make it easy - other times you make it hard. It does get frustrating when I see drivers available in a zone which contains work to be covered and all they do is press the 'reject' button. My question is why?
   However, getting back to the question of A95's question: Not all bookings are made by the passenger themselves. More often than not, it is their Secretary or PA that has ordered the taxi on their behalf and they do occasionally forget what they were told. There are also occasions when they get it partially correct. The most common is when they give us a street name that is in more than one postal area. I know there is nothing worse than to be offered King Street thinking it's in the city only to find it is in Hammersmith.
   When we see these type of jobs, it is far easier and quicker for us to change them to an A/D. When these type of journeys are 

Picking Up The Wrong Passenger.

This problem is happening far too often. The main reason is that drivers are not asking the passenger's name before they enter the cab. Drivers seem to want to ask the person approaching if they are Mr, Mrs or Ms X. The person replies yes, then gets in.
   Nothing more is said until we in the Call Centre send a 'switch to voice' message, or at the end of the trip the passenger attempts to pay cash. It's not uncommon for drivers to inform the passenger that the trip is on account and away they go happily.
   It is becoming rather a rarity for the passenger to inform the driver they don't have an account! By the time all this has happened, we have one extremely irate client on the phone that is only too eager to tell us where to put our service. The answer is very simple. Don't ask the passenger if they are 'so and so', ASK THEM FOR THEIR NAME!

Advising Arrivals

All too often we are experiencing drivers notifying the control room of their arrival, but they are not in the place where the clients have requested them to be. We are fully aware of the reasons why this happens, what we need is for you to contact us on the back channel, let us know exactly where you are and then go back to data and do your AAR. The reason for this is that we can

 then enter in the job details exactly where you are and when the telephonists does the AAR to the client he / she can relay your exact position to them.

Delay Advised

This again is an old problem but one that can resolved so easily. Quite often, delays are advised incorrectly because some drivers believe the delay runs from the booked time. It does, in fact, run from the time that you press the send key. For example, if you are on a job booked for 12:00 and the current time is 11:54, sending a delay of 6 minutes would advise the client that you expect to be on time.
   I believe the easiest way to remember is to simply to ask yourself: "How long will it take me to arrive from now?" enter the figure, send it and allow the system to do the rest. Please try to arrive within the time you estimated, but if this is not possible, send another delay message well before the first one has lapsed. This will enable us to keep the client updated and confirm their ability to wait for you.

Lee Moreland

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