The pace is gathering and it looks as though minicab licensing is almost upon us. Whether the licensing of drivers takes a bit longer or not is neither here nor there. The process is now unstoppable. However, what worries me is the constant barrage of reading material in newspapers, the underlying insinuation of which seems to be:
"Say, these guys (private hire) are responsible and prepared to do a good job." This is usually followed by insinuations that it is "...the black cab industry that have held them back for so long."
The press have afforded them the air of respectability that I don't believe they have yet earned. I have no doubt that there are many reputable private hire companies - Mr Wright's surely among them - who will do a reasonable job. But licensing won't turn a minicab driver into a taxi driver any more than cod will turn into salmon if it is taken to Scotland.
The Ultimate Respectability
Now that respectability has been taken to perhaps it's ultimate pinnacle. Steve Wright is the head of College Cars - a minicab company in Harrow. Many of you will have heard his name crop up during his constant battle to promote the virtues of minicab licensing. Mr Wright has now surely been given the ultimate token to represent their respectability - he has been honoured with an MBE in the Queens Honour's List. This is in recognition of his work to make London a safer city - no doubt the battle to licence minicabs being seen as being part of the safety aspect.
I don't know Steve Wright personally, although I believe that he has met with the Taxiboard on occasion so he may well have met with Brian Rice (Brian is on holiday as I write, so I can't ask him). I have no doubt that Mr Wright genuinely believes that the minicab can become a respectable part of the transport scene, but I doubt that there will ever be a time when Mr Wright can put his hand on his heart and say that the percentage of honest minicab drivers can equal that of our trade. Possibly never. And that, more than anything, is the problem.
How Can You Tell?
You will never be quite sure as to the respectability of a minicab driver - licensed or otherwise. What do you go by? Looks? The card around his neck? Will the licensing make him another taxi
driver? Unless, of course, the impossible happens and they all drive the same vehicle. But then they might just as well have become licensed cab drivers in the first place! We all know that it is only the Knowledge that stops most of them and that in itself says quite a lot about the opposition.
It would be churlish not to congratulate Steve Wright because I'm sure that he believes in what he says and that he has worked hard in an industry not famed for it's 'upright citizens'. But as I said, what concerns me more, is that his award will give the impression to the public that these guys must be okay if HM has bestowed an honour of one of them and that he is just one of many in that particular trade.
However, if we as a trade give our best to the public-at-large, we'll survive this and prosper. But that means all of us. Make no mistake, this lot aren't going to go away and once licensing arrives, they will snap up anything we drop. And getting work back can be very tough. Let's think twice before losing any job - radio or otherwise.
TAXI DRIVER OF THE YEAR SHOW
I was very sad to hear that the 1999 Taxi Driver of the Year Trade Show is unlikely to go ahead. Whether the competition itself without the trade show is held somewhere smaller is unknown to me at this time. However, it has to be said that the writing has been on the wall for several years.
I have missed a few in it's 25 or so year history but I've been to most and you have to think really hard to remember any show standing out from another or being different enough to inspire any driver who has been before to want to go again. In a perfect world, we should all go regardless, to support our industry. Everyone who makes a living out of we
drivers by selling us vehicles or parts should be there - including the radio circuits.
But let me make my view clear, I only thought that we should go
out of support for the trade. I doubt that the T D of the Year as
in it's last - and one can only say disastrous - performance could give anyone much pleasure.
However, driver's attendance's together with manufacturers et al just isn't enough. You have to give the public something they want - and when not in our cabs, WE are the public too.
When I criticised last year's show - and I'm sorry, but it really wasn't very good - I received a letter which insinuated that if I was concerned, why didn't I apply to help them. That answer is pointless. The committee stand or fall by the show.
Professional PR Company
I was away during the press conference at the Grosvenor House which introduced the new publicity agents for this year's show. According to other trade editors who were there, it didn't go very well and didn't inspire them with too much confidence. However, I was delighted that the committee had taken that step to get professional assistance and they cannot be blamed for anything the PR company did or didn't do.
But where does all that leave them? I offer some modified advice again as I did last year. It may be worthless but I'm offering it anyway.
Firstly, scrap the competition. When out of 22,000 drivers you can't even get 1% to enter it, you have to assume that the interest isn't there. Last year's winner was presented with his prize in front of a pathetically small gathering at a badly presented ceremony. We obviously don't want it. Let's have a celebration of the taxi trade with it's rich vein of history.
Then move it to an area with a large influx of cab drivers and their families (I still think that Valentine's Park in Ilford would be ideal). Thirdly, there must be much more entertainment, live music, demonstrations, arts and crafts stalls, or as the Tower of London did recently, dramatise some of our history using actors. Most big fetes get good attendance's of families. Our show has only really catered for the driver. A successful show needs family support. If the mum and kids want to go, you have a success.
After all, the cab producer's go to southern show at Southampton? Come to that, they go to Paris! Make people want to come and success will follow.
Perhaps it would also be worth having the show every other year. It will be a tragedy if it is never resurrected but surely even more of one if it comes back as it was.
