Powered by NetXPosure
| mailshot |
| Mailshot is your chance to tell the
subscribers of Dial-a-Cab exactly what you think. Complaints, compliments or just to write
about Call Sign. This is YOUR paper within your magazine.... You can also email your letters to: callsignmag@aol.com ASHAMED Last week I got chatting to a very nice lady account client of ours. She was very
pleasant and the job was a good one, but what she said to me en route made me feel rather
ashamed of our profession. Apparently, the previous week she had booked a cab from DaC and
had to take about a dozen small parcels, all fairly lightweight but awkward shapes, with
her. She had difficulty getting into the cab because of the shapes and asked the driver if
he would mind giving her a hand. Without bothering to turn around, the driver said:
"The Hackney Carriage act doesn’t say that I have to carry parcels or help with
luggage." I was so taken aback that I didn’t know what to say except to
apologise profusely on the circuit’s behalf. This to a client who uses about seven or
eight cabs a day. I maybe old fashioned, but I make a point of getting out to open doors
and helping with luggage as often as I can. It is not demeaning, far from it. It is good
public relations and often reflects in the tip - and also gives me some much needed
exercise! Maybe the driver was right about the Hackney law, but doesn’t he have any
common courtesy? I hope we don’t have many drivers of this calibre. I don’t know who the driver was, but I’m certain that he doesn’t represent the vast majority of our drivers who would always help when possible…Ed DIAL-A-CAB IS THE BEST It has been many years since I was a member of Dial-a-Cab - in fact it was back in the
days of Shirland Road. If 1 remember correctly, I was dispatching on the day-shift with
the likes of John Saunders, Charlie Rubens, Ivor Belkin and Lou Gitlin etc. Back in those
days, the onus for giving the driver the best deal in the trade was top priority. I’m
happy to say that doesn’t appear to have altered and is still the top priority today!
Some subscribers will no doubt disagree with my sentiments, but let me assure you that so
far as I am concerned, the BoM at Dial-a-Cab have made the right decision to stick with a
winning format - that is with a zonal dispatch system. It works well and it gives the
driver the chance to grab a job when he or she can see it on the screen. That is all we
are out there for - to get our work as quickly and efficiently as possible and this system
allows you to do that. Neville is a former member of the BoM at Mountview. Welcome back to DaC…. Ed ‘O’ LICENCE At the moment, we in the trade are starting to worry about the implementation of the
‘O’ licence. There seems to be no barriers when it comes to other transport
businesses encroaching onto our business. With this and other threats to the licensed
trade, isn’t it time that the membership of the UK’s finest radio taxi service,
Dial-a-Cab, started to give serious thought to us taking business from car and bike firms,
rather than waiting for them to do it to us? Isn’t it about time that we started to
implement the proceedings necessary to begin the transformation to a PLC? |
to pay £30,000 for a vehicle.
Let us also try and grab back some of the work that we have lost over the years. If we go plc and get cars and bikes on Dial-a-Cab, we could insist that only licensed taxi drivers drive the cars (permanently, or perhaps those in overhaul who want to drive a car during the period their cab is off the road). As for the bikes, the suggestion in last month’s Mailshot by Richard Abner that Knowledge boys be employed for courier work sounds reasonable to me. These could be Associate members who would become full members when they pass out. One important point which I believe we should enforce should we go plc, is that no shares could be sold until they had been with the previous owners for a year and a day. I know that all the above as a whole is a very big step to take, but please don’t just poo-poo the idea; give serious thought to it and don’t wait until the minicabs and buses start taking what work we still have left. Let us take action now. Ivor Belkin (C97) Any comments?…Ed ISP’S ET AL Re Vince Chin’s reply to my letter (March Call Sign), I am now with Cable and Wireless which is also a free ISP carrying just a £10 joining fee. In addition, their help-line is charged at national call rates. I recently had reason to use their help-line as I wanted to use Outlook Express as my email service and they do not or rather did not, have that facility (I think they may support it in the near future). They were extremely helpful and even called me back on one of the issues that I raised (that in itself is surely a feat!). Needless to say, I was impressed. As a suggestion, how about running a feature on different free ISP’s, featuring as you did in the April issue of Call Sign, how easy or difficult it is to sign on with them? Also, in addition to the previously detailed problems that I had with Freeserve (other than difficulties using outlook Express) there was the problem of un-installing. Why they could not have an uninstall feature like similar programmers beats me, but then again maybe that’s how they keep their customers! Incidentally, Freeserve have now reduced their help-line charge from £1 a minute to 50p. Bad publicity, perhaps? My thanks also to Glyn Williams (K28) (April Call Sign) for suggesting I use another ISP. I am now quite happy now with Cable and Wireless. They were easy to set up and their technicians even seem to know what they are talking about! But as for your using a multitude of ISP's at the same time? It's hard enough for me just getting used to one! Anna F Constantinou London E2 Unfortunately, running different ISP’s on a test basis is a very time-consuming project and besides writing for Call Sign, Vince has to work - making your request very difficult to carry out…Ed DIABETIC TAXI DRIVERS I must congratulate you on taking up the case of the diabetic taxi drivers (April
Call Sign). How absurd to have a situation like that described in your Editorial.
Firstly, the Diabetes is controlled whether with tablets or Insulin. Secondly, a qualified
medical practitioner must have passed the men fit because they have been accepted by the
DVLA at Swansea followed finally with acceptance by their insurance companies. |
RECOGNISED Having enjoyed Sam Harris’s trip through The Old Days (April Call Sign) concerning
the Charabanc outing from the Night Driver’s Club, a request was added to the end of
the article asking if anyone recognised any of the men in the photo that Sam couldn’t
identify. I recognised my cousin Manny Singer who died around 1962. He is in the second
row from the front on the extreme left with his arm pointing outwards. I was amazed to see
him in the picture as I never realised that he was the type to enjoy ‘Charabanc
beanos’. We always remember him as the quiet type! THE OLD DAYS I must compliment you on the quality and content of Call Sign. I joined the circuit in
1968 under the chairmanship of Jack Russell, and in those days Call Sign was just a few
pages of basic information. When I recall the comparatively primitive set-up in Shirland
Road, I marvel at the progression to the current state of the art organisation operating
today at Brunswick House. I wish the present system had been available during my
membership. However, evolution carries it's own rewards and I have many good memories of
the years of voice transmission (frequently interrupted by brain-dead morons -
particularly the 'Wailer'), to computer communication. INTERNET QUERY Say, what a pleasure to read a taxi periodical that contains material worth reading. I
noticed on your web site in an article on page 6 (April Call Sign) headed Ten years
of Data that Chairman Burns called a "last job" on voice despatch before
switching on to data transmission. I am a student in taxi affairs in Quebec and have filed
the details from the article. Would it be possible to find out the details of that last
ride? I will understand if you can’t, but posterity demands that I at least ask. According to the video of the event, that last job called by Ken Burns was at 11.58 on the 29th April 1988 and was a job from Middleton Road E8 to Dalston. Unfortunately Ken is only heard responding to the cab as "the 45 cab" (who obviously then responded out of earshot to the video). We then went "live" at 12.01. Hope that helps…Ed PROMOTING THE TRADE I have been a licensed taxi driver for nearly seven years and after my first three months, it didn’t take me long to realise the importance of being on a radio circuit. So in January 1993, I joined Computer Cab and it was a whole three years until I saw the light and joined Dial-a-Cab. I haven’t looked back since! Being without a radio |
|
Powered by NetXPosure |
Copyright © 1999 Dial-A-Cab Ltd, All rights reserved.