AND AGAIN...
I believe that the new going home facility is denying me and other regular users of the EC5 Finsbury Square rank, the opportunity of ever enjoying the pleasure of a roader going outside the M25, particularly one going east. Finsbury Square is full of drivers on a Code 3, none of whom have put in as their home zone destinations places such as SW3, SW5, NW3, N1 or SE1 etc. They are waiting for long jobs only, leaving me and others to cover the shorter trips.
   I do not expect to obtain a long trip every time, but as I pay the same subscriptions as everyone else, I do expect an equal opportunity of getting that work.
   I think that EC5 has proved it's worth in getting work covered within the City and has contributed to Dial-a-Cab's continuing success. By allowing Code 3 to be used on EC5, SE75 and E14C, it could mean in the long term that some drivers who are not going home, will have to avoid these ranks. So, please Mr Chairman, stop the use of Code 3 on EC5, SE75 and E14C.
A.B.Cook (A62)

Hope the above two writers are happier now that the system has been altered following many letters like the above ones. Like any new system in any industry, it needs time to bed in and eventually it will be a boon...Ed

HOME TO THE OLD BOILER?
Dear Mailshot: 31st August 1999: Boiler breaks down at home: Engineer to repair 5pm 1st Sept 99: Good chance to try new going home facility: 3pm 1st Sept 99 - Code 77, destination E16: 3:45pm Bleep! YES! Read: Great Tower Street to Aldgate, Cash. No thank you! Reject:
Signed off: Get real Dial-a-Cab: Behave yourself! Love from Victor 12...
aka Paul Willett

How is the old boiler now?...Ed

BACK-UP ZONES
Just a short note to say how disappointed I am with Code 77. We are not school children so why treat us as such? Why should we have AD rides in back-up zones anyway? Let us know the destinations and if we are almost finished and getting tired, we could cover a job even if going only slightly in our direction. So long as it isn't going in the opposite direction because it could be - and I only said COULD be - quite dangerous to send a cab miles in the wrong direction before he or she goes home all because they took an AD ride in the hope that it might go their way while also helping the Society to cover work. While in my working hours, I, like many other of our drivers, am happy to go anywhere - including AD's - and I presume that night drivers would do the same which is why they go onto the Finsbury Square rank. I don't go onto the Finz when I'm finishing, so why should I be pressurised with AD's or Choice Accept AD's. They look nice and sometimes are worth a chance, but when you take one, it is always the other driver who gets the job you would have liked. Some drivers are prepared to swap but don't want to go in front of the headmaster for doing it and to end up with six of the best (on the bottom!).
   We have tried AD in back-up zones, so let us now try destinations for one year and see how it goes. It won't hurt anybody unless it is like the common market - all one sided!
   Sorry about the moan, Al, but at least it got it off my chest.
Dennis Vogel (R5)

Unfortunately Keith Cain - who is the Call Centre Manager - was on holiday when this letter came in so cannot reply. But he will read it on his return and comment if necessary...Ed

CALL SIGN
I have just read the September Call Sign, what a great read. You have, in my eyes, improved it enormously. You actually practise something I repeatedly asked for in Taxi magazine, that of an open forum with regard to the letter

COMPUTER CAB AND THE REDBRIDGE TAXICARD
I think it highly commendable of you to write an Editorial castigating Redbridge Council for voting to withdraw the Taxicard from the Computer Cab taxi company, bearing in mind that they are your opposition. As Welfare Officer of a large branch of a local senior citizens club, I have seen the kindness and helpfulness of all our local licensed black cab drivers. They are always helping those in wheelchairs and zimmer frames.     For many years, our disabled members have relied on the kind, caring cab drivers to get then to the club and back. There is no way that the new 'alternative service' of minibuses and minicabs will be able to do the same job. You only get what you pay for Mr Fisher and Redbridge Council won't get a Rolls Royce service for Ford prices. They are only concerned to save money at the expense of the disabled and those who cannot fight back.
   As you say in your Editorial, we will remember them on polling day. The disabled members of our club thank you for speaking up on our behalf.
A.Stanton
Welfare Officer
JACS Ilford

Thank you for your letter Mr Stanton. Com Cab may well be our fiercest competitors, but when it comes to servicing the disabled, we are all taxi drivers. I don't know whether it is too late to save the Redbridge Taxicard (October 1st seems set to be changeover day) but I wish you well for the future and I wish Com Cab luck in their battle to save it. I would have thought that a mass taxi drive-in from all circuits to Ilford Town Hall led by hundreds of disabled people in and out of wheelchairs, would have created a few ripples and gained much support while deservedly embarrassing Redbridge Council. As it would have been to help our opposition, who could have failed to believe that it was a just cause...Ed

BYE JIM
I would like to say how sad I was to read that Jim Warren on the front desk has retired due to ill health. 'Jim lad', as I called him whenever we met, was always helpful to me and I always appreciated his kind attitude. We often had a laugh together when I had to go to the office - especially during my time as Editor of Call Sign magazine. Jim lad, I wish you all the best for your future retirement. I'll miss your happy face.
Jery Craig (C3)

And that goes for all of us, Jim...Ed

LOGOS INSTEAD OF AN INCREASE?
Can I suggest that the answer for making drivers put logos on their cab doors is not by begging or even just asking us, but through the medium of subscriptions (on our way to nil subs?). If and when the subs have to go up, I suggest that if for example the increase is £20, then drivers with logos will only be asked to pay an extra £10. You can then forget the £300 draw. What do the Board think?
Sid Nathan (K88)

Marketing Manager Allen Togwell responds:
I often wonder at times whether those on our circuit who don't carry our logo appreciate exactly who owns our society and the benefits of advertising. If they don't Sid, perhaps you should use that rich baritone of a voice of yours and remind them it is THEY that own Owner Drivers Radio Taxi Service Ltd and the benefits of advertising the Dial-a-Cab brand comes from being seen en masse in preference to our competitors. Another important factor with carrying the Dial-a-Cab logo is our clients being able to recognise their cab. At the moment, with a limited fleet, we are reluctant to use the logo attribute as it could affect coverage, however, when the fleet is increased, the clients

JOURNEYMEN AND SUBSCRIBERS
I drive a TX1, with logos, do my fair share of account rides. I take pride in my job and in the circuit. I am also a member of the credit union. I am in equal partnership with a good friend of mine, but the cab can only be in one persons' name and that happens to be his. Therefore I am unable to take any part in the AGM or have any say in the future of the circuit. Isn't this unfair?
Mark Hazleton (S27J)

According to Company Secretary Trevor Clarke, provided you can show proof of your joint ownership of the cab and you register the fact with DaC (Tom Whitbread), you are then allowed to attend any DaC AGM or EGM. However, only the first named can be the shareholder with DaC . That does not prohibit you from voting but only one of you may vote. Should the shareholder either not attend or has to leave the hall for any reason, you, as the joint owner of the cab, may use the vote. There may have been a problem in the past when it came to voting via a show of hands - how can anyone be certain that both of you don't vote? It seems that future meetings are now more likely o use card votes and you would only have one between you...Ed

DAC TIME v GREENWICH MEAN TIME
Why is it that the time clock displayed on the computer terminal and consequently the time that all work is dispatched, is always behind real time? Even as I write this, the Dial-a-Cab time (DACT) is nearly two and half minutes behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). So what are the problems? I'll tell you...
   It means confusion when sending a Delay Advise message. It means jobs in the City and West End which are normally dispatched about twelve minutes before booked time, are actually dispatched nine and a half minutes before booked time. Jobs in other zones are similarly affected. It means that if you put down 15 minutes waiting time, you have only done 12 1/2 minutes according to DACT. It means that if you are doing a fixed price job, you actually have to wait 12 1/2 minutes before requesting a meter reading because if you do code 12 after a genuine 10 minutes on a pre-booked job (it doesn't matter on straight-away fixed price jobs) the computer/dispatcher will tell you that you have only been waiting 7 1/2 minutes. It means that when you are put on complaint for failing to adhere to any of the above, arriving late etc. it means that all times recorded on your logger sheets are that of DACT and not the real world of GMT.
   Brian Rice, who has been aware of this problem for well over a year, has suggested to me that what he does is adjust his watch to that of the computer time. Not very professional I would say. Imagine turning up at a 2:00 pm pick up on DACT and the passenger - who lives in the real world of GMT - says that you are two and half minutes late.    Are we supposed to say that we operate on DACT which means that we are really on time?
Come on, please get real and give us the tools that allow us to do our job professionally and have a computer showing us the real time at all times.
David Ammar (L75)

Within five minutes of showing the above letter to Tom Whitbread, he had phoned Roy Masterson and the result is that when the clock was put right on Wednesday 15th September, it was thanks to David Ammar - the founder and now destroyer of DACT...Ed

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