"Dial-a-Cab have had some enquires from very large corporate clients for us to manage their ground transportation. That means anything that moves will be ordered by Dial-a-Cab - that includes taxis, cars, couriers and even coaches. The BoM will have a simple choice; either we organise their ground transport or someone else will!"
So this month, there will be no Chairman's Report in Call Sign, just some questions that drivers have been asking about this and that and perhaps some other matters...
Call Sign: Several Board members have hinted at
possible future changes in working patterns while writing their recent
Call Sign columns, with Tom Whitbread and Keith Cain specifically
mentioning a possible Dial-a-Cab car service. Have any Board members been
under instructions from you to bring the subject into the public domain?
Brian Rice: The answer to the question is no. Any
comments made in Call Sign were purely personal points of view on their
part. However, as they have given those views, I'd also like to give mine
- again, this is a purely personal view. I believe that IF at any future
time, some sort of car service were to be offered by Dial-a-Cab, then
those cars should only be driven by licensed drivers. Again, that is a
purely personal point of view of a possible future scenario...
Call Sign: Rumour has it that we are considering
buying a fleet of minicabs?
Brian Rice: The answer to that question is a
categorical no! As I said in my Chairman's Report last month, we have been
approached about providing a management team from Dial-a-Cab to organise a
corporate company's complete ground transportation system and, as I also
said, we are in there plying for this business with minicab companies. If
we were to be successful in getting the contract to run their ground
transportation, then we would be sub-contracting work out to other
companies and other forms of transport. I would like you to bear in mind
that if we fail to get this business and the contract goes to an
unlicensed private hire company, then we would have to hope that the
company concerned would pass any work for licensed taxis over to
Dial-a-Cab and not one of the other three companies - or indeed, not to
try to convert those trips into private hire journeys.
Call Sign: You say that DaC
have had enquiries from very large corporate clients re
Brian Rice: We were actually approached. One particular corporate that approached us spends in excess of £5 million a year on ground transport (ie not including flying) and this is now very big business. Organising it could provide them with a very large headache indeed. Just as we wouldn't tell these clients how to buy or sell Euro bonds or Junk bonds, they realise that we at Dial-a-Cab are now the experts in the field of transportation. That is why they approached us to tender for the business of organising their complete ground transportation system.
Call Sign: Is this purely a business venture in the sense that we would be earning money out of it?
Brian Rice: We would certainly be earning money in management fees, but I also believe that it is our duty to give as much work as possible to our members and I have a very simple choice: I either tender for this business in order to retain £2 million of taxi business or I can tell them that we are not interested because my members do not want me to sub-contract work out to other forms of transport - which could include minicabs. I believe that the majority of DaC members would want me to tender for this contract in order to retain this £2 million of taxi business for them.
Call Sign: You said in the article that we were probably the only company who could actually organise the transportational system now. Is it possible that another licensed taxi company could actually give themselves a quick brush-up and then put in their own tender?
Brian Rice: The answer is yes! Indeed, there are possibly several upmarket private hire companies who could also make an effort. They certainly couldn't do it anywhere near as well as us but I'm sure that they wouldn't admit to that. We have the very latest in accounting systems that others cannot match and I believe that we could do an excellent job for these corporate accounts if asked to.
Call Sign: Several drivers have expressed concern to me that we could end up as a glorified minicab circuit. Could they be right?
Brian Rice: Not at all. So far as I am concerned, we would always be a radio taxi company - that is our core business and is what we are very good at doing. I see any additions on the fringes of that business as being in the form of sub-contracting work out to other suppliers. For instance, there will be calls for small or large coaches and I cannot envisage us running a coach service at DaC just as we
wouldn't need to run
a car business in order to supply cars when needed.
Call Sign: So whoever was representing DaC while
operating the ground transportation system for another company, would be
ordering every section of ground transport that the company they were
working with, required?
Brian Rice: The short answer is yes. Obviously, they
wouldn't be organising who has to go to New York or Frankfort or whatever
the case may be! But they will certainly be organising every aspect within
the umbrella of the title of ground transport. If someone from that
corporate had to go to Bangkok or Brighton or Bethnal Green, they would
phone Ground Transport - which would hopefully be us and we would organise
the transport for them. You don't have to have a business brain to see the
opportunities available.
Call Sign: What would a ground transport team actually
consist of?
Brian Rice: I don't envisage our management team as
being one or two implants, I imagine that at certain times of the day
there would be up to ten or twelve people in place within the corporate
account, but working for Dial-a-Cab.
Call Sign: How much pressure has the Com Cab / DelGro
acquisition of Data Cab put on us? Had that not occurred, would you still
have contemplated this move?
Brian Rice: It has made no difference whatsoever. We
responded to a request that a valued client put to us just as we would
respond to any situation that we felt could be of benefit to the Society
and its' members. The Com Cab / Data Cab situation had no bearing
whatsoever.
Call Sign: Are you worried about the Com Cab
take-over?
Brian Rice: I wouldn't say that I was worried because
I knew that it was coming. I told our members two years ago that this
would probably happen and I don't think that we have seen the last of this
type of acquisition within the London taxi trade.
Call Sign: Have you got anyone specifically in mind
that your previous answer would refer to?
Brian Rice: I don't think that it would be prudent to
reveal any thoughts that I have in that direction bearing in mind the wide
readership that Call Sign now enjoys. But yes, without mentioning names, I
do believe that there are attractive
