 Allen Togwell Sales Executive/PRO |
well as the driver. Obviously I wouldn’t want any driver to lose money on a journey, but surely it’s short sighted to disregard fixed price journeys simply out of principle I have no way of telling if this is the opinion of the majority of members, but it’s necessary that any new scheme is dependant on your support, so I do ask all to give any new scheme a try, be patient and hopefully allow it to develop into a viable proposition. One such scheme I would like you to consider is a special rank at Victoria Station. It will be for a trial period of two months. The idea is that a special rank will be set up in Hudson Place, exclusively for Dial-a-Cab, where on instructions of a company at Gatwick, a specified amount of cabs will be asked to assemble on the rank, this will be called by our despatcher as general call. On arrival at the rank, you will be met by a courier who will direct the passengers to your cab. All journeys will be mysteries and on a CASH basis only. The object of the exercise is that on entering your cab the passengers will have been given a certain amount of literature suggesting the various tours that can be offered by their driver (YOU) with the estimated costs etc, the idea is whilst these people (who invariable as tourists on their first visit to London) are being ferried to their respective hotels, they are encouraged to build a rapport with their selected driver, with the possibility of securing future business whilst they are in London. Dial-a-Cab will be receiving no revenue what so ever from this, other than good will, it is simply a PR exercise with British Rail with the possibility of our circuit supplying additional services for the future. I personally would like to see a united support from the joint radio circuits in supplying a specialised service to British Rail, and Hudson Place being such a scheme. I know BR are keen too, it’s up to us to show interest. Remember there are plenty of minicab companies waiting to jump at such an opportunity of an official radio rank at stations in the Met, Blackheath is one such example. I do throughout each month receive a number of letters from subscribers agreeing (honestly) and disagreeing (without doubt) with my articles, as well as suggestions and ideas as to how they feel we might improve the running of our society or ways of projecting images or getting new businesses etc. To all of you I would like to say thank you for writing - even critics - I appreciate the concern. One such subscriber, Fox 76, who put pen to paper. I think had been saving up his suggestions for months, anyway it was interesting reading, and some of his points I will raise at our next Board meeting. There was however one point that a few of you might take umbrage at, it was a suggestion that we supply certain items of clothing, such as black quality trousers, and black jumpers with a Dial-a-Cab logo on the front. Why he feels the need to make such a suggestion I don’t know, perhaps he is trying to tell me something, although I can’t imagine what!!! Incidentally, on the point of clothing, or in this case lack of, to some of the body beautifuls on the circuit I’m sure it’s really cool during this spate of warm weather doing your impersonation of Rambo driving a cab in a jock strap, but please note, that apart from the Carriage Office stating that certain items must be worn from which your badge must be affixed, do have some consideration for the passengers, diesel fumes and BO is not a kindly combination. Echo 44 was another one who wrote on a number of interesting points, one of which was the legality of journeys below meter reading. Confirmation from the Carriage Office states a driver can charge anything he chooses below the metered fare. On the question of meter readings, there has of late been complete disagreement by our bank clients over the costing of fixed price jobs. I’m sure many of you would agree, especially those of you who work on the Finsbury, that there is no conformity what so ever to varying distances, and because of it, continuous dissatisfaction. I have done a complete revamp on all the prices, with a system, which is fair as well as logical. Obviously some of the prices will result in a few of the faces screaming, but that is unfortunate, those of you who wish to know how I have costed the jobs are welcome to contact me or any Board member and we will be pleased to let you know.
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The figures as reported in last months
Call Sign were disgusting. So much so that I felt it necessary
to explain the fact as well as the effect it was having on our
society, the clients, as well as the conscientious drivers on
our circuit who feel they are forever being penalised by those
inconsiderate greedy members, who are out here refusing to pick
up clients who everybody knows are important people in our most
senior accounts but are being ignored simply because they are
not going in the right direction. The situation hasn't changed,
an example being the letting down of the second most important
person of account 07340. He had booked a cab for 8.10am at
Holland Park Mews. At thirty-five minutes past he was told his
cab would be a further 10 minutes. Needless to say he was angry
and demanded an explanation. This sort of service for a senior
client of a company as important as this is not bloody good
enough and because I have the temerity to make these facts
known, your work and your future, I get the usual flurry of
criticism form the regular clever mob on this circuit,
complaining of the poor image such articles create and moaning
about the possible damage caused by not picking up our most
important clients. Incidentally, those of you who read the city
page will have noticed that this account is in the throes of a
possible merger, the impending parent company as an account in
the next few months will I’m sure determine our position for the
future. So those of you who don’t care about our society, I
suggest you start caring or get off. As regards what I print in
my articles, it is my intention always to print as near to the
truth as possible, it would be pointless as well as
disrespectful to mislead the members into thinking that the
coverage was good when it wasn’t or that we were perhaps opening
hundreds of new accounts and none were closing, simply to create
a false image of being a successful circuit. I have yet to hear
from one disgruntled client or hear of one account closing
because of what is written in Call Sign. In fact it’s quite the
reverse. I have spoken to a number of clients, especially those
who are forever wanting to know what we are doing to improve our
service, who on reading this magazine, have often commented that
apart from their praise for the professionalism of Call Sign,
they feel the publication of the truth and honest criticism is
constructive. It shows we are not hiding from the problems, and
by publishing the facts, creating a joint effort to solving
them. One of the most difficult attitudes in business is self
motivation, especially for the self employed, and it is only by
making you aware of the honest facts and the seriousness of the
work that we fail to cover, is it possible for you to decide on
the importance of your future business, and how motivated you
are prepared to be in securing that business. However I will now step down from my soapbox and express my pleasure in reporting the figures for this month are very good indeed. I have no reasons as to why this was so, but the very fact the jobs covered were up more then 14,000 on the corresponding month for last year, more than compensates for last month’s disastrous drop. Sixty-eighty new accounts opened, most of which were in the city and west end, plus additions to existing clients, and 53 accounts closed, most of these were due, as explained in last month’s report to non usage coupled with the reintroduction of new account numbers. I mentioned briefly about the possibility of introducing fixed price journeys to or from Heathrow, primarily during the quiet periods such as mid afternoon, etc. Reporting this as I did resulted in my receiving a number of calls from drivers complaining of such a scheme, all for varying reasons, but mainly of the attitude that NO journey should be less than the metered fare. It appears their reasons are purely on principle. I personally just cannot see the logic of this reasoning; surely a fare back from Heathrow at reduced cost is better than returning empty. There is for a fact an enormous amount of business amongst tour operators who need a door-to-door service, but cannot financially absorb the cost of a metered cab. I would have thought that providing there were no undue delays in picking up the clients, be it at the airport or hotels, we could be capable of capturing a market that would be both beneficial to the client as |
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