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 Has Mr Spiro Negotiated His Own Surcharge?

Re. Mr Spiro article in the last edition of ODRTS News & Views, have the dummies taken over? Firstly as a driver who covers a lot of credit work and secondly as a despatcher who is able to see both sides, I feel that Mr Spiro should stand up, cap in hand at the AGM and apologise, especially to Charlie Rubin.

I have noticed as a driver on the road and as a despatcher, the E79 call sign appears like magic as soon as the sound of 80p on a credit ride rings over the air. Majority of the time he is within five minutes of the job and seems to have some kind of magic meter that seems to register at his own will. I sympathise with Mr Spiro’s desperate financial state, but I feel we all have our bad days but his seem never ending and nothing but cream seems to satisfy him.  Does Mr. Spiro think his badge is a stepping stone to a fortune, or in reality a licence to earn a fair living by working and being industrious? Let’s face it, even after the best days we still have to work the next day.

In relation to the fact he has been on the circuit for ten years, he should be grateful to the society otherwise working off the street and having to put his clock down when the passenger gets in the cab, he surely would have gone broke many years ago.

Yours truly, C.Stroud (G25)

 
Bit Wet But Drying out Fast

In last months edition of ODRTS News & Views, Mr Spiro (E79) accused me of calling him a liberty taker. He’s quite right - I did! But he failed to give the reasons why, so I will now give them and hope to throw a different light on his accusation.

But firstly, wet behind the ears? Yes, very good Mr Spiro when you consider a man of twenty years of age compared to the average subscriber, I am just a mere boy! Yes Mr Spiro, I’m soaking behind the ears but even you must admit I’m learning fast.

You were right, I do not have a family but I do have a mortgage, which I’m sure is more of a commitment than you had at twenty. Now liberty taker, I want you to put yourself in my position. Gents, just how do you feel when you know someone is trying to take you on? Well Mr Spiro tried it with me. I called Soho Square on credit; E79 came in unopposed on the North side of Bedford Square. I allocated him the job, gave him details and sent the docket to channel three, when I was promptly told by the girl there that I had called the job too early. The time elapsed, thirty seconds, perhaps a minute at most. I then explained the situation to E79 that I had not noticed it was a pre-booking and had called the job too early, but he wanted a scrub. Fair enough, I had made a mistake and inconvenienced Mr Spiro (if you think that for thirty seconds round the North side to probably the east side of Bedford Square is really being inconvenienced)! He was entitled to a scrub. I asked him how much was on his clock, he said 80p…EIGHTY PENCE gents! From the north side to the east side of Bedford Square and he had 80p on his clock? All right, I’m not a cab driver and Mr. Spiro knows it, but what does he take me for? So what has he done? If he really had 80p on his clock then there must have been 75p on when he came in for the job… clock engaged, POB false position, but no, I think he was trying to get a scrub down to ODRTS. For 80p plus a gratuity of 20p, that’s £1.00 down to the society, which by the way gents, your subs go towards paying! One pound, which I thought, was very unnecessary. I told him he was taking a liberty and not getting a scrub. Did he argue? No way, because he was trying to take me on and he knew it. Well gents, was it a liberty or not?

The mind boggles, imagine the headlines in the papers: “First Taxi driver, then Tax exile!” “PM Jim Callaghan goes on knowledge!” Scale it as per E79, based on an 8-hour day, five day week, £1.00 per minute, £60 per hour, £480 per day, £2400 per week, £120,000 per year!  Based on fifty weeks, assuming that rising costs and inflation allow him to take two weeks holiday, that must represent a good advert for a fare increase!

Phil Kirby