call sign march 10:call sign march 10call sign march 2010 page 3martin cox and call sign... when i...

As the world talks about the DaC link to theAs the world talks about the DaC link to theRoyal Family, we ask: Is this the moment BrianRoyal Family, we ask: Is this the moment Brian

Rice offered our facilities to Prince Charles?Rice offered our facilities to Prince Charles?

Why is DaC's Why is DaC's Bill Tyzack Bill Tyzack reverting reverting back to his back to his childhood childhood days!days!

March 2010

Call Sign March 2010

NASH’S NUMBERSFrom Alan Nash (A95)

Hotels that have changed owners, names or are new...Hotel Address Previously

Doyle’s Marylebone Hotel 47, Welbeck St, W1G 8DN Clifton Ford

Doyle’s Kensington 109-113 Queens Gate, SW7 5LR Jury's

Doyle’s Bloomsbury 16 Gt Russell Street, WC1B 3NN Jury's

Gala Lancaster Lancaster Terrace, W2 2TY Royal Lancaster

Guoman Royal Horseguards 2 Whitehall Court, SW1A 2EJ Thistle Royal Horseguards

Guoman Charing Cross Strand, WC2N 5HX Thistle Charing Cross

Novotel St Pancras 100-110 Euston Road, NW1 2AJ Novotel Euston

Park Plaza County Hall Addington Street, London, SE1 New

Park Plaza Westminster 200, Westminster Bridge Rd, SE1 New

Park Plaza Sherlock Holmes 108 Baker Street, W1U 6LJ Now a Park Plaza

Sheraton Leicester Sq 10, Wardour St, W1D6QF Opens summer 2010

Thistle Grosvenor 101 Buckingham Palace Road, SW1W 0SJ Victoria (nee Grosvenor)

Thistle Kinsley Bloomsbury Way, WC1A 2SD Bloomsbury (nee Kingsley)

Thistle Royal Trafalgar Whitcomb St, WC2H 7HG Trafalgar Square

Pestana Chelsea Bridge 354 Queenstown Rd, SW8 4AE New in Chelsea Bridge Wharf

Update on Premier Inn and Travelodges...TRAVELODGE Address TRAVELODGE Address

Aldgate East 6, Chamber St, E1 8BL Barking 4 Arboretum Pl. IG11 7RX

Battersea 200 York Road, SW11 3SA City Airport Hartmann Road, E16 2BZ

City Road 7-12 City Road, EC1Y 1AE Covent Garden 10 Drury Lane, High Holborn, WC2B 5RE

Docklands Coriander Avenue, E14 2AA Euston 1-11 Grafton Pl. NW1 1DJ

Farringdon Gwynne Place, WC1X 9QN Ilford Clements Road, IG1 1BA

Gants Hill Beehive Lane, IG4 5DR Gatwick Church Road, Lowfield Heath, RH11 0PQ

Kew Bridge North Rd, High St Brentford Liverpool Street 1 Harrow Place, E1 7DB

Kings Cross Grays Inn Road, WC1X 8BH Kings Cross Royal Scot 100 Kings Cross Road, WC1X 9DT

^^^^ MAKE SURE YOU GO TO THE CORRECT KINGS CROSS HOTEL ^^^

Marylebone Harewood Row, NW1 6SE Park Royal 614 Western Avenue, W3 0TE

Southwark 202 Union Street, SE1 0LH Tower Bridge 1 Goodmans Yard, E1 8AT

Waterloo 195 Waterloo Rd, SE1 8UX Heathrow Heston Moto Service Area, M4 Motorway,

Heathrow Central 700 Bath Rd, TW5 9SW Gatwick Airport Church Rd, Lowfield Heath,RH11 0PQ

Wimbledon Morden Epsom Road, Morden Wembley North Circular Road, NW10 7UG

PREMIER INN Address PREMIER INN Address

Beckton 1, Woolwich Manor Rd., E6 5NT City 24, Prescott St, E1 8BB

County Hall Belvedere Rd,SE1 7PB Docklands Excel Festoon Way, E16 1RH(by Connaught Brdg)

Euston 1 Dukes Road, Euston Road, WC1H Gatwick Central Longbridge Way, Crawley, RH6 0NX

Gatwick South London Road, Crawley, RH10 9ST Hammersmith 255 King Street, W6 9LU

Hampstead 215 Haverstock Hill, NW3 4RB Heathrow Bath Road 15 Bath Road, Hounslow, TW6 2AB

Heathrow M4/J4 Shepiston Lane, UB3 1RW Kensington 11 Knaresborough Place, SW5 0TJ

Kings Cross/St Pancras 26- 30 York Way, N1 9AA Putney 3 Putney Bridge Approach, SW6 3JD

Slough 76,Uxbridge Rd., SL1 1SU South Mimms Swanland Road, South Mimms, EN6 3NH

Southwark 34, Park St, SE1 9EF Thurrock West Stonehouse Lane, West Thurrock, RM19 1NS

Tower Bridge 159, Tower Bridge Road, SE1 3LP Victoria 82, Eccleston Sq, SW1V 1PS

“Hello cabbie, Doyle’s Marylebone Hotel, then onto the Gala Lancaster Hotel and finally the Park Plaza inBaker Street please.” Confused, well yes, you know all these hotels but it’s just that they have been playingreality monopoly again!

For a more comprehensive list, sign up for the free document at www.nashsnumbers.co.uk and click on “Free 70+ page info.”

For What’s On” in March also go to www.nashsnumbers.co.uk...


Martin Cox and CallSign...When I published Martin Cox’s letter in the lastissue of Call Sign as a response to the previousissue in which Mike Son had written an inter-esting article on how we could win back workfrom private hire, I was unsure whether any-one would take umbrage. It didn’t take longbefore the question was answered!

For two solid days, my phone never stoppedringing. Some congratulated me, understandingthe reason I had decided to publish a letter thatI knew would be controversial. After all, MartinCox may well have been a green badge driverand on the Radio Taxis Board for several yearsleading up to their demutualisation, but formany years now, he had been on the privatehire side of the line.

Others said that I shouldn’t have published it,with yet others saying they were pleased I hadpublished his views because it showed howdangerous that opposition could be – however,they felt I had been too polite towards him. Imake no apology for that. Yes, as several point-ed out, I have no problem in answering backand yes, I knew exactly where Martin Cox wascoming from and what he was trying to do. Butit was a polite letter and deserved a similarresponse. Most – but not all – callers seemed tounderstand where I was coming from.

My position is difficult because I dislike ourconnections to private hire, yet I know thatwithout Concierge our workload would haveprobably evaporated by now and you wouldn’tsee any taxis at all outside either of our corpo-rate London Wall accounts.

Many callers mentioned the “core business” oftaxis, but I have always thought of that as refer-ring to street hails, because whether you or I likeit or not, corporate clients are saying that taxisdispatched via radio are too expensive and theywant to use PH – preferably with taxis as well –but if necessary they would pick them over us.

Some drivers believe – and it is their right -that without Concierge we would be better off.But would our corporate accounts then nothave the capability of phoning LD or any of theother PH companies by themselves? DaC didn’tintroduce them, although we admittedly madeit more convenient for them, but in return therewas a large slice of their work for DaC taxis.

There was a time when our sheer size meantthat large accounts couldn’t go anywhere else,but look at Addison Lee now – their size iscomparable to a taxi circuit, but because theycan only pick up radio work (legally), in reali-ty it means they can cover more work thanmost circuits that don’t have street work inter-fering! And as much as my view on John Griffinis not too pleasant, I honestly believe himwhen he claims that he does not want any ofhis drivers to pick up in the streets. He wants afleet that is prepared to wait however long ittakes to get a radio job. He wants 100%account coverage because he knows that leadsto more account work. Most taxi drivers justcouldn’t afford to work that way with John andson Liam Griffin knowing that only too well.

If you or I phoned AL for a quote, they probablywouldn’t sound that cheap, but their pricing is dif-ferent for account clients from the account address– and that’s what customers seem to go by.

Since we last went to print, Martin Cox hassold his share of Chauffeur First to LondonExecutive, who will now be that much biggerand who will no doubt continue to expanduntil someone buys them. That is how it’sgoing and what we are up against. Telling theclient that we are not prepared to change andthat they must take us as just we are, is just notgoing to work anymore.

Private hire fill their ranks with drivers whosee their minicab stint as a way of getting quickmoney and who will work far cheaper than wecan, whereas their bosses are earning moneyfrom driver’s monthly rentals - which are farmore expensive than ours.

As a consequence, I’m afraid that talkingabout our “core business” is meaningless whilstwe sit and watch everyone in the private hirebusiness march past us.

I truly believe that publishing Martin Cox’s letterwill help to show exactly what we are up against.Mr Cox is one of only a few people who haveworked as a licensed taxi driver and a private hireexecutive. His letter – especially the polite smug-ness of it - shows exactly what we are up against.

There is also a blogsite that inferred I was ‘setup’ to prime drivers into getting ready fordemutualisation by allowing Martin Cox thespace to write in Call Sign. It forwarded thearticle link onto me. Well, for those that botherreading The Nissen Hut, I have never met oreven spoken to Martin Cox about the topic onthe phone. I print articles that are interestingand not for ulterior motives. I rarely look atinternet blogs, not for any reason other than Irarely have the time and in any case, find theviews of someone like “Russell Wilson,” who isafraid to publish his real name, as being prettyclose to worthless. But if I do have a few min-utes to spare, I think The Anderson Shelterseems to contain more interesting material. Atleast “Thomas the Tank” isn’t afraid to give outhis real name when necessary – even if they do(so I’m told) often have a go at Call Sign or me.And they also allow you to respond – which ismore than The Nissen Hut apparently does.

Either way, why I’m bothering to respond toa blogsite, I really don’t know!

Blackwall Tunnel andthe Olympics...?All the trade press published a press release

from TfL about the current closure of theBlackwall Tunnel for southbound traffic after9pm on most evenings, however, I am sur-prised that when publishing the piece, not onementioned the fact that a three year closure isgoing to have a serious effect on the OlympicGames in 2.5 years from now.

Call Sign’s Richard Potter has written an arti-cle inside this issue and I believe his view thatthe reason TfL never aligned the closure with the2012 Games is so that whilst the Olympics areon, they will be able to reopen the Tunnel forthose taking part as an Olympic Route Network.

Call Sign wondered aloud last month whenpublishing an article called What will happen tothe Blackwall Tunnel, just how the ORN wouldoperate, bearing in mind that the stadium andOlympic Village were on the A12 northside,while the O2 will have gymnastics and shoot-ing, with horses tearing up the Greenwich Parkgrass on the southside of the Tunnel.

You would have to ask TfL why they began a3-year closure plan 2.5 years before the Gamescommence. The Mayor’s office promised CallSign an answer, but sadly it isn’t election timeat City Hall, so the response failed to arrive.

But the news isn’t all bad! I have now hadoffers from two MPs, who, with a GeneralElection imminent, have offered Call Sign theopportunity of interviewing them. Sorry chaps,I don’t have the time... perhaps after the elec-tion? You might be too busy? Just like me now...

AGMWhile the 2009 Dial-a-Cab AGM was held in avery friendly way with many questionsanswered and as little protocol as possible get-ting in the way, I still find it sad that more dri-vers don’t make the yearly journey to the Cityto take part. I knew that it was always going tobe quiet with no elections, propositions or rulechanges and the Chelsea v Arsenal match beingshown live on TV, but hey, there was alwaysthe free cup of tea / coffee! Life can be such amystery at times...

A new daughter-in-lawfor the Chairman...I can’t let this issue go without congratulatingBrian and Brenda Rice on gaining a newdaughter-in-law in the shape of the gorgeousSam when she and Billy tied the knot, just threemonths after baby Charlie turned the Rice duointo grandparents.

The bad news is that with a stunning daugh-ter still at home, Brian may well need to keephis bank manager sweet!

PC repairThere is an ad in this issue from PC repairman,Bob Crabtree. Bob is based in Wanstead and allI can say is that my PC was running so slowthat I could make myself a coffee, drink it andsome files would still not have come through!That was before I discovered Bob. If you liveeast and have PC problems, it might be worthgiving Bob a call...

Alan [email protected]

from the editor’s desk


Taxi vigilantes...Every taxi driver who works at night knowsthat the touting that occurs from the licensedand unlicensed minicab fraternity is reachingepidemic proportions. This occurs mainly out-side clubs and restaurants and the touts arequite blatant regarding their activities, as theyknow the chances of them being apprehend-ed are practically nil.

Many venues have their own minicab satel-lite offices, which are usually manned by aClipboard Johnnie who ushers members ofthe public into these minicabs that are illegal-ly ranked outside the building. However, inrecent times some members of our trade havebeen fighting back by targeting differentvenues on different nights of the week andsupplying that venue with a constant stream oftaxis. This has become much easier in recenttimes with the advent of the internet and emailand the improvement in communicationbetween individuals that this brings.

Needless to say the touts are none toohappy about this situation as they look onthese premises as ‘theirs’ and in their view thelicensed taxi trade have no business encroach-ing on ‘their’ territory.

A couple of years ago when business wasextremely buoyant, the touts had these venuesto themselves. However, now that business fortaxis is not so bright, the licensed taxi indus-try wants to give a service to their legitimatecustomers without any fear of intimidationand threats from any of these touts.

There is no point in me preaching to anynight man regarding the current situation, asthey are probably more aware than I of howthings are, however, to any day man, I canassure you that the atmosphere outside thesevenues leaves much to be desired and thescene is like any you would find in a thirdworld country. As you can imagine, tempersare running extremely high on both sides andthere have been cases of taxis being damagedand taxi drivers being assaulted, with one taxidriver having fingers broken.

There is not any question the law is notbeing enforced by the authorities and there isalso a distinct lack of awareness for taxi dri-ver’s safety. Neither is there any question in mymind that the blame lies with TfL and thePolice for not protecting licensed taxi driversas they go about their legitimate business, withthe majority of that blame lying with TfL asthey should insist the police enforce the law.

We have had platitudes from them for yearson what they intend to do and yet they dohardly anything except tour the ‘hotspots’ tosee what is going on (all the regimes havedone this), yet hardly anything is resolved –just what should a taxi driver expect from TfLin return for the fee he pays to renew hislicence every three years?

Things have become so bad that one tradeorganisation is paying for Marshals to attendvarious venues for a short time, because obvi-ously the cost would be prohibitive for the long-term. The strange thing is that none of theseMarshals are taxi drivers, the reason being -according to the trade organisation - is just incase there is any confrontation and physical

violence, the Marshal would not be in a positionto lose his Bill as he would not possess one.

What a remarkable state of affairs TfL hasallowed to happen when they play into thehands of those within our industry that wouldwelcome confrontation. I have every sympa-thy with taxi drivers that feel intimidated bythese touts and taxi drivers are rightly angrythat they are not being protected by the veryauthority that seek to govern us. What mes-sage are we sending out to the public whenwe employ - as another trade organisationcalled them - ‘thugs’ onto the streets ofLondon? I can appreciate the sense of frustra-tion, but this is clearly not the way. The Mayorwas keen to court the taxi trade when he wasseeking our support for the last Mayoral elec-tions, so it is now up to him to give instruc-tions to TfL to ensure the law is enforced andthe safety of taxi drivers remains paramount!

At a recent meeting at the PCO, I wasinformed that they had been advised bycounsel that it was quite legitimate forminicabs to wait in a rank (line) whilstthey were waiting to be allocated a trip. Inall my years in this trade, many othersand myself were always under the impres-sion that minicabs could not form a rankin view of the public and it would appearthis has always been accepted. I am nowinformed by the PCO that their advice isthe former. I just wonder if that was thefirst advice they obtained or did they haveto ‘shop around’ until they received theadvice they wanted?

There is not any doubt in my mind that thetaxi industry believes the minicab industry arethe favourites with TfL and receive preferentialtreatment. No doubt the PCO would deny this,but they have to start giving something backto this trade instead of keep taking. Enforcingthe law and giving taxi drivers a safe environ-ment in which to work would be a start!

DaC AGMI believe there is a report elsewhere in the mag-azine regarding the AGM. I must say it was apleasure to attend as everyone was impeccablybehaved and everyone present was eager to hearwhat I had to say. Members were there becausethey wanted to be and I believe the proceedingswere conducted in a very lighthearted manner –I must say I really enjoyed the day!

Brian RiceChairman

Dial-a-Cab

reflections of the chairman

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No Wonder Touts Prosper!

For some time now, Call Sign has beenwaiting on a meeting that Dial-a-Cab driverMarc Turner (R97) was due to have withthe Carriage Office officials at WelwynGarden City.

The story begins on 19 July last year ataround 02.30am when Marc was waiting bySwallow Street for a pre-booked DaC job.As Marc told us, the area was teeming withobvious touts but just one caught his eye.The car – yes car – directly behind Marc hadits For Hire sign brightly lit! Even with sev-eral types of London taxis flying around,Marc knew that none of them looked likesaloon cars!

He got out and looked at the rear of thecar to see that it was a licensed taxi all right– but licensed in Welwyn Garden City! Marcapproached the driver – whose name wehave but now cannot publish – and told himhe could not ply for hire in London. The dri-ver first said that taxis could work anywhereand then said it was a pre-booked job. To“prove” it, he made a phone call to some-one and after saying a few words, gave Marc the phone. A woman,who Marc said sounded as though she had just been woken up, said itwas pre-booked. The driver then threatened to hit Marc, so the DaCdriver immediately phoned the police.

Astonishingly for someone with alegitimate “pre-booked job.” TheWelwyn cabbie drove off – not north-wards, as you’d expect, but towardsPiccadilly Circus.

Marc noted his details and reported theincident to the Welwyn PCO and was laterasked to attend a complaints meeting upthere – set up by an outside source and nottheir PCO. Marc told Call Sign that he washappy to go if it meant getting rid of anoth-er tout. But the verdict was that therewasn’t enough proof!

The Welwyn Garden City committeeshould be ashamed of themselves, becausethis particular driver has a record of misbe-having and yet they have let him just carryon. As for their PCO, well they obviouslyserve no purpose whatsoever, even thoughMarc said he felt sorry for them as theirhands were tied.

Marc’s final word was that perhaps the tout might havelearned a lesson, but he doubted that to be the case. But welldone Marc, at least you put your money where your mouth wasand did your best...

Marc Turner

“First Registration” Tax Comes in April 1

If you are buying a new cab, the pricewill have to go up...

LTI Sales Director, Rob Laidler has warned dri-vers that if they want to grab a new cab andavoid the latest Governmental price increase,then it has to be before the end of March.

In the 2009 budget, Alistair Darling announcedan increase in first registration tax to come intoeffect on the 1 April 2010 and which will see allnew vehicle prices increase. The effect of the tax isto substantially increase the cost of a new vehiclefor the first year only. It is for this reason that somepundits have dubbed it a showroom tax.

According to Mr Laidler, LTI will also beincreasing the base vehicle price to cover move-ments in the cost of raw materials and exchangerates. These increases will be compounded by thenew tax rate coming into force.

He told Call Sign: “If drivers want to avoidthe price rise, then they need to go out and bag themselves a“10” plate bargain and take delivery before the end of March.

“This is not an early April fool to get drivers in the showroom,”he added, “this is a very real warning to drivers not to wait andcost themselves money. The price of a new TX4 will be going updue to the increase in costs and to cover the tax rise. We don’twant to do it, but we have to pass the increases on to the cus-tomer. But if drivers buy now for delivery in March, they won’tget charged.”

Just ask DaC driver Marc Turner why!!!

AlistairDarling’s bud-get tax againstthe motoristalso put up theprice of a newcab from nextmonth

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TAXI FARES UP 2.3% FROM APRILThe TfL Board has approved an average taxifare increase of 2.3 per cent for the 2010/11financial year, the lowest since 2004. TfL toldCall Sign that the meter increase aims to find abalance between maintaining income levels fordrivers, who face disproportionately highercosts in order to work than average Londoners,while ensuring passengers still get a fair pricefor the high quality and unique service providedby London’s taxi drivers.

City Hall agreed the new fares followingconsultation with the taxi trade and others,including London TravelWatch passengerwatchdog, the London Chamber ofCommerce and Industry. The increase is calcu-lated using an established T&G formula origi-nating from 1981 and will help drivers coverrising operating costs. The Board alsoapproved a new deal on licence and testingfees for taxi and private hire drivers, includinga freeze on some fees.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said:“The Capital is blessed with wonderful cabbiesand we’ve deliberated long and hard to comeup with an increase we think is fair to everyoneduring these tough economic times. I hope thisincrease will allow cabbies to meet the annualincreases in insurance and fuel costs. But alsohelp those with older cabs bring their vehiclesin line with our desire to improve the air we allbreathe in this great city, by driving the type ofclean, green taxis that will achieve that aim.”

John Mason, Director of Taxi and PrivateHire at TfL, added: “The new fares take into

account an agreed increase in the costs of run-ning a black cab and balances this with settinga fair price for those who want to travel by taxi.We are trying to work with the drivers andoperators to help keep them out on the roadand providing Londoners with the excellent ser-vice they are renowned for around the world.”

The 2.3 per cent increase for the next finan-cial year includes a 1.9 per cent increase basedon the 2010 cost index, which takes intoaccount the rise in average national earningsand an increase in insurance rates which haverisen 19.5 per cent on last year; plus a one-off0.4 per cent to remedy a calculation error from2007 which the taxi trade chose not to intro-duce last year due to the economic downturn.

A Tariff 1 average fare will increase from£10.16 to £10.39, while on the same journeyTariff 2 will go up by 27p and Tariff 3 by 32p.The new fares come in on April 1...

Mayor Johnson. “This will help thosewith older cabs bring their vehiclesinto line…”

Following therecent scare con-cerning Toyotaaccelerator pedalssticking and theirrecall, Dial-a-Cabdriver EddieLambert (V27) haswritten in his offi-cial capacity asChair of the RMTLondon taxi branchto the Director of Taxis and PH atTfL, John Mason.

In the letter, Eddie asked thatTfL/PCO issue a stop notice to all PHVsthat are affected by the safety recallnotices “...that several manufactures,including Toyota, are issuing. Wewould expect that TfL/PCO carry this out inthe same manner they did with the TX4 fireissue. That is all vehicles affected by this issueand are licensed by the PCO as PHVs, aretaken off the road until the owners are ableto produce a certificate from the manufac-tures franchised and registered factory ser-vice agents showing the necessary work hasbeen carried out to ensure the problem hasbeen removed from said vehicle.”

Eddie, together with RMT secretary DavidVidgen and Vice Chair John Kennedy, addedin the letter that as with the TX4, that this was amatter of safety for both the travelling public inthe affected vehicles and other vehicles close tothem and of course the public in general.

Via a press release from TfL, John Mason saidthat given current information, TfL did notbelieve it to be appropriate or necessary to


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place a stop notice on affectedmodels, but that it was impera-tive that anyone using the affect-ed models as private hire vehi-cles were aware of the issue andtook appropriate action. MrMason added that TfL/PCOwould continue to monitor the

situation closely and take furtheraction if necessary.

Mr Mason’s statement went on to “stronglyrecommend all drivers /owners of private hirevehicles licensed by TfL to either make contactwith your local Toyota dealership or the ToyotaCustomer Relations line.”

Call Sign has to ask how many PH driversget to see press releases compared to thetaxi trade, where most read a trade paper?

Offering advice to PH drivers with Toyotas,TfL add: “Drivers will not suddenly find that theyhave a sticking accelerator. It may become heav-ier to press or shudder. If the accelerator doesstick when driving you should press firmly onthe brake – instead of pumping it, put the carinto neutral and pull over when safe.” The pressrelease ends by saying:

“Should you experience any of these con-ditions, you are advised not to operate yourvehicle until it has been checked by a quali-

fied Toyota technician at a Toyota approvedservice centre.”

It would appear to be the height of prejudiceagainst the London taxi trade should private hire– with what seems to be a far wider “safety” out-break - are allowed to carry on driving thesevehicles.

The incident that brought the matter to lightoccurred last August when California HighwayPatrol Officer, Mark Saylor and his family, wereon their way to their daughter’s soccer practice.They were driving a Lexus ES 350 – which ismade by Toyota. Millions were shocked when aphone recording from one of the passengers inthe car was played on media outlets. It said thecar was going at 125mph with the acceleratorpedal stuck down. The voice then added thatthey were headed towards a busy intersectionbut could not stop. They were then heard pray-ing before the line went dead. That crashsparked a recall of over 4million Toyota andLexus vehicles throughout the US.

In a totally separate development, Toyota’sPrius is being recalled to repair a software pro-gramme for the anti-lock braking systemdesigned to prevent skidding. All of the hybridsmanufactured before January have the fault.Several PH companies use this green car.

This magazine would ask Mr Mason to thinkagain, because if just one private hire vehicle outof the many Toyotas crash due to the acceleratorpedal sticking or their brakes locking, repercus-sions for the PCO would be enormous...

Eddie Lambert wrote to the PCO Inset: Mark Saylor and his family all died when the accelerator pedal jammed

PCO refuse to take PH off the roadToyota brake sticking scare...

Sunday 7 February 2010 saw the2009 Dial-a-Cab AGM, held onceagain at the Brewery in ChiswellStreet.

What follows are not the official minutes, butan unofficial record of the meeting as cap-tured by Call Sign Editor Alan Fisher. It is nota full record and neither should it be taken asincluding every word said or indeed the exactwording spoken. Some paragraph grammarhas been sacrificed in order to make the reportas compact as possible. The official attendancewas put at 51...

The meeting opened at 11.00 with ChairmanBrian Rice asking for the traditional one-minute silence to remember those membersthat had passed away during the past 12months. Approval for the presence of a soundengineer, Mike Tovey from DaC AccountantsChantrey Vellacott and two young ladies fromDaC was given.

Minutes of the 2008 meeting: They were accepted as true and correct...

Matters arising:

Russell Poluck (T55) saidthat last year under AOB hehad brought up the subjectof work being dispatched inbad weather conditions.This year, he said, theweather was even worseand he asked whether inthose conditions all tripscould be shown with a destination rather thanAs Directed? Russell added that in the northwest of London, conditions at times were atro-cious and sending cabs to an area where traf-fic couldn’t move was ridiculous.

Brian Rice responded that he agreed withRussell and that there was no way they wouldwant taxis to get stuck. The problem thoughwas what you used as criteria? Should it be twocentimetres of snow? Three centimetres? Brianadded that as everyone knew, in the centre oftown the conditions were not too bad. It wasthe side streets that were bad and some inFulham could have been as bad as the sidestreets in Bishops Stortford! In fact for those firstfew days, the side streets were bad everywhere.But we did have to bear coverage in mind.

In fact, Brian continued, besides manyaccount customers not even managing to getinto work, quite a number of Dial-a-Cab dri-vers didn’t make it in either! He thought whatwe had to do was to leave it to the discretionof those in the call centre to use some logic -unless we issued them with a tape measureand told them to wait until it was three cen-timetres deep! We know that snow during theday isn’t so much of a problem as it is whenit comes down at 3 or 4 in the morning. So hewas sure that if a driver was given a job, sayto Milton Keynes, and he didn’t want to do itthrough believing conditions were bad, thedispatcher would recover it. The last thingDaC wanted to do was to get drivers stuck inthe ice, but it was difficult to put that down inblack and white.

Russell then came back and asked theChairman whether dispatchers could beinstructed as such? Brian said that yes, it hadnever been any different. Keith Cain, whoruns the call centre, nodded in agreement.Brian went on to say that John Connor(Y11) was in the hall andthat besides being a cab dri-ver, he also worked in thecall centre and that hewould confirm that they hadalmost carte blanche to dowhatever they thought nec-essary and that it was leftentirely to their discretion.John confirmed that to be the case with asmart and extremely respectable “yes sir!” Tolaughter and with a broad grin, Brian respond-ed: “Thank you, you’ll go a long way!”

Roy Hayden (L38) cameonto the lectern next andtold Brian Rice that he hadspoken to our Auditor MikeTovey at last year’s meetingabout DaC paying corpora-tion tax and had asked whywe were paying tax iffriendly mutual societieswere exempt? He also added that he hadheard on the BBC Gordon Brown announce atax reduction for large corporates “such asMerrill Lynch.”

Brian responded by saying that Dial-a-Cabwere a substantial sized company and that thetaxman had been after us for years to pay taxon our profits. “With the exception of last yearwhen we lost £112,000, if you add up the pre-vious four years you’ll see that we madesomewhere in the region of £4.5million andwe paid no tax on that. But there was a fur-ther enquiry into the way we pay at the endof last year and we did have to give way a lit-tle bit more and agree to pay corporation taxon any interest we have from capital in thebank. And that’s what we did, however, if mymemory serves me correct, we got £27K backoff the taxman this year!”

Brian went on to add that he felt we wereon “borrowed time” and that at some time inthe future the taxman would catch up with us,but that it was a lengthy process. It did alsomean that we had to employ real specialistsfrom within Chantrey Vellacott to assist us.He added that they were extremely expensivebut that it was money well spent. The lastcomment brought a “who me” smile fromMike Tovey! Brian confirmed to Roy that wewere not paying tax other than on unearnedincome – that being bank interest only – but

added that as shown in our figures, bankinterest was currently very little because rateswere so low. He also said that we had £3mil-lion in a special higher interest account –bringing laughter when he said it was calledthe Rice account!

Roy Hayden came back saying that for thepast year he had been looking online andgrilling passengers on the subject and that hehad come to the conclusion that it doesn’t sayanywhere that mutual trading companiesshould pay any tax. Brian came back and saidthat before Radio Taxis demutualised, theyalways paid income tax but that we werefighting the taxman. Roy asked if there wassome law that said we had to pay and whileBrian responded that there was no law assuch, he passed the microphone over to MikeTovey for a response.

Mike said that over the years we had man-aged to convince HMRC that most of the prof-its DaC make arose from trading between our-selves – ie mutual trading. He said there wasa long-established principle that says that formof trading is not taxable. For some reason overthe years, Radio Taxis (Mountview) were notable to convince the taxman of the same argu-ment. However, HMRC had come back to usevery five or six years and challenged theprinciples on which mutuality is based. Whilstthey couldn’t manage to succeed, they domanage to chip away a little bit more eachtime and on each of those occasions, we haveto agree that the surplus that is generated bythe business is derived from our trading withcustomers and not with ourselves. Therefore itbecomes a negotiation between how much istaxable and how much isn’t. Mike added thatthere was no new law or tax code, that therewas no point looking on the internet becausehe wouldn’t find it. Roy came back saying thathe had mentioned the subject to passengers,but Mike came straight back in by saying thatthey wouldn’t know about the long-estab-lished principles of mutuality because therewas nothing new here. Every time HMRCcame back to them at Chantrey Vellacott andmade a further attack each five or six years,they put up a defence. But Mike then went onto confirm what Brian had said and that in hisjudgement HMRC would say that more andmore of DaC’s surplus was taxable. But in themeantime we would take full advantage of ourcurrent circumstances because one day in thefuture – when we are back into full profitabil-ity - HMRC would come back and say thatthey wanted 28% of them! Roy again asked ifwe had paid that and Mike confirmed that’swhat we would have paid had HMRC been


All You Need toKnow about the2009 DaC AGM

Photos Alan Green (E52)

Russell Poluck

Roy Hayden

John Connor


All You Need to Know about the 2009 DaC AGM

successful. But because they hadn’t been, wehad paid nothing and over the years, that wason a total of around £12million! Mike did addthough that this wasn’t due to “some fancyfootwork” or ducking and diving, it was basedon long-established principles correctlyargued and negotiated with the Revenue.However, that didn’t mean they liked it,because all they want is 28% of DaC’s profitsand they would keep coming back until theygot more and more.

Brian then came back and added that noone wanted to pay tax, but there wasn’t a lotof choice involved. He made the point that if adriver received a tax bill for £4000, that personcould turn round and say that he wasn’t goingto pay it, but eventually they would have topay although like DaC, they could fight them.He also said we had a specialist in ColinHeath who fights it for DaC and that Colin,Howard Pears and Brian had all been to seeCounsel on this and had taken expensiveadvice, which had cost the Society a lot ofmoney. However, in the words of theChairman, it had saved us fortunes. He saidthat we would continue to fight HMRC and thatin his view, eventually we’d have to start pay-ing tax, but when that would be no one knew.“It could be 10 years, 20 years – we haveabsolutely no idea,” said Brian adding that theHMRC would always keep chipping away andthat this time they had managed to get us topay tax on our bank interest. Mike Tovey cameback saying that he thought the situationwould change when the Inland Revenue couldsuccessfully argue that our mutual businesswas incidental to our other business. Currentlywe had been able to argue that the trade withclients was incidental to our mutual business,but when the balance changed and theRevenue claimed that whilst they accepted weare a mutual, that was only “on the edges” andwhat we really are is a successful organisationdoing profitable business with major banks,then they would succeed in getting more andmore of those profits. Roy asked whether therewould have to be a law confirming what Mikehad said, but our auditor responded by againsaying there was no law needed and thatnegotiations were purely based on those long-established principles that had been around formany years. Roy thanked Mike and Brian andpromised not to bring it up again! Brianassured him they were pleased to answerquestions and that it was important that mem-bers knew DaC didn’t just sit round waiting forthings to happen, but were always proactive.To laughter, Brian then said that Mike neededto leave the meeting early as he was flying toPortugal “to play golf on the strength of themoney we pay him!” Quick as a flash, Mikeresponded by saying to an even bigger laughthat he would be stopping off in Geneva firstto pay in the £3million!” Call Sign assumedthat both were joking!

The Chairman then asked for a vote onaccepting the minutes and the meetingthen moved on.

The Chairman’s Report on the Financialstatements ending 31 August 2009Brian began by saying that it didn’t really need

him to tell us how tough ithad been out there, particu-larly in the corporate sectorand that older drivers couldprobably still remember thelast downturn. TheChairman was then stoppedin mid-flow when the CallSign editor walked to the stage to tell Brianthat re the minutes, he hadn’t called for anyvotes against! To a chorus of laughs, all thatthose in the hall heard was the Chairman ask-ing the editor if he liked his job! Then Briansaid: “From our recent past editor of CallSign: Is there anyone against accepting theminutes!” No doubt to spite the editor, not onehand was raised and the Chairman then askedMr Fisher if he was satisfied with that! The edi-tor slunk away slowly - a quietly spoken“thank you for that” from Mr Rice helping totake some of the redness out of the ed’sembarrassed face!

Brian then continued with his report andcompared this recession with the one from theearly 1990s. He said that he felt this one wasworse because this latest one hit the bankingsector – many of whom are our biggest cus-tomers and all had cut back on taxi usage dra-matically – adding that the situation wasbeginning to ease a bit. He said that suddenlylast year (up to 31 August), DaC was hit witha 32% downturn in our turnover, down from£49m to £33m. Brian told the DaC drivers lis-tening intently, that they obviously had to dosomething and had looked at the Society’sbiggest expense – the wage bill - and fromMay 2008 stopped recruiting new staff in addi-tion to making some redundancies. “That wasa very tough thing to have to do,” said theChairman. As a result, our operating costswere cut by £750,000 last year with staff num-bers dropping from around 240 down to 160and although the bottom line showed a loss of£112,000, Brian said that under the circum-stances, that wasn’t too bad.

He went on to explain that the £750,000saved costs did not all come into the samefinancial year and said that you couldn’t justgo round picking on staff and saying you areredundant although he sadly added the aside“...but in Alan Fisher’s case I may make anexception!”

He went on to explain about the consulta-tion process that has to be gone through inorder to make redundancies and said that the£750,000 saved last year would become£1.25m saved on overheads this year.Simplifying the matter, Brian explained thatwhen you suffer a sudden and huge 32% dropin income from clients, you have to do some-thing and they felt there were just two choices.One was to get more money from membersand they didn’t want to do that. The otherchoice was to look at DaC’s overheads asregards to staff costs. They also decided thatfor that period, when members left, theywould not replace them and DaC’s driver num-bers dropped by just over 200 – but that meantanother double whammy as we were hit by theloss of those members subscriptions in addi-tion to customer’s service charges. But he saidthat DaC had to be fair and didn’t want drivers

to be the ones that made up the shortfall fromthe droppage in customer usage. He addedthat DaC had fitted the occasional new driver,so if anyone couldn’t understand why they hadheard of someone joining recently, it wasprobably true. However, the numbers had fall-en because of the policy of generally notrecruiting. He added that the Board did notwant the number of drivers to drop any furthernow and we were replacing those that left.

Cheering the situation up, Brian then saidthat things were definitely picking up, somuch so that from the first quarter of DaC’strading year (1 September to 31 December),we were once again in the black and that“black” represented well into six figures. Headded that hopefully, if the situationremained as it was, then DaC would onceagain become a profitable organisation.Updating the cash situation, at the end ofAugust we had £6.1m sitting in the bankwhereas of the Friday before the AGM, thatfigure had dropped slightly to £5.9m. TheChairman went on to add that had the bank’sinterest rates not been so low, even in such abad year for the trade and with the £112,000loss, we would still have been in the black.He also pointed out that the companies strug-gling most were those with debts and that inthe current situation, cash was “king,”explaining that the current low 0.5 interestrates did not apply to those needing to bor-row - who were usually quoted as 2% overLibor, which is the rate at which banks lendmoney among themselves. Brian went on tosay that it was because DaC had been lookedafter year on year, that we were not in serioustrouble today - as many companies were. Hereminded older drivers of the early 1990swhen DaC barely survived and it was literallytouch and go as to whether we survived andadded that now, in 2010, the Society was inexcellent financial shape.

With that, the Chairman asked if therewere any questions...

Chairman’s Report – Matters arisingPat Keefe (G01) was firstup. He asked Brian why inthe Annual Report it saidthat staff costs had gonedown by 10% whereas thestaff numbers had droppedby 30%? The Chairmanexplained that these thingsdon’t happen straight awayand that even though staff were no longeremployed, the savings on their wages did notcome into play until after Christmas. He wenton to add that the £750,000 savings from lastyear would probably become £1.25m thisyear. The savings Pat was reading about in thereport were only a part of them, Brian said.Trying to explain it in a simpler way, Brianadded that had DaC’s year been from January1 to December 31 and we had made staff sav-ings of £1m, by the June those savings wouldstill only have been a half million. The fullfinancial savings would not show until the fol-lowing full financial year. So the savings thatBrian estimated to be around £1.25m wouldnot show in full until the current financial year

Pat Keefe

Brian Rice



ended. Pat asked about BoM costs and Briantold him they were down by around £70K -£80K.

Pat Sheehan (W54)spoke next. He asked Brianabout the £5.9m we had onaccount and how it wasinvested? Brian reiteratedwhat he had said earlier inthat we had £3m in a spe-cial higher interest accountthat we had to leave in for12 months. We did that knowing we hadalmost £3m still to play with should it beneeded. Pre-empting the question, Brianadded that if we were to make some largecapital expenditure, we would know morethan 12 months in advance that we would beneeding the money. He also said that we hadanother £2m on a higher interest account, butthis one was on an overnight basis. Pat thenasked whether we should consider putting£3m in a long-term account or into gilts so thatwe could claim the associated tax advantages?Brian reiterated about the £3m in a 12-monthdeposit account and also explained that in agood week we might have to pay out DaC dri-vers to the tune of around £1m – or now thatwe pay fortnightly, around £2m of driver pay-ments. Brian then explained that in the not-too distant future, we would be needingmoney. Itemising that need, the Chairmanspoke of a new accounting system, new calltaker’s screens, a new on-line booking systemfor customers, then a new dispatching systemfollowed by new driver terminals and said thatwe wanted not to have to borrow money inorder to do all that.

Ending with a smile, Pat asked whether wehad considered opening an office in Jersey!

Laurence Kelvin (W88)stepped up to the lecternnext and asked why,according to the AnnualReport, DaC employed twofirms of solicitors – one inthe West End and one inMayfair? Brian’s retort wasthat it was a good questionand that he would try to keep the answer brief– leading to the editor putting a new tape intohis aging machine and keeping another onehandy! Brian started by telling of a solicitorfrom Fladgate Fielder working for us for 35years by the name of Stuart Tilling. (Ed’s note:He first acted for ODRTS in 1969 when thiscompany was led by Jack Russell as Chairmanand Bill Brown as Secretary. He had actedcontinuously, whenever needed, even thoughhe became a Partner in Fladgate Fielder alongthe way. Stuart retired in November 2004).The Chairman went on to describe Stuart ashaving been an excellent solicitor who kneweverything there was to know about friendlyand mutual trading societies. As a conse-quence of Stuart’s retirement, we had a newsolicitor at Fladgate Fielder working for us.While a very nice young man, his experienceof friendly and mutual trading societies wasvery limited. He would certainly have learnedover the years from experience, but in themeantime Brian met a solicitor from Field

Fisher Waterhouse at a function, who hedescribed as a top man in a top company. Healso said that this solicitor knew Mike Toveyas Brian had introduced them. The Chairmancontinued that it soon became obvious to himthat this solicitor was very knowledgeableabout friendly and mutual trading societies aswell as co-operatives. He was also the solici-tor who dealt with the RTG demutualisation,so his knowledge of friendly societies was sec-ond to none. Brian also emphasised that wehad not discarded Fladgate Fielder, but thatnow we went to whichever firm we felt wouldbe suitable for a given problem.

Someone from the floor asked if we paid aretainer to either and Brian said that we didn’t.

Ray Sorene (A53) stoodup next and asked Brianwhether debtors to theSociety were small businessor large ones going under?Brian replied that we hadbeen hit by the Icelandicbanks collapse and a fewothers that had gone under.He went on to explain about our credit controlsystem, which he described as excellent andgave the example of an account that spent£100K a month. He said the company woulduse DaC in January and spend £100K. We thenbilled them on February 1 but they had 30 daysto pay the money, which meant that they haduntil the end of February to pay their Januarytaxi usage bill. But then they didn’t pay it,while in the meantime they had run up anoth-er £100K bill for February. We then becomeaware of the situation and begin pressing themfor the money, but it could be another two orthree weeks before we realise that we aren’tgoing to be paid – by which time we are look-ing at a bill of almost £300K. He explained thatthere was always a risk involved but that wedid not open any accounts before doing a fullcredit check on the prospective client. Wealways try to keep bad debts to a minimum,Brian said, but in this economic climate therewill always be some. We have a few and therecould be more, but the time differencebetween usage and paying is a risk we have totake. Ray accepted the explanation and wentexit stage left. There were no further questionson the report...

Auditor’s Report on the Balance SheetMike Tovey of Dial-a-CabAuditors, ChantreyVellacott DFK LLP, spokenext going through theincome and expenditureaccounts for the year ending31 August 2009 and explain-ing the figures given in theEnd of Year Annual Report...

However, as Mike put it, before giving theofficial version wearing his auditor’s cap, Mikewanted to give his view of the Society assomeone who had worked for DaC for manyyears. He said that there were many business-es out there that could not and did not survivein the last year’s financial conditions, but thatdespite a sharp drop in income, we had donewell considering the circumstances. But while

not wishing to sound complacent, even theloss we suffered could almost be considered asuccess compared to many other businesses.He also pointed out that while the previousyear’s profits had been very good, they hadbeen somewhat flattered due to the sale ofBrunswick House, so that had to be taken intoconsideration. Without that, said Mike, itwould have left us with a surplus of around£300K, so we had gone from that to a loss of£100K. He then added that the loss of £100Kout of reserves of £12.5m was not somethingto get concerned about. He also said thatwhile no loss is good and that the next year’saccounts haven’t been audited, it certainlylooked as though DaC would at least breakeven and more probably go into profit again.“That is a situation you should be reasonablysatisfied to see,” he said.

He then picked up on Ray Sorene’s ques-tion re bad debts, He said they had increasedthree-fold from £12,000 to £49,000 but saidthat having bad debts of £49K out of aturnover of £33.5m was a drop in the Ocean.He then went on to look at some of the com-panies that went under, such as former DaCclient Lehman Brothers. “Imagine if theyhad still been a client of yours!” He then saidthat many companies would be delighted tohave figures such as those of DaC. His onlyconcern was that private hire were obviouslyon the march and he pointed out Addison Leeas a company we should be aware of. Mikethen took questions...

Auditor’s Report – Matters arisingRay Sorene (A53) returned to the lectern andasked if any of the three taxi companies hadbeen hit by the Lehman Brothers collapse? Theanswer was that cars took the biggest hit withWestOne and Burgundy losing most and to alesser extent, Radio Taxis. Ray then asked if weserviced Bear Stearns? The answer was thatwe did to a small extent, but they used cars farmore than taxis and in their case it had beenBrunel Carriage that had suffered. Brian addedthat besides good management, you also need-ed luck. After all, he said, who’d have thoughta bank such as Lehman Brothers would col-lapse. Had they been with us, it could havecost us £750K. Ending, Mike said that our per-formance as compared to RTG was excellent,adding that he was not saying that to gloat, butthat it was always good to compare yourprogress against that of your competitors.

Laurence Kelvin (W88) got up to speakagain and asked Mike if he could just for amoment imagine himself at DaC House onMonday morning, not as an auditor but as amanagement consultant, what advice would hegive the Board? Mike considered that therewasn’t too much to criticise in the way weworked, but the big challenge was the one wefaced from private hire. Laurence askedwhether we should bring in consultants? Mikesaid he didn’t think that would help too muchbut agreed with Laurence that a suggestionfrom a previous AGM about replacing Boardmembers with professionals could be a goodidea. Mike said that our Board had done wellover the years, including the appointment ofsome professionals already, but that it could be

Mike Tovey

Ray Sorene

Laurence Kelvin

Pat Sheehan



advantageous if the Board just brought in over-all strategy and allowed professionals to putthat into motion and delivering it day to day.

Joe Brazil (K16) thenstepped up and commend-ed the Board on reducingtheir emoluments by £69K.He described it as a colossalamount to save in what wasa very hard year. He alsowanted to ask what the netcash inflow from operatingactivities was made up of? The answer con-cerning what monies came in and what wentout was too long and complicated to put it alldown here, but Joe accepted it! He thenbrought up Addison Lee and said that henoticed on their website that they had recent-ly purchased Express Cars, adding that theyexpected their turnover this year to be £118m.Joe added to Mike Tovey’s earlier statement ofbeing aware of Addison Lee and said weshould be afraid! Brian Rice then entered theconversation talking of PH companies buyingup each other and how they were getting big-ger. Brian added that whatever we did, wewould never be able to compete with them onprice. He said that their drivers rightly expect-ed to earn less than us and that a section ofthe public had grown up with that and expect-ed to pay less for a car with a satnav becauseas Mike had said earlier, cash was king andeverybody was looking at saving money.

The Chairman then sent a few ripples ofshock around the hall when telling membersthat we had recently retained a major cityaccount because we supplied their groundtransportation, adding quickly that contrary torumours spouted by some who wished to dis-credit DaC, our job distribution engine wasbrought in to protect our work and to makesure we kept a foothold in these accounts.This particular account was huge and theytold Brian that the bank’s new policy meantthat any trip going to a London postal districtwould go in a Toyota Prius because it wasgreen and London taxis weren’t. It was ashock! Companies like Lewis Day have 250Prius, while Climate Cars run 80 of them. Howcould we override bank policy? The next thingyou’d hear was that “Ricey was sticking all ourwork into cars,” he said, asking what theywere supposed to do as it was bank policy.Brian continued that there was a consultationdocument that talked of 10 and 15 year oldcabs being phased out. These corporate com-panies were light years ahead of us, he said –they wanted green cars and they wanted themNOW, while we couldn’t even decide if wecould have 10 or 15 year old taxis.Fortunately, said the Chairman, he managed toargue with the account managers and theyhad now agreed that any ASAP trips up to 30minutes – which was 98% of their work –would still go in our cabs. If we hadn’t hadour job distribution engine and not handledtheir ground transportation, said Brian, wewould not even have known about their deci-sion to put work into the Toyota Prius until ithad actually happened. “At least this way, Ihad the opportunity to try and talk them outof their decision and for the short term I have,but that’s the way things are going. Make no

mistake, all the major banks will follow them.” Brian confirmed Joe’s opinion that we

should be worried and that all we could giveto the customer was an excellent service. Briancontinued by saying that there would alwaysbe some people prepared to pay for good ser-vice, just as there are those that will eat at LaGavroche and the Savoy, rather than George’sCafe. But even so, said Brian, it was becomingvery, very difficult to retain our business and tokeep those customers happy because theywanted more and more and then more.

Brian then compared the numbers of privatehire with that of taxis and pointed out that theywere now three times the size of the combinedgreen and yellow badge taxi fleet. Letting outan unusual glimpse of frustration, the Chairmantold the floor that the DaC Board were gettingfed up with the “nonsense” spouted by thosewho write to trade papers or message boardsclaiming that DaC put their work into cars.“What an absolute load of...... nonsense,” hesaid, pointing out that DaC did everything itcould, fighting “tooth and nail” to retain thatwork and that members should be happy thatthis BoM had the foresight to bring inConcierge in 2004, otherwise we would nothave had the accounts with JPMorgan,Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. And what didwe get, he asked? Our own drivers attemptingto get DaC investigated by the FSA, becausethese drivers claimed unsuccessfully that wehad contravened the rules of the Society. Thedrivers here today care and know the truth, butthere were those out there in our own industrywho only wanted to tear down and destroy. Dowe get annoyed, he said? Of course we do.Laughter followed a round of applause whenBrian added that he felt better with that off hischest! To even more laughter and with smilesall round, Joe Brazil joked that with Brian insuch a bad mood, he was almost afraid to askanother question – but he did! That questionwas whether the BoM had considered reducingthe fleet size even further or did Brian consid-er that things were improving? Brian respondedthat things were picking up but that it was abalancing act and that if we reduced the fleettoo much, it could reflect on our service. DaCalso needed the income from subscriptions, headded, and that we could reduce the fleet to1000 but we’d have to double driver’s subs. Healso said that they would not want to do thatand were very mindful of driver subscriptioncosts. He reminded drivers that subs were notincreased last year and he was also hopeful ofthe status quo being maintained this year,although he emphasised that time would tell.

Brian went on to talk about what he joking-ly referred to as his pet subject – Addison Lee.He spoke of their ashtrays with AL’s phonenumbers on and said that several drivers hadasked why we didn’t do something similar. Theanswer, he said, was because we just wouldn’tcover that type of work. If we got a call on2am Saturday morning from a pub in WalworthRoad going to Surrey Quays with four passen-gers who’d had about 30 pints between them,he gave as an example, we just wouldn’t coverit and the ad would become counter-produc-tive. Joe chimed in quickly to more laughs say-ing that no one would pick them up becausehe had taken them at 01.30!

Ray Sorene (A53) stepped back up to the

lectern again and asked whether those corporatecustomers of DaC who wanted to use the ToyotaPrius were aware of the brake recall? Brianresponded that they were the first to be told.

A vote then took place on accepting thereport with the Chairman then querying: “Wasthat all right Mr Fisher?” Mike Tovey then leftthe meeting to a warm round of applause.

Because the meeting was progressing in suchan orderly way, the Chairman bent protocolsomewhat and allowed questions out of theirrelevant sections. He also went easy on thosewho threw questions from the floor withRussell Poluck (T55) asking when we couldexpect new terminals and what would theyconsist of? Brian inferred that had it not beenfor the recession, we had considered havingthe new terminals in February 2009, but couldsee the way business was going and decidedas a Board that such a large capital expenditurewould not be in the Society’s interest.Responding to the second part of Russell’squestion, Brian said the main difference, otherthan it obviously being much more modern asthe current ones were 10 years old, was thatthe terminals would be fitted for chip and pin,in addition to having satnav. However, the bot-tom line was that it would throw you a job thatyou would either accept or reject. The big dif-ference between 10 years ago and the presentday was that we now expected to pay much,much less for new terminals than we did backthen. Ten years ago, we were the first taxicompany in the world to use a touch screenterminal for drivers. It was totally unique andbespoke. Now, while the cost would be muchless, we have other priorities that come first.However, he said that he hoped we’d havesomething within 2 or 3 years.

Russell also asked whether the system couldadd the complete postcode when giving dri-vers a job in case it was in an awkward placeand the driver wanted to use his satnav? Briansaid that the system couldn’t do it unless wewere prepared to pay an extra £120 permobile to upgrade the Geographers map. TheChairman added that it wouldn’t be worth itfor just 2 or 3 years.

Joe Skeggs (V34)enquired (from the floor)whether we could possiblydo a deal with the mappingcompany? Brian again said itwouldn’t be worth it andalso gave his view of sat-navs in taxis. He said thatwhile he would always keepone in his cab, he would never keep it on dis-play on the front windscreen as some do. “Wetry to sell our taxi drivers as being superior toprivate hire,” he said, “then the passenger getsinto one of our taxis and sees a satnav in thefront! The driver terminals are below the pas-senger’s eyeline and a satnav wouldn’t show.”The Chairman pointed out the increase in pas-sengers getting into taxis and giving a post-code instead of a destination and said that wehad to be above that.

Following complaints that he couldn’t beheard, Joe Skeggs then moved onto thelectern. While Joe made his way there,Brian Rice asked for a vote on re-appoint-

Joe Skeggs

Joe Brazil


ing Chantrey Vellacott...Brian then said that as all the votes had

been taken, any further questions fromthat point would come under the AnyOther Business category...

Joe Skeggs then continued on the CabMastersatnav device that he had bought and said wasexcellent. Brian said that for the £300 Joe hadpaid, he’d want a new terminal. However, heagreed to speak to CabMaster to see whetherthey would do any deals for our drivers.

Bob Ambrose (V13),looking well after somehealth problems, spokenext. He mentioned allthose that had written inCall Sign – including MikeSon and Keith Cain -about improving our ser-vice. Bob’s view was thatwhile service was important, cost was as welland he believed that we could cut some costswithout damaging our finances too much. Hethen asked Brian how he believed we couldimprove once our service was accepted asbeing very good? The Chairman said he didn’tbelieve we could compete on price or a greenvehicle, so the only thing we could offer wasan excellent service with a clean cab arrivingon time with a polite driver. If you get to thedoor with a lower run-in, then that was evenbetter. But we also had one added bonus andthat was the licensed London DaC taxi driver.He went on to say that we had accountswhere 99% of ordered taxis arrived within 5minutes and no one could better that kind ofservice. The problem would come when thework picks up – and it will, he said. But wemust not become complacent, he added,because that service is really the only stringwe have left on our bow. He pointed out thatthe opposition use cheaper labour and drivecheaper, greener cars, which made our posi-tion difficult. But Brian also said that hebelieved the new TfL Director of taxis and pri-vate hire, John Mason, was someone wecould work with, but Brian still felt the play-ing field to be uneven.

Bob came back to say that the HoC had asuccessful fixed price service and why couldn’twe extend that to more accounts? TheChairman responded that the policy of theHouse was to use taxis, but added that bankswere more concerned with price. He then toldthe meeting how much the Society earned asan average on each trip and said that there wasvery little leeway to cut more, contrary to whatsome drivers seemed to think. Bob said therehad to be something more and Brian told himwhat DaC COULD do: “We could win workback. There could be a dead clock with norun-in, no driver gratuity, no percentage ser-vice charge and a fixed service DaC fee of£2.50, every trip so that all the customer paidwould be the meter fare plus £2.50 to DaC. Hesaid he guaranteed we would win work back,but when we got to the Chelsea flower showand it began to get busier, we wouldn’t coverthe work and we would lose all those accountsanyway. “Why would you run past peoplewith their hands out where you can get fullfare, to run for a trip on which you would get

less money? It’s easy to cut prices during adownturn,” said Brian, “but it’s equally difficultto raise them again when business picks up.”

He added to applause that he was againstcutting prices and believed that there wereenough out there who wanted good serviceand that’s what he wanted to sell them. TheChairman added that whilst there wouldalways be radio taxi circuits, he wasn’t certainwhether there would always be room for threeof them. However, he repeated that our finan-cial position was very strong. To show whatwe were up against, he gave some details ofwhy we were not the preferred supplier toEurostar anymore, just an approved one. Hesaid that following many years of good serviceto that account, they asked us to supplycoaches at St Pancras and Ashford and we hadresponded saying that we did not operatecoaches. As a result, Radio Taxis said theywould do it and they won the account. Briansaid that there still weren’t too many accountsout there like that, but that we were movingto a situation where the larger companieswanted diversification and we would have todecide if we wanted to move that way or justget smaller and smaller.

Bob then suggested we used E14 as a sound-ing ground by putting in some cut pricesbecause as the zone was physical, drivers couldpossibly cut their run-ins, but Brian respondedby saying that all the companies knew whateach were paying and if DaC cut the price of aCanary Wharf company, at the banks nextmonthly meeting they would all know and allbe knocking on our door for the same deal.

Bob’s final point was to reiterate what MikeSon had written in Call Sign – make everythingAD to improve coverage even further? Brian’sresponse was that if the BoM brought that in,someone would bring in a proposition at theAGM to bring back destinations and that itwould succeed, thereby undermining the Board.

Paul Duffy (M55) then climbed the lecternand began by congratulating the Board on theSociety’s strong financial situation. He alsoasked a personal question that Call Sign feelsis unnecessary to go into.

The final speaker should have been RaySorene (A53) who spoke on the new termi-nals - when they do come - and asked whetherthey would work on a zonal system as at pre-sent or on GPS? Brian said that a zonal systemsuited our drivers better as GPS did not taketraffic or diversion problems into account,whereas our current system leaves it to thedecision of the driver as to whether he or shecan reach a pick-up within the allocated time.

As Ray stood down, Brian brought themeeting to a close by saying that it had beena pleasure to conduct it. He said that herealised it was a bone of contention that sofew attend nowadays, but he appreciated thefact that drivers asked sensible questions andallowed him to give an answer without tryingto scream him down. It had, he said, beenconstructive, orderly, well-mannered and hadgiven him the opportunity to relay what theDaC Board were trying to do for what Briancalled “your Society.” He thanked the mem-bers because as he said, the meeting had beenan enjoyable one.

Just as everyone begangetting up to go for eithertheir roast beef andYorkshire pud or the Sundayfootie on TV, Jim Baptist(E06) got up and made aquick point about needingmore cash work but that the£2 surcharge was getting inthe way. Allowing the late question, Brianexplained about the costs involved and madethe point that it wasn’t the £2 that driversdidn’t like; it was having to collect it.

Then everyone got up quickly and departedwith Call Sign’s watch showing 12.45...

Voting resultsTo approve the minutes of the 2008 AGM:99% in favour and 1% againstTo approve the Annual Report for 2009:99% in favour and 1% againstTo reappoint Chantrey Vellacott as auditors: 98.3% in favour and 1.7% against


JIm Baptist

Bob Ambrose


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Buy a ‘10’ Plate TX4in March before theincrease in firstregistration tax on1st April, and saveyourself money

To beat the price rise contact your local dealer today

When Call Sign recently met Dan Brown(B16), the DaC driver was still fuming over aproblem he had experienced with his 15-month-old TX4. We’ll let Dan take up the story;

“I had the 40,000 miles service at my LTIdealer on a Thursday and they didn’t reportany impending trouble, so when the cab gaveme grief big time on the following Saturday, Iwas not impressed,” he told us grim-faced.

“I was in the narrow, eastern section of OxfordStreet by the roadworks and stuck behind a buswhich apparently couldn’t shut its doors. I satthere for over an hour with my engine runningas the weather was freezing and I assumed wewould be moving off any time soon!”

Dan continued with his tale of woe.“Apparently buses cannot move unless thedoors are closed securely, it’s a safety device –a bit like the motion sensors on a cab. Therewas a great deal of activity between the busdriver and his mates, who tried to force thedoors shut. When I realised things were notgoing to happen too quickly, I switched off myengine. Eventually the bus doors got sortedand the old Fairway taxi immediately in frontof me started up and pulled away, no problem.

“I tried to start my cab and all I heard was amachine-gun like noise from the area of the fusebox and flashing warning lights randomly illu-minated on the dash, a bit like a fruit machine! Iwas holding up the traffic for miles around untilsomeone helped me push the cab onto thepavement and out of the way. I phoned the RACand their patrolman arrived around 3 hours later!He jump-started my cab through a charger onhis van battery. It started, but everything on mycab was dead. He followed me towards home,but the cab failed again and he jump-started me

for a second time. It seemed ok then, so Ithought I’d try to work the cab assuming I wouldbe able to charge the battery sufficiently for it tobe able to start normally when I needed to workover the weekend.

“Soon after, I had stopped for a wheelchairuser, loaded him into the cab and then put themeter on. But it just showed 6666.666! I had nochoice but to leave him at the roadside in casewe broke down again and I staggered home,realising I had lost the entire weekend’s work.At one point on the journey home, I also lostpower as if the hand brake was fully applied,


Dan gets Stranded– in Oxford Street!

Not a happybunny - Danand battery

but thankfully that symptom cleared and I gothome ok. The RAC re-started me at home onthe Monday morning and I crept into my deal-ership, who diagnosed a faulty battery! It’sfunny how modern technology can cause suchhavoc and mayhem. The bus couldn’t movebecause its doors would not close, I couldn’tmove because my battery failed, yet the oldFairway in front of me simply started up whenthe road cleared and went on his way!”

“Aaaaaaahhhh,” was Dan’s plaintive cry asCall Sign asked if we could borrow a fiver...!

©Call Sign Magazine MMX

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200 Hydrogen TX4s in

Time for the Olympics

Hydrogencell TX4sin timefor 2012?

According to the Environmental TransportAssociation (ETA), London will have 200 TX4 taxispowered by hydrogen fuel cells running aroundtown in time for the 2012 London Olympics.Intelligent Energy, Lotus, TRW Conekt and LTI aredeveloping the taxis and in order to allow the vehi-cles to be properly integrated into the city, fivehydrogen filling stations are to be provided in timefor the Games.

Air Products will launch the mobile trailer-mount-ed refuelling units, which can be parked on the fore-courts of regular fuel stations. By using these mobilesystems, the infrastructure for the hydrogen-pow-ered taxis can remain relatively cheap and quick toimplement.

Commenting on the ETA's website, a spokesper-son from the association explained:

“A TX4 emits 226g CO2 per km, but the problemwith diesel-engined vehicles in urban areas is moreabout the particulates released in their exhaust. Thedetrimental effect this has on health makes a strongcase for switching to fuel cell technology.”

As Call Sign revealed last July, the taxis will beable to operate for a full day without refuelling andhave a top speed of around 75mph. It is alsoclaimed that the fuel cell power-train will provideeven better acceleration than current models.

The taxis will top up their hydrogen tanks at cen-tral depots using a refuelling process that takes justa few minutes, whilst even winter will prove to beno problem with the fuel cell system being able tofunction at temperatures down to -20C. It will fit inthe space where the VM engine sits in the currentTX4.

The hydrogen fuel cells taxis will emit no emis-sions during use....

Credit cardsThe number of times the topic of driverstaking credit cards off the street has beenwritten about in Call Sign must run intohundreds! But despite all that has beensaid, drivers are still not following the cor-rect procedures. So I am bringing this toeveryone’s attention because we’re seeingan increase in the number of refusals topay by the clearing bank.

When picking up off the street and the pas-senger wants to pay by credit card, you musttake a rubbing of the card and obtain a signa-ture. Even if the card is swiped, you must forsecurity reasons take a rubbing of the card.

It is paramount that every driver carriesour own credit card slips, which enableyou to do this quite simply. Just place thecard under three copies and rub the topcopy with a pen or pencil. The card num-ber will then emboss itself through thepages of the credit book. Fill in theamounts and then get the passenger tosign the top copy.

This is the only method that is accept-able to the clearing bank and prevents anyproblems with payment. Firstly it provesthe card was present and secondly you willhave a matching signature.

Entering the card details manually is notenough to prove the card was present aswell as not getting a signature, whichwould be ridiculous.

Those that rely on the receipt from theterminal as proof, this is not enoughwhen picking up off the street. Driversmust use Dial-a-Cab credit card receipts...

Nice news!At a recent meeting with our senior con-trollers, I raised the issue of driver’s per-formances. How was coverage? Were dri-vers following procedural rules? How wastheir general conduct? Well I’m verypleased to report that the controllers onlyhad compliments. Allan Evans has dealtwith those one or two who decided to notplay the game...

Making your own contact?I have recently spoken with drivers regard-ing the problems they have when receivingcall centre instructions for them to maketheir own contact with passengers. On manyoccasions drivers have found that because aflat number was not given to them, contacthas been impossible.

I listened to a number of recordings and

in most cases the client, when asked for thefull pick-up address details, had not giventhe telephonist a flat number. I have reiter-ated to all telephonists that for the future,even though they ask for a full-pick upaddress, when this address is away from thedefault account address they must ask thecaller whether there is a flat number. I havealready heard this happening and it hasaverted the problem. But the question stillcomes back as to why can’t someone giveus their full address when asked. I supposethat’s what they call being in the serviceindustry and what makes one company bet-ter than the rest...

Cash booking fee...A point was raised at the AGM regarding the£2 booking fee charge against cash tele-phone hirings. I would like to confirm thatthe caller is asked automatically if theywould like to listen to the terms and if select-ed, then a full explanation is given to them.Telephonists also confirm with all cash andcredit card callers whether they are aware ofour terms and conditions. If they answer no,our telephonist then reads them out and willnot proceed with the booking unless thecaller wants to continue. The point herebeing that while some drivers find it difficultto charge the full amount, be reassured thatthe passengers are fully aware of it andexpecting to be charged...

Keith Cain Call Centre Manager

Driver Operations Manager


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With rumours among driver’s partnersthat the age of romance had long beenovertaken by reports on traffic problemsat the Limehouse Link or waiting times atHeathrow, Call Sign decided to put it tothe test and picked several Dial-a-Cabdrivers at random to see what surprisesthey had in store for their other halves onValentine’s Day. Several of those wespoke to said they had nothing planned,while one bright spark said he’d beenmarried over 40 years and “...I’m not start-ing all that business now!” Then therewas the driver who told us he had justsplit up from his wife the previous dayand yet another who said he’d had tenwonderful years with his wife “...but theproblem is that we’ve been married forover twenty!”

Feeling rather dejected and wonderingwhether romance had evaporated like theDecember snow, Call Sign’s hack hit thestreets determined to find the answer to thequestion of whether love was alive andflourishing?

We soon metPhil Butcher(A98), whowhen weasked howlong he hadbeen married,had to checkthe inscription inside his wedding ring forthe date!

“Oh yes, 2005,” he said fairly convinc-ingly, “so that’s 5 years, although some-times it feels like 10.” he grinned. “But Istill love her dearly,” he said just in caseshe reads the mag! “We have no plans forthe 14th February for several reasons - mywife, Fran, is expecting our second childin March and we have a 2-year-old son,which makes baby minding a bit difficulttoo. Anyway, in the past we’ve alwaysended up with some sort of disaster on theFeast of Romance so we’ll just do our ownthing as and when we can. Love is a yearround thing, not just for February,” he saidgrinning.

Next wespoke to RobP e a r m a n(E28), whowas takingCarla, his girl-friend of threemonths, for a meal at The Cricketersrestaurant in Clavering, Essex.

“It’s owned by Jamie Oliver’s parents.Carla knows we’re going out, so that’s nota surprise, but she doesn’t know whereI’ve booked.”

Alfie Harp(T57) alsoplanned to takehis wife Tracyout to lunch.“We celebrateour silver wed-ding anniver-sary in April, so 25 years means it needsto be something special,” Alfie told Call

Sign. “I’ve let her arrange it and we’regoing to The Chequers pub/restaurantnear Much Haddam in Essex. Having wonawards, it should be somewhere specialfor someone very special,” he told us,almost bringing a tear to our typesetter!“She’ll probably guess that I’m bringinghome a bouquet of flowers, but she defi-nitely won’t be expecting the bottle of herfavourite perfume from Jo Malone!”

We found newcomer to DaC, JohnGibbings (E01), next. John has only beenon DaC for 1month and wasplanning a sur-prise lunch forwife Mirandaand their twoyoung sons.

“I’m cookinglamb with all the trimmings from a recipebook so that I get it just right. Of coursethere will be wine and candles on thetable - although the youngsters might notget to drink the vino! And courtesy ofDial-a-Cab’s special ticket offers fromTom Whitbread, we’ll also be going to thetheatre, so I’m doing it properly - thewhole business!”

Next into the Call Sign equivalent of acourt of law’s witness box steppedMichael Kennedy (M30). His plan wasto buy wife Liza book - “ butit’s one that shereally wanted,”he told us. “It’scalled TheMaster and iswritten byColm Toibin. It’s about five years in thelife of American author Henry James andwill hopefully be a big surprise for her,because I’ve said absolutely nothingabout it.” Obviously the practical type,Michael added that an expensive cardwas nice, but he preferred to buy some-thing she would make use of and keep!

Last in our mini-survey was TonyEaster (G27) - another new recruit toDaC, his taxijust being fittedas we spoke tohim at RomanWay - andanother practi-cal driver!

“We’re goingout for dinner on the Monday evening –the day after Valentine’s,” he said,“because I’ll be working on the cab onthe Sunday and Lynne, the lady in mylife these past 18 years, is studying for herdegree.” Then showing Call Sign his

logic, he explained that you rarely need-ed to book a table on Mondays! Theromance showed through when he toldus that he had let Lynne choose wherev-er she would like to go – provided it wasaround the Bexley area! “Mexican, Greekor Italian – I’m easy,” he said!

So give or take a bit, it does appear thatromance is still in abundance with DaC’sfinest - even in these straitened times.Cupid obviously still has some arrows inhis quiver...!

©Call Sign Magazine MMX


What Happened onValentine ’s Day?

Who said romance was dead as Call Sign asks...

Albert

Bridge

closed for

18 months

While four others crossingsonly have roadworks!

Picturesque...but uselessLondon’s most picturesque bridge, Albert, has nowclosed to all traffic except bicycles for 18 months whilea support timber structure is built beneath it, the roadsurface is renewed and the whole bridge is repainted.

Albert Bridge is not alone with roadworks.Hammersmith has suffered with weekend closures,with Battersea and Waterloo Bridges having dailycongestion while maintenance work is undertakenand of course you don’t need Call Sign to tell youabout the Blackwall Tunnel. It used to be said thattaxi drivers did not want to go south of the river –now it seems to be more of a case that we can’teven get there!

A TfL spokesperson told Call Sign that there wereonly a limited number of Thames crossings and theheavy traffic carried meant that occasional closureswere necessary and they did try to coordinate timingswith the affected boroughs. The Albert Bridge repairsare estimated to cost around £7million.

It was barely three years ago, in April 2007, fol-lowing a spate of DaC drivers receiving tickets forcrossing Albert Bridge in “overweight vehicles” thatCall Sign had a meeting with Kensington andChelsea council officials, finally getting them tochange to weight restrictions from 2 tonnes up to2.5 tonnes – meaning that we could use AlbertBridge. It looks as though once again our Chelseaand Battersea passengers taxi bills are going toshoot up...


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Should Call Sign Have PublishedTHAT Letter (1)...???

This magazine has never won any awards for tact! If we want to ask a question or publish a controversial letter, then we gener-ally go at it full tilt hoping that at the very least it will create a discussion on the subject.

That’s what we did when we published a letter in the last issue from Martin Cox, who although he has a green badge and wason the Board at Radio Taxis, has spent the past years on the private hire side of the fence and in direct competition to thelicensed taxi business. He was responding to another controversial article – this one in the previous issue, from Board memberMike Son on how we could win back our work.

Following publication, Call Sign’s phone rang consistently for two days with drivers wanting to talk about it. Several emailswere received, but only a few wanted publication although some wanted to go in the magazine but not give their names. Sadly,Call Sign has a rule that – except in special circumstances – if you don’t want your name published, then we can’t put your let-ter in. We do not want any possibility of readers believing we have made letters up.

We have picked out two letters giving both sides of the argument...

From Mark Blackett (M16)How could Call Sign have the audacity to publish a letter from Mr Cox? The introduction of cars to Radio Taxis wasdetrimental to the drivers on the circuit at the time and unfortunately, Dial-a-Cab seem to be following that path withConcierge.

It does not matter how you try to sell it to the members, Concierge has opened the corporate doorways for privatehire companies to compete and take accounts. We should stick to our core business and not give our accounts to, forexample, Lewis Day to name but one.

You only have to look outside the London Wall account to see how much damage Concierge has done in giving pri-vate hire an opening into DB.

Mr Cox, (a PH proprietor) is now telling us how to win back work, the work PH companies are trying to take from under us! So, do youreally believe Mr Cox is giving us ways to win back work, or a smokescreen for him to take work away from us?

Mr Cox stated that he believed in the black cab trade and was trying to help us to win back work, then the question must be asked, asa green badge holder why is he running a private hire company and not working with a Licensed London taxi company to combat privatehire? Having had first hand experience of Mr Cox, I would be very wary of his comments.

Finally, Alan, I recommend you should think long and hard about publishing any letters from our competitors in the future.

Brian’s Taxi Driving Golden Anniversary

Brian has been driving taxis for 50 years

Fifty years in the saddle!Brian Abrahams (G91) recently celebrated 50 years of cab driving after gaining his Green Badge onFebruary 4, 1960. Speaking to Call Sign, he told us how he had completed the Knowledge on a push-bike in two years and then worked for the Great Cambridge Garage in Shoreditch on a 1/9d clock –that’s 9p to our younger readers!

The son of a cab driver, he recalled how his father gave him 5/- (25p) a week ‘subsistence money’ forfood and drink while out doing his Knowledge runs, while Brian would try to save some of that forpocket money.

“I remember my dad going out in his Low-loader taxi, dressed in his army great-coat and muffler dur-ing the winter months. The cabs were full of drafts, as you were exposed to the weather and you feltlike certain parts of your anatomy were freezing off,” Brian said with a smile. “I worked for GreatCambridge for over two years before moving to Ginger Nelson’s, which was the garage my fatherworked for. I bought my first cab - a new FX4 - from M&O in 1965 at a cost of £1100. Things seem tohave gone up a bit since!”

Still reminiscing, Brian spoke about his life outside of taxi driving. “After my wife of 45 years, footballis my first love. I’m a Spurs fan and have a season ticket, but I do recall the very next morning after I gotmy Badge, I told the garage night shift manager – obviously not a fan - that I would not be in to workthat evening because I was going to a match. He couldn’t understand why I would take a night offwork so soon after getting my Bill, but Spurs beat Crewe 13 - 2 that evening in a cup replay, so it wasworth it to me.”

Talking about how things had changed, Brian said that he had seen many changes within the tradeover the years. “The cab itself has improved in many ways, but for me, the introduction of power steeringand effective heating were the most welcome! My memory keeps returning to my dad in his muffler!”

Brian – who first appeared in Call Sign in March 1999 following a one-day trip to Poland to visit theAuschwitz concentration camp – added: “I’ve been on DaC for 37 years. I think Martin Gellman was theChairman back then and I’ve had my own callsign from day one. I’ve also gone through quite a fewnew cabs, as I used to change them every two years, but I think I’ll keep the one I’m currently driving. Imust say, I give all due credit to our current Board of Management for all the work they do, especially inthe present economic downturn. And our technology is unbeatable, it eliminates many of the dodgypractices of years gone by,” he said. “If only they could also rid us of all those roadworks!”

Finally, Call Sign asked Brian a question most of us get asked by non-cab drivers – picked up anyfamous passengers?

“I once picked up the Duchess of Kent from opposite Harrods and took her to Old Bond Street. Asshe got out of the cab, I politely enquired - tongue in cheek - if I might then display a Royal Warrant inthe windscreen. “Certainly not,” she said huffily as she strode off into a shop! I’ve also had two MPs aspassengers who later became Prime Ministers - Jim Callaghan and Gordon Brown.”

Congratulations to Brian from all at Call Sign and DaC...©Call Sign Magazine MMX


Should Call Sign Have PublishedTHAT Letter (2)...???

From Mark Hinds (C50)February’s Call Sign was monumental to me as for the first time in 9 years of reading various trade related press, I actually found not one, but twoarticles that were not whinging or moaning, but constructive and enlightening. I feel they can both therefore be used as ways to move this greatSociety forward.

We should thank Martin Cox for his letter regarding the PH view on the ground transportation business (good description), but I found the thoughtdisturbing that some members may complain you deemed fit to even publish this invaluable look at us from the outside and the advice it contained.Well to those members, I say you are dinosaurs refusing to adapt to changing times. The competition has changed, but due to your attitudes we areunable to do so. Subsequently we are becoming extinct - slowly and painfully. The refusal to change is, I have unfortunately found, endemicthroughout the trade, not just to DaC. This along with wrongly held beliefs that we are indispensable and that all our demands should be met. Justask the miners, dockers and print workers how those beliefs worked for these once great institutions. So, if we decide to carry on as we are andignore lessons of the past, will we also become a trade consigned to nothing more than a GCSE history question?

Also, a bigger thank you and hoorah goes to James Griffin (T97) for putting most of my own views in such a well thought out piece (p12 FebCall Sign).

Now for my two pennies worth; I can see a common flaw in all articles relating to PH competition. Why do we keep referring to the work avail-able as ‘OUR WORK’? It’s not, it is work that is out there and available to whoever can provide the service required at a price that is acceptable. Sowe have to get over this sense of entitlement before we can move on as a business. To all intents and purposes DaC is effectively a PH firm thatuses Licensed London Taxis as its vehicles. That is therefore a market we compete within and are currently losing in.

I have also noticed a lot of articles referring to when our work returns to ‘NORMAL’. Don’t count on it, whenever a financial period such as we arecurrently experiencing happens, the previous status quo rarely returns. People have had to find, if not a better, then certainly a more cost effective wayof doing business. So don’t hold your breath on ‘OUR WORK’ just returning to ‘NORMAL. We must change and then we can go and win it back.

If you still think we will just get through this period and it will be back to normal, then think on. It’s only a fewshort years to 2015 and then Crossrail will be having a go at our market share. No more Padders to Moorgate, youwill be lucky to get further than Berkeley Square.

So how do we compete effectively for OUR market share? We already offer better coverage than PH, our vehiclesare built for purpose, we can use bus lanes and generally do journeys quicker than PH. So what can it be? It has tobe price! Now here is the bitter pill to swallow; we as drivers have to be willing to take a small loss in earnings perjob in the hope that our excellent sales team can generate more jobs in the long term. How, you ask? Easy, lose therun-in (Mountview minicabs already have) and the gratuity - both unnecessary expenses to the client. Then the ridicu-lous £4 premium for picking up at stations and theatres. How do you get on a rank today? Never mind turning awayjobs while you wait for an account client. When was the last time a theatre burst wasn’t covered by loads of emptycabs? Not in years. Lose it, it’s unnecessary. These small reductions have to be offered to all existing accounts nowand to all future accounts. By losing these small amounts per job, you will allow our sales team and account mangersto cut account’s ground transportation costs by over 15% on average journeys. If they then go on and at the very least

increase our work by just one more job per day, per driver, then we all will be no worse off. Remember 85% of something is a lot more than 100%of nothing.

When you are out and about, count the somewhat alarming number of AL cars you see. There are so many of them, but their business is work-ing on very small profit margins per job and relying on large volumes to generate massive profits for secret millionaires and shareholders. They haveexpanded rapidly and I see they have been telling porky pies about our prices (p25 Feb Call Sign). Surely we can use some of our surplus fundsto have a lawyer at least look at this defamation, slander, libel or maybe at the very least, publish our correct prices?

Make no bones about it, AL wants all our accounts and they will not stop until they get them. Well fight back now; if we give our sales team theammunition to go and just get back what they have already taken, we can and will start to turn the tide. Then we can go after all their accounts asaggressively as they have done to ours. AL has expanded too rapidly and though they may look strong, I actually feel this has left them very vul-nerable to even be able to cope with a small percentage drop in their account work. So let’s put them out of business before they do the same tous. Hey, we could even pick up a low mileage VW Sharan on the cheap for the missus!

Now I know that anything that means we take less money per job will not be liked universally within the Society, it’s not even popular withmyself. But I feel it is necessary to protect all our futures. The BoM, as I have read in Call Sign, doesn’t like upsetting groups of drivers but theyare there to make tough decisions, not to be popular. The members who complain the most, generally come up with no solutions or ideas to improvethe situation. Don’t worry, they won’t like you whatever you do.

So if you agree with T97 and myself, maybe not in our solutions but at least in our sentiment, let the BoM know. Let’s hear what youall think. If, however, you don’t agree with me at all, then I am open-minded and the opportunity is always there for you to change myview. But, before you try to change it, please reply to this simple statement and answer these relevant questions. With your beliefs inour entitlement to our so-called work, our right to charge a premium above what the open market sees fit, coupled with the idea thatthe work will just come back and pay it, please answer the following:

A) Is your business plan working for us at this current time? B) Is that business plan going to guarantee our future? If you answered yes to both, then my final question is very pertinent: C) Did you read and understand DaC’s financial report for the last trading year? Really! Now I am all ears. There is however, one final group of

members - those who don’t care either way so long as they take their money today. Well put your heads back in the sand, someone else will sort it outand let you know how it all turned out.

Now, if I have come across in a negative manner I apologise. On the contrary, I am very positive about the future, as long as we stop dwelling inthe past. I love being a Licensed London Taxi Driver and DaC is the best circuit out there. Let’s keep it that way by doing what is necessary, how-ever unpalatable it may be. If, however, we decide to do nothing, then I will see you all at the back of the Metropole waiting to get on the Paddersrank and I will of course say hello to any members of DaC’s office staff I see outside the job centre, we can maybe chat about the good old days!

Finally, there is a tired old expression within this whole trade, we have all heard it and some of us have even said it. “It’s not like it used to be,the game’s dead!” Well nothing’s like it used to be and the game is not dead. We just have to work harder at keeping it alive.

Let’s take short-term pain for long-term gain....

You have now seen two opposite views. As always, anyone wishing to contribute to the debate is welcome, providing you are happy togive your name and callsign ...Ed

The last Sunday in January saw the LondonTaxidrivers Fund for Underprivileged Children’s2010 Mad Hatters Tea Party. Once again it washeld in the magnificent surroundings of theGrosvenor House Hotel. The hotel’s donationfor the day of the Great Room, allowing 750 chil-dren and numerous carers to have the time oftheir lives, is brilliant. They deserve a hugeround of thanks and as good a service for therest of the year as taxis can give.

The children’s day began at around 1pm whenthey were greeted by numerous clowns, cos-tumed characters and Pearly Queens andKings and then led into Great Room where theywere thrilled to find hundreds of mixed glownovelties, all kindly donated by GlobalMarketing. Just as amazingly, the famousHousehold Cavalry assisted in carrying guestsin wheelchairs through! The children then tuckedinto their sandwiches, cakes and drinks, whilethe Fund’s Hon Chairman, Dial-a-Cab’s DavidLessman (D19) welcomed them. AudreySherry kindly donated fruit for the party andboy do 750 children eat a lot of fruit!

On stage was the Worshipful Lord Mayor ofWestminster, Councillor Duncan Sandys. Histwo year old son was with him and waved fran-tically at the crowd while MP Lee Sharp and hiswife Estelle also joined in the fun, but the mostpoignant moment came when Gerry Cooper,now in his 80s, presented David Lessman with acheque for £100. David informed everyone thatGerry had gone on the Fund’s outings as a child– including the first ever trip - and subsequentlybecame a taxi driver himself, driving numerouschildren on many of the LTFUC outings over theyears.

But back to the show! The wonderful lyricsoprano, Bergit Beer, showed off her outstand-ing voice with a magical version of Over theRainbow. How the Fund managed to get such abusy world traveller to appear and sing at theparty is just of immense credit to them.

The talented Bournemouth Carnival Bandfollowed Birgit and as always, gave their usualsuperb performance in creating a carnival atmos-phere. They led onto another donation whenDavid Lessman was joined on stage by a mem-ber of the Hilton Hotel, Euston who presentedthe LTFUC with a cheque for £300, which hadbeen raised from an indoor fixed bike ride heldlast year - one in which David took part! And no,he didn’t win! EDF Energy, Canning Towndonated a further cheque – this one for a mag-nificent £1000.

Two cast members of The Bill, Jason Barnett(Eddie Olosunje) and Micah Balfour (PC BenGayle) made an appearance on stage to thedelight of the kids – who then stayed on the floorto welcome the Destiny All Stars Cheerleaders,who also gave a great performance.

Then the day’s first big surprise. To a hugepop, the 2009 Britain’s Got Talent winners,Diversity appeared on stage. The children’sscreams were so loud that even the Great Room’shuge chandeliers shook! It was almost mass hys-teria, quietening down just enough to hear thegroup say how they remembered their roots andall the support the LTFUC had previously giventhem before they became famous. That was why

they wanted to come back to thank all their sup-porters. A bunch of really great guys and theLTFUC were grateful to Danni and Jenny formaking it happen. Diversity brought hundreds ofposters with them to sign and the childrenqueued tirelessly for autographs and to havephotos taken with them.

The Blue & White Rope Skippers came onwith an amazing display of their tremendousskills and were followed by two members fromEastenders - Madeline Dugga (LaurenBranning) and Tom Law who plays Peter Beale.They too stayed on to sign autographs.

The acts and celebrities just kept coming andnext on stage was I’m a Celebrity get me outof Here winner, Gino D’Acampo and runner-up, Kim Woodburn. They entered in style usingthe Bournemouth Carnival Band’s Batmobile –not to mention an escort of Batmen! Then cameBritain’s Got Talent competitors, Richard andLiam of Faces of Disco who delighted the audi-ence with their fun. They led up to boy bandBlazin’ Squad, who were also greeted with loudsqueals from adoring teenybopper fans whomust have known every one of their hit records!Yet another great performance...

The next act saw a sudden arrival of male car-ers joining the kids as the Cheeky Girls -Gabriela and Monica – came for their eighth con-secutive appearance at the Mad Hatters. Theirperformance was as good as ever, with their out-fits showing that the girls were filling out com-pared to their ultra-skinny days – hence the sud-den arrival of males! Naturally, DaC ChairmanBrian Rice and Compliance Officer Allan Evansmaintained their cool in the situation and stayedon the balcony with their wives - just relying onbinoculars!

Next onto the stage bounced boxing’s WBAHeavyweight Champion of the World, DavidHaye. After being interviewed by the ever-pre-sent and brilliant Dave Davies about his title winagainst Russian monster Nikolay Valuev, Britain'slatest champion signed autographs for the hugequeue of waiting children. David is scheduled tomake his first title defence against American JohnRuiz in Manchester on 3 April.

Britain’s Got Talent stars Quick ChangeDance Illusionists then went through theirastonishing act, with both children and adultslooking on in amazement as right in front of theireyes the duo changed outfits in a second. Thenfollowed the annual character parade. This sawthe children (and some adults!) rushing onto thedance floor to grab hold of their favourite char-acter for the conga. The atmosphere was justincredible!

Former Hip Hop International World / UKStreet dance Champions Plague performed abrilliant quickfire routine, which was the com-plete opposite to the party’s next trio of guests.Kids suddenly went silent – the first time allevening - as the Dr Who music filled the GreatRoom. Lights lowered and suddenly, appearingin the middle of the huge dance floor, wereOrion, Elsie and Nimrod – but that’s only to theirfriends! Before our eyes came the immortal intro-duction sounds of: Exterminate! Exterminate!The three Daleks eased up on their usual rayexterminators and instead squirted all those close

enough with water! The kids loved it! A star of the future, 14 year old Jazz Blaack,

then sang as though she had been doing it for-ever. No wonder the children loved her – shewas also the closest act to their age!

Bergit Beer then returned to perform anexcellent version of the Sarah Brightman hit from1997, Time to Say Goodbye. Even non-opera fansmust have felt moved by Birgit’s soprano voiceon this great piece of music.

DJ Dave Davies then announced the discoand everyone poured onto the huge dancefloor as the balloons came down!

Then a final surprise! Before leaving, all thechildren were led through the LTFUC’s magnifi-cent grotto piled high with brilliant toys. Thanksmust go to Annette from Jelly Cats, Clare fromThe Disney Store and M&S (Marble Arch) thatallowed every child to leave with a large over-flowing goody bag and huge smiles on theirfaces! What a party, what a show...

In addition to all those above, thanks also goto DG Leisure – Chateau Chocolate, whodonated the chocolate fountain that served over2000 chocolate covered marshmallows at theparty. Also, special thanks go to Denise and thegreat face-painters who worked tirelessly allafternoon! Few children went home lookingexactly as they had arrived! Thanks also to theteam of helpers on the balcony for making sand-wiches and tirelessly serving refreshments non-stop all afternoon. Then there was the Army andPolice Cadets who did a magnificent job in help-ing to keep the children safe all afternoon andmanning the stairs, stage and exits. Huge thanksalso to the two workshop leaders from Albert &Friends Instant Circus who taught the childrenjuggling, plate spinning and diabolo!

Many others we haven’t room to mention alsodeserve thanks for making this children’s partythe huge success it always is; sponsors, thosewho donate welcome cheques and the manywho assist the day. But special thanks must go tothe Grosvenor House, including Event ManagerNatalie Daniels and Technical Manager BenBehan. I don’t think any of us would want toclear up afterwards, yet year after year the hotelis happy to put on the event. Soldiers from theLifeguards and Blues & Royals, Met Police(Euston and W.E.Central) Traffic Garage, Sgt JackWarner of the City of London Police, LaserCreations, Carol Burwood of ABC Imaging UK,Mark Cohen of Tranceart, Cadburys for theirsupply of chocolates, Photography (MarkCooper & Patrick Jones), Video (MauriceGilliam), Soho Fire Station, Transport forLondon, Harrow Cadet Attachment, PearlyKings & Queens, UK Garrison, LondonCommunications, Capespan, ColourFX,Nando’s, Snazaroo, Trebor Bassett Ltd,Turner CN Enterprises, Nintendo, E1Entertainment, Next, Butlins, St. John’sAmbulance and anyone else Call Sign mayhave missed.

But of course, there is also one specialgroup of people who donate their time thewhole year round – the LTFUC committeeand their other halves. Nothing less thanexcellent could give the day and their tire-less work the justice it deserves...


Mad Hatters Tea Party 2010More stars than the Royal Variety Show!


Mad Hatters Tea PartyThe day in pictures with Alan Green and Alan Fisher...

The Mad Hatters Tea Party at the Grosvenor House Hotel has to be the best children’s party anywhere and the LTFUC deserve enormous praisefor their year-round work in raising funds to benefit so many children, in so many different ways and culminating with this magnificent yearlyevent. Sadly, the only radio circuit attending the event was Dial-a-Cab with both Brian Rice and Allan Evans watching the afternoon’s enter-tainment unfold. The LTFUC also has several DaC members on it, but the committee as a whole deserve the ultimate praise.You can read about the party on the previous page, but this is the day in photo form...

750 children and adults

watch the Bournemouth

Carnival Band

The strangest

Conga we’ve

ever seen!

The kids loved the Cheeky Girls

(and so did the adults)!

Brian Rice with a new Board member???

Ray Levy,LTFUC’s

publicityman, on

the otherside of a

camera lensfor a

change...

Exterminate!Exterminate!

DJ Dave Davis introducesDiversity

DaC’s David Lessman, the Fund’s Chairman,with the Pearly kings and queens

Isthat MikeSon withElvis???

Firstly, I would like to thank all those driversthat stopped me on the road to offer theircomments, in addition to those who wroteinto Call Sign. It’s nice to know that - agreeor disagree with the article – at least it wasread and began a debate, which also contin-ued on the internet....

There are many who have recently obtainedtheir cab licences and have concerns abouttheir future as a London Taxi Driver. AlthoughI have been a cabdriver for the past 45 yearsand possibly getting towards the end of mycareer, this is still a great profession and one Iam and always will be proud to be associatedwith. I have seen many changes within ourindustry - some good, some bad - and haveexperienced various downturns in the econo-my that have affected the cab trade. Eventhrough these tough times, have no doubt thatour industry will endure. I say this just in casenewer drivers are wondering whether it wasworth the time and effort of doing the knowl-edge. But we are in one of the most difficultpositions this trade has found itself in -whether radio or non-radio driver.

Fixed pricesCommenting on some items that have beenraised in Call Sign, including fixed prices, youare probably aware that trying to lure clientsaway from our competitors - let alone sellingour service and attracting new account clientswho do not know of the services Dial-a-Cabcan offer - is extremely difficult. Making con-tact with those responsible for their transportrequirements and costs to their organisationcan normally take a myriad of letters andphone calls, taking weeks if not months, justto get through the front door for a meeting! Ifor when a meeting eventually does take place,we are ever mindful of the expectations of theclient, which will include cost saving strategiesand of course service. Being seen to save thecustomer costs or at least being comparablewith their existing transport supplier, is ofcourse important. Cost saving may includefixed prices for regular journeys, especially atnight. But bear in mind that any customerscost savings must not jeopardise the servicewe provide.

During the past months, some DaC mem-bers have spoken to me with a view to offer-ing fixed rates 24/7 and have said they don’tmind working for less than the meter fare.Would this strategy help to obtain new clients?It might, on the other hand once you havereduced costs, it is difficult to make anincrease if and when the work gets better. I

am sure you have heard this many timesbefore.

I appreciate those members are sincere andwould take trips under the meter fare, butmany would not. Sometimes, to keep anaccount from going to our competitors, wehave been known to offer fixed rates duringthe day to airports and for regular and longertrips. Nonetheless, if the journey takes longerthan originally calculated for whatever reason,some drivers would demand an extra paymentto meet the meter fare. There are also a num-ber of members who will not accept fixedprices under any circumstances and haveinstructed Driver Services to indicate that factvia the Data system. I can’t understand that.I’m sure those drivers would accept a streethiring for less than the meter if the trip goes,say to the airport or a home direction?

Coverage can be a problem even whenwork is sparse, for example trips being dis-patched and being rejected because the driverwants to take a gamble on where the next oneis going or perhaps they may not like thedirection of the job? Or they may be in thewrong place at the wrong time ie not in thecorrect zone and in breach of the rules, thusnot being able to get to the pickup within 10minutes. This adds to poor coverage and lessthan excellent service.

Going Home trip(Code 77)This was a great innovation for both the dri-

ver and customer when it was implementedsome years ago, however, a number of driversabused the system. If I can draw your atten-tion to a reply to a driver by the Chairman inCall Sign back in January 2000...

Brian Rice replied:The BoM instituted Code 77 with the best of

intentions, to help the driver home while alsocovering another credit ride. In reality, whathappened was that members were sitting in theCity zones with their Code 77 on. Other driversthat were working would not bid for a job inthose zones because they considered that anywork there would not be 'special', otherwise aCode 77 would have taken it. Consequently,coverage actually deteriorated. I do acceptyour point, but you are only concerned withyour own well being (nothing wrong with that)but I have to consider the well being of themajority of the membership and of course theSociety. If we had continued with Code 77, Ibelieve we would have lost work, thereby affect-ing everyone. May I suggest that if you feel thatthis subject deserves a ballot, you make aproposition for the forthcoming AGM to havethe Code 77 re-instated, it would certainlymake my job easier. The BoM is damned if wehave it and damned if we don't.

With reference to Brian’s reply, there wasindeed a proposition put forward by twomembers to amend the Going Home facility.

Improved earnings I was somewhat bemused with a commentone member made about the fact that hethought I was the Board Member who wasable to change his fortunes and put extra rev-enue in his pocket. Remember the old sayingthat there is no “I” in Team, all of us have togive the best possible service. I do not seeanywhere in the various responses about howwe can actually attract customers, only how toincrease driver’s revenue. Sometimes the tripoffered is not always the great earner wewould like, however, to give the service thecustomer has come to expect from us and isnow getting from minicabs, we may have torun a bit further and negotiate poor trafficconditions to pick up our passengers. Do Iwant to run a long way to the pick-up? No Ido not ....do I like to have the choice whetherI wish to reject a job I don’t fancy? Yes I do,however, over these many years I have cometo realise that choice is a courtesy and not aright. Driver’s choice has always been theDial-a-Cab way, I don’t want it to change butit may have to.

I also took note of a member mentioningAddison Lee, which is no doubt one of thelargest suppliers of private transport in Londonincluding cars, vans, bike couriers and nowcoaches. Incidentally, after making a phonecall, I was told that Addison Lee charge a min-imum of £11 for any of their car journeys.

Another member mentioned that some ofhis passengers consider DaC is expensive andshould reduce its service charges. On thatpoint, I would suggest the service chargesmade to the client are miniscule consideringwhat the meter rates are and the customer ser-vices provided. The customer understands andis willing to pay reasonable service charges,what they find difficult to understand is whythe taxi service is so much more expensivethan car companies? When explanations aregiven on the cost to maintain such a service,the increasing cost to purchase a taxi and theever-increasing cost of fuel as in other indus-tries, they do understand but couldn’t care lessabout our running costs. They one thing theydo know is about keeping transport costs aslow as possible.

It is important to point out that cars and taxisare not the only form of transport used by largecorporate organisations, flights are also anextremely important mode of transport organi-sations and millions are spent every year bylarge accounts on their transport costs. Wherethey can reduce costs, they certainly will.

One member asked about offering new


How Can We Win Back Our Work?

Having written the year’s most controversial article, Mike Sonresponds again..

continued on p23


billy ties the Knot!Billy Rice, son of Dial-a-Cab Chairman Brian, recently married his long-time girlfriendSam at a ceremony and party at Surbiton’s Glenmore Hall, where around 200 peopleate and danced the night away. Billy and Sam’s three-month-old son Charlie did hisbest, but fell asleep at 7pm!

Brian was also Billy’s best man and in the true tradition of the Chairman, he broughtthe house down with his speech when he unpacked his best DaC humour and evenbrought a tear to a few eyes when looking back to when his son was younger andhow he’d grown!

Congratulations to Billy and Sam, Brian and Brenda and Sam’s parents, Jane and David...

Billy and Sam

inset pic: Brianand Brenda Rice -how did she stopthat hat falling off!

How can we win back our work? products; well a chauffeur taxi service - whichwas mentioned - has been tried ( ComCab’sClub Class). Unfortunately it was a short-livedservice, even with suitably dressed driversoffering a VIP service. The reason why Ibelieve it failed is because a cab is a cab is acab! But yes, we do need to offer new prod-ucts although this would be a discussion forthe BoM.

Martin Cox letterI was pleased and somewhat surprised to havereceived a comment from the opposition -namely ex-taxi driver and Radio Taxis BoardMember, Martin Cox. There isn’t much I cansay about his comments, other than customercosts are less for his clients due to the driver’stake home pay expectations being less thanour drivers have come to expect. We are twodifferent industries with differing needs forboth drivers and customers. Some of hispoints are worth looking at, but he forgets thatunlike his company, Dial-a-Cab is a mutualtrading organisation and the Board is relianton the support of the members.

Trade bickering...Those that know me personally know that Iam non-partisan and not a political person,but there is one point I would like to makeand that is in regard to the bickering betweenthe various representative taxi organisations.Over the years there has been some success inthe fortunes of the cab trade through theendeavours of some representatives within

these organisations. If there was just one rep-resentative body that all London cabdriverswere members of - including the radio circuits,support services, manufacturers and others -can you imagine how much clout our industrywould have?

I did think the London Taxi Board was theway forward, but hey ho that went to pot dueto a lack of coordinated spirit and self interestby one of its members. Radio circuits andminicabs at the airport comes to mind. So faras DaC is concerned, we are fortunate that ourChairman goes to many meetings making surethe best interests of Members are to the fore-front. How easy would it be for someone tobe sitting around the table, who is represent-ing every driver? If these organisations canwork together to a degree, as some do, whynot then just have one?

Dial-a-Cab on theoffensive? We need to go on the offensive and win backwork from minicabs. But how do we do com-pete when the cost difference is there? Theseare the points we have to consider: Do wereally need a run-in to pick up passengers? Dowe have a right to expect a gratuity? As radiotaxi drivers, is it commercial sense to rejecttrips because we don’t fancy them? The ques-tions I pose may have an effect on the rev-enue DaC receives from clients..

Making any radical changes, especially withthe lowering of charges, could pose problems if

and when the economy improves, because itmay be difficult to revert to the original charges.Many consider the green badge to mean thatindependence and choice is a right that is beingeroded by minicab competition and our ever-increasing costs. We all want to keep our stan-dard of living to what we have become used to,so as shareholder members of the Society, theBoard must have your support and confidencein any changes it deems necessary.

In my view, some changes need to happensooner rather than later. The Board knowswhat changes should be made to win backwork, but is in an extremely difficult dilemmaas those few members that attended the recentAGM will have heard from the Chairman. Inresponse to a question that related to no run-ins and non-rejectable trips to try and winback work, Brian said if the Board took thattrack, it would almost certainly be overturnedby a proposition at the next AGM and couldthwart forward planning and restrict direction.

As a mutual trading company, the drivershareholder has the last word via the votingprocedure and will allow or disallow theBoard to make sensible plans. If changes needto be made, the shareholders must give totalsupport with the confidence that the Chairmanand the Board will always act in the best inter-est of the members. That’s why they areTrustees...

Mike SonDaC Special Projects

Mike Son’s views are his own and not neces-sarily those of the Board...

Billy and Sam with two happy sets of parents

(continued from p22)


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My usual readers(you both knowwho you are!) willhave grown accus-tomed to my usualravings about thelatest gadgets Ihave come acrossonline and whichI either own or wishI owned - the latter being the case mostof the time!

But this month I thought I’d give you a treatand instead of ranting on about one gadget, I’dtalk about five of what I think were the bestnew gadgets on display at the recentConsumer Electronics Show held in January inLas Vegas. Of course I could not be there inperson (if only!), but watched it online. Ialways watch CES and follow the various techyjournalists, but this year I am particularly excit-ed about the upcoming gadgets, because sev-eral of them will revolutionise the way we playgames, watch TV and use computers (maybe).

So without further ado, here is my top 5 ofthe CES 2010...

Sony 3D TVYes, it’s true – you’ve just gone and bought aflashy LCD, LED or Plasma TV and you’re feel-ing quite chuffed with yourself because you’reall up-to-date. Well you’re more up-to-datethan me, that’s for sure – I still have a chunkyold CRT TV! But now Sony has gone andreleased a 24-inch 3D OLED TV. OLED tech-nology makes colours more vivid and blacksreally dark and inky and the pin-sharp pictureis as crisp and vibrant as they come.www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200

909/09-099E/

Parrot Augmented Reality DroneAugmented Reality is the definition of real-world images which are overlaid with usefuldata, information or rich content. This heli-copter-style drone powered by four smallblades, hovers through the air. It has two minivideo cameras onboard, which send imagesback to an iPhone, which is running a specialapp that allows you to use the device as aremote control for the drone, as well as avideo game. By tilting the iPhone, players canchange the direction of the quad-copter, whileimages beamed back from it are overlaid withvirtual pictures of monsters or aircraft zoom-ing across the screen! http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/en/video-games

Microsoft’s Project NatalI wrote about this a few months ago. Microsoftshowed us more of its exciting features andhas announced that they expect to release thisto the general public in time for Christmas2010. All you XBOX 360 owners keep an eyeout for this one!www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/ces/videogallery.aspx?contentid=360_natal

Light TouchA few years back, I wrote about hardware thatcould beam a virtual keyboard onto your deskso you could take a keyboard anywhere anduse it with a Bluetooth device as with yourphone. Now Light Blue Optics has release theLight Touch that beams a high quality com-puter screen, complete with virtual keyboard(much like iPhone), onto any surface.www.lightblueoptics.com/products/light-touch/

Google Nexus OnePurported to be the ‘iPhone Killer’ this isthe much-anticipated competitor to theiPhone that Google has been promising.Whilst it is aesthetically pleasing and cer-tainly provides a wealth of apps and func-tions, I’m not that impressed with it consid-ering Google are behind it. Somehow Idon’t think this will kill off the iPhone, butmerely provide stiff competition to Apple.But that is healthy and can only meancheaper iPhones in the future...www.google.com/phone

Jonathen WinterburnDaC Network Administrator

JON ASKS WHAT’S NEW?

In a world where technology moves at an astounding pace, DaCNetwork Administrator Jonathen Winterburn takes an occasionallook at the latest gadgets…

The best of the Consumer Electronics Show 2010 – a glut of gadgetry!

Did you know......that while ill with consumption in 1818, poet John Keats was spotted sitting on a bench in Well Walk, Hampstead“sobbing his dying breath into a handkerchief” by the antiquarian William Hone? The bench Keats used has long sincegone, but its replacement is also known as Keats bench...

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Call Sign’s photographer, Alan Green(E52) was searching the capital’s highwaysand byways looking for some interestingmaterial to fill this magazine’s pages, buteventually gave up saying that nothing washappening - yet! Then he wandered into theDial-a-Cab House parking lot and therebefore his eyes was the first cab with theDaC rear window ad!

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compliance officer’s updateHello Ladies & Gents,Driving conditions in the capital seem to begetting more and more difficult, the BlackwallTunnel is partially closed until 2012 and nowAlbert Bridge is undergoing extensive repairsthat will restrict vehicle access for the nexteighteen months. Other major river crossingsare also under repair at the moment, so thetiming seems ludicrous. If you take intoaccount the roadworks and temporary lights,our job is certainly not easy.

From experience, I believe it is alwaysworth mentioning any traffic problems at thebeginning of a journey that may cause delaysand if you are about to take an alternativeroute that may confuse the client, it is alsoworth mentioning it to them. You may evenwish to ask them if they have a preferredroute...

Repetitive articles?Every month I try to highlight the types ofproblems that occur on an almost daily basis,and again I must point out how important it isto follow the guidelines and procedures thatare laid down. I know that those of you whoread these articles may feel that they are toorepetitive, but as you can see from the list ofcomplaint results in this issue of Call Sign, thesame procedures are regularly violated and

you can also see that they come with a cost tothose members who do not work within therules that are there to make it fair for all of us.

Clients are rightly very vigilant and cost con-scious and with so much competition, it is upto all of us to use our discretion and showprofessionalism at all times. The reports thatclients receive are highly accurate; run-ins andmeter fares are readily captured and anyanomalies are highlighted. It is important thatyou press your arrival button when you haveactually arrived at the pick up and not onroute and that if you are unable to park exact-ly outside of the account address, please noti-

fy the call centre of your true location.

Credit CardsI have once more been asked to mention thatif you are not able to swipe a Credit Cardthrough the terminal, you must make alterna-tive means of payment. If at the end of the tripyou are unable to print a receipt through theterminal, it is essential that you take a rubbingof the card on a manual receipt and ask thepassenger for a valid signature, matching theone on the card – always on a street hiring.Banks will honour the payment if you haveproof that the card was physically in your pos-session at the end of the journey. It is evenmore important on a longer journey when youmay be out of signal range.

Finally on a personal note, I would like to sin-cerely thank those of you that have eitherphoned, text or sent your condolences by cardor email regarding the sad loss of my dear mumjust before Christmas. To see workmates andmembers from Dial-a-Cab attending the funer-al was really touching. Many friends and col-leagues have told me that you only have onemum – how true that is. Thank you onceagain...

Allan EvansDaC Compliance Officer

DaC at WCHCD Pancake Day!As usual, Dial-a-Cab were well represented within the Worshipful Companyof Hackney Carriage Drivers team for the 6th Inter Livery Pancake Race. Theevent is organised annually by the Poulters Company and takes place in The

Guildhall Yard. Pancake races are held all over England on ShroveTuesday. Those racing must toss the pancake so that it returns to thepan in one piece before crossing the finish line. Teams of four liverymen/women race for the prize of an engravedfrying pan! There is also a novelty hat race to raise funds for theLord Mayor’s chosen charity – this year’s theme was musicals. The Gunmakers Company started the races, while contestants woregloves from the Glovers. DaC’s John Dixon (B67) and Pat Graves(L53) joined Tony Norris and WCHCD Master, Michael Davis, butfailed to win any of their races! John Dixon told Call Sign after the event: “I think they gave me a

heavier pancake than everyone else! But it was great fun – even in therain!”

Pat and John tossing their pancakes

As Blackwall Tunnel suffersnight closures for 3 years!

In a press release, Transport for Londoninformed Call Sign that from February, theBlackwall Tunnel southbound bore would behaving night closures while they totally renovatethe old Thames crossing and bring it into the 21stcentury. They also add that these extensiveupgrades – said to be costing around £70million- were scheduled to last for three years!

The closures run from 9pm to 5am on Sundayto Friday, with northbound traffic diverted to thesouthbound tunnel and southbound traffic beingforced to use another route.

There is also a 20mph speed limit in placeeach night that will be enforced by averagespeed cameras.

The Editor of this magazine, young Mr Fisher,with his own assumption that the question wasrather silly, still asked me to question TfL on howa three-year closure would affect the Olympics?This is bearing in mind that the Olympic Park onthe north side will house the swimming, athlet-ics, cycling and other events in addition to beinghome to many of the athletes. Then there is thesouth side with the O2 and its gymnastics andshooting, while Greenwich Park seems certain tohave its grass messed up when hosting theequestrian events.

“After all,” young Mr Fisher said with a cer-tain amount of embarrassment at how silly thequestion sounded, “the Olympics begin in 30

months times, so with a 3-year closure isn’tthere something of a clash? Even thoughthey claim it will remain open until 9pm, weknow that means that it might stay open till9pm if it suits them to leave it! And why didthey not begin the work 6 months earlier toavoid any clash?”

So I asked TfL and at first their spokesmanseemed not to know, telling me he’d come backlater. Following a three-hour wait, he came backto announce:

“The Blackwall Tunnel refurbishment

works have been planned in such a way as toensure that they do not affect the LondonOlympic and Paralympic games. Shouldwork on the refurbishment programmeencroach into the Games period, TfL will putthe works on hold to allow the tunnel to beused as part of the Olympic Route Network.”

Could TfL mean that someone had forgottenthe Olympics were coming to London in July2012 and that they were now backtracking? Wedoubt that very much.

Then suddenly it clicked! What TfL mean isthat the southbound bore will be closed to ALLtraffic for four weeks while renamed as an ORNpriority route! Whilst the ORNs will be huge nui-sances, traffic using them will be relatively lightcompared to that of a normal day and in thiscase, well away from those silly taxi drivers whobelieve that paying £400+ a year in road taxgives them some rights! So if during the Olympics,your passenger from the O2 wants a cab to get tothe Olympic Park, you will have to use eitherRotherhithe – assuming they don’t close that – orTower Bridge! Why didn’t they just say so! Itwould have saved the editor asking such a sillyquestion!

Back to the original 3-year closure; TfL chiefoperating officer for streets, Garrett Emmerson,told Call Sign:

“We are doing everything we can to ensurethe refurbishment of the tunnel is carriedout with the minimum disruption and askpeople to bear with us while these impor-tant safety improvements are made.”Among the improvements promised are betterlighting, improved ventilation, a new communi-cation system, new fire and incident detectionsystems and better access for emergency ser-vices. The improvements have been designed toextend the life of the tunnel – which was openedon 22 May 1897.

That sounds like a reasonably worthwhile ven-ture. But in the February Call Sign, we won-dered how an ORN could possibly operatethrough the Tunnel – now we know. They willuse these repairs and renovations as an excuse toallow only official Olympic traffic through it. Thewhole Tunnel will become an Olympic RouteNetwork. And if that is the case, it is nothingshort of a deceitful disgrace...

Richard Potter (T51)


Interesting Appointment!

After LTI’s announcement last year to servenotice on its independent dealers, the compa-ny has been developing its plans for Scotlandespecially. Now they have announced theappointment of a well-known taxi trade pro-fessional as General Manager for Scotland.

Gary Ranson has returned to the tradefrom his position as Dealer Principal for EvansHalshaw, but of more interest to Call Sign isthe fact that Gary spent five successful yearsworking for Allied Vehicles / Cab Direct asNational Operations Manager.

“I was in charge of sales for the wholeof the UK for Allied and Cab Direct andof course that put me in competitionwith LTI,” said Gary, “but I left them togo back to the retail motor trade. NowI’m really excited to be working withthe best taxi product in the UK - and Ishould know, I’ve tried the rest!”

Gary’s philosophy for success is simple, look after yourcustomers and they will remain loyal.

“I have seen too many times in my career that today’s sale is the most impor-tant part of the process. After that, big companies aren’t bothered until theywant to sell you another car. In my book you gain loyalty by looking after peo-ple every day - when they have problems, need accessories or are just in for aservice. I aim to talk to all my customers as regularly as I can, so that I can fixany issues that they tell me are important to them.”

Rob Laidler, Sales Director for LTI, is very supportive of Gary and sees his place on the LTIteam as vital to making Scotland a good purpose built taxi market again. He told Call Sign:

“Gary has exactly the right attitude and brings a lot of taxi experience withhim. He is keen to get out there and talk to people and I think his focus on cus-tomer service will see more LTI taxis being sold in markets where we used todominate, not just Glasgow and Edinburgh.”

Certainly an interesting appointment...


Editor: Alan FisherAddress: 39 – 47 East Rd, London N1 6AH

Tel: 0207 251 0581 Fax: 0207 553 7293Email: [email protected]

Website: www.dac-callsign.co.ukPrinters: Premier Print Group25 – 31 Violet Rd, London E3Design: Aldan Publications

Tel: 07958 300 428Email: [email protected]

Views and opinion expressed in Call Sign mustnot be assumed to represent those of the Editor or

Board.No part of Call Sign may be reproduced either manually or electronically without the express

permission of the Editor.

He used to be head of sales for LTI’s opposition!

Gary Ranson used to head salesfor the opposition

TfL: “What Were ThoseGames in 2012???”

Will the tunnel be closed to everyoneexcept those involved with the Olympics

Continued from February...

Rain and smog...During the 1960’s, we suffered smogs thatwere so bad that even at midday you couldnot see half a car’s length in front of you. Inthe smog, I and many others used handker-chiefs tied over our nose and mouths to avoidchoking on the filth; refolding them constant-ly until you’d have to start a new one and trustit would last you till the end of your shift.

I used to get home by working my way tothe Embankment then, with my windscreenwide open and my headlights on dippedbeam, I followed the tramlines to Streatham,where I lived. One night, driving at aroundwalking speed and leaning forward to try fol-lowing the rails, they made a sharp turn to theleft. Not having a clue where I was, I realisedthe gloom had got brighter and because therails divided at that point, I stopped. Out ofthe murk, a figure came up to the cab andasked what I thought I was doing? I discov-ered why the gloom was brighter - I had dri-ven into a ruddy tram depot!

Then there was Boxing Day 1963. I was inmy cab driving down Seven Sisters Road ataround midday, it was bitterly cold and I wason the way to work. It began raining heavilyand the road instantly turned into a sheet ofice. My cab gently slid into the gutter with thetyres rubbing against the kerb. With the grit in

the gutter I managed to keep in control butwhilst this was happening, a Ford Consulovertook me in the middle of the road. Therewas just one thing that was a little strange, thevehicle was facing the wrong way and goingbackwards. He ended up stopped by thebrickwork of the railway bridge!

That winter lasted until March and therewas not one day the temperature rose abovezero. The snow was so thick that in Highgateand Hampstead, some clowns had madeigloos in the road big enough to park theircars in! The Evening News actually publishedthe photos! Judging by very recent history,there is a vast difference between life then andtoday. In those Artic conditions with blizzardsblowing most days, the buses continued torun, postmen delivered the mail, dustmen col-lected the rubbish, everything continued -albeit with difficulty - but it all continued. Alittle different from today when a slight dust-ing of snow shuts nearly everything down. Nobuses, dustmen, postmen, schools etc.

Which radio circuit?At one time or another, I have been on all theradio circuits. One day the dispatcher began tolaugh and all over London drivers were push-ing buttons to know what the joke was. To putyou in the picture, if you tried to do a three-point turn and did the first part so that yourrear wheels were against the kerb, you couldhave problems. The automatic cabs of thosedays had what today’s drivers would find

unbelievably strange. On cold winters morn-ings, it was not unheard of to see one cabpushing another up the road, with whitesmoking pouring from the exhaust of thepushed cab until, with luck, the engine wouldfire and nice black smoke would emerge. Inan automatic, over the accelerator pedal was aknurled nut. If the cab would not start, youscrewed down this nut pushing the accelera-tor down, which then helped a cold engine tofire. So to return to the laughing dispatcher.He had told a driver the following solution tohis problem. Put the cab into neutral, screwdown the nut until the engine was runningjust above tick-over and put it in first gear.Then, with driving door open and your feetagainst the kerb, give it push and once mov-ing jump in. Problem solved.

Well matey did as advised, only he got theengine revving at a rate of knots working onthe idea that the more revs the better. He thengave the cab a good push. By now the spinningrear tyres had melted the ice and with this newfreedom from having some human twit tellingit what to do, the cab took off, straightening thesteering and galloping up the road. It happilychanged gear and disappeared. On its way, itcollected a parked mini, pushed it through abrick wall and into a large garden pond. I won-der what the insurance claims looked like...

Continued next month...

John Edwardes


John Edwardes:My Life as a Taxi Driver

At the age of 81, DaC driver John Edwardes (H05) had to suddenlyretire following a heart problem. Now he has written about his lifeas a taxi driver. Call Sign is serialising it…

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In November 2003, Board member Allan Evans negotiated spe-cial subsidised fares on the Eurostar to Paris and Brussels forDaC drivers. Sadly the following statement from Eurostar signalsthe end...

EUROSTAR STATEMENTFrom 1st January 2010, the existing unincorporated jointventure operation that manages Eurostar has beenreplaced with a fully unified ownership structure andbusiness model. The new company, EurostarInternational Ltd, will set us up for future growth anddevelopment and our focus will be on contributionrather than turnover, with a clear focus on increasingrevenues and reducing costs.

In moving towards this structure, we have undertaken a thorough review of all of ourrevenues, costs and distribution. As part of this review and after careful consideration,we have reached the decision to withdraw partner concession facilities and reducedrate tickets for Dial-a-Cab employees with immediate effect. We will of course, honourexisting bookings that are confirmed and paid for by the Friday 12th February, 2010.

I would like to thank you for the support that you have given Eurostar and wish youevery success for 2010.

Hope you are all well and thatbusiness is picking up! I justthought I’d let you know thedate for this year’s DACCU AGM.It will be held on 11th Marchand we are hoping to startbetween 6 to 6.30.

We were going to hold it at our new offices,but feel there may well be more membersthan usual turn up, so we have booked theconference room at the Days Inn hotel justacross the road from our office in HackneyRoad. Just in case you don’t get to readCall Sign in time, we’ll put out messages onyour terminals but due to cost, we will only beserving tea and coffee with biscuits. I do hopethis does not put off the regulars as I knowthey like Lil’s grub!

Since the start of our 7% investmentscheme, the Credit Union has gone fromstrength to strength, as I’m sure you will betold by that bastion of all things Credit Union,Mr Barry Epstein. If you have any financialqueries, he is your man.

As I was saying, the CU is doing very wellthank you and we are thinking about financing

new cabs! We are already helping with yourcredit card problems. In case you didn’t know,we will pay off your outstanding credit carddebts and put the outstanding amount onto aloan set over an agreed period of time withrepayments that you can manage. We havealready helped out several members in thisway. We never mention names, if they want tothen it would be up to them to tell you how wehelped. Before I move on, I hope that everyone

who is in the 7% investment scheme is happywith what they are getting and having no prob-lems. Mind you, I'm sure they would be on thephone very quickly if there were!

I do hope you are not getting too fed upwith the Tiger Tyres messages that go outevery other day. It is a new business andneeds all the help it can get, as those whohave come down to see us have found out. Itis the convenience of our location, which isgood and involving very little downtime.There is, of course, always the added attrac-tion of coming upstairs and seeingBrian, Terry and me... well me anyway!

That’s about all for now and I hope to see youat the AGM or when getting your new tyres. Belucky, but above all be very careful out there...

John Riley (K38)DACCU Vice-President

Unit 14, Peterley BusinessCentre, 472 Hackney Road,

London E2 9EOTel: 020 7729 8171 or

020 7749 0585


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AGM Time!

The press – both taxi and general – have recently been running a press release concerning a pro-posed electric version of the Mercedes Vito known as the eVito. The eVito taxi was said to be azero-emission, lithium-ion battery vehicle that was being marketed by Eco City Vehicles and whichhas been developed by a consortium of high-technology engineering companies including Eco CityVehicles manufacturing partner Penso, Mercedes-Benz UK and Zytek Automotive.

Peter DaCosta, Chief Executive Officer of Eco City Vehicles, was quoted at the time as saying:“The eVito is the first all-electric wheelchair accessible taxi... and a major step towards our goal tobecome a leading supplier of niche eco-friendly vehicles.”

The PR went on to say that the consortium planned to conduct controlled trials later this year toconfirm the eVito's suitability for road usage as a London licensed taxi.

A clarification from Eco CityVehicles PLC has been received byCall Sign. It reads:

Cenex, Zytek and the partnersinvolved in the eVito electric taxi pro-gramme would like to clarify some ofthe points made in the press release:

The eVito Taxi was developed by aconsortium that is comprised ofZytek, Penso, Vocis, Valence andMercedes Benz as part of a collabo-rative research programme part-funded by Advantage West Midlandsand managed by Cenex. Eco CityVehicles was not part of this group.

The eVito Taxi is an engineeringprototype that will be used to provethat the technology is achievable andpractical for use in an urban taxi. Thevehicle has not been ‘launched’.

Zytek, one of the world’s mostexperienced developers of power-trains for electric and hybrid vehicles,will be holding a press event duringthe second quarter of this year atwhich eVito and other electric vehicleprogrammes and technologies willbe discussed.

Within 24 hours of the Mail on Sundayreleasing it, the story of Dial-a-Cab and theRoyal family flew around the world and news-papers as far away as India and Australia werecarrying it – not to mention a very amusingpeace from Al Fresco in his Two Fingers TAXIcolumn!

Of course Call Sign has long known aboutour famous passengers and Editor AlanFisher had in the past carried PrincessDiana following her divorce from PrinceCharles, while DaC’s Jon Trevor (W94) hadtaken Prince Charles himself following a visitto the Hanover Square shelter where he “tooktea” with several drivers including Jon - whomHRH then asked if he would take him back toClarence House. The fare came to £9.20 andHRH, presenting a crisp new tenner with hismother’s face on, told Jon to keep the 80p.

Many DaC drivers have also picked up fromBuck House, Clarence House and KensingtonPalace, but Call Sign has refused to breachconfidentiality. However, the secret was neverreally up to MI5 standards!

However, as the Mail on Sunday has nowbroken the story, the secret is out and CallSign is confirming Nathan Kay’s story, whichclaims that several Royals take taxis to unoffi-cial engagements as the Queen attempts tokeep a tab on costs. They had previously beenusing their fleet cars, but now Royals such asViscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto,regularly book Dial-a-Cab taxis. Indeed, HerMajesty’s advisers are said to have devisedplans for more senior Royals to use DaC taxiswherever possible. These would includePrince Harry and Prince Andrew’s daughters,Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

On the downside, members of the Royalhousehold staff who used to take cabs, are

being encouraged to use public transport oreven walk to official events or meetings!

A Royal source said: “Viscount Linley andLady Sarah Chatto have all used the Dial-a-Cab service, as indeed has Chelsey Davy.This is a cost-cutting measure.”

Continuing with the statement, the sourceadded that Viscount Linley was a great fan ofblack cabs and in particular those with thefake walnut interior!

Ending, it said: “Prince Harry, PrincessesBeatrice and Eugenie are all being urgedto use the service whenever it is deemedpossible. Royal protection officers are not

worried about the security implications asblack cabs are viewed as an excellent wayto uphold anonymity.”

It was back in July 2004 that Brian Rice andthe DaC Board met Prince Charles at a meet-ing of the Royals with our trade charities.Could that have been when the main accountswere opened???

Buckingham Palace and Clarence Houseconfirmed they both hold accounts with Dial-a-Cab, however a DaC spokesperson refusedto give further details and said that as with allaccount customers, the Society would expectits drivers to maintain confidentiality...


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It was July 2004 when Brian met Prince Charles. Is that when the account wasopened...???

Warszawa wita Londyn taxi!Or if you don’t speak Polish...Warsaw welcomes the London taxi

Warsaw recently played host to a very special new arrivalin the form of the world famous London Taxi. The vehi-cle, which is promoted by local Polish company, DufortLondon Taxis, was unveiled in the capital city atMotortest, an established car dealership and vehiclerepair workshop centre situated close to Warsaw airport.

This was the first European launch of the yearfor LTI’s new International sales brand, The LondonTaxi Company. Their International MarketDevelopment Director, Matthew Cheyne, toldCall Sign following the TX4 launch:

“It was a great evening, enjoyed by all. EveryoneI have spoken to is very excited about being ableto use a proper London taxi as opposed to asaloon car. We have been building the taxi in theUK for over 60 years now, so no one knows moreabout taxis than we do. But also producing inChina gives us a more global appeal now, so weaim to see the London Taxi on sale all over theworld. Poland is the first European Capital city tolaunch the London Taxi in 2010 and we are sure itwon’t be the last. In 2009, we sold vehicles inGermany, Spain, Austria, Serbia and Kosovo.”

Jacek Kurowski, official representative for theLTC in Poland, was delighted with the reaction ofthose at the launch. He told Call Sign:

“I have been working for a long time to bringthis fantastic vehicle to Poland and people obvi-ously love it just as much as I do. I am now able tohelp taxi companies in Poland offer a real alterna-tive to the cheap cramped saloon taxis or expen-sive limousines. Passengers can now get a fantas-tic unique vehicle, a great service, professional dri-

vers and their own private space in the cab. Whatmore could they want!”

Leading local taxi company, Wawa, will operatethe new TX4 as a premium taxi service initially, butwith a second batch scheduled to arrive later thismonth, Jacek aims to sell more taxis onto thestreets of every city in Poland!

Anyone wanting to know more can visitwww.londontaxis.co.uk, www.lti.co.uk orwww.dufort.pl.

Having lived within a licensing authoritywhere both Hackney and PH have metersin their vehicles, it has puzzled me whythere is such a lack of enthusiasm by TfLto do the same here. But then I looked atthe PH bill and it clearly states that meterswill not be permitted.

Well maybe that was a mistake becauseyou hear stories of them charging £25 togo from Leicester Square to Victoria etc.Indeed, taxis are accountable for everypenny they charge, so shouldn’t PH betoo? Six years on, I‘d say PH has legitima-cy without accountability. Can a PH dri-ver be charged for taking a devious route?How can the public get their moneyback? What if the driver changes the costof the journey half way through? Whosets their fares in the first place? To thepublic, their service and price is done ona take it or leave it basis - or get a taxi.TfL’s own guidelines are that youapproach the PH company first beforegetting them involved.

It is unquestion-able that our fareshave reached levelsthat some say areunjustified, yet itwasn’t long ago thatour fares were com-petitive. Via the costindex, politicians putchanges upon usthat forced the meterup.

Ken Livingstonewas a great one forthis. The problem was that PH didn’t havesuch demands placed on them, so thegap has got wider and wider - a simplepolitical ploy and good way of gettingmore work into PH to make it worthwhilebeing licensed. Remember the days whena new cab cost £18k? The fares weremuch lower in comparison, but the workplentiful. Today, cabs are at their mostexpensive; our charges are at their mostexpensive and the work has dried up. Ifthe mayor wants any new changes to ourworking practices / vehicles, City Hallshould pay us via subsidies and not ourmeters.

But from a punter’s point of view,what represents good value? If the tradewere to demand that PH had meters intheir vehicles to make them moreaccountable, stop them from making itup and put up their costs, then the pricegap would get smaller. Companies whouse PH may say if they are paying thatmuch for a PHV, they may as well get ataxi. If you are an account in FinsburySquare and your PH account charges,say £25 to go to E14 because they don’treally want to service all the account,then if the PH vehicle had a meter, thataccount could demand a meter fare andnot a price made by inconvenience. Ifthe PH company then had to cover allaspects of their accounts and not justgive us the jobs they didn’t want to do,they would become stretched and morework would come our way.

Personally, I think theproduct and service wesupply is excellent and

we are only expensive by comparison,but our prices should be put on holdthrough the recession. If we lowered ourprices, so would PH. There has beenplenty of talk about “winning work back.”Force PH charges up and narrow the gap,we would then win plenty of work back!It’s all about cost – accountants demandbest value and aren’t that fussed aboutwho supplies it.

And Yellow Badge drivers...?Yellow badge drivers have meters and

drive taxis, so does that make them ok? InFebruary 2009, a Dial-a-Cab driver wrotein Call Sign about yellow badge driversplying for hire outside their licensed area.Well the more you scratch the surface, themore you find.

The other evening I was working onClapham Junction rank and the two dri-vers in front of me were having a chat -both wearing yellow badges. I didn’trealise it at the time, but ClaphamJunction is a green badge only rank. Youhear of sightings all over, with yellowbadges working at Heathrow onChristmas Day because the attendantsdon’t work and it is a known fact that yel-low badge drivers work Wimbledon fort-night and then disappear again! I evenheard a story about the yellow badge dri-ver from Essex who was a regular at amajor hotel near Hyde Park corner! Hehanded his taxi in to take a holiday andhis garage rented it back to another dri-ver, this one a green badge whose cabwas in overhaul and who was also a reg-ular at the same hotel. He said he knewthe driver and cab to the garage owner,who then went on to spill the beans.

Call me a cynic, but with trade bodiesrefusing to allow big increases in greenbadge requisitions through a quickieKnowledge, flooding the suburbs mayhave been a indirect ploy to boost num-bers of central drivers, as yellow badgeslooked to pastures new simply to make aliving, whilst legally making their bound-aries bigger and bigger.

Richard Potter (T51)


Should PrivateHire Have Meters?

With reports of huge sums being asked for short journeys by PH,Call Sign’s Richard Potter poses the question...

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Richard Potter askswhether PH shouldhave meters

For those new to Dial-a-Cab, Call Sign hasbeen following the progress of Sam Bezzina- son of Dial-a-Cab driver Dean Bezzina(M10) - and his ambition to box for England.To do that, he needed to win a GoldenGloves Championship. And last season hedid exactly that when the ABA SchoolboysChampionship honours were decided atDagenham’s Goresbrook Leisure Centre.Sadly, though, injuries have delayed hisInternational representations.

The new season is now here and Sam hasdecided to start his new campaign with achange of club and a move from Newham toWest Ham Boxing Club. And as Sam hasalways done, he did so in style when after justfour weeks training back in the gym, he madehis West Ham debut in the northeast ofEngland at the Hull Fish Trade’s show. Withso many injury problems last season – theworst of which was accidentally self-inflictedwhen he tripped in a rabbit hole – there wassome nervousness from dad Dean who hadtold Call Sign before the bout that whilst heknew Sam was good enough to win, therewas always the problem of ring rust after sucha long time out of action. But Dean needn’thave worried.

The opposition was Jack Pyrah from theWest Yorkshire town of Cleckheaton and fromthe first bell it was Sam who worked stylishlybehind his jab, never allowing his strongopponent time to land any of his best punch-es. The second round saw much of the samewith Sam growing in confidence and by thefinal round he was dominating the fight - hiscombination punches being just too much forPyrah. After a superb performance, there wasnever any doubt that the judges would giveSam a unanimous points decision – making it

a perfect start for a new season and club.Although Sam had an excellent season at

Newham in winning all nine of his bouts – notto mention winning a national title – Deantold Call Sign that Sam still felt something wasmissing, but now feels that he has found thatmissing piece at West Ham. The walls of WestHam BC are an archive of champions, a who’swho in the world of boxing. Memorabiliaincludes a pair of signed gloves used by WestHam boy Terry Spinks to win a gold medalfor England in the 1956 MelbourneOlympics and the official Olympic torch thatcarried the flame through the streets at the1948 London Olympics – the last time theywere held in the UK. Those are just two piecesof the history on the WH walls that inspire theboys who train there.

It was probably only a matter of time before

Sam - who has been a West Ham United fansince birth - made the move to the boxing clubas well. Dean said that his son was settling inwell, looks great in claret and blue and moreimportantly, had told him that he was nowenjoying his boxing more than ever. That isobviously great news, as so many young boysof Sam’s age - just 15 and a half - are distract-ed from their sports with their talents endingup wasted, adding to the statistics that no onewants to be part of – those involving alcoholand drugs abuse, crime and unemployment.

And the immediate future? Could 2010 seeSam on the championship trail? The amateurseason begins with the CYP (Clubs for YoungPeople) championships in February with thefinals at end of March. That’s then followedclosely by the start of the Junior ABAs - themost prestigious title that can be won by anamateur of Sam’s age. Dad Dean told us:

“I have never seen Sam so fired-up andenthusiastic about his boxing as he is atthis moment. I really think it’s going to bea very interesting and challenging seasonfor Sam – and hopefully very successful...”

Many older readers will remember the nameof former West Ham boxer, Terry Spinks. Withhis gloves on the Club’s wall and the Londontorch too, could they be the signs that say we’llbe seeing Sam Bezzina at the 2012 LondonOlympics? There’s a long way to go, but as thesaying goes... never say never! More news onSam’s progress soon..


Sam: New Season

– New Club!

Sam is hoping for his most successfulseason yet...

It’s a nice warm sunny day here on the Med and I’ve just looked at the weather forecast for London – moresnow on the way! But Stansted is where I am heading for again soon and as I discussed with my accountants inBow, I spent more days in the UK in 2009 than in France!

But that’s understandable as in the last year or so I have set up what I believe will be one of the premiersightseeing options in the capital – London Black Cab Sightseeing Tours.

It all started with passing the Cabguide Course, then passing the City University Guiding SkillsFoundation Course and now currently sitting the City of London Guide Course. It might not finish there; Ihave half an eye on taking up the City of Westminster Guiding Course next full term followed by whatlooks a fascinatingly interesting Clerkenwell and Islington Guiding Course.

As a taxi driver, I believe you should all add another string to your bow. I know your time is valuable, and Iknow you need to work more hours at present in these difficult times, but adding a qualification or twoalong the way can only increase your earnings potential.

But more than that, the kind of study involved here is also fun, especially if you like history and the odd execution or handstricken off! There is a lot beneath the surface and so much to learn about the City of London that you live and work in. There is 2,000 yearsof rubbish underneath the streets of London – a multi-level sandwich that is dug constantly for remains that puts the story together.

My favourite period goes back to the days of the Tudors, when there were so many changes in English history that set our stall out for whatwe are today. But the Romans of course were here for one-fifth of recorded British history – it is sometimes hard to imagine that!

The current Cabguide Course is over subscribed, so get your name down early for the next paper, which takes place in the autumn. Thiscourse is aimed at London Taxi drivers and others whose existing knowledge of the City’s geography is extended and refined by a course thatcovers the history and development of the capital. The aim of the course is to provide those drivers with sufficient knowledge to enable them,when transporting passengers across the City, to inform them in a clear and concise manor of the sites of historical interest and buildings theyare passing. Also, to conduct an informative and entertaining tour covering all the major places of interest, in and around Central London.

Please note this course is held at Knowledge Point, 429-431 Caledonian Road, N7 (opp Pentonville Prison). Classes are held onMonday nights, from 6pm until 8pm. Walks on Sundays start at 10:30 am, from various locations.

Contact the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers, 25 The Grove, Latimer, Bucks HP5 or email: [email protected].

A bientot…Bob Woodford (Ex-P49)

Saint Genies de Fontedit, Languedoc, France

Former Dial-a-Cab driver, Bob Woodford, writes a regular column for Call Sign from his home in Languedoc, France…

CALL SIGN EN LA BELLE FRANCE

Repeating something our taxi trade has beensaying for several years, the LondonAssembly in a new report has now called fora reduction in the number of buses serving theWest End saying that Transport for Londonand Westminster Council should assess thepossibility of re-routing buses serving the areato reduce the number that travel throughOxford Street.

The report - Streets ahead: Relieving con-gestion on Oxford Street, Regent Street andBond Street - claims that 300+ buses everyhour use Oxford Street, with over 100,000pedestrians passing along the shopping hubeach day. The report adds that average busspeeds are little more than walking speed.

However, when the claim is also made byPassenger watchdog London TravelWatchthat taxis take up 37% of the road space, butonly carry 1% of the passengers, you cansee which way the report is heading.

Assembly member Victoria Borwick, wife offormer Manganese Bronze Chairman Lord JamieBorwick and who led the investigation onbehalf of the Transport Committee said:“The wall of slow-moving metal running alongOxford Street tarnishes what should be a world-class shopping experience – delaying andendangering residents, workers and visitors.”

Victoria acknowledged the competingdemands for access to the area created a com-plex situation, but added: “We are talking abouta vital retail destination that generates £5.5bil-lion a year for the UK economy. There has tobe a better way to strike the balance betweenthe needs of shoppers and pedestrians and thedemand for transport links.”

The report claims that average bus speedsalong Oxford Street are little more than walkingspeed, accident rates are 35 times the average ofall other London streets and that on average

there is a collision involving a bus in the areaevery 3.4 days. Pollution levels are said to be 4.5times the EU target and the area is predicted tobe the most polluted in the UK by 2015.

The volume of buses on Oxford Street is hugewith 23 routes running along the street withpeak flows in each direction of up to 160 busesper hour or during a peak hour, over 300.Londoners make 218,000 bus trips a day to, fromor within the street. It adds that buses sharethe street with taxis, which take up around30 per cent of the available road space.

Steve Norris, Chair of the TfL Board’sSurface Transport Panel and a formerConservative Transport Minister for London,warned of unforeseen consequences from mak-

ing large changes to the transport system. TfLhad strongly cautioned against diverting a sig-nificant part of the bus service away fromOxford Street saying this would be neitherdeliverable nor desirable and warning of majordisruptions for passengers. The LTDA warnedthat well-meaning proposals to reduce trafficcongestion may inadvertently discourage accessto the area and ultimately lead to a decline inthe area’s commercial interests.

And the report’s possible answers?* Part-pedestrianisation between Oxford

Circus and Bond Street: All traffic would bediverted and pavement surfaces extendedacross on this part of the street.

* Shuttle bus: The New West EndCompany, London First and others haveproposed a dedicated bus which would runalong Oxford Street - for example between10am and 4pm. This could either be combinedwith removal of all other traffic from the streetor alongside other reductions in traffic levels.

* Ken Livingstone’s tram idea: A tram run-ning up and down Oxford Street, with all othertraffic diverted from the street, had been consid-ered and rejected by the current Mayor as likelyto be expensive and disruptive to reintroduce.

And (in OUR bold writing): * Restrictions on taxis: Taxis would be

restricted from using Oxford Street and / orRegent Street, either all of the time or justduring busy times. This would require achange in the law. The ORB includes mea-sures to encourage taxis to pick up offOxford Street through additional ranks onside streets and signposting. Also shiftingtaxi ranks to adjacent streets, usually north-south roads and at alternative entrances atthe rear of department stores...


COMPLAINTS RESULTS A Complaints meeting was held on 11th February 2010. The results are below…

Name/call sign Nature of Complaint Sentence

Anthony Fairey (C44) Driver booked into S99 when true 2 weeks susplocation was A2 in Eltham SE9 andaccepted a trip from Gatwick AirportRule 11

William Dorrell (C78) Driver booked into S99 when true 2 weeks susplocation was A316 nr Richmond andaccepted a trip from Gatwick AirportRule 11

Lee Francis (L45) Driver booked directly into S50W when 2 weeks susptrue location was N.Hyde Rd, Hayes (W50C) and accepted trip offer from S99(S50W is a back up to S99)Rule 11

Simon Trotter (H58) Driver booked into Heathrow (WW00) 3 weeks suspfrom his home address in Acton. Youmust be within Perimeter Rd to book inRule 11

Paul Samuels (T85) Driver used foul and abusive language 1. 2 weeks suspto a DaC Marshall in front of other DaC 2. 1 week suspdrivers and Citigroup employees 3. ExpelledRules 1, 2, 3

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London Assembly: Too Manybuses in Oxford Street!

…and taxis to be banned?

This Call Sign photo is 8 years old andbus numbers have increased greatlysince then!


Views on life as seen through theeyes of David Kupler (Y74) at...

Kupkake’s

KornerI'd just set down at London Bridge

there was a queue down on the rank,my job was a teenage girl

...thicker than a plank!

“Wharf Road mate, that aw’ right,”she said, climbing in the back?“Yes,” says I, thinking I mightgrab a coffee - and a Big Mac!

I pulled away, out came her phone the lights ahead were green,I turned right, heading north,

no traffic to be seen.

At the junction with Cannon Street,She let out a banshee scream,

“WHERE THE F**K YA GOIN MATE,I WANT WHARF ROAD , SAF EAST 17?”

“Oh it’s Walworth now,” I did replyrecovering from my fright,

“thought you wanted Islington,City Road ...on the right.”

“Ya don't know where ya goingI'll get anover cab,

And forget it, I ain't payin’”as she fumbled with her bag.

“Effin’ black cab driversall wanna rip ya off,

did ya fink I wos a tourist?”“No,” says I, “a Toff!”

She slammed the door, I cleared my clockI heard some more profanities,

ahead of me a suit flags me down...“St James Street driver please!”

Kopyright Kupkake 2010

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Manganese results “miss expectations...”

LTI parent company, Manganese Bronze, has said that its results missed expectations after being hit by lower sales and high-er than expected warrantee radiator repairs on the TX4. They added that the radiator issue had now been resolved, but thatthey had only uncovered the warranty blow while preparing the full year figures. MB also revealed that vehicle sales haddropped 12% last year to 1,724 as drivers remained nervous about financing themselves to new vehicles amid the recession.

The TX4 suffered twelve UK engine fires in 2008 that forced Manganese to recall and refit almost 6,000 cabs at a cost of£3.8m. That recall is virtually completed, although liability for the original problem has yet to be confirmed.

Manganese also warned that there could be job losses at the Coventry factory following a recently completed review.The company has battled against recession pressures, going £600,000 into minus territory during the first half of 2009 as

against a £1.5m profit just 12-months earlier. On a better note, MB added that customer reaction to the Shanghai-built versionof the TX4 had been positive and that they hoped to sell around 1,000 cabs in China this year.


Mailshot

Only twenty yearson DaC!Thanks to O52 I am still on Dial-a-Cab! I,like I suspect most DaC subscribers, havebeen thinking of a reason to stay on the cir-cuit due to the paucity of work and endlessdays of no jobs whatsoever after ten hoursshifts. The management said in the goodtimes how wonderful they have directedDaC and increased sales year on year in oneof the longest bull financial economies theworld has ever seen. Then 1 heard theinevitable admission I was prepared for:

Dial-a-Cab is a cyclical business. Did wejust get lucky for ten years? I, like all sub-scribers, am perplexed why when largenumbers are leaving, the very least the man-agement could do is to not replace themwith new drivers. I spoke to one driver whosaid he had been barred because he toldthem to find him work then he could affordto pay! Is this endemic? I even rang upDrivers Services saying there was hardly anywork and as I had been on the circuit fortwenty years how long before I could pay £1like Alan Fisher, our Editor? Another tenyears came the reply!

Then something totally unexpected hap-pened. Whilst waiting on the Piccadilly rank,I was hit by a bus who did a hit and run. Icaught up with the bus driver, fortuitously apolice officer made a report noting damageto both vehicles consistent with an accident.Red paint chiselled the length of my badlydamaged cab. Travelling home thereafter,sick to the pit of my stomach, I reluctantlyasked voice man to put out a fleet messagefor witnesses. Oscar 52 had witnessed all.Thanks Nicholas Fielding.

So there you have it. If you think you’rebetter off without Dial-a-Cab, could you alsorequire a witness?Stephen Berndes (R14)Thanks for the mention Stephen, cos ifyou’re asking for a loan, then I shouldremind you that I also pay VAT on myone pound, so things aren’t that won-derful! As for the business; looking atthe 2009 Annual Report, your assump-tion that any driver who leaves will beautomatically replaced is apparentlywrong as our numbers are substantiallydown. Finally, going back to me and my£1 subs, this was (I think) my fourthrecession in my 35 years on DaC and Icannot remember ever thinking that Ishould leave. In addition to work andthe occasional chance of a witness, thereis also the safety aspect. And as a final‘finally’ I usually do around 6 eveninghours on the cab and even at this quiettime, I am still managing 4 or 5 creditjobs a day ...Ed

Copying?Hi AlanI'm trying to get in touch with a guy calledOscar who used to regularly advertise inCall Sign for doing digital transfer copies oftapes to CDs etc. Do you have a telephonenumber for him or know someone that has?Barry Ward (H16J)Many drivers have used Oscar’s transferservices from tape to CD, Vinyl to CD orSuper 8 film to DVD etc. He can usuallybe contacted on 07902 246 354. The besttime is usually after 4pm ...Ed

Er... where’sMartyn???Dear Alan,I’m sure by now that the error has beenpointed out, but the photo on page 23 of theFebruary Call Sign is not of MartynMadden (Y97) but of (I believe) a now-retired driver who I knew as Eugene. I neverknew his call sign or surname but I think hehas left the circuit.Michael Harris (F79)Thank you Mike, but you’re right - I havealready been castigated! The first personto point it out could have been any ofthe 2000+ drivers or members of staff...but no, it had to be the Chairman, whoknew Martyn from DaC’s golfingexploits! I phoned Martyn to warn himthat when he opened the mag, he mightbecome concerned at how much he hadchanged, but that as compensation, CallSign would pay for any counselling heneeded! Fortunately for me, Martyn’sonly concern was that the person pur-ported to be him wasn’t ugly! ...Ed

Cheap tyres?Hi Alan,When we had a message on our terminalssaying cheaper tyres from Tiger Tyres, Ithought as I’d recently gone and boughtsome that it was just my bad luck a betterdeal would come along! Then when CallSign came out with the prices in - even withtheir pathetic £2 off each tyre they’re still notas cheap as Universal Tyres. If you want togive the fleet this info, then please do. I paid£72.42 for Michelins – that’s £6 cheaper thanthe Tiger discounted price... Keith Hancock (R47)Thanks Keith. My only knowledge abouttyres is that they go between the cab andthe road and when I occasionally need anew one, I just go and get one. I haven’ta clue how much they cost until I get thebill. The DaC Credit Union passed on theinfo about Tiger Tyres because they arein the same premises in Hackney Roadand very handy to the City. Even moreuseful is that DACCU members needing aset of tyres could – with a bit of luck –take a cheap loan to pay for what hasbecome an expensive pastime! Theymay be slightly dearer than Universal,who have 15 branches, but their prices

are reasonable and their discount toDaC drivers is genuine ...Ed

“I don’t want to gobut...”Due to my TXII starting to cost me moneywith daily problems, I have decided to getrid of it. But this is where the problembegins. I have had enough of owning a cabwith all the expense and worry that goeswith it and have decided to rent a new TX4for a year or so to get rid of the worry andexpense. But this means I have to come offDial-a-Cab, which I love being on. Is theirever going to be a time when DaC will allowrented cabs in top condition to be accepted?I am having to leave and really do not wantto at all. If I ever decide to buy again, I willbe straight back. But until then - unless rent-ed cabs are to be accepted - I want to wishall the drivers and the staff of a truly greatcircuit, the best of luck for the future...Andy Allen (K46)Hi Andy, have you thought of renting acab from someone already on DaC andbecoming a journeyman? Just ask AllanEvans or Shelagh Adkins to enquire viathe driver’s terminal if anyone wantsone. There is usually someone willing torent but I should warn you that as a jour-neyman, your long service record wouldcease ...Ed

Wonderful DaC driver!As very long standing clients of Dial-a-Cab,I am hoping you will be able to help us. OnWednesday 16th December we ordered acab from DaC to collect us from CarlyleSquare SW3 at about 8.30pm to go to LuciosRestaurant in Fulham Road. When wearrived at the restaurant, my husband, whois not very mobile as he suffers from arthri-tis, had an accident while getting out of thetaxi. His left foot slipped forward on the wetroad and his right leg, which was still stuckin the cab, caused him to fall out of the taxi.Unfortunately, when he was helped up byour cabbie and a passer by, he simply couldnot move his right leg, which was stuck in abent position and completely useless.

Please don't panic, I am not writing to sueor complain! I am writing because this taxidriver was just WONDERFUL! After hehelped my husband up and helped to gethim seated on the floor of the taxi, he stoodout in the rain and held an umbrella overmy husband for at least 45 minutes or moreuntil the ambulance came! When the ambu-lance finally arrived, I looked at the taximeter, expecting to see a very large amounton it only to find he had stopped it when wearrived at the restaurant. I wanted to give

Either write to Call Sign atDial-a-Cab House or email usat - [email protected]


Mailshothim a huge tip in thanks for his kindness orto pay extra for all the time he had stayedwith us, but he simply refused to take any-thing saying he was very happy to havehelped us. So I now would really like to con-tact him to thank him personally.

I have also been told that you can com-mend a taxi driver to an association/guild oftaxi drivers. I would also really like to do thisif you could help me by supplying thesedetails as well as our cabby’s name andaddress. We have travelled all over the worlda huge amount and I know that we inLondon do have the very best and finest cabdrivers in the world and this man is one ofvery best of them.

To finish the story, my husband ended uphaving to have knee surgery the followingday and spending 5 days in Chelsea andWestminster Hospital. He also had to have hisleg in a splint for 6 weeks. However, whatwith Christmas and the terrible weather wehave had and being snowed-in in the coun-try, it is only now that I have got round towriting to you. In this present world wheneveryone is always complaining, I reallywould like to do the opposite. So if you cangive us any help to do this I would be mostgrateful. After all, the week before Christmasmust be so busy and our lovely cabby couldhave done lots of other jobs instead of stay-ing and helping my husband.

Thank you for the excellent service thatDial-a-Cab gives...Tara ElliotChilton Foliat, Berks

The driver concerned who maintainedDial-a-Cab’s name as always being thebest was David Fisher (A59). DaCChairman Brian Rice responded person-ally to Mrs Elliot...

TX4 brakesDear AlanI have been experiencing a problem with thebrakes on my TX4. I have recently spoken toLTI customer services department and theysay they are not aware of the problem, buthave advised me to take my cab into my ser-vice dealer and their engineer will come tohave a look. The problem occurs when theengine is cold. When you apply the brakes,the pedal collapses and you lose brakingeffort - but only for a second and the pedalthen comes back up. But sometimes thepedal vibrates, the cab shakes and the enginecuts out.

I have spoken to other drivers whohave experienced the same problem andwould ask them to phone LTI and tellthem about it so that they will then beaware of it.

Alfred Cook (A62)

Every issue of Call Sign takes a look back at ODRTS history through the pages of the magazines ofthe time with a flashback

DIAL-A-CAB FLASHBACK

Camden PCNsI read in an issue of Call Sign that if a coun-cil make an extra charge when someone paysfor a PCN via a credit card, that the ticketbecomes null and void. I paid one fromCamden and when I told them about the arti-cle, they offered to pay back the 1.3% admincharge but would not cancel the ticket. Arethey right?Kevin McKenna (S36)I asked Barrie Segal who wrote the origi-nal answer. He told me that while othercouncils have agreed to refund the PCNwhen an admin charge was added,Camden decided instead to go for a judi-cial review to appeal against that decision.He said that in his view the charge is ille-gal and until the review result is known,anyone who has received a PCN thatincludes an admin charge for a credit cardpayment, should go all the way to adjudi-cation. Most doing that have been suc-cessful. If you have already paid, then allyou can do is wait for the review resultand if they lose, claim your £60 back ...Ed

This month’s Flashback goes back to the November 1999 Call Sign for a piece of culture!

Paul wins at National Poetry Day!The September 1999 issue of Call Sign invited Dial-a-Cab drivers to enter a National Poetry Challenge where a song lyricwas to be the basis of their poem. The prize was pretty small by Call Sign standards - a bottle of Champagne, butalthough we didn’t say so at the time for fear of frightening off entrants, the winner was to be in for a real treat. That wasto be at the celebrity attended National Poetry Day and in addition, the winner would face newspaperinterviews plus radio and TV appearances! Call Sign had over 20 entrants - the largest entry of anyorganisation entering into National Poetry Day! Our heartiest congratulations go to the overall winner,Dial-a-Cab’s Paul Tully (Y40).

On the day, Paul was ready with his entry – Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far way – andsure enough it was judged to be the winning poem. The organisers then invited Paul along to a ‘PoetryBreakfast’ together with Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion and also ‘Poet in the City’, John Mole, (whohad previously written a special poem for Call Sign that was published in our September issue). Theevent was broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Later, at the Royal Exchange, National Poetry Day was celebrated by the reading of poems from theMinister for Arts Alan Howarth, John Mole, Big Issue poet Sir George Staple QC and of course the starof the show, our very own Paul Tully - the Poet in the City!

DaC taxis had earlier collected a host of children and teachers from Sir John Cass FoundationPrimary School who had read out their poems and later released a cascade of balloons over the City.

Paul was later interviewed by the press and also made an appearance on BBC News 24 andCapital Gold, having been driven there by Allan Evans (Y83). Then it was off to the BBC Westminster studios foran interview on Radio 5 Live followed by a trip to Grays Inn Road and a live LBC interview! But pride of place went to an appear-ance at the Bridewell Theatre in Bride Lane, EC4 where a number of people - including Paul - read out their poetry, eagerly watched by proud DaCBoard representatives, Brian Rice and Allen Togwell.

Finally - and at last - back home to enjoy his bottle of champagne as the prize for writing the best poem, the still slightly shell-shocked Dial-a-Cabdriver could only say:

“Absolutely marvellous, really great, just totally magical.” We noted that his response didn’t rhyme : “I haven’t the strength!” said Paul…The two runners-up in the Call Sign poetry competition were David Kupler and George Wilson. Both receive a bottle of Champers and our congratulations..

Flashback1999

Paul with children from Sir JohnCass School

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