what has dac’s sid nathan got against this bus?what has ... · call sign february 2010 page 2...

Why is this DaC dispatcher on the front cover?Why is this DaC dispatcher on the front cover?A clue?… Not just because she’s gorgeous!A clue?… Not just because she’s gorgeous!

What has DaC’s Sid Nathan got against this bus?What has DaC’s Sid Nathan got against this bus?

February 2010

Call Sign February 2010

NASH’S NUMBERSFrom Alan Nash (A95)

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Views of the police?I recently had a very interesting chat about pri-vate hire with a serving police officer. What hesaid surprised me somewhat when he admittedthat the police knew the majority of bad applesin the trade were on the minicab side. He alsotold me about being involved in several anti-tout missions and how they had caught mini-cabs attempting to tout for business.

Then he spoiled it all by also admitting thatthey operated under a list of priorities and thatminicab touting came very low down on thatlist. While he added that they would love to beable to devote more time to cleaning up privatehire, they just did not have the time.

He also admitted knowing that some privatehire drivers – especially at busy times - weretouting, while police looked the other waybecause they were busy dealing with otherthings. And even more surprisingly, he actuallyadmitted that if there were just too many pun-ters looking for too few taxis, they’d never gethome without minicabs touting.

An interesting, yet very sad, chat...

Paul for MusicI don’t know how many of you were broughtup in the East End in the mid-1950s and early60s, but if you were then you will undoubtedlyremember the record stall in front ofWhitechapel Station and the shop in CambridgeHeath Road that stored every one of the latestvinyl releases in those early rock n’ roll years.Paul Shoben - better known as Paul for Music- ran both. I tend not to write about personalstuff such as this, but Paul for Music played asmall part in my early years that always felt likesuch a big part, that when I read of Paul’s deathin December at the age of 87, I just had to giveit a mention.

Together with friends, I would spend hourson a Saturday morning outside the undergroundstation listening to Paul playing the latest vinyltracks – starting, I think, around September1957 when Lonnie Donegan’s skiffle sound wasbidding a fond farewell and the American bub-ble-gum pop machine burst onto the UK scene.It was at that time when the non-stop sound ofPaul Anka blared out day after day and weekafter week as his amazing music-changingDiana topped the charts for 7 weeks - with Paulplaying it constantly throughout!

Then from Diana, through Elvis and the earlyCliff, we gathered around the Paul for Musicstall listening to the sound that many just referto now as “the sixties.”

Before The Beatles arrived on the scene,we’d moved onto the home of TottenhamHotspur for our Saturday afternoon entertain-ment. But the mornings were still spent byPaul’s stall.

The memory of those early years at PaulShoben’s record stall will stay in my mind forever.

RIP Paul...

DaC Credit UnionThe past 12 months have finally seen a break-through in the Dial-a-Cab Credit Union withnew members totalling well into three figures.The only mystery to me is why every subscriberon DaC isn’t a member? After all, it costs younothing and you never know when you might

suddenly need a few shekels. Ok, you have tosave a regular amount each month – as small orlarge as you wish – but that money is yours.You can take it back whenever you want, orleave it mount up so that you can borrow up tothree times that amount and get it within a mat-ter of days. With the cost of running a cab sky-rocketing, it seems so logical to have access toloans where the repayments are so reasonable,rather than some of those small loan companieswhere interest charges are astronomical. Theamounts you can borrow now runs into manythousands of pounds, but no one will ask youto sign over your house “just in case!” And asmany subscribers have discovered, their 7%interest on savings accounts is just unbeatable.Not surprisingly, that offer only opens for shortperiods within the year so you not only have tobe fairly quick, but you also have to be a mem-ber. And as I said at the beginning, the onlymystery to me is why every subscriber on DaCisn’t one already!

Black power? Several issues back, Call Sign published a storyby a DaC driver where he told of his fear whenseeing a group of ‘hoodies’ walking towards histaxi. In all innocence, the driver said that thereason he quickly locked his doors wasn’tbecause they happened to be black, butbecause they were obviously hiding their faces.He went on to say that he would have lockedthe doors had they been white as well.

A complaint came in from a member of staffin the DaC Call Centre saying that the driver’sdescription was racist and while not for onesecond do I think the driver meant it to soundthat way, I could understand why the complaintwas received and as Editor, I sent an apology tothe Call Centre member and accepted responsi-bility. He accepted it graciously and we had ashort but interesting exchange of views on thesubject.

Now it’s my turn to complain about whatsome perceive to be reverse racism. This col-umn doesn’t particularly like minicabs andwe’ve said so many times. However, I have overthe years met some of the people behind thelarger PH companies and many are just regularguys running a business – so yes, it’s the busi-ness of PH that I can’t bring myself to like andnot necessarily those running the businesses.

One “boss” I haven’t met is Roger Lynch,Chief Executive of the Ruskin PH group in

Camberwell Road. He seems like a responsiblebusinessman, a nice guy and I’m sure that hewould be just as annoyed at his drivers if theywere caught touting, as we would be.

Yet according to Southwark News, Mr Lynchwas “one of a group of prominent black businesspeople invited to Number 10 to mark the risingsuccess of BME entrepreneurs.” The paperwrites of how Roger Lynch complained toGordon Brown about the way Lloyds Bankwere treating their customers and other items ofinterest to him. It then goes on to say:

“Roger Lynch is a new entrant in this year'snewly-published Black Power List, which identi-fies the most 100 most influential BME (Blackand Minority Ethnic) people in Britain. He isalso Southwark's reigning Black Entrepreneur ofthe Year.” It then quotes the Prime Minister insaying how important it is for all black and eth-nic minority people to go out and vote at thenext election, whether they are Labour, LiberalDemocrat or Conservative, because “...the BNPposes the greatest danger to you and diversity inour nation.”

Gordon Brown may well be correct about theBNP, but my problem is with the word ‘black’and I have a feeling that the person who issuedthe original complaint to Call Sign may wellagree with me on this occasion.

Can you imagine the uproar if there were tobe a White Entrepreneur of the Year award or ifsomeone were to be nominated as one of the100 most influential white people in Britain andthey were then placed onto a White Power list?The thought is not just appalling, but chilling tothe blood. Yes, there are problems between dif-ferent colour groups, but they represent a smallpercentage of race relations and most of us geton as being just people, with the actual ques-tion of colour not arising.

Then we hear something like the situationsurrounding Roger Lynch and his “awards” thatappear to be for him being black, rather than forbeing good at his job – something he obviouslyis. Perhaps it’s just me, but I considered the arti-cle in Southwark News to be far more racist thanthe driver in Call Sign who perhaps just didn’texpress himself in the way he meant to...

Mike SonAn article in the January Call Sign from Boardmember Mike Son, under the heading How canwe win back our work, has led to an avalancheof both emails and phone calls – some infavour, some not so much so, but none violent-ly against. Amazingly, one even came in fromthe private hire section. However, as that per-son is Martin Cox who has huge experience ofboth sides of the industry, I felt it to be relevantand taking my life in my hands, I have goneahead and published it!

I have asked Mike not to respond in this issue– especially as he was on holiday for some ofthe time anyway – but to follow up the articlenext month.

Call Sign may be just an in-house magazinethat can’t be bothered extolling its virtues, but itnever ceases to amaze us at how often it leadsthe way in discussion groups...

Alan [email protected]

from the editor’s desk


reflections of the chairman

Winter’s here!We now seem to be getting back to some sortof normality after the long Christmas holidayand, of course, that very bad weather we expe-rienced during the early part of January. Weseem to be doing quite well work-wise duringthis early part of the year, but it really is diffi-cult to forecast business trends due to this peri-od of unusually extreme weather conditions.

Although bad weather can be good for ourbusiness, heavy snow also has the downsideof making driving conditions particularly haz-ardous, especially on minor roads. Neitherwere they bad just in the suburbs, on somedays they could just as easily have been in thecentre of town.

As I stated earlier, although good for business,it does make life for members much more diffi-cult, especially for the majority who no longerlive in town but in the suburbs and even furtherafield. These are the people that really curse thebad weather, especially if they cannot evenmake it into town due to the heavy snowfall.

They sit at home feeling extremely guiltyabout not going out to work, exacerbated bythe fact that the credit card bills are beginningto come in following Christmas! They watch thenews on television with its live reports from thecentre of London, with traffic seemingly mov-ing freely in the background, then they lookout of their own window at eight inches ofsnow, tell themselves that it’s probably busy intown and begin to wonder if they should tryand get into work? I know the feeling well, asI’ve experienced it myself in the past.

Anyway, getting back to the work; our figureshave not significantly improved this year (ascompared to last year’s figures) after our firstquarter’s trading, however, I do believe that wehave hit the bottom and am hopeful that busi-ness will begin to improve. But as I explainedearlier, such inclement weather in our businessmakes it difficult to predict future trends.

However, I am very pleased to report thatwe are showing a small surplus for the corre-sponding period, this is due to the fact thatour operating costs have been cut quite sig-nificantly over the same period last year andnot due to any significant increase in work.

Interesting lettersI believe there are several letters in this issueof the magazine in response to Mike Son’s arti-cle in the January Call Sign. I am not sure ifthey will be included by the Editor as letters oreven articles, but I must say I found them allto be very interesting. It is always nice to haveletters that are written in a constructive vein,even those that are also somewhat critical ofour operational system - everyone is entitledto their opinion. But what I also found quitepleasing was how sympathetic some of theresponses were to our predicament, showinga real grasp of the plight of the radio taxiindustry from those individual writers.

There is one important issue, however, andthat is when members come up with sugges-tions that they believe will particularly benefitthem as an individual – there is nothing wrongwith that and I totally understand that situation

– but what they must remember is that the BoMwill only do what they consider to be in thebest interest of the majority of members and theSociety as a whole, but that whatever we do, asection of the membership will be alienated. Itcan be a difficult situation, as on some occa-sions we have to do what some members mightconsider as not being in their interest.

If my memory serves me correctly, one let-ter in this issue - answered by Keith Cain – isfrom a member who complains that workfrom the ‘House’ is all A/D, so how can he geta job home? In reality, we made that accountA/D because local trips were ‘sticking’ in thesystem and we were getting complaints fromthe client. Consequently, had we had left thetrips with destinations, yes, some memberswould have got a job home in the short term,but in the longer term they would not as wewould have lost the account! Everyone would

then suffer from the loss and absolutely noone would receive any type of trip from thatparticular account again. As a consequence,every member - and the Society itself - wouldbe the loser in that long term.

There is one last point that I would like toaddress. I believe some members believe wemake huge amounts from clients in administra-tion charges, that in turn make our charges par-ticularly expensive compared with the compe-tition. That is a total myth, as in a vast numberof cases the admin charge is exceeded by theamount of driver gratuity alone. Whilst I am onthe subject of driver gratuity - and you shouldnot read anything into this - one of our com-petitors has reduced their gratuity to the driverto 5%, that is not to say they have necessarilyreduced the charge to the client, it is just a wayof increasing their income from the driver.

DaC AGMFinally, I would like to remind you that theAGM is on February 7th and will once again beheld The Brewery, Chiswell Street, commenc-ing at 11am. If you do not vote by post, thenyou must attend the AGM, otherwise you willincur a £50 fine. There really is no excuse fornot voting as we do not have any rule changesor propositions to vote on! Neither is it an elec-table AGM where a BoM is seeking election.

This is probably the first AGM of its kindwhere only the minutes, Financial Report andappointing our Auditors has to be decided!

Brian RiceChairman

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AL Driver Tries To RunOver DaC Driver!

It had been a fairly ordinary Saturdaynight for Dial-a-Cab driver MarcTurner (R97) and at just after 1am,with things beginning to quieten down,Marc took a look at the Holiday InnForum Hotel in South Kensington. Buthe couldn’t get onto the point becausean Addison Lee car - complete with dri-ver - was hogging it. Marc takes up thestory...

“I put onto the rank and gave hima good stare as if to say please pulloff because this is a taxi rank andyou aren’t a taxi. But he stayed put,so I got out and made as if I wasgoing to take a photo of his car withmy phone. No sooner had I held thephone up to his registration platethan he started up his engine andattempted to run me over!”

Calming down a bit, Marc continuedhis story: “After missing me, hedrove off but I had failed to take thephoto, being somewhat more con-cerned at getting out of the way ofhis car quickly! But then to show hisapparent stupidity, instead of just legging it he returnedand pulled right up to my bumper and told me that hewanted to hit me and judging by the look on his face and

tone of his voice, he may well haveattempted it. Fortunately a memberof the public came out just then anddefused the situation. I told the pas-senger that had I not been there, hemight well have ended up in theminicab with what appeared to be amentally unbalanced driver, whowas flagrantly breaking his licens-ing conditions by being an oppor-tunist.

“The Addison Lee driver thenbutted in and asked what I meant byopportunist, as being from Africa hedid not understand the word? I didn’twant to involve myself any furtherand took the passenger and left thehotel – but not without successfullyphotographing his registrationnumber this time.”

Marc has sent two letters of com-plaint, together with the photo of the

AL registration number, to both the Public Carriage Office andalso Addison Lee themselves. At the time of going to press, nei-ther had responded...

Marc Turner - Addison Lee minicabtried to run him over!

Geely Sales Go Through The Roof!

Announcing their 2009 full year vehicle sales, Hong Kong listed GeelyAutomobile Holdings said they had risen by an astonishing 59% up to325,413 units.

China's largest privately owned automaker also added in the state-ment that their December sales were up 108% to a record 43,446 unitsand that their 250,000 unit full year target set for 2009, was easilyexceeded. The company have now revised their 2010 target upwards to400,000 vehicles. This includes the TX4 taxi, which they also manufac-ture in Shanghai and begs the question that many are asking: Will theTX4 end up as a Chinese manufactured vehicle if more variants of theLondon taxi are passed for use in London, should the Conditions ofFitness be written off in March?

Geely have already made an estimated US$1.8billion bid for Ford'sVolvo cars and according to Geely Automobile's chief executive Gui ShengYue, the group wants to expand overseas sales – including western Europe- by exporting two-thirds of output by 2015. Gui added this telling quote:

“Our principle has always been the same. It is that the parent compa-ny will build up new production bases and will inject them into the list-ed company once the construction has completed and the basesbecome profitable.” That seems to be what is happening with the TX4.

Gui ShengYue: “Buildingup new pro-ductionbases...”

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2012: EUROSTAR WINS...BUT WHO LOSES?A report issued recently by Dial-a-Cabclient, Deutsche Bank, predicts aroundone million extra passengers will be usingthe Eurostar service during the period ofthe 2012 London Olympics. The reportclaims that after researching data from thelast three Games, the Bank had foundthey had been a catalyst for further pas-senger traffic and activity, which putsEurostar in a good position to capture theextra work crossing the Channel frommainland Europe – both for passengersand freight.

The problem for the London taxitrade is that for the four week periodof the Summer and Paralympic Games,those extra passengers coming herespecifically for the event won’t alightat St Pancras International, but willcarry on via the new high speed trainto Stratford in around 7 minutes. Notsomething the taxi trade can competewith.

However, Deutsche Bank also predictsthat the Games will lead to a spill overeffect that would further enhanceLondon's international exposure over thenext five to 10 years. If that turns into fact,it will undoubtedly help this trade get backonto its feet after the disastrous effects ofrecession - in addition to helping Eurostar

get back into profit following their expen-sive 2009 Christmas, when trains becamestuck in the tunnel following heavy snowand the company paid out millions in com-pensation and replacement trips.

More good news for London’s taxi dri-vers though, comes in an announcementthat the Eurostar line is set to be openedup for the use of rival train companieslater this year. German transport groupDeutsche 3ahn is said to be consideringplans to run its high-speed trains throughthe tunnel to link Cologne or Frankfurtwith London, whilst French operatorVeolia Envlronnement and national airlineAir France are expected to bid to run com-peting services.

That could mean that while one hand

takes some of our work for four weeks,the other hand will be giving us muchmore over a much longer period. At leastthat’s the hope...

The 9 December issue of Taxi Globe con-tained an article about new electric busesthat John Lewis plan to use for transport-ing passengers to/from their OxfordStreet store. Charging passengers a £5fare, the 9-seater buses are powered bywind-turbine electricity, while the seatsare leather. An added attraction sees thebus fitted with WiFi and containing lap-tops for customer’s use.

The bus has come from a partner-ship between John Lewis and GreenUrban Transport Sustainable initia-tive – or GUTSi for short!

A John Lewis spokesman claimed thecompany had been working for fouryears in developing the idea and has pur-chased twenty of the coaches at a cost of£150,000 each.

The article quoted oneunnamed driver as beingso upset that he returnedhis John Lewis store card.Dial-a-Cab’s Sid Nathan(K88) was equally dis-turbed by the news. He toldCall Sign:

“John Lewis has thebest-served taxi rank inthe west end. There are always taxisthere and they do a great job in takingpassengers wherever they want to go– be that to the other side of London


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or just Selfridges. Now we hear aboutthis electric bus service. The type ofpassengers that use buses charging £5

are exactly the type who would nor-mally grab a taxi outside the store’sdoors. Why does everybody want apiece of our business; no one is con-tent just having their own. I can wellunderstand why the driver returnedhis store card.”

Sid ended by saying: “With 20 buses,this could be a real punch in themouth for us and when you thinkabout it you have to ask why a storewhose job it is to sell items to cus-tomers that walk through their doors,should be spending £3million to pro-vide transport for customers who canalready get there by bus, tube, taxi oreven their own transport? Buses,schmusses, who needs them???”

London Mayor, Boris Johnson, said thathe was a big fan of electric vehicles thatdid not belch out fumes via their exhaustsand that he would like to see more eco-friendly vehicles on London’s roads. Heobviously hasn’t met Sid yet!

Will the bus steal a lot ofour work?

Inset: Sid Nathan

Sid Nathan saysto the cab trade…Electric bus? What about the taxi rank???


It may surprise many of you to know thatwe at Call Sign have been following theprogress of Power Pill for over fouryears now. Back in August 2005, PowerPill approached us with a product thatthey not only claimed would save usmoney on fuel and get rid of the nastyblack smoke pouring out of our taxis, butalso offered to prove it free of charge!This magazine has shown the proof manytimes since, via our drivers testing theproduct and showing that it actually doeswhat it claims! Not content with givingDaC drivers a chance to test the productfor nowt - and with some amazing results- they also set about demonstrating howmuch cleaner our cab engines stayed byusing the product. Again, all the resultsfeaturing DaC drivers were publishedaround the world, both in hard copymagazines as well as online.

Power Pill set out to find a well-respected, long established specialist toconduct some major engine examinationsand after much research throughout theindustry, chose MAG Diesels in southLondon, asking them to strip down a typ-ical diesel engine that had never usedPower Pill. Then three Dial-a-Cab driverswere picked at random from the hun-dreds who were using Power Pill at thetime to have their vehicle enginesstripped down to see what difference, ifany, Power Pill had made. The non-usingengine had a large amount of carbon leftbehind from the diesel. It was explainedto Call Sign that in every engine MAGworked on, heavy carbon deposits werefound within the combustion chamberand fuel system. The result was usuallypoor start up, excessive smoke, poor gasflow, reduced power and decreased milesper gallon. All of those significantly short-ened the lifespan of the engine.

The first DaC driver to have his cabengine examined was Ken Jackman(B29), whose Metrocab Series I had com-pleted over 290,000 miles at the time. Kenhad been using Power Pill for over 6months and on inspection, the findingsfrom his cab were quite remarkable.

Ken told this magazine in 2006: “I startedusing Power Pill after reading the articles inCall Sign and immediately started to seeimprovements in fuel consumption. WhenPower Pill approached me to demonstratethat my cab’s engine would last longer, I washappy to oblige…and it was definitely worthit! The comparison results were quiteremarkable.”

Next up to the plate was DivyeshRuparelia (V59), who has since changedto a Vito but who had a Metrocab at thetime. He too was delighted by the resultsand kept his cab longer than he otherwisemight have.

Steve Hassan (P95) was the third driverto have his cab examined and the results inhis TXI were just as impressive. He said thatall parts of his engine, injectors, filters andeven oil were much cleaner since usingPower Pill and driving had been much moreof a pleasure.

MAG proprietor, Arthur Bolt – a veteran

of 55 years in the trade - had told Call Signat the time and hasn’t changed his view for2010:

“Power Pill really does work – we havetested all kinds of devices which aredesigned to give better performance, but inour opinion none have ever achieved resultsas consistently as Power Pill. The cleaning ofthe engine and fuel system starts immediate-ly and within just a few tanks of fuel you aredriving a much cleaner vehicle, pumpingout less emissions and saving money notonly on fuel, but hefty servicing bills too. Webelieve engines using Power Pill should lastin excess of 600,000 miles.”

Now into 2010, many DaC drivers usePower Pill and Arthur Bolt - still at MAG- still recommends them. Chris Hayball,whose ad is in this issue, sells the pillsonline or via post from his home buthas asked Call Sign to publicise the factthat he has moved home fromChesterfield to Derbyshire – a few milesdown the road. His internet address andphone numbers are still the same, butthose regulars and new readers whowrite to him for Power Pills should usehis new address:

Chris Hayball, Grove Bungalow,Mansfield Road, Heath, Derbyshire S445SF.

His prices are still unchanged. DaC dri-vers can buy one pack for £15, five packsfor £65 or ten packs for £110 (including

postage). Each pack contains 10 pills andone pill is enough for a complete tank. Ifyou fill up daily, half a pill each time isample.

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As I draft this article, 2009 is just hours awayfrom ending and for many it’s good riddance,except maybe for some of us older folks who asmore years pass, question the speed in whichthey go. One minute we were celebrating thearrival of a new year, next minute it’s spring,summer, winter and before you know it,Christmas again - a full year where each dayseemed as one and the weeks being a blur.Looking back, I ask myself not only what have Iachieved, but also where was the time to achieveit? Including, I might add, at the very beginningof the year, those New Year resolutions...

How many of you at the start of 2009 resolvedto lose weight, give up smoking, get fit and -dare I say it - adopt a more positive attitudetowards appearance when driving your cab? Andhow many of you, twelve months later whilsttucking into turkey, mince pies and with a bellyfull of booze, can honestly say you kept yourpromise and were a success? Very few I bet,because it’s a known fact, as a recent researchshows, that less than 5% of those who make NewYears resolutions actually achieve their aim.

If it’s any consolation to you guys, statisticsalso claim that women give into temptation ear-lier than men when it comes to watching theirwaistlines or giving up cigarettes and alcohol.The average woman will give up their newhealthy lifestyle and fall back into their old rou-tine just six days into the New Year. Men appar-ently - although it’s nothing to be proud of - last-ed a further two weeks before giving in. Threelousy weeks before they gave in to a fag, booze,a fry-up with chips and the couch instead ofgoing for a jog! Which means already, onemonth into 2010 and those resolutions are begin-ning to fail. It’s hard to believe that a customwhich is practised throughout the world andwhich goes back as far as 153 BC, can have sucha history of negative results. The excuse in somecases is that goals have been set too high or areunattainable, but that’s only in the minority ofcases; the bulk of the failures are amongst the 10most common goals which are to lose weight,quit smoking, drink less alcohol, get fit, eat right,reduce stress, spend more time with family, savemoney, enjoy life more and to learn somethingnew. None of which are really unattainable.Particularly those goals that have a huge influ-ence on your state of health.

To gym or not to gym...?Take ‘keeping fit’ for example, apart from theobvious that it makes you look and feel better,regular exercise has been associated with morehealth benefits than anything known to man.Studies show that it reduces the risk of some can-cers, increases longevity, helps achieve andmaintain weight loss, enhances mood, lowersblood pressure and even improves arthritis - acommon ailment amongst those who sit behinda wheel of a vehicle all day.

Mention keeping fit and the assumption is toimmediately join a gym, which really isn’t neces-sary. While exercising in a gym is effective formany people, others join a gym only to find theyrarely have time to go, quickly tire of the atmos-phere, feel intimidated by the body beautifuls orthe monotony of it. The key is to find a physicalactivity that you enjoy.

Several people I know achieved this by cou-

pling a fitness programme with martial arts, suchas judo, karate, kung fu, aikido etc, which apartfrom fitness, gives the added benefit of beingable to defend themselves (ideal for those in thecab trade), plus there’s a spiritual element whichimproves the mind’s focus, helps self control andbuilds confidence. And with the various levels ofdisciplines that can be achieved in Martial Arts, itcreates a motivation to keep at it regularly, eithergoing to a club or working out at home. I sub-stituted going to a gym by taking a brisk 30-minute walk after dinner each evening, briskenough to cause a sweat. I’ve also made it a pol-icy of never using the lift. My office in on thefourth floor - eight flights of stairs totalling 86steps. That simple discipline alone can improvelung capacity, blood pressure and bad choles-terol. I’m amazed at times when I see someonewaiting for the lift to go up or down just onefloor. I’m sure this has nothing to do with lazi-ness, but just simply habit. Just like jumping intoyour cab or car to go a few minutes down theroad, which is a calorie-burning, leg-strengthen-ing, mind-clearing exercise opportunity lost! It’seasy to break that habit if you make it known toeverybody in your household that you are goingto walk any journey that will take you ten min-utes or less without the cab – and that you wanttheir help in making you stick to it.

Having a stretch...Another simple discipline is stretching, whichyou can do anywhere. Okay, so stretching isn’tgoing to make you into a lean, mean calorie-burning machine – but it will help you mobiliseyour joints, get to know where different musclesare and find out the areas in which you are tightand tense. Make having a gentle stretch firstthing in the morning or when you get homefrom work, part of your regular routine. Andthat’s the operative word... routine. Just like theregular routine you have in cleaning your cab orfilling up with diesel. Make taking a brisk walkand stretching part of your regular routine.

Driving a cab isn’t the best occupation eitherwhen it comes to healthy eating. With so fewcafé’s offering fresh vegetables or a wide selec-tion of fish, then the alternative is to eat as muchsalads as possible and eat at least five differentvegetables and plenty of oily fish when you eatat home.

And talking of home, family is the mostimportant thing in a person's life, but somepeople don't seem to realise this. If you'reone of these people that spends more timeworking than is really necessary than talk-

ing with your son or daughter or partner atthe dinner table, then you should seriouslyconsider this as a New Year resolution. Arecent study showed that the more oftenchildren have dinner with their parents; theless likely they are to smoke, drink or useillegal drugs. Other reports have linked fam-ily dinner to higher grades. It can also pro-vide stability and security.

And having a drag...Nobody needs me to explain the benefits of

giving up smoking; fortunately, with the newnon-smoking laws in public places, this hasforced many to reduce the number of cigarettesthey smoke during the day, however I’m still sur-prised by the amount of cab drivers I’ve seensmoking. Keeping healthy when driving a cab inLondon is difficult enough, why jeopardise yourhealth and the welfare of your family by smok-ing? It shouldn’t be a resolution to give up smok-ing, common sense should be enough.

Finally - and yes - I couldn’t possibly not men-tion one final resolution, even though it’s notamongst the top ten or for that matter anywhere inthe top hundred! Which doesn’t surprise me whenI see all those schlocky presenters on television.

In fact, as I draft this article, I’ve justwatched a TV news item showing TerryWogan leaving his BBC R2 show for the lasttime and seen how immaculately he wasdressed to do his job - on radio! Not for himjeans and scruffy T-shirt. He is obviously aman of habit in the way he dresses, whetheron TV or radio. And on that point I honestlybelieve those that drive a cab without anythought to the manner in which they aredressed, do so out of habit.

I just cannot believe so many cabmen can besloppy in their dress by nature. The reason I’msure is because there is no peer pressure, theyare alone in their cab and there is nobody withwhom to measure themselves by or to set anexample. I’ve said it 1000 times; appearanceequates attitude. If you look good, you feelgood. If you feel good you act good and in act-ing good and looking smart, it raises your self-esteem. All very important attributes when youare servicing the public and particularly whenbattling daily against minicabs. Because beingoutnumbered by nearly three to one, it is they bywhich we are now measured.

We may not always be able to beat minicabson price, but we CAN on quality, service, abilityand appearance - IF everybody made the effort.Remember, there are officially 60,000 minicabs inLondon, unofficially is anybodies guess! But if60,000 minicabs did just one trip a day, that’snearly 22 million trips a year that too many cab-men out there are prepared to lose without mak-ing any concerted effort to reclaim.

Think about it, and if you make a NewYears Resolution that will improve yourhealth and your job, remember to tell yourfamily and friends what it is so they canencourage you to keep at it.

Be lucky and may I wish you all a happy, pros-perous and healthy New Year...

Allen TogwellDaC Marketing


As we enter the second month of a new decade, Allen Togwell looks at...

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS!

Happy New Year to you all – 2010 will hope-fully be a good one to everyone!

Together with Dial-a-Cab subscriber BrianWith (Y84), our venture - London Black CabSightseeing Tours - is going from strength tostrength with sales figures increasing monthafter month, which is very promising.

LBCST became an idea when two cab dri-vers - newly qualified Cab Guides - enjoyed acoffee one Sunday afternoon in November2008 in Costa on Cheapside and our planswere decided over two large skinny wet lattes!We wanted to put our new qualification andshiny new green badges into good use andform a company that would become one ofthe major Sightseeing Tour options in London.

Our official launch took place at the VisitBritain Tourist Office in Regent Street lastspring, which included BBC radio coverage,and since then we have recruited a stable offellow Cab Guides, taking clients out on our

Classic Tours as well as our Themed Tours,which include Royal London, Roman London,Harry Potter Film Locations and Jack theRipper’s Sinister London among others.

As you read this, we are just recoveringfollowing a huge LBCST event that took placeon Friday 22nd January! Our task was totransport 324 Spanish employees of Germancar manufacturers Audi on a sightseeing tourof London in 82 taxis, which included takingthem to two iconic landmarks for their BlueBadge Guide Presentations. Hard work, butoh so enjoyable...

We won the job because London BlackCab Sightseeing Tours are members of UKInbound, who are the only trade associationto represent and unite the UK’s inboundtourism businesses, and for this event weteamed up with fellow members, Axis Group,a Chiswick-based company who providegroup travel in London for people from all

over Europe. Networking! Some of you DaC drivers reading this would

have taken part and I now know are re-keento sit the Cab Guide Course this year – andwhy not – a cab driver should always be look-ing for another ‘string to his bow’ with uncer-tain times looming up ahead in our trade.

The Cab Guide Course is funded by theWorshipful Company of Hackney CarriageDrivers, and accredited by the City University.Why not consider giving it a go? Why not con-sider increasing your earnings potential? It’snot all about remembering key dates in histo-ry - you can always round them off to theclosest century! It’s more about being able togive a running commentary about the City youwork in and know so well and making it funand entertaining!

Adios a mis amigos – hasta luego!

Bob Woodford (Ex-P49)


82-Taxi Tourof London

Have you got your black cab fuel card yet?The Fast Fuel Card (called the Black CabFuel Card by the promoters) has been in usefor some time by Dial-a-Cab drivers andmany of us now have one, in addition tothe hundreds of transport companies andfleet operators who supply them to theirdrivers in order to help cut their costs. Withtaxi drivers having to work longer hours toreduce the shortfall in their money, 5 or 6gallons a day is fairly average and if youround that up as an average of 25 litres perday on a 6-day week, you are looking atapproximate savings of £7.50 or more eachweek. It may not pay the mortgage, buttaking away holiday periods when notworking and you are still saving around£300 a year. Not bad for nothing!

And that doesn’t take into accountthat you can also fill up your own pri-vate car and even use it for cars belong-ing to other family members if you areout with them! If you are going on a UKdriving holiday especially, you can reallymake a saving on the extortionate cur-rent price of either fuel.

Although you may be asked for registra-tion and/or mileage details because fore-court staff are trained to ask for them, it isnot necessary to give either as no one ischecking on your usage! A simple ‘no needthanks’ is usually sufficient.

For those that don’t know, when you fillup at a Texaco or Morrisons, DaC driverswill save up to 5p a litre by using a BlackCab Fuels Card and instead of paying cashor using your own card, just signing for thefuel purchased and the amount will be deb-

ited from your bank account two weeks afterthe end of the week via direct debit.

Remember, it matters not how much thefuel is advertised at outside the garage,you pay whatever the Black Cab Fuel Cardrate is for that week – on average around5p per litre less than many garages. Youwill be notified via text message what thefollowing week’s price per litre will be.You can also manage your transactionsonline if you wish by accessing youraccount details and purchases at any time.

For more information on how to open an

account, visit www.blackcabfuels.co.uk or call0800 987 5701 and speak to John Murphy.Terms/ Conditions apply and are available onrequest.

with London Black Cab Sightseeing Tours

A few thoughts following Mike Son’s piece inthe January Call Sign. I’ve only held a badgefor 4 years and could still (God willing) have30 or so more years behind the wheel of aTaxi. So how we can win back work is ofmuch of interest to me and the family I sup-port!

We’re in a difficult position. The cleaningup of the PH industry (their vehicles and dri-vers), improved booking / despatching tech-nology and the invention of SatNav must givePH drivers a more enjoyable job than they’dhave had 10 years ago and passengers muchmore confidence in the PH trade. Also, the factthat many PH drivers are (presumably) happyto take home slightly less money per day (atthe moment) than a London Taxi driver mightbe happy with... and you have a problemwhich clearly must be addressed before webecome just a tourist attraction.

We are in a free market economy. Despitethe fact that I still remember the pride I had ingetting my badge and the rich heritage wehave in the London Taxi trade, thousands ofpeople sadly aren’t going to pay us to drivethem from A to B just because we ‘workedhard’ to get our licence.‘’ This annoys me andbugs me - but it’s true! Like any serviceprovider - as has been said over and overagain - we attract custom if the service isexcellent and the price is right. Basic businesseconomics. We mostly work using our taxime-ters - the rates of which are the source of end-less discussion. But the meter system must putoff some potential clients. I would rather get afixed price job then no job at all. Sure - it’seasier to accept a FP job late at night whenyou know the traffic won’t muck you about somuch. But if it’s an FP or nothing – then I’ll doit (providing payment for waiting time is fac-tored in).

Regarding coverage - is it a problem at themoment? I’m not sure that looking at my DaCterminal that it is. If however, the A/D hoursare extended, perhaps some sort of sweetenercould be thrown into the mix? I don’t knowwhat, but maybe an adjustment to the GoingHome facility or perhaps jobs being‘unmasked’ after a driver has done 3 A/D jobsin a day? Regarding coverage in the outerLondon postcodes: Could a couple moreback-up zones be added to some areas, as Iremember they were reduced some time ago.Some jobs have 20+ minutes lead-in time andI’m sure many drivers would travel a couple ofmiles to cover jobs.

The other issue addressed was customerswaiting for their cabs, then getting in and see-ing (for example) £8 on the meter (i.e. payingto wait). I don’t know how quickly AdviseArrival happens (and I am not criticising ourCall Centre staff at all) but is there perhaps arole for text messaging to advise arrival /delayed arrival? Maybe this happens with someaccounts already? Also I’m guessing that a lotof passengers, particularly corporate clients,know roughly when they’ll finish work andneed a cab so can book a specific time (albeitonly a short lead-in time), then when the cabarrives the price is £4.20 at the booked time. Ifthe passenger is advised of any delay, a newarrival time is set and it’s still £4.20 on themeter at that new time. The account holderthen decides how to deal with staff who pre-

book a time and then keep the cab waiting.I’d also like to briefly throw in one or

two other thoughts on the taxi trade gen-erally...

Where we work: PH has successfully ‘mus-cled in’ to many areas simply because Taxiswon’t work there. Maybe it’s because driversworry their knowledge will escape them orthat the job is going where they don’t want itto go, but don’t complain when the firstthought that comes into peoples head is mini-cab when they’re out and about and want toget home. Stick your light on outside ofCentral London and win back some work!

Internet: Go onto Google and type‘London Taxi’ - you’ll see Addison Lee at thetop of the list, followed by dozens of other PHcompanies. This advertising goes against theuse of the word Taxi in the 1998 PH forLondon Act but the public don’t care aboutthat, they just want to search for a cab (andsadly the name Taxi seems to refer to PH aswell).

Ranks: I reckon we need many more ranksin useful places. They would have usefulinformation signs on them and in time peoplewould know they could rely on them for cabs(think Sloane Square). It would also assist ourreputation with the Green lobby who, if theyhave their way, will cost us more on ever-stringent Euro emmisions gear. If we’re cruis-ing around less - we’re polluting less andcausing less traffic. New ranks would keepour fuel costs down too. Passengers with thesetrendy modern phones could get a map of

their nearest, well-served rank.Manners: I’ve lost count of the times pas-

sengers have told me how they’d previouslygot a Taxi and had the driver talking loudly ontheir phone or was rude to them or the cabstank.

These are the basics. If passengers, who arepaying good money, don’t get a smart, wellmannered driver (who’s not jabbering on theirphone), in a free market economy, they can -and will - go elsewhere.

James Griffin (T97)


How Can We WinBack Our work???

DaC Driver James Griffin - do you agree with his assessment of the trade?

Last month saw an article in Call Sign by DaC Board member, MikeSon, giving his personal views on how we might win back some ofthe work we seem to have lost over the years. Now DaC driverJames Griffin (T97) replies with his own suggestions...

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It was interesting reading the articles of boththe Editor and Mike Son in the January CallSign. Although I have only been on Dial-a-Cabfor a relatively short time, I have spent manyyears on other circuits and in my experiencethey all have their good and bad points. But Ido think that DaC is probably the best andregret not joining sooner. What is commonamong all the circuits are the drivers. We allhave our own views on how things should berun - and why not! We are all self-employedbusinessmen and on the whole do not likebeing told how we should earn our day’smoney.

So how do we as radio drivers sell ourselvesin an ever-changing market place? Firstly, wehave to accept that we are different from non-radio drivers, we may hold the same Badgeand drive the same type vehicle, but that iswhere the similarities end. The non-radio dri-ver has no need to sell himself. However goodor bad he does his job, it will not normallyaffect other drivers. If he decides to go towork dressed like a tramp in a dirty cab, hewill still get fares just as if he was dressed in asuit and tie. If he were to upset his passengerand that fare claimed they would never use ataxi again, he won’t worry as it would be justone lost fare that he probably would neverhave seen again anyway. We as radio driversdo not have the luxury of a don’t care attitude;if one of us were to upset the wrong passen-ger and they were in the position to cancel theaccount, then not only would that driver lose- we all would.

So how do we sell ourselves, or more to thepoint how can we expect our elected leadersand their Sales team to sell us? Before theydecided to licence the so-called Private Hireunder the same umbrella as us, it must havebeen quite easy to sell our services. One canimagine that we would have said to a poten-tial corporate customer:

“We have a fleet of police (PCO) checkedtaxis driven by highly trained policechecked drivers, all fully insured with reg-ulated meters. They are available 24/7. Oryou could go with a minicab companywho are unlicensed with unchecked cars.Would you really be happy for yourfemale employees to be driven by some-one who may have just got out of prisonfor rape?” It was probably no contest!

Now fast forward; what a task the Salesteam now have on our behalf. The scenario isa potential new major company; the TransportManager says to our salesperson:

“A PH company can supply a fleet ofVito and Mercedes cars all less than 2years old, they are all licensed as are thedrivers by the same PCO as DaC are, thecars are all air-conditioned and equippedwith the latest satnav to get our employeesto wherever they wish. The drivers will allbe dressed in a suit and tie, all fares willbe on a fixed price or on mileage and if weneed a limo or even a coach, then noproblem! And just in case we do happento want a Black cab we also have a taxicompany who can cover us 24/7.”

Then the potential customer asks our salesper-son to be completely truthful and to give themour offer. Would it not have to be like this?

“Well at the moment, unless we change

some of our ways, the deal is this: We oper-ate 24/7 with a fleet of owner-drivers, alllicensed by the PCO. Most of the taxis areunder 6 years old, but some are substan-tially older – perhaps 12 years or more.But all are checked to PCO standard. Somenewer ones have air-con, but all have win-dows that open mainly being at the touchof a button. On the whole our drivers arereasonable smart, but if I were to be total-ly honest, come the summer and a few ofour guys would not look out of place in anepisode of It Ain't Half Hot Mum! Fares arerecorded on the meter with a £4.20 maxi-mum run-in, but we can do fixed pricesalthough some of our guys are not thatkeen. Some drivers have satnav, but othersdon’t think it that necessary, because yousee, we have the Knowledge and if they getan out-of-town ride, they all have maps -you remember, the books with roadsprinted on them! As a last result, they canalways ask the customer which way to go.As for supplying other types of vehicles,I’m sure that if the members support us,we can sort something out. So have we gotthe contract or what?”

Now if what I’ve written is to be believed,then to even the playing field out we have tochange, and sooner rather than later. So if ourBoard decide to make changes for a betterfuture, we should trust their judgement. I per-sonally think that if it means we get more con-tracts, I would go further than Mr Son andwould suggest all jobs are Non-rejectable andAs directed, except for the last hour of yourshift. You should then be given destinationsand allowed to reject as many jobs as youwish, you should also be allowed do as manyjobs in that hour to help you in your homedirection, regardless of how many previousaccount rides you had covered.

If you think about all jobs being A/D, it real-ly is no different from stopping for someone onthe street. As for fixed prices, if it means keep-ing or gaining a contract then there should beno opting out. I can never understand whythese FP jobs are rejected, If I get an FP trip for£25, I look at the time it will take regardless ofwhether the meter’s likely to show maybe £30,and if I can do it in 30 minutes or so, in mymind that's a good return. If I was stuck in anunforeseeable jam, then I am sure DaC couldand would sort out some extra payment.

As for the age of the vehicles we drive, we arein a recession and as much as it would be niceto boast to a client that all our fleet are new, it isunrealistic and unfair to us as owner-drivers toinvest in newer taxis. But if a new driver wishesto join Dial-a-Cab, perhaps there should be anage limit on their taxi - if there isn’t one already.If we also accept that what we drive is built forshort inner London type trips and the days of the

regular roaders have now gone to private hire,perhaps we should concentrate on expanding allinner London type trips, even if it means doingPH work. A while back I saw around 6 ‘T’attribute jobs on the bid screen, even though allthe zones were full of cabs and it was stonedead out!

Firstly you have to question why arethey are so busy that they need us to covertheir work, secondly why it is that we arenot busy? Thirdly, why are we not doingit! I think I know the answer ... principle!

So how do we solve that one? Like it or not,private hire is here to stay and will only getbigger. If we do not do their work they willeither expand quicker or find other ways tocover their excess work. And all those thatthink that if we don’t do it, then their cus-tomers will get the hump with the service andcome running back to us, well it just ain’tgonna happen! And as much as I admire aman of principle, sometimes you have to letgo! It didn’t do the miners, printers, dockersand many others much good, so if we have todo more PH work to expand, perhaps weshould bite the bullet and treat the jobsthe same as we do our own.

I think that with the above and our closestcab system, we may have a brighter future.Yes, I accept that I maybe looked upon as adefeatist and possibly worse, but my basicbusiness rules are these:

If your services are too cheap, you become abusy fool, if your services are too expensive,you become a broke fool; if you only chargewhat the market will accept and you’re good atwhat you do, you’re nobody’s fool...

Ian Connelly (T21)


How Can We WinBack Our work???

Another response to Mike Son’s article. This one from DaC driverIan Connelly (T21)

Call Sign must be desperate forarticles...

Dear Sirs,Our guardian, Mr John Edwardes, hasrecently retired from being a taxi driver and amember of your esteemed circuit (ex-H05).This means he has all the time in the world tospend on - and with – us, which is a goodthing. As he is currently writing a series of arti-cles for Call Sign, we thought we might writeto you as well.

The other week we took our car, chauf-feured by our guardian, to Regents Park. Wehad a great walk and then came the excitingpart - a black cab was hailed, although sadlynot a Dial-a-Cab, and we were taken toCamden Passage. While we sat and posed forphotos, which we have to do an awful lot, ourhumans enjoyed themselves looking at all thestalls. We then hailed another taxi and weretaken back to our car and home. A fantasticday out made great by extremely co-operativecab drivers.

The next trip was by train to Victoria (we dotake up quite a bit of room but are more thanhappy to put up with lots of fuss from otherpassengers). Once again a cab – this time toCovent garden. Also again, lots of posing forphotos - that’s us and not our humans –although we have no idea why! Another cab,back to another train journey and then home.We just thought you might like to get some

happy, good news about great and helpfulLondon taxi drivers in these rather dark timesfor the cab trade. We would also like to sayhow much our Guardian loves getting his CallSign every month.

We all wish you a wonderful, peaceful(probably not for the new grandfather Brian –babies make such a noise) and successfulNew Year.


Helps cut the cost of diesel – and reduces smoke!Chris Hayball is happy to supply any Dial-a-Cab driverswith the amazing Power Pill & at an even better rate than before!

You can buy 1 pack for £15, 5 packs for £65 or 10 packs for£110 – and all prices include postage!

You can order by phone on01246 856 153 or 07737 956 298You can order via post to: Chris Hayball, Grove Bungalow,Mansfield Rd, Heath, Derbyshire, S44 5SFOr by visiting www.powerpillonline.comPay via PayPal [email protected](Enter promo code DAC 10)

Now it’s a letter

from two dogs!!!

Axel andBlitzenEdwardes.Inset: Call SigncolumnistJohnEdwardes“new” car –he’d like theDaC logo on i!

PS: Attached is aphoto of us, of course.We have also sent youa photo of ourGuardian’s new taxiand were wondering ifhe could have a DaC logo on the side?

Axel and Blitzen Edwardes

Boris Gives £300,000 for Cyclists’ Studies

Biker believer Boris! But somethingto help taxis would be nice

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has allocated twelve outer London councils £25,000 each to help them become what he refers to as cycling bor-oughs. His TfL is trying to encourage more people living in the suburbs to go onto bikes rather than take their cars into town, after his office estimatedthat half of all car trips in outer London are less than two miles – or a 10 minute bike journey.

The twelve who will be given the money to fund studies to see how cycling could bedeveloped in their areas are Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Croydon,Ealing, Haringey, Havering, Hillingdon, Kingston, Merton and Redbridge. The scheme follows closely onto his first two of ten cycling superhighways (South Wimbledon toBank and Barking to Tower Hill) and his bike rental scheme.

No mention so far of any money coming the way of taxis or how the Highways Agency can stopminicabs using the M4 bus / taxi lane. £300,000 should do quite nicely to assist, after all, are we notpart of London’s transport system...?

While taxis still wait for action on minicabs using the M4 bus lane!

We all know how Parliament likes to baffle wemere mortals with words and Bills that leaveus scratching our heads in wonderment, justasking the simple question: What???

Such words came from the mouths of twoBaronesses from the House of Lords – Warsiand Morris - whose names adorned anamendment to the Equalities Bill. A section ofthe Wheelchair Accessibility Rules for HackneyCarriages was taken out of the DisabilityDiscrimination Act and placed into its newhome within the Equalities Bill. It mainlyapplies to private hire vehicles that cannottake a wheelchair, complete with passenger,into the car without the need for the passen-ger to leave the chair. It means that the privatehire section may be hugely affected - if wehave read the moved clause correctly.

The new clause is headed Private Hire vehi-cle accessibility regulations and reads as fol-lows: 1. The Secretary of State may make regula-tions (in this section referred to as pri-vate hire vehicle accessibilityregulations) for securing that it is possi-ble for persons:(a) To get into and out of private hire

vehicles in safety(b) To do so while in wheelchairs (c) To travel private hire vehicles in safety

and reasonable comfort(d) To do so while in wheelchairs2. The regulations may, in particular,require a regulated private hire vehicle toconform with provision as to:(a) The size of a door opening for the use of

passengers(b) The floor area of the passenger

compartment(c) The amount of headroom in the

passenger compartment(d) The fitting of restraining devices

designed to ensure the stability of a wheelchair while the private hire vehicleis moving

Call Sign asks: So far, it sounds as thoughConservative cabinet members, BaronessesWarsi and Baroness Morris of Bolton aretrying to turn private hire into taxis. Thencomes the crunch section...

3. The regulations may also: (a) Require the driver of a regulated privatehire vehicle which is plying for hire orwhich has been hired to comply with provi-sions as to the carrying of ramps or otherdevices designed to facilitate the loading andunloading of wheelchairs.(b) Require the driver of a regulated privatehire vehicle in which a disabled person isbeing carried while in a wheelchair, to complywith provisions as to the position in which thewheelchair is to be secured.

Call Sign asks: What type of regulated pri-vate hire vehicle driver is allowed to ply forhire? We thought it was against all known reg-ulations and could land the driver in court?

In addition, we have been under theimpression for many years (since the 1976 Actin fact) that private hire cannot use any vehi-cle that looks like a licensed taxi. While thereverse is possible in London (see the Vito)

there has been no amendment that we haveheard of that allows PH to buy a TX4 or anyof the various purpose built taxis availableoutside of London.

We have been writing in Call Sign forsome time about the perceived dangersnow that we are driving private hire vehi-cles. If legislation is allowed to creep in thatforces private hire to use wheelchair acces-sible vehicles that to all intents and purpos-es are taxis and that the driver can – accord-ing to the two Baronesses – ply for hire,that is the end of the Knowledge and thetaxi trade as a whole.

The matter is either far too serious or far toostupid for Call Sign to utter the phrase: We toldyou so...

You can read the relevant section at:http://www.publications.parliament.uk

/pa/ld200910/ldbills/020/amend/am020-aa.htm.


THE DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION ACT

Baroness Warsi, together with BaronessMorris seem to want PH to becometaxis...

The strange change at...

Sad Death of Allan Evans Mother

Edie Evans

Call Sign was saddened to hear of the recent passing of Dial-a-Cab Board Member AllanEvan’s mother, Edith Charlotte Evans, shortly before her 85th birthday.

Edie, as she was known to family and friends, was born and lived all her life in thePaddington area, including forty years residing on the Hallfield Estate where she forgedmany strong friendships over the years. She was the youngest of seven children, marryingWilliam Evans in 1947 and enjoying 46 happy years together until Bill’s death in 1993.

She always took great pleasure in caring for her family, especially grandchildren Dean andJoe, and was regarded as a ‘mother’ to the men and women of all ranks based atPaddington Green Police Station, where she worked until her retirement. She could alwaysbe relied on to help family and friends whenever asked and her generosity was legendary.

Edie was also an ardent reader of Call Sign, Editor Alan Fisher always reserving a compli-mentary copy of each issue for Allan to drop off at her home.

Always young at heart in mind and spirit, even though her Help the Aged collection boxtook up a prominent position in her home, Edie will be sorely missed by her family and manyfriends – the large turnout at her funeral bearing testament to that. DaC Chairman BrianRice represented the Society.

Everyone at Call Sign and Dial-a-Cab extends their condolences to Allan and his family...

Alan Green (E52)

Just over three years after applying to goon the Knowledge of London at the age of19, Dial-a-Cab dispatcher DanielleBarton was recently “invited” to the PCOto be presented with her coveted GreenBadge for passing out as a LicensedLondon Taxi driver.

Danielle, who worked in an uncle’s barin Spain before returning back to London,took note of her mother’s suggestion totry the KoL. She joined DaC 21/2 years agoas a Call Taker and was recently promot-ed to dispatcher until gaining her Bill andleaving the Society to work the taxi shewill be sharing with her mum – who isalready a licensed Taxi driver – full time.Her time with DaC helped enormously,she told Call Sign.

Now aged 22, Danielle told this maga-zine that she thought the PCO officerswere very fair in their assessments andthat she only got one ‘D’ classification.We, of course, understand that the PCOtreat everyone the same and wouldn’tdream of being nice to a young lady fromDaC just because she was very attractive!

“Actually,” said Danielle with a broadsmile, “I really enjoyed doing the KoL.You hear stories about the examinersbeing fearsome, but I found them to bevery fair. You sit in the PCO waiting roomand you just can’t help feeling so verynervous. But in all honesty, there was noneed! The important part is that if you aregoing to do it, there is no easy way – youhave to work hard at it. I think the exam-iners can tell if you are working at it.”

The only “easy” part for Danielle wasthe fact that she did it in a car and didcall-overs with a friend! “Some found thecar a bit strange,” she continued, “but I’mnot sure that I would have felt too safe ona bike – especially as I was going out ataround 4am most days and I was only 20and on my own.”

And a quick word on Danielle’s lovelife; do boyfriends fit in with the KoL?

“To tell the truth,” said London’s newestcabby, “I had a few boyfriends in theearly days, but I soon came to the con-clusion that boyfriends and the KoL justdidn’t fit in together, so I had to give themup to give all my concentration onto theKnowledge – and I’m just so pleased nowthat I have passed!”

Danielle also asked Call Sign to thankformer DaC Controller Gary Gates andcurrent Call Centre Supervisor Managerfor the day shift, Lee Morland – both ofwhom have been through the Knowledgeand who were always happy to answerany questions she had.

Good luck Danielle and let’s hopework picks up...


Danielle leaves DaCafter getting her badge!

No longer a dispatcher - Danielle is now a licensed taxi driver

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New Improvedwebsite for M&O

Mann and Overton, the LTI Vehiclesowned dealer network, has unveiled its newand improved website in an effort toenhance its already strong customer offering.

Now www.mannandoverton.combrings together separate websites coveringretailers in Birmingham, Manchester, Leedsand London, to deliver a unique online expe-rience for taxi drivers looking to buy new orused vehicles.

Within the site, two new ‘used vehicle’propositions have been introduced toimprove the buying process. LTI’s ApprovedTaxis, previously known as Quality AssuredVehicles, and Value Cabs, which are sold asseen, give taxi drivers the opportunity toview their chosen taxi online before theyapproach the dealer to buy. Used cab tradersare also able to download national tradeprice lists for the first time.

Rob Laidler, Sales Director at LTI Vehicles,said:

“This website has been designed withthe user firmly in mind. It focuses heavi-ly on convenience and makes it easier tosearch for a used taxi from our nationalstock. One such feature is to provide thecustomer with instant access to pho-tographs and details about thevehicle. This is made possible throughthe supply of mobile technology to eachretailer, which uploads photographswithin seconds.

“We hope that by making theseimprovements drivers will find it mucheasier to buy a used taxi.”

Having read Jon Robinson’s(E88) letter to this issue’sMailshot, he asks many ques-tions and makes suggestions asto how the Society should moveforward.

Firstly, let me say I am flattered that MrRobinson thinks I have full control over theworking procedures of the Society, when inactual fact it is the Board that decides how theSociety operates. I assume that because MrRobinson believes I make the decisions, thenI have a problem with drivers getting goinghome trips. I am not against any driver gettinga trip home; I have always felt that a trip homeis a bonus to the day’s work and if it is possi-ble, then why not? As a matter of interest, Iwas one of the original group of Board mem-bers who came up with the idea of a goinghome facility and researched how we couldimplement it into the despatch system. Not theactions of a person who is against a driver get-ting a trip home; more the opposite I wouldhave thought. The Board of the time original-ly introduced the going home procedure andcontrolled its functionality, this has now beentaken away from us by a proposition agreedby the members. Therefore any changes haveto be agreed by them.

Let me also clarify Mr Robinsons commentregarding changing the rule about recoveringA/D trips when a driver runs further to thepick-up than the trip is going.

Firstly, this is not a rule. A driver made theproposition many years ago to keep it alivebecause when we used voice-dispatch, ourwork dispatchers - on occasions - would bringto a driver’s attention that because they didnot know the exact destination (sound famil-iar), it was possible they were running a longway to the pick-up, possibly further than thejob was going. The proposition ensured thefacility did not get left to the decision of anindividual. To this day, it is still in operationand I am not aware of any driver who hasbeen refused to have the trip recovered.

However, what I referred to recentlywere the number of drivers who wereabusing this procedure and using it as away of getting to see the A/D trips.

I specifically mentioned drivers who con-stantly accepted an A/D trip from a back-upzone knowing full well the distance they wouldhave to travel to the pick-up was a very longway. Then unless the trip was very lucrative,they did not want to cover it. I did instruct con-trollers to monitor the culprits and if they didnot refrain from doing it, their request could berefused. I’m pleased to say it has stopped anddrivers are working within the spirit of why theprocedure was originally suggested.

A/D trips are an area that the Board domake the decisions on and such decisions arenot made to hinder drivers, they are made toensure clients get their taxis on time andreceive the service they demand. Even duringthe recent adverse weather conditions, theA/Ds remained in place because when driversare offered trips with destinations, they start togamble. Their thought is that there must be abetter trip there and they will reject one afteranother. Once this happens, more trips arerejected, more trips get scrubbed and service

goes out of the window. And that is some-thing that during the current economic cli-mate, we are striving not to do.

It is not correct for me to comment aboutanother Board member’s article, except to saythat clients are outspoken about the cost oftaking a black cab journey to that of a privatehire trip. The administration costs that areadded by all the taxi radio circuits to the meterfare and drivers gratuity are minimal amounts.Remember also, the more a client usage is, theless administration charge they pay. Journeycosts in a private hire vehicle can differ by upto 35% less than that of a taxi metered fare.Airport trips, for example, can be as much as£30 different. All companies need to make anamount from a trip to run their business andDial-a-Cab is no different. While private hirefirms say they do not charge an administrationor booking fee, they make their money bypaying the driver less than they charge the

client. At times the difference can be as muchas £15 a trip, which in theory is an adminis-tration charge. But no matter what the differ-ence is, the comparison we need to be mind-ful of is what the car driver gets for the tripand what the black cab driver receives.

Mr Robinson asks the question how muchwould it cost to make admin and booking feesdisappear? Running the Society costs in theregion of £6,000,000 a year. If there were2,000 drivers on the circuit, each would haveto pay £250 a month subscriptions. At themoment there are fewer than 2000, whichequates to the individual cost of subscriptionsbeing even higher. I am afraid to say thatregardless of whether we do or don’t chargebooking fees on certain trips, everything aboutwho’s dearer or cheaper comes down to thecost of the trip.

I think Mike Son was attempting to pointthis out and so long as the meter governs theblack cab journey cost and with the overheadsof purchasing and running a cab remaininghigher than a private hire car saloon, thelicensed taxi driver could not carry out jour-neys at a cost anywhere near that of a privatehire driver. We are fortunate that we haveclients who are prepared to pay more to useour services. It is up to us - and in saying ‘us’I do mean drivers as well - to ensure the ser-vice we give is second to none, thus makingclients feel their costs are perceived as beingworthwhile.

Keith Cain Call Centre Manager

Driver Operations Manager


Moving Forwardon DaC?

Keith Cain responds to Jon Robinson’s Mailshot letter in this issue...

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Following a successful legal appeal, thePeugeot E7 is now licensed to be used as ataxi in Liverpool and Norwich. As a result,London’s PCO is now said to be re-consider-ing at a meeting next month, the Conditions ofFitness that previously barred this and othervehicles presently used in the provinces fromentering the London taxi market, on thegrounds that any taxi working in London hadto comply with the requirement of a 25 footturning circle.

Meeting this strict licensing stipulationallowed the Mercedes Vito to ply for hire onthe streets of London, the only marque, apartfrom the ‘iconic’ world famous LTI product, tomeet the current Conditions of Fitness.

With a possible PCO ‘U Turn’ in mind,Call Sign went out on to the streets of thebig city, canvassing the opinions of someof our drivers to this news...

Don Bain (O53)TX2 owner: “This isjust not on. What’snext? Tachographs? Iagree we need com-petition, but the lackof a 25’ turning circleis simply unrealistic. I cannot understand thelogic of it. The PCO should be working toimprove our conditions, not hamper us.”

Michael Dyer (S68)TX4: “Competition isa good idea to openup the market andwiden the choice fordrivers, but - and it’sa big but - it will killthe London taxi second-hand market. I don’tsee how it can work in London.”

Ivor Belkin (C97)TX2: “It’s the begin-ning of the shortstraw, a roundaboutway of getting PHfully licensed. No,not the sticker thingthat currently prevails, but ‘plates’. Do the2012 Olympics come to mind? Cabs won’t beworth anything, because the second-handmarket will collapse, even though it wouldreduce the cost of a new cab.”

George Christou(E14) TX4: “Er, no,not a good idea! Itwill destroy the resid-ual value of the pre-owned taxis for astart, so that’s goingto leave many unhappy owners. Has anyonethought about trying to get a vehicle with anormal turning circle onto the Eurostar rank,for instance? There are many other tight spotsI can think of, but that will do as an example.”

Colin Salmon (N81)Mercedes Vito: “TheVito had to adapt tomeet the presentConditions before it

could enter the London market, and I thinkloyalty to tradition in this case is a good thing.So yes, the 25-foot ability should be kept. Ithink it will be beneficial to the trade.”

Geoff Davis (Y71)TX2: “I think itwould be a good ideato relax the tight turn-ing circle facility, as itwould open the mar-ket to other manufac-turers. But would these other types of taxishave wheelchair access? Hopefully, with widerchoice, the price of a new cab would comedown. But in reality, my greatest fear wouldbe the loss of our ‘iconic’ identity. We arerecognised as what we are throughout theworld and to lose that recognition would bean absolute disaster.”

Terry Parsons(M53) TX2: “Well,the PCO made such abig deal about retain-ing the 25ft. turningcircle last time, so ifnow they are consid-ering scrapping it, that is definitely not goodnews. If a car makes a 3 or even 5 point turnin front of you, that’s ok, but a cab? It’s all partof the cabbing job surely to be able to turneasily and therefore safely in the oppositedirection as passengers require and with theminimum of fuss. Can you imagine trying tostop for a fare on the other side of the road,Oxford Street perhaps? Oh, please! I once hada problem with my steering box, which notonly meant it was heavy turning the steeringwheel, but a limited lock as well. What a gamethat was.”

Paul Campbell(W68) TX1: “Yes,I’ve read a bit aboutthis possible PCOturnaround. We areforced into buying aparticular type ofproduct and now we’re being pushed into acorner re our iconic status and will lose ourexclusive right to pick up off the street. TheMB Vito had to meet the current legislation toenter the London market, so why shouldn’teveryone else? I bet it’s the Olympics and thePHVs are taking advantage of the legal ruling?It’s may be the Olympics in the short-term, buta long-term view for street hirings. Well, ifthey want to do that, the answer is simple - ifthey want to do our job then let them do theKnowledge!”

Keith Reading(W76) TX1: “I’m intwo minds about itreally. I have riddenin an E7 in St. Neotsand it was a comfort-able ride, so on thatbasis I suppose there is no real reason whythey shouldn’t be admitted into London.Personally, though, I like the 25’ circle, but Idon’t think it’s the be-all and end-all of thevehicle. I bought a TX1, realising the residualvalue of an LTI cab over a Metro, but I don’tthink there’s enough business at present tojustify the cost of a new cab.”

Mark Stansbury(M94) MB Vito:“What? I had a prob-lem with my rear-wheel steering andgot stuck in LiverpoolStreet, which was notmuch fun. I can’t imagine what it must be liketo live with on an everyday basis, althoughother parts of the country do not insist on a25ft. turn, true, but I think we need the turn-ing circle for the London job. Having to regu-larly make 3 or even 5-point turns is going toslow down traffic terribly. It will not make uspopular with either our passengers or otherroad users. I can hear the blaring horns now!Disabled groups may have an accessibilityview and there will always be the hard core ofdrivers who will opt for the TX shape, but Isuppose there is the possibility that furthercompetition could mean better build quality intaxis.”

© Call Sign Magazine MMX


SHOULD THE

TAXI MARKET BE

OPEN TO ALL???

Following the successful E7 legal Appeal, Call Sign asked DaC drivers...


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 orBoard. No part of Call Sign may be reproduced

either manually or electronically without the expresspermission of the Editor.


Win a luxurious stay for two at London’s exclusive

ST JAMES’S HOTEL AND CLUB

Call Sign has teamed up with the exclusive St James’s Hotel and Club in Park Place to offer one lucky licensed taxi driver and their guest,the opportunity to win a luxury overnight stay at the hotel including a gourmet dinner with wine, tickets to see a West End show and breakfast.St James’s Hotel and Club is a luxury 5 star, sixty-room central London townhouse hotel, which re-opened in autumn 2008 following an exten-sive two year renovation and redesign programme.

Located in a quiet cul-de-sac off St James’s Street, the St James’s really is a hidden gem, whilst also benefiting from being in the heart of London’sbustling West End. The hotel provides the perfect base for shopping, sightseeing, theatre and the arts, as well as business meetings or events.Guests can take relaxing strolls through St James’s, Green or Hyde Parks - all within walking distance of the hotel - catch a show in the many ofthe West End’s theatres or indulge in some retail therapy in the exclusive shops of the area.

Michelin starred William Drabble heads up the hotel’s newly launched restaurant, Seven Park Place, as well as the more informal dining expe-rience, William’s Bar and Bistro. The brand new dining concept has established the hotel restaurant as a destination in itself for residents andnon-residents alike. With magnificent Penthouse suites and the best terraces in London, the hotel boasts stylish, sleek, contemporary yet elegantinteriors finished with handmade silk wallpaper, black lacquered furniture, handcrafted Murano glass chandeliers with polished natural stones inthe bathroom. Exclusively designed by Anne Maria Jagdfeld design (Berlin), the hotel has achieved a fine harmony between contemporary inte-riors and the elegance of the Victorian building.

A carefully appointed and original art collection features throughout the hotel. An outstanding collection of 20th-century paintings, theRosenstein collection, dating from the 1920s - 1950s, includes fine examples of impressionist, expressionist and cubist work from all over Europethat guests can enjoy in the hotel’s public rooms, as well as in the privacy of their own suites.

WIN A LUXURY OVERNIGHT STAY AT THE HOTELTo enter the prize draw, all you need do is visit the hotel before Sunday 14th February and leave your badge and phone numbers

with reception. Drivers must leave a card with the details on, so please make sure you have it already written down before arriving.

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Rates at St James’s Hotel and Club start from £215 per room per night (exclusive of VAT and breakfast)

Terms & Conditions: The prize includes one night for two in a deluxe room, dinner including a bottle of house wine, breakfastand two tickets to the West End show of your choice.

The prize is subject to availability. Booking is essential. The prize is valid from 1st March and must be taken by 1st March 2011.

For more information on St James’s Hotel and Club, go to www.stjamesclubandhotel.co.uk

DaC 2009 AGMAll members should by now have received the Notice of Annual General Meeting 2009 advising that themeeting will be held at The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London EC1 on Sunday, 7th February 2010 at11:00hrs.

The meeting this year will consider an agenda excluding the election of officers, but would normally includeany proposed Rule Changes and Propositions that had been received at Dial-a-Cab House before 09:00hrs onFriday 4th December 2009. However, none were received by that date.

Please remember that if you do not wish to attend the AGM in person, you must have completedand returned the postal ballot form that was sent to you by the given date. Failure to either attendin person or vote by post will result in a £50 fine being imposed. If you have voted by post but stillwish to attend, you can do so.

Please remember to bring your ‘Bill’ with as ID...

Howard PearsCompany Secretary

The recent snowfalls – said to be the worst forover 30 years - certainly seemed to havecaught many people off guard, causing miseryto commuters and taxi drivers alike. Becausesnowfalls are a relatively infrequent occur-rence here in the UK, we always seem to beunprepared and unable to cope adequatelywith any of the consequences caused by them.

During the latest snowstorms, some Dial-a-Cab subscribers actually parked their cabs andmade their way home on foot – or on whatremained of the public services that were run-ning.

Neil Johnson (K13) was struggling up theA1 at Mill Hill, until he became stationary in ahold-up for over an hour. Leaving his cabwhere it was, he walked to the head of thequeue to see what the cause of the problemwas. It turned out to be two heavy goods vehi-cles that had jack-knifed across the carriage-ways, completely blocking the road so thatnothing could get through. Police eventuallyarrived on the scene, urgently requesting thelocal council to send gritting trucks to clearthe carriageways – a lack of grit seeming tohave been the problem.

After a long delay with the offending HGVsspinning and slewing in all directions, the sec-ond of the two trucks managed to movearound 3 metres, which meant that the hugebuild-up of traffic could just squeeze throughthe narrow gap between the stranded trucks.Being close to the front of the traffic stuckbehind the HGVs when they got into difficul-ties did have its upside though, with Neiltelling Call Sign afterwards that as soon asthat small gap appeared, he was through itand out of there rather lively!

“I felt sorry for the HGV drivers,” saidNeil, “but was I pleased to get away fromthere!”

Stephen Taylor (O50) faired little better inhis Mercedes Vito. He was skidding and slid-ing along The Highway, until finding himselfstuck in the Limehouse Link for around 90minutes - before emerging into even deepersnow! However, the time Stephen had spent inthe Link was used to good effect, as it allowedhim to read the Vito Owner’s Manual - andparticularly page 157 which deals with theASR button (acceleration skid control) sitedon the dashboard. Activating this controlreduces the tendency of the driving wheels tospin by engaging a higher gear, so improvingtraction and keeping engine revs low.

“Closer to home the roads were like askating rink,” Stephen told Call Sign. “Thecab’s handling did improve though withthe ASR engaged. When I bought the cab,the salesman told me to leave that controlalone, presumably on the basis that wegenerally don’t get much snow here. But itdid help and meant I could control the cab– albeit very gingerly - while other vehi-cles dropped by the wayside,” he said.

Call Sign Editor, Alan Fisher was anothercasualty. Coming into work on the A12 in hisTX4 at around 4pm, he spotted a long tailback and decided to leave by the OlympicPark exit.

“Bad move,” said Alan, “not only wasn’tthe traffic moving, but it was like drivingon a block of ice. With rear-wheel driveand a very powerful engine, even pulling

forward without touching the acceleratorsaw the back of the cab slide! Comingtowards the traffic lights at the junctionwith Lee Conservancy Road sees a nastyslope, so I got out and told the car behindto make sure he gave me plenty of roomas I didn’t know what was going to hap-pen! It took around 30 minutes before wereached the slope, but I managed to getdown without hitting anyone! I hadintended turning right there and goingback home onto the eastbound A12, butunfortunately for me the cab wanted tocarry straight on! By the time we reachedVictoria Park, I decided that I might aswell go into town where the roads weresaid to be slightly better. When I reached

Hackney Road, with cars sliding all overthe show and buses parked up becausethey couldn’t grip the road, I decided to gohome.”

Finishing off his tale of woe, Alan told us:“I thought I’d go back via Queensbridge

Road, but nothing was moving as one ofthe last buses still in service had got stuckgoing over the hill. I tried to turn roundbut the cab just slid so I resigned myself toa long haul. I eventually got home around5 hours after leaving home – not havingdone one single job!”

Ron YarboroughCall Sign online


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

Kupkake’s

KornerGeneral Election –

Round 1We must replace this Labour shambles

Regardless of the cost,Ignore their weak preambles

Before all is forever lost!

Like Callaghan and WilsonThey've led us down a street,That ends in our destructionAnd knocks us off our feet.

Another term in powerAnd they'll Tax us 'till we bleed,

This Communistic showerWith their “each one to his needs.”

I don't say Cameron’s our saviourBut could he make it worse?

The MP’s bad behaviourCarries the ‘power corrupts’ curse.

Lets sweep away the dead woodAnd the “takers 'cos they can.”

Replace them with some fresh bloodWho'll heed all our demands...

And fuel???Soon it will be £1.50 a litre,

next year rising to two,no help with the meter,no aid for me ‘n you!

PH charge what they like,no restrictions from TfL,

but we must eat the constant hike,as the fuel tax coffers swell.

How is it we’ve come to this?Why have we no control?

Who gave us the Judas kiss?Who is it that sold our soul...???

Kopyright Kupkake 2010

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

DIAL-A-CAB FLASHBACK Flashback1993

From Call Sign, August 1993

TREASURER’SREPORTI was recently talking to one of our olderdrivers about our humble beginningsand I thought some of you would alsobe interested.

In those early days, I was responsiblefor making sure we had telephones!Sounds obvious nowadays, but in 1953/4phones weren’t an everyday commodityfor every family and arrangements had tobe made some time in advance with theGPO, who controlled phone distributionback then.

They were situated at Dial House, at the northern end of ShaftesburyAvenue and we had to order two pair of landlines that went from our firstpremises at 172 Pentonville Road N1 up to Heath Mansions in Hampstead.They cost us £78 per annum each and we had to call a Committee meetingto work out how we would pay for it! We did somehow and they gave usthe number of Terminus 6444 with 20 lines.

Also at the time, Marconi at the Aldwych told us that they had notyet decided whether they could supply radios and general equipmenton hire-rental agreement, as they were not sure if we could afford it!We never went back.

Confusion arose because 172 Pentonville Road was still only being rentedon a week-to-week basis whilst we negotiated with the landlord for a long-term agreement. Again fortune smiled down on us and our estate agents,Jack Rose & Co, confirmed that the tenancy had been passed onto us on a14 years, full repairing lease. The Surveyor’s report estimated approx £200per year repairs and maintenance was also needed.

We then hired an electrical company - Danor Engineering Ltd - who werebased right next door to our new property. Their estimates for electricalinstallation were accepted, although we cut right down on light fittings pre-ferring to spend extra on phones and radios etc. However, FlorrieCulverwell, our earliest telephonist, complained that it was too dark to seethe phone dial and we had to take a loan to pay for extra lighting.

Our Chairman, Bonnie Martyn, then arranged with Pye of Cambridge tohave the first 50 radios ready on tap for the first batch of drivers. UnlikeMarconi, they agreed.

Our first secretary, Doug Naismith, then sent a copy of our new RuleBook and premises agreement to the Public Carriage Office. We then bookedthe Albany Tavern at the top of Great Portland Street for 7.15 pm on SundayJune 7th 1953 for a meeting of prospective owner-drivers, who betweenthem raised £200. That was 40 years ago! The rest, as they say, is history!

Frank DuncanODRTS Treasurer

Legally BlondeOn New Year’s Eve and accompanied by mywife, I had the great pleasure to see the pro-duction of Legally Blonde at the SavoyTheatre. We are both great fans of SheridanSmith after seeing her in the TV show Two Pintsof Lager and a Packet of Crisps and then in LittleShop of Horrors at the Duke of York’s Theatre.

When I first saw Little Shop of Horrors it wasat the Menier Chocolate Factory Theatre inSouthwark and at that performance I was seat-ed next to Matt Lucas and his now sadlydeceased boy friend Kevin McGee. Both ofthem were really nice and like myself, thor-oughly enjoyed the performance.

So back to that very cold evening on the lastday of the decade; dressed like Nanook of theNorth, we made our way to the Aldwych bybus and arrived at the Savoy in good time. Asthe audience began filling the auditorium, itbecame evident that they were all ready tostart the party for the coming New Year, somecarrying glasses of alcohol while others hadobviously already consumed theirs to savespilling it! Either way, it made for a very happyaudience who were ready to become involvedand enjoy every word and musical note.

Four minutes into the production, a piece ofscenery jammed and the Manager came onto thestage and apologised, so we then had to wait forthe show to restart! After a short interlude and nodoubt a few more sips of vino, the orchestrastruck up, their music filling the theatre and wewere off again with magnificent singing andenergetic dancing. After a short time, the star ofthe show appeared to be greeted with tremen-dous cheers. Sheridan Smith has that cheekygrin that makes you feel as though you are aclose friend and part of her performance.

Further into the musical, there was the treatof being entertained by former Dr Who andTristan in All Creatures Great and Small, PeterDavidson. He plays Professor Callahan, theslightly perverted lawyer. Also enhancing theexcellent cast and playing Elle’s best friend isJill Halfpenny, who formerly played police-woman Kate Mitchell in Eastenders in additionto many other roles and, of course, who is aformer winner of Strictly Come Dancing.Duncan James plays the part of Elle’s boyfriend- although I have to wonder why he is given atop billing as his part is fairly small! The princi-pal male role is taken by Alex Gaumond whois Emmett, Elle’s mentor... lucky guy!

This musical is full of good music, enthusi-astic dancing and comedy with a cast of beau-tifully fit young ladies and good looking youngmen who must spend a good part of the day

in the gym toning their stomach muscles! It isalso a show that includes a wonderful perfor-mance from Sheridan Smith in some figure-revealing costumes, plus the backup from JillHalfpenny who also appears in some costumesthat look as though they may have shrunk!

The show stoppers are two dogs Bruiser andRufus, a Chihuahua and a Bulldog. Wheneverthey are on stage, eyes are distracted from theother stars and focused onto the dogs. It is alsoa show that seems to please minority groups ofgays and lesbians, as there is a theme runningthrough that brought cheers and whistles fromthe audience when certain members of thebackup dancers appeared!

This is a show that could seriously chal-lenge other great musicals currently run-ning in London and I hope SheridanSmith achieves this with her wonderfulback up cast.

HMG, snow, ice andthe NHS!I must now congratulate the Government andlocal Councils over the complete hash theymade after being warned that snow and icewas on the way, yet failed to make it safe formotorists and pedestrians. Then there was theinevitable message; we’re running out of grit-ting salt for the roads and pavements. Whywas this? Because we have officials who can-not think ahead and who do not want to layout money on reserve supplies as it mightencroach on their bonuses or wage increases!Unlike your Board of Management at Dial-a-Cab, where now you can see the efforts ofpast year’s achievements giving a pay back.

Who would like to lay odds that in June orJuly we get the other message - we are runningout of water and it needs to be rationed with aGovernment message for us to try and share ashower? Well if Sheridan Smith or Kelly Brookwere to be my flatmate, I might jump at thechance, but with my luck and if she were aliveI’d be sharing with Hattie Jacques!

We also heard in the past month that notonly is money to be wasted on plastic police-men (PCSOs), but that they now want to havefewer nurses working in hospitals with morework to be taken on by Health Care Assistants.This will mean that when more patients die,we’ll hear from an official that there is to be anenquiry, but that we should remember thatthese persons in charge are not fully trainednurses. Then there will be an apology and thehospital administrator will then be given ahefty bonus. No one, of course, will be sacked.

My knowledge of the legal system andlaw is fairly small, but I would treat a caselike this as corporate manslaughter.

You would only need one case along these linesproved and you’d see these incompetent adminis-trators running for cover, trying to get backup fromHealth and Safety persons plus PC imposters.

Who gets our money?Every day we hear that this country is sinkingfurther into debt, yet we have a Governmentwho are only too quick to send £millions outto so called underdeveloped countries. Theseare countries that can always find money forweapons causing mayhem, murder and geno-cide whilst their President lives in great opu-lence. The money is sent out of our country,whilst old age pensioners are dying horrificdeaths due to the cold, being unable to feedthemselves, with some even starving to death.These are people who have worked all theirlives and paid taxes, believing that they wouldbe looked after when they reached an age orhealth condition that bars them from working.Naturally the Haiti earthquake victims are atotally different matter and deserving of ourhelp.

That money could also be used to ensure abetter life for those old age pensioners, childrenin danger or suffering with incurable diseasesand who could have their fears lessened if themoney wasn’t wasted. We should stop the £mil-lions that are being wasted on interpreters forlegal or illegal criminal migrants and put it tobetter use. Immigration services should notallow persons to settle in England unless theycan converse in the mother tongue - ie English.Most seem to have no intention of learningEnglish, except for words that allow them ben-efits, paid for by those same pensioners whoare dying excruciatingly painful deaths.

Where to live?In the courts recently, we had the group ofvermin who classed our returning soldiers asbaby killers and murderers, whilst extollingthe greatness of their ancestral homeland. Iftheir homelands are so great, why are theyhere claiming benefits whilst not working?Local councils are paying out thousands ofpounds to rent these quite-often illegal immi-grants a large mansion due to the man of thehouse not being able to keep his trousers but-toned up. Why do the government not builtcheap basic blocks of flats with no centralheating, just key meters for light and heating,on the derelict airfields in this country? Thenyou tell them that if they want benefits, theyhave to earn them. This can be done by hav-ing them clean up common land that needswork so that people have more recreationalspaces, working for old people or those who


The World AccordingTo Tom Whitbread

Another batch of views from Tom that do not necessarily reflectthe views of DaC

DaC’s answer to Victor Meldrew!

continued on p23


thank you, martyn!“On Sunday 20th December after 10pm, myself and a friend who had become very illthrough alcohol and stress, were waiting on the Southbank for a minicab that had beencalled but did not arrive. My friend could hardly stand and I was worried she was havingsome kind of breakdown. I asked several minicab drivers if they could take us and all saidno. Eventually a black cab drew up. At first the driver said that he was about to get anoth-er fare, but when I explained that I was desperate to get my ill friend home, he agreed totake us to Dollis Hill, where she lives. I could see my friend was too ill to go home alone -she was barely conscious - so I travelled with her although I wasn’t sure how I was goingto get back to South London for work in the morning. Early on, the cab driver askedwhether there was anything we should be doing for my friend? I said I thought she justneeded to get home and thanked him for his concern. I could tell that he was monitor-ing our situation, which felt very supportive but not at all intrusive. After a while he saidthat he thought the situation had calmed down and I replied how nice t was of him tobe so concerned, when actually it was my problem. He said very firmly that it was bothhis and my problem now. When we got to my friend's house in Dollis Hill, it was 11pmand I asked the driver where the nearest tube was? He indicated the direction andasked me where I lived. He said he was concerned that I might not be able to get allthe way home on the tube at that time since I lived quite far away - in Stockwell. Isaid I’d better get a cab, but noticed that the fare at that time was close to £40.

He said he would turn the meter off while I got my friend inside her front doorand then I could go in and take as much time as was needed to settle her down,including making her some tea. He would wait in his cab outside and then, if thatwas what I wanted to do, he would take me home. He said I shouldn’t worry aboutthe fare and that we could sort it out when I got home.

When we got back to Stockwell, the meter again showed a similar amount –close to £40, making just under £80 in all. The cab driver then said that all hewanted was £55. I offered him £60 but he insisted that he only wanted £55. He gave me a Dial-a-Cab receipt.

The following afternoon, I had a phone call from my optician who asked if I had left a pair of glasses in a cab? They said a minicab driverhad phoned and told them my approximate address saying that he hadn’t been sure which house I'd gone into and had no name. They hadtrawled through all their records to find me. I told the optician the story and her words were: “How amazing! Was he driving a black cab?They're so wonderful aren't they!”

The cab driver had left a name for me to phone and that is how I know his name – Martyn Madden. When I phoned, he said that he'ddrop the glasses back through my door as soon as he could - the next day in fact. I said I’d like to give him a token to show our thanks, buthe insisted that he would simply drop the glasses through the door. He said what he'd done was all part of a London taxi driver’s job and thathe did that kind of thing every evening. I had paid the fare (which of course I hadn't completely) and that was the end of it. When I said thatI'd never come across a cab driver like him, he said that many of his cabbie friends were similarly kind and helpful with some of the peoplethey picked up all over London every evening in a similar terrible state.

So whenever I need a cab, I’ll be calling Dial-a-Cab in future and my grateful thanks to Martyn Madden...” Ms M.Maguire

A new DaC client asks Call Sign to pass on a big thank you to Martyn Madden (Y97)

Martyn is a regular for the DaC golfteam but this time he showed howkind he is as a cabbie

The World According To Tom Whitbread continued...are infirm and who need their gardens tended.

If we are giving them money, then weshould see a return. And yes, that also goes forthe layabout English families that have neverdone a day’s work in their whole life!

Hooligans and ASBOsAlso highlighted of late are the number of hon-est, hard working people who are being ter-rorised by hooligans - many who have ASBOsagainst them. These people are trapped in theirhouses or flats, with curtains pulled shut for fearof bricks being thrown through the window andwhen they do venture out, they get abusehurled at them. We then see the local Chief ofPolice come on TV and utter garbage such asthat these people should try and make friendswith their neighbours! If these office boundpolice chiefs came into the real world, they’dknow that you cannot befriend these out-of-control animals. Maybe these are the police thatJack Straw meant when he said they did notwant to go out onto the street?

The only way these Police Chiefs can be

made to do their jobs in a correct manner wouldbe if they were answerable to the local com-munity. If these so called protectors of the pub-lic had to be elected by the local communityevery three years, then they would only getvoted back in by results. Maybe then and onlythen, we wouldn’t hear such appalling newssuch as a mother and daughter having burntthemselves to death in their car after 10 years ofbeing terrorised, with no realistic police protec-tion or prosecutions being made.

You may wonder why I am writing in ourmagazine about these problems? Well as I havesaid before in Call Sign, we must have a lawabiding society where the police are allowed todo their job correctly without the interference ofHuman Rights or Politically Correct moneywasters. We have seen what happens in the jun-gle - a pack of animals will seek out and attacka lone, vulnerable victim.

Well you are that lone, vulnerable victimwhen you are out driving your taxi in thedark or on high risk estates. Without theinsurance of police protection, we could

well become a state not unlike the backstreets of Johannesburg or the violent areasof New York?

It is now that you should start looking atpoliticians and their career history; have theydone the best job over the past years in lookingafter your interests and that of the country? Orhave they been in it for themselves, bending therules to line their own pockets, or perhaps evenbreaking the law while hoping their status as anMP will get them off the charge?

I really do not care who you vote for when aGeneral Election comes along, but start thinkingnow so that you will be prepared to try and getthis country out of the mire and back onto alevel where we can hold our heads high again,not cower in the corner and let the bullies dic-tate how we use our countries wealth...

I hope that during the coming year you andyour family have a very healthy and prosperous2010 and if you go to the AGM, please come andsay hello.

Tom WhitbreadDaC Board member

Says Martin Hizer (M47)

Several years ago Danish artist, KurtWestergaard, sparked a storm of protest andviolence across the Muslim world with his car-toons of the prophet Muhammad. Somedemonstrations against the cartoonist turnedviolent and led to arrests, but when Call Signspoke – off the record - with two Dial-a-CabMuslim drivers at the time, both said thatwhile neither would demonstrate, both agreedthat the drawings were deliberately antagonis-tic and stupid. So how offensive can a cartoon,photo, drawing or painting be?

Martin Hizer (M47), who is Jewish, hasbeen on DaC for many years and is usuallymore concerned with fighting unfairly issuedparking tickets, but recently had a taste of theabove – except that he didn’t see cartoons in anewspaper, he took great offence at a paintingon show in Bruton Street art gallery, OsborneSamuel. This is what he told Call Sign...

“I almost crashed the cab when I saw it!When you read the text below, it may takeon a new meaning, but if like myself younever had the benefit of reading that textfirst – I found it on the internet - you wouldnever in a million years recognise the prin-cipal character as being Jesus and you'dprobably interpret it as a further accusa-tion of deicide (the act of killing a being ofa divine nature; particularly, the putting todeath of Jesus Christ) by the Jews and asummary punishment. My concern is thatthere is nothing in the window to suggestthat this is a collection from The LondonJewish Museum of Art and therefore whois to say that just like myself, the paint-ing won't be interpreted wrongly by someunbalanced individual who would see it asan excuse to attack a member of the Jewishcommunity or a local Synagogue? After all,Upper Berkeley Street Synagogue is only ashort distance away, nestled amongst thelargest Arab community in the UK. Don't

forget, it is less than a year since the some-times-violent protests took place outsidethe Israeli Embassy.

With the benefit of the definition below,I am happy that the gallery should displaythe painting, but please withdraw it fromthe front window. It is provocative andpotentially inflammatory in a very dan-gerous way. After the protests severalyears ago against the Danish cartoonsdepicting Muhammad with a bomb, theauthorities wouldn't dare display some-thing like this - even had it been paintedby a Muslim. If you don't agree ask Salman

Rushdie for his opinion.”

This was the explanation Martin Hizerfound online...

Acquisition of Emmanuel Levy'sCrucifixion, 1942 by the Ben Uri Gallery.

Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museumof Art, is delighted to announce the acquisitionof an important painting by the artistEmmanuel Levy. This unique work representsa significant addition to the Ben UriPermanent Collection and an importantmoment of protest in Anglo-Jewish art againstthe reluctance of Britain to recognise and actagainst the tragedy of the Holocaust takingplace in mainland Europe.

Painted at the heart of the Second WorldWar, the work depicts Christ on the cross withthe word ‘Jude’ (‘Jew’) written in blood redabove his head. Row upon row of white crossesstretch into the distance over the landscapebeneath the cross, echoing the Crucifixion itself.Levy powerfully combines Jewish and Christianiconography in Crucifixion; the white crossesmark Christian graves and yet Christ himself isdraped in a Jewish prayer shawl and tallit (phy-lacteries) are wrapped around his left arm. Thewhite crosses take on a complex double mean-ing, therefore: traditional symbols of Christianbelief and ritual, they nevertheless evoke herethe millions of Jews who were dying in theHolocaust at the time this work was painted.The clustering of the crosses is a reproach onmany levels, for it is the predominantlyChristian population of Britain to whom Levyaddresses his heartfelt protest.

If anyone has any comment on the story,Call Sign will be happy to publish it...


This Painting in a LondonGallery Window offends me...

The Painting that offended MartinHizer. Pic courtesy The Ben Uri Gallery

Climate change for cabbies?Let’s hope we don’t change with Yakutsk!!!

We hear much about climate change and our weather does seem tobe getting far more extreme – even so far as to stop some Dial-a-Cabdrivers actually getting to work. But when it comes to real extremities,we have a long way to go to catch up to the Queen of extremeweather, Yakutsk - known as the coldest city on Earth!

Situated in the Russian Far East, around 450 kilometres south of theArctic Circle, it is the capital of the Sakha Republic. Amazingly, it getsmany tourists throughout the year to view the city’s spectacular scenery- even though the weather changes like nowhere else on the planet.But it keeps the cab drivers wheels turning (or should that be sliding)?

As an example of the temperature differences, in January, the tem-perature usually “climbs” as high as –36.1C (-33F) although the cityhas recorded in the past the fairly parky –63C (-81F). But that’s win-ter... in summer it turns upside down and the average July tempera-ture hits a pleasant 25C (77F), but has a record high of 38.3C (101F)

So what’s the worst part of the winter for Yakutsk taxi drivers? Is itdriving on slippery roads – especially the frozen Lena River - even with their specially adapted tyres?

“Niet,” says cab driver Alexandra Koloff, “it’s when you have to get out of the taxi and the frozen air makes your trousers stick to your legs!”Maybe things aren’t so bad here yet!

Three Yakutsk taxis wind their way along the frozenLena River. Pic courtesy National Media Museum andSimon Roberts

While the PH industry enjoys their licensedstatus, never before has there been such a bat-tle over the word Taxi. No one ever envisagedthat licensing minicabs would be easy, but thePCO must be under extreme pressure withcomplaints over the abuse of the word and,what looks like on reflection, a lack ofenforcement.

With the world’s eyes set on London for the2012 Olympics, many tourists will be bookingtaxis from Heathrow via the internet, but howmany will get their first look at good oldLondon town not from the licensed taxi thatthey believed they had ordered, but from theback seat of a PH car that they had bookedonline and which had claimed to be a taxicompany?

Perhaps they had looked on theAddison Lee website where they show afare comparison between DaC and them-selves, while claiming that the pricesshown are typical. On closer examination,the figures they use are simply exaggerat-ed, thus leaving Dial-a-Cab looking farmore expensive than we actually are.Indeed, when I contacted the PCO theysaid they would write to Addison Lee totell them to stop using the word Taxi intheir advert links on Google - which theydid.

However, when I contacted the AdvertisingStandards Authority about the fare compar-isons, they told me that they had no jurisdic-tion over individual websites and that AddisonLee could put on what they liked, even if itwas misleading! For example, no one evermentioned that over Christmas and New Yearour charges only increase by £4 per job whilethe meter remains the same. Can private hiresay that? Not unless you count charging dou-ble as being the same!

I recently did a DaC TaxiCard trip fromCharing Cross Hospital and was trying to meetmy passenger at the main reception. On thewall inside were two posters claiming to betaxi freephone surrounding a silver box. Onthe box itself were the instructions to push thered button for a taxi. So I did and a voicereplied with: “Hello Sky Cars.” I had abrief discussion with the lady on thephone about the rights and wrongs ofthis sort of thing, but she hung up!

Later that day, I tried contactingCharing Cross Hospital to make a com-plaint, but it’s not as easy as you maythink. It seems that if someone had lefta pair of scissors inside me after anoperation, no problem. But about a PHservice? Sorry, but no chance! I alsocontacted the PCO.

When I attended the ChristmasYoung Voices Choir at the O2, at theend of the evening there was a pub-lic information display thatappeared around the wall insidethe arena. It gave help to attendeeson options for getting home, suchas the riverboat, tube, bus or under-ground. When it came to taxis, itgave a plug to a local PH companyand used four licensed taxi picturesto accompany it. Not a mention

about the rank outside!Again I phoned their customer service team

and complained, whilst also explaining the sit-uation. I also suggested that the O2 make peo-ple aware that taxis are available for immedi-ate hire at the rank, with fares starting from aslittle as £2.20. A few days later they phonedme back and assured me that the taxi pictureshad been removed. The guy complained tome that there was sometimes a shortage oftaxis at the rank and I suggested that they con-tact DaC to let drivers know when the O2 wastipping out. All in all, it seems that there is acommunication lapse between the trade andthese venues. Private hire is quite happy topush the barriers at our expense and if wedon’t challenge them, they will think its ok...

Richard Potter (T51)


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What does William Shakespeare havein common with AL? They both like agood story!

Following Eddie Lambert’s peep into the world of minicab advertis-ing, Richard Potter now follows that up and with apologies to theBard, asks the question...

These are a few of the prices Addison Lee claim DaC charge and which they say were “takenfrom DaC customer’s invoices” in 2008 and then compared to their own. The “fares” includeaccount charges. There is no mention of any waiting time. The only surprise is that any regu-lar taxi users would actually believe the above resembles DaC’s regular fares on the say-so ofAL! Yet the Advertising Standards Authority say there is nothing they can do!

Journey from: Journey to: AL cost: DaC cost (according to AL):

W1 Holloway N7 £24.13 £63.38W1 City EC2 £18.95 £49.68W1 City A/P E16 £44.83 £69.46

Continued from JanuaryAnother addition to your armoury if you werea night driver, was to have a bottle of whiskyor gin and a packet of two hundred Playerscigarettes with you. The reason being that veryoccasionally in the early hours of the morning,you might be hailed by a householder with therequest: “Driver, do you know where I can geta bottle of whisky (or gin or fags)?” You wouldhelpfully reply that you didn’t know any shopsopen, but that you had heard the doorman atone of the clubs could produce the odd item“...but it will cost and you will have to pay myfare there and back so it could become expen-sive!”

If desperate, they would usually agree, sohaving checked the address to take it to, you’dput on the clock, wander about a bit to makesure it showed an appropriate amount -including waiting time to and from this ficti-tious club. People like him would most likelyhave done this before and had an idea of thefinal cost. You’d then return, produce therequired item from your stock and cop a nicebit of profit. This wasn’t a daily occurrence,but it was worth keeping some “stock” in thecab.

One of the things you do not get so oftentoday are delivery jobs and ‘look after jobs’. Inthose days cab divers were given utter trust,which they had earned and rightly deserved.Let me give you a few examples of the sort ofjobs that we took for granted. Oxford Streetused to be far wider than today. OutsideSelfridges, in the middle of the road, was avery busy rank. One day when I was on point,the doorman whistled me over for a youngchild who got into the cab and told me num-ber xx Trevor Place. When I arrived, the childgot out and at the same time a lady got outfrom a cab that had been following me.Paying off her driver, she called out to me thatshe would pay me as well. I had guessed whatwas going to happen. She came to my cabgrabbing the child’s arm and snarled at him:“Do that again and I’ll give you a good smack-ing.” Then she turned to me and asked howmuch? I enquired what he had done and sheexplained that he was always doing it. “I getfed up with it and so does the maid,” the irri-tated passenger said. “He gets bored withshopping, walks off and takes a cab home!”

This child had obviously been taughtfrom a very young age that if you get lost,do not worry, just hail a cab and tell thedriver where you live and he will take youhome. A very sensible idea that manyyoung children were taught at that time.

Then there was the time in Hatton Gardenwhen I was hailed by a gentleman who asked

me to take a delivery to Garrards, the jew-ellers in Regent Street. He added that the storewould pay and tip me. He then produced asoft leather bag,, leaned right into the luggagearea and told me to hold my hand out. Into ithe poured nineteen diamonds and asked meto count them before pouring them back intothe bag. He then took my badge number andsaid he had already taken the cab number. Heoffered me the option of refusing if I shouldso wish, but added that if I accepted I wouldbe well paid. Well of course I agreed, did thedelivery, the diamonds were checked and Iwas indeed very well paid. After that job, anytime I was empty in Hatton Garden I lookedout for him, but no luck...

As I said cab drivers were trusted complete-ly and rightly so. We used to get all sorts ofdelivery jobs. Any old drivers remember thetwo old ladies that owned the hat shop on the

north side of Grafton Street? They made themost fantastic hats for the wealthy and usedtaxis to deliver them. Then of course, manytop florists used us to do their deliveries. Lawfirms were the same with their important courtpapers etc. We were trusted implicitly.

Cab drivers were also very different to thoseof today. Many were ex-servicemen and usedto helping their mates. If you stopped to lookat a map, in no time another cab driver wouldpull alongside to ask if you were ok? A typicalexample of this was when I was still drivingmy ultra-slow Low Loader. On a trip to LondonAirport, I was constantly being overtaken byjust about every cab going. On finally arriving,I signed in and was informed that all the cabsthat had overtaken me had already signed mein as being ahead of them! Haven’t timeschanged!

Continued next month...


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…

DaC Driver Threatened!Craig is back tosmiling now -but it was farfrom funny atthe time

Meeting Craig Woodham (P23), you realise what a laid back, easygoing sort of fellow he is. So whenseveral unsavoury men threatened him recently, his philosophical attitude was what probably saved himfrom nothing worse than a ruffling of his nerves, although that of course, was bad enough. Craig told Call Sign of the events that led up to his ordeal...“It was 16.06 on a Friday afternoon in New Cavendish Street, when I stopped for a man holding a smallwhite cardboard box. He grunted that he wanted Piccadilly Circus and opened the door to get in. Withthat, and to my surprise, three other men who appeared from nowhere and who were equally scruffilydressed, suddenly joined him. It was that original scruffiness of the first passenger that made me initiallyhesitate before I had decided to stop for the fare,” Craig continued.“As we crossed the junction of New Bond and Brook Street, I thought I smelt cigarette smoke from thepassenger compartment and decided to advise the passengers that smoking was not allowed in taxis andthat if they were seen by a passing police car, they would probably be stopped and possibly fined. I men-tioned it as a gesture of customer care, not wishing to be pulled up by the police myself,” he added.“They then started to make sarcastic and uncomplimentary comments, steadily building up into shoutingobscenities and threatening that they were going to kill me. They then started kicking the central plasticdivision, tip-up seats and rear door interior trims. It was pretty scary actually, even for me who has stud-ied martial arts. As I pulled over into the kerbside with the intention of getting them out of my cab, I felta hand grab my left shoulder through the gap of the central division. The kicking and shouting contin-ued until the door was opened and they all piled out, slamming the door as they left,” he said, his facepale as he recalled the event.“Another cab that had been following me very kindly stopped to offer assistance, asking mewhat had happened while at the same time asking if I had seen what they were doing to mycab? I replied that I was a bit pre-occupied with watching the road and my personal situation!”A small smile crept over Craig’s face as he recalled that moment.Continuing with his tale, Craig went on to say that it was when he looked that he saw they had spat onthe carriage windows and other areas of the cab’s interior. “I spent some time cleaning up the cab before I went back to work, grateful that the mess was the onlycasualty of the journey,” he said before driving away and back to the strange job of work that we do....

© Call Sign Magazine MMX


Hello Ladies & Gents,

Christmas seems an age away and with thesnow at the beginning of the year and perhapswith a proper winter, we can look forward toa better summer than we have experienced inrecent years, with more and more tourists vis-iting our shores.

Over the festive season, when increased vol-umes of work can lead to a possible rise in cus-tomer complaints, this year was gratifying in thatno serious issues were reported, which is a tes-tament to you, the members, and the profession-alism shown over a period of high demand whentensions can become strained. So well done!

Recent problemsIn each of my recent reports, I have usuallymentioned some of the problems that contin-ually occur and this report will be no different.The Call Centre is frequently monitoring thesystem and although I know I am repeatingmyself, the most common rule violations arestill those listed below...

E14: This zone is physical between 9pm and6am (Monday to Friday) and at all times onweekends. Please be aware that the furthestpart west in E14 is Commercial Road, adjacentto the Rotherhithe Tunnel and from the east,the boundary starts at Leamouth Road, so you

must be west of this point before booking in.Outlying zones on either side of the M25

that do not have a London postal zone are at alltimes physical. There are trips in outlying zonesthat have increased lead-in times, but if you arenot in the actual trip zone (e.g. SE50, S99, NN99etc) please do not book into these zones to gainan unfair advantage over fellow members. As Ihave mentioned a number of times, if there isno one in the trip zone, these trips will beoffered to back-up zones and if still unmatched,they will appear on the bid trip screen.

Regular Bookings: It is not in the true spir-it of the Society and is a procedure rule viola-tion to book into a zone and wait for a longperiod of time prior to a regular trip being dis-patched in order to maintain a queue position.This is deemed to be hanging up and again isa big bone of contention with drivers who seea taxi that appears to be booked in to a ratherobscure zone for an unusually long length oftime. Please be aware that the Call Centre ismonitoring these trips and it is surprising howthey come to light.

Euston ‘shouts’There were many Euston shouts during the badweather and many of you did an excellent jobin extremely testing conditions. I have beenasked to mention that you are advised to stayin your taxis at all times whilst the Marshals areorganising and marrying up the trips. It looksmuch more professional and please be assuredthat no driver will be treated differently fromany other. The first trip goes in the first taxi...

I hope to see many of you at the AGM, drivesafely and keep up the good work...

Allan EvansDaC Compliance Officer

Did youknow!

...that Lindsey House in Cheyne Walk is the only 17th century aristocratic propertyleft in Chelsea. It was built in 1674 by the third Earl of Lindsey, the Lord Chamberlain toCharles II. It was built on a former farmhouse site, once part of Thomas More’s estateand home to the leader of the Moravian Church, Count ZinZendorf . As is the way oflife in Chelsea, the building at 96 – 100 Cheyne Walk in now divided into apartments...

compliance officers update

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A 15-month long battle by a Dial-a-Cab driverto recover his original £9 fare finally reacheda conclusion at Horseferry Road MagistratesCourt, when the passenger was fined £129 andwas described as ‘arrogant’ by the Magistrate.

Lance Davis (G44) was following anothercab along Tottenham Court Road at 02.00 hoursin July 2008. The cab ahead stopped for a well-dressed male, but declined the fare and droveon. Lance stopped for the man and acceptedthe hiring to the Moonlight Club, also known asthe Broadwalk in Greek Street, Soho.

Arriving at the club, Lance requested the £9fare and was separately handed twobankcards that were both declined whenLance swiped them individually through theDaC Data Terminal. The man told Lance tofind a local cash point and when Lance askedwhy the passenger had not mentioned abouthis lack of money earlier in the journey whenthey could have stopped en-route, the manbecame irate. With £29 now showing on themeter from the unnecessary ATM detour,Lance stopped police who were passing byand they searched the man - unsuccessfully itturned out - for any cash about his person.The police then arrested him and told Lance tocall West End Central (Savile Row) later. TheDaC driver was told that a thorough search atthe police station revealed the man did in facthave £30 on him and could have paid the taxifare, which would have been the end of thematter without the need of his being arrested.

Appearing in court late in 2009, the manwas described as an out-of-work stockbroker

who had wanted to keep what little cash hehad on him for the club. He told the Benchthat he regarded the taxi driver (Lance) asoffering a public service and therefore expect-ed him to take him directly to the door of hisdestination, as he did not want to walk!

Handing out a fine of £100 and the £29 fare,making a total of £129, the Magistrate con-

cluded by describing the man as ‘arrogant andfoolish’ to jeopardise his career in the financialsector, with a criminal record for such a com-paratively minor offence.

“So far, I have only received a cheque fromthe court for £50 and I don’t know if I will eversee the rest of it,” Lance told Call Sign whenwe met. “But a criminal record, hefty fine andthe likelihood of not being accepted back intohis profession as he would not be regarded asa fit and proper person anymore to deal withother people’s money given the high standardsof professional probiety demanded of those infinance nowadays, how clever is that?”

Ending his story, Lance told us that in theeleven years he had been driving a cab, hehad never had this kind of trouble before.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to jeopardiseone's career over a few pounds,” Lance added,“but I'm grateful I am on DaC though, as I wasable to swipe his 'declined' bank cards first!”

©Call Sign Magazine MMX


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£9 Bilk ends inhefty court fine...

Lance waited 15 months to see bilker incourt

Risking his life for the Annual Report!(Almost) riskinghis life at theTrocadero for aphoto!

Ok well almost...You would by now have receivedyour AGM bumph together with theDial-a-Cab Annual Report, which asmost of you probably know is pro-duced in-house by Allen Togwell.

When Call Sign received its copy,two photos on pages six and sevenshowing a DaC taxi taken fromabove, intrigued us. We asked Allenand he launched into a blow-by-blowaccount of how he (almost) risked hislife by hanging by his (almost) finger-tips from a Trocadero balcony(almost) overlooking Piccadilly Circus!

“Nothing,” Mr T told us, “is toomuch for this Society! I couldhave (almost) fallen!”

It is worth pointing out that Allenproduces our Annual report at a frac-tion of the cost compared to similarones - that’s how we knew that hehadn’t hired a helicopter for the shot!

From 1 January 2010 the one strike and you’reout policy - first introduced in August 2008 totackle touting - was expanded to include pri-vate hire operators based in late night venues.

Previously, the policy only applied tolicensed private hire drivers convicted of tout-ing. To date, more than 230 private hire dri-vers’ licences have been revoked or refusedrenewal as a result of the one strike and you’reout policy.

As part of TfL’s continued commitment tocombating illegal cab touting, private hireoperators in London have been warned that iftheir staff are found not to be complying with

the licensed operator rules, they will bepenalised and if necessary, prosecuted.

Private hire operators, including thosebased in late night venues, have been remind-ed that:

* Bookings must only be taken inside thepremises that are covered by the TfL private hirelicence and that the licence should be on display.

* Staff must not take bookings outside abuilding that has a private hire licence and areprohibited from soliciting for hire under anycircumstances.

* Private hire drivers must not park or waitillegally outside venues.

John Mason, Director of Taxi and PrivateHire at Transport for London, told Call Sign:

“We know the public have concerns abouttaxi touts and that there is particular confusionwhen licensed operators’ staff work outsidevenues. As a result, I have reissued guidelinesto the relevant operators and venues andinstructed my enforcement teams to extend

the one strike and you’re out policy.”Mr Mason continued: “The TfL funded

Metropolitan Police Safer Transport Commandcontinues to clamp down on illegal cabs andwe are determined to tackle any issues sur-rounding this matter head on. It’s important thatevery Londoner understands the differencebetween legal taxis and minicabs on the onehand, and illegal cabs and touts on the other. Itis a legal requirement to pre-book minicabs,and if you don’t you are putting yourself at risk.My message to operators and venue managersis that it is essential you make your staff under-stand and abide by the law and that we will bepushing for the strongest possible penalties ifoperators and their staff are found not to becomplying with the regulations.”

It does seem that John Mason is listening toour concerns and whilst we can no longer beexpected to get priority over the legitimateopposition, it is of paramount importance thatthe public are kept aware of the differences...


‘ONE STRIKE ANDYOU’RE OUT’ EXPANDED

Snow, Ice...and now PotholesA problem dear to the heart of most Dial-a-Cab drivers has been highlighted by the AA ina recent report on how the spate of badweather has affected our roads. Taxi driversknow better than most how you can drivealong a road one day and yet, when doing thesame trip the following day, find a huge pot-hole in the road. Even worse, if it has beenraining and the hole is filled with water so thatyou don’t realise that part of the road has disin-tegrated, it could seriously damage your cab ifyou go through it. And that could lead to aninsurance claim.

The AA report says that emergency roadmaintenance funding is required to stop crum-bling roads costing more in compensation andaccidents than the funding would cost. Theywarn that drivers who think they will be in theclear after the snow thaws will probably find anaggravated plague of potholes to contend withover the coming months. Last February’s heavysnow pushed up insurance claims for potholedamage by more than 250%.Repairing the potholed roads will cost localhighway authorities hundreds of millions ofpounds. But if the roads are not repaired thendrivers, cyclists and motor bike riders will be atrisk from expensive damage and injuries.Insurance companies will be hit and moreclaims and potential injuries will add to NHScosts – already hit by the increase in fracturedbones as a result of icy pavements. Cash-strapped councils could well face a deluge ofclaims from road users and the risk of payingout more in compensation than on road repairsthemselves.

The AA says that the worst areas for pot-holes will be over stretches of road where pot-holes have been poorly repaired in the past,roads where utility reinstatements have been

poor, roads that have not been salted andstretches of road hit by consistent sub-zerotemperatures.

The report concludes that in the nationalinterest, there is a strong case for emergencyextra maintenance funding for councils to headoff the threat of the vicious circle of compensa-tion claims and hospital costs outweighing thecost of repair to the roads. A survey of local authority highway depart-ments last year by ALARM, found that morethan £63 million was spent filling in potholesduring 2008/9, but that a further £47 millionwas lost to compensation claims and extra staffcosts. Even without the impact of lastFebruary’s bad weather, pothole numbers in

England and Wales had increased 32% overthe previous year.Edmund King, AA President, told Call Sign:

“The pothole season has come early thisyear. You may be relieved that the snow hasgone but you shouldn’t be complacent. Due tothe severity of this winter, it could be a recordyear for potholes – a million scars of the worstwinter in 30 years. We already have many callsfrom AA members and patrols about potholes.Hitting a pothole can damage the tyre, wheel,suspension or steering or even cause an acci-dent. They can be dangerous for drivers andpotentially lethal for those on two wheels.“Over time, cracks appear in the road surfaceso when water seeps in it freezes, expands andwidens the crack. We are concerned that withlocal authorities already stretched due to thedrain of the winter, whether there will beenough in the purse to heal our ravaged roads?We believe that emergency funding is requiredto stop the vicious circle of crumbling roadscosting more in compensation, accident claimsand hospital admissions than repairs. We areasking road users to report potholes on the AAZone, via www.theAA.com.”

Last year saw a reported 968,195 potholesfilled in at an average cost per hole of £65 – atotal cost of over £63million! The AA are nowalso asking local authorities to put farmers onstand-by to use their tractors as snow ploughs;to mix sand with salt to make it go further; tobe more upfront about which roads are beinggritted and to publish maps showing grittedareas in green with non-gritted areas in red andfinally one that Call Sign really likes the soundof – to use parking attendants (and other con-tractors) to clear ice from footpaths, access torailway stations and town centres!

Just waiting for someone to drop in!

Now to include private hire operators based in late night venues...

In the January issue of Call Sign, ChairmanBrian Rice wrote of meetings he’d had withtwo Olympic Committees – the LondonOrganising Committee Olympic Games(LOCOG) and the Olympic DeliveryAuthority (ODA). One organises the Games,while the other makes sure that everythinggets built and delivered. Transport comesunder the ODA.

The meetings are ongoing, but the two mostrelevant parts involving the taxi trade must beranking / setting down facilities, plus how theOlympic Route Network involves us andwhether we can change history – because justas they have in past Olympics, theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) willhave the final say as to who uses those routesand have never allowed any taxi traffic intothem before.

Soon after London was given the 2012Olympics, this magazine asked Australian taxidriver David Gawthorn - who was in Sydneyduring the 2000 Games - what benefit theAussie cab trade got from them at the time? Hetold Call Sign: “When Sydney hosted the 2000Games, local cabbies had nothing but aggra-vation regarding access to them and we werebanned from entering the “closed” section ofthe village, whereas many of the equivalent toLondon’s PH cars were allowed through. Infact I’d say that the Olympics were a disasterfor us, so be on your guard because althoughit seems like an honour, it wouldn’t take muchto turn it into a disaster for London’s famoustaxi drivers if they were suddenly refused per-mission to enter the Olympic area to drop offor pick up. Neither can you enter the OlympicRoute Network, which can then turn a regularrun into a nightmare.”

Brian Rice mentioned Marylebone Road lastmonth, where as bad as it sounds, the offsidelane may be used as the ORN; if that thenmeans that the bus/taxi lane remains,London’s busiest main road will have just onelane operating – the centre one – and if head-ing east, A40 traffic will probably go backalong the elevated section to White City on aregular basis.

This month, Call Sign asks about theBlackwall Tunnel and the ORN. There is no taxilane, but as Tom Reynolds (O85) pointed inlast month’s Mailshot pages, we are bannedfrom the northbound bus escape lane – eventhough coaches are allowed to use it. Thenbear in mind that Olympic events are to be heldin both the O2 and of course, the Olympic Park– both within close proximity to the Tunnel.The Park will have the swimming, athletics,cycling and many other events, including beinghome to many of the athletes, while the O2 willhave gymnastics and shooting and GreenwichPark will be hosting the equestrian events. Justa few short miles – and a tunnel that is heavilycongested at many times of the day - separatethem. So the question must be: How can therebe an Olympic Route Network going through it?It will cause utter chaos.

An Olympic Delivery Authorityspokesperson told Call Sign: “Our aim has tobe to get those taking part in the Olympics to

wherever they need to be according to theirevent, whilst causing as little inconvenience aspossible. The A12 is obviously critical to thataim and it could be that we may have to closethe offside lane at certain times in order toallow athletes etc to get to their events. Wehave put out a consultation plan and there willbe another in 2010 and again in 2011. It isimportant that the athletes arrive for theirevents feeling unharassed or tired followingan awkward journey. That also must involvethose critical to the events, such as timekeep-ers etc. We realise that it will be difficult andhope that forward planning with TfL mighthelp – perhaps a change to traffic light phas-ing could help ease some problems. Moreimportantly, we should remember that this isjust for a few short weeks at certain times ofthe day only and it really is so important thatwe show the world how well we can operatethese Games.”

Let’s hope that future meetings between theOlympic committees and this trade can con-vince them that London is unlike any other cityand that taxis MUST be involved. And God helpus if rumours that the tunnel is closing for 3years are true! We will find out by nextmonth…

Ron YarboroughCall Sign Online


What will happen tothe Blackwall Tunnel?

Olympic route network

Snatched from under his nose!Eustace Clarke (O34) recently told Call Sign how he witnessed the theft ofanother cab driver’s moneybag right from literally under the driver’s nose! “Iwas behind a non-radio cab on the Marks & Spencer rank at MarbleArch,” Eustace said, “when an Oriental looking man opened the near-side door of the cab and handed the driver a piece of paper - appar-ently with an address on it. As the driver took the paper to have acloser look, the man quickly reached inside the open door, grabbedthe driver’s moneybag, which he must have seen as he walkedtowards the cab, and ran off at high speed clutching the bag withboth hands!”

Continuing, Eustace added that he realised what a lucky escape he’d had. “It could so easily have been me,” he said. “I do keep my doors

locked, but the thief could have reached right through my open window. I, like most drivers would naturally lower thewindow right down to speak to someone.”

So be aware at all times, because even the most innocent scenario can end in unnecessary grief without due diligence on your part!

©Call Sign MM10

Robbed on the M & S Rank

Cameras to work on speed average!The days of motorists ignoring speed limits and just slowing down when approaching speed cameras, are getting closer to an end.

Unlike earlier rumours concerning average speed cameras in the Limehouse Link that turned out to be the ordinary variety, a stretchof the A13 between Canning Town flyover and the Goresbrook Interchange is to begin working on motorists average speed betweenthe two points, rather than those as they pass any of the cameras en route.

Thirty seven different locations, using eighty four cameras along the 7.5 miles stretch, will work out motorist’s average speed and ifcaught breaking the limit, a minimum £60 and three points on the licence will be imposed. The scheme is set to go live in early sum-mer and if successful, will probably lead to similar installations all across London.

The good news is that for such a fast road, the speed limit will rise from 40mph to 50mph. You have been warned..

Most of you know by now that the UK’s fore-most authority on PCNs is Barrie Segal andthat he also works in conjunction with Dial-a-Cab in the fight against the issuing of unfairparking tickets to our drivers on radio jobs.

Barrie has now told Call Sign of BrentCouncil's parking policy on Boxing Day –Saturday 26th December – that was also point-

ed out in the Council’s Brent Magazine,which is a freebie distributed to households inthe borough around four weeks prior toBoxing Day.

It was also pointed out that because BoxingDay was on a weekend, the following Mondaywould be classed as a Bank Holiday

After the paper had gone out, Brent Council’swebsite then changed the information to indicatethat they would be enforcing 26th Decemberand a substantial number of PCNs were issued onthat day – including, Barrie told us, five carsbeing towed away and one clamped!

So Barrie’s advice to any reader – or toanyone you know who received a PCN onDecember 26th in Brent, is that it shouldundoubtedly be cancelled and that if youhave already paid, you should be entitledto your money back.

Brent’s email address for appeals is:[email protected].

Barrie Segal is the founder of www.appeal-now.com - the only website in the world whereyou can appeal your parking ticket on line in41/2 minutes…


DON’T PAY IT!!!

Dial-a-Cab’s Mr PCN, Barrie Segal, offers some friendly advice toany Call Sign reader that received a Penalty Charge Notice from theborough of Brent on Boxing Day...

Need tyres and on DIal-a-cab?

tiger tyres will save you money...Those of you that have been to the DaC Credit Union’s new offices in Hackney Road will have noticed a tyre

company downstairs that sell taxi tyres. Not only that, but they are cutting the prices ifyou have the DaC logo on your cab!

Tiger Tyres and the DaC Credit Union are situated at 472 Hackney Road,which lays slightly off the main road into a mini estate.

Examples of Tiger’s prices are: Dunlop £80 instead of £82, Michelin £78instead of £80 and King remoulds at £30 instead of £32; while Vito drivers canget Continental tyres at £80, down from £82. Anyone buying for all four

wheels will get a round £10 off!And of course, if you are a Credit Union member, just nip upstairs and they’ll prob-

ably lend you the money to pay for them. Is that a deal or is that a deal!To call Tiger Tyres, phone 0207 729 5237...

Toad, badger, Ratty and Mole

At the Bank of England!There is something interesting taking placeat the Bank of England from 15 - 19February. A costumed storyteller will be there giving a lively reading ofThe Wind in the Willows, where listeners will be told aboutthe adventures of Toad, Badger, Ratty and Mole and theirbattle against the weasels, stoats and ferrets from the WildWood, who have been rather naughty and taken over ToadHall.

But why, London’s taxi drivers and their children ask, is itat the Bank of England? Well, The Wind in the Willowswas written by Kenneth Graham, who was the secretaryat the Bank before leaving in 1908 to settle down in thecountry, where he was famously ‘messing around withboats’!

There is no charge for admission to the permanentBank of England Museum or for any event. For more informationvisit www.bankofengland.co.uk /museum.

Off to rescue Toad Hall!


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Addison Lee and taxis...Dear AlanNot sure if its been flagged up before, but tome it looks like Addison Lee are advertisingas Licensed Taxis under various internetsearches. This one seems pretty blatant tome under a search for London Taxis, comingup as 24 Hours A Day 365 Days A Year WithAddison Lee!

We are not talking here about relatedinternet sites, but an actual paid for spon-sored link under the London Taxiheading. Not being an expert in advertisingon the Internet, I would not know if this islawful or not, but with the current PCOdrive pointing out differences betweenLicensed Taxis and Private Hire, I think thisapparent confusion is probably not in thebest interest of the travelling public.Steve Thomas (N10)Steve’s letter was received after the lastissue closed, that being due to the earli-er than usual publishing deadlines forChristmas. In that January issue we hadan article that pretty much said whatSteve is pointing out and which con-tained a piece from DaC driver and RMTLondon Chairman, Eddie Lambert (V27),who wrote to Call Sign complainingabout minicab ads where the word ‘Taxi’was used to describe their ‘services’. Hehad also complained to the PCO’s JohnMason, in addition to Islington TradingStandards after picking Liberty Cars ofOld Street as a minicab company thatadvertised in that way.

Since that issue came out, we’ve hadAddison Lee Chairman, John Griffin,flaunting his wealth in the C4 programThe Secret Millionaire, where through-out Mr Griffin refers to Addison Lee as a“taxi company.” However, I wouldn’thave held my breath on the PCO doinganything about that as they couldn’teven stop them using the M4 bus lane.

But John Mason is still a new light at thePCO and he gives the impression of caringabout the industry as a whole. So perhapswe’ll hear that AL are no longer using thatbus/taxi lane and that Mr Griffin beginsreferring to his company as a Private Hireorganisation – or even minicab company -because that is what it is.

One thing is certain though. John Griffinwill do what John Griffin wants to do andwon’t give a jot about the PCO if he doesn’twant to. If necessary he will use any courtof law he believes can assist him. And asThe Secret Millionaire showed, he won’tworry about any associated cost.

Read To Taxi or not to taxi in this issuefor another view of the situation ...Ed

Nobu rank history? Reprinted courtesy of CTNAs a licensed London taxi cab driver likeyourself, I read most of what’s going on in the

trade and I’ve been a keen reader of yourwork during the 17 years I’ve been in this fan-tastic trade. But the inaccuracy of your frontpage of Cab Trade News dated December 2009prompted me to write to you and maybe putyou straight on a couple of issues. Firstly lookat the date - December 2009.

I’d like to bring your attention (and pleaseexcuse the self-flattery here) that I believe Iwas the first licensed taxi cab driver to bringthe problem of Nobu Berkeley to the trade’sattention in – get this – November 2005!That’s right, a full four years before the cur-rent crusade to “win back our work” (sic).And while some people are, maybe quiterightly, taking the praise for getting a rankoutside the above establishment, I’d like toask where these drivers were in the inter-vening four years, thus letting the ‘minis-cabs’ get a foothold outside these establish-ments when I first brought this subject up inthe November 2005 edition of Dial-a-Cab’sfantastic magazine, Call Sign (later used inTaxi Globe 13 May 2009).

It makes me chuckle and sad at the sametime that this has nothing to do with “win-ning back our work” per se, rather the factthat we’re in the middle of the worst finan-cial crisis in more than a few years and all ofa sudden cab drivers, myself included, arestruggling to “earn a few quid.” It’s typicaland quite sad actually that cab drivers workso hard to get into this trade, then care so lit-tle about it when they finally get their greenbadge – apart from when it suits of course.I think you will find there was no recessiongoing on circa 2005. How much better ourtrade would be if this kind of action went onwhen “we’re all nicking a few quid,” ratherthan the odd times when it seems like a“kipper season” all year round.

But alas that is the nature of the beast, Isuppose. United we stand, divided we falland I think these past few months haveshown what can be achieved when we as atrade stick together as one! Sadly, I fear thestatus quo will be resumed as soon as worklevels pick up... but then I could be wrong.Some redress of the balance to your frontpage would be much appreciated.

Name and address suppliedThe above letter appeared in Cab

Trade News and my thanks go to EditorPeter Rose for his permission in repub-lishing it. I think it tells the story verywell, although Call Sign would not nor-mally publish letters where the writerrefused to add their name (except inexceptional circumstances). As it comesfrom another trade paper, we are repub-lishing it as it was ...Ed

Bill’s back!Hi AlanAt last I have managed to get back to workafter 7 long months off, two stents fitted anda couple of stress tests to make sure I am fitenough to work. And it seems I am becauseI’ve now got my Bill back and I’m fighting fit!

I would like to thank all the people at theDial-a-Cab office who phoned to see how I

was doing, in addition to the get well cardsthat were sent and the big bunch of flowersI received, all in men's colours - well that'swhat my wife said! Also, a big thank you toChelsea Phil for the way he helped me andan even bigger thank you to Neil Brewer(E16) and all the drivers who stopped himon the road and signed the big card he wascarrying around with him! Wow, it reallymakes me proud to have mates like you lot,so thanks lads. I never doubted it, but I canstill say it feels good to belong to theGentleman's Circuit.

Once again to everyone; thanks for car-ing, it means so much. Be lucky...Bill Chatterway (A43)Nice to see you back, Bill ...Ed

Dribbling to the Vito?With the radio work continuing to dribbleout, the future doesn't look very bright if youdrive a Fairway, TX1, TX2 or TX4. Things arelooking better for Vito drivers however, asmany customers are now requiring a Vitowhen ordering a cab - many of whom havebeen encouraged by Vito drivers to do so.The Vito and some Metrocabs already havean attribute for being capable of carrying 6passengers and good luck to them when thecustomer genuinely requires a six-seater. ButI cannot see why there should be a further Vattribute for Vitos at the expense of the restof the fleet and a first off the zone policyshould be adopted. I therefore conclude thatthe V attribute should be removed in thename of fair play.Barry Spear (Y16)Keith Cain responds: While these driversmay be encouraging clients to ask for aVito cab specifically, the callcentre advises that any such request maytake us longer than our normal 10/15minutes response time to match one. Italso applies to any pre-booked trip. Inmost cases, clients ask us to try for a fewminutes to get the trip covered and if weare unsuccessful then we are to dispatchtheir trip to all of the fleet. What we havealso found in most cases is that the Vitorequest has only been due to the numberof people travelling. Controllers removethe ‘V’ attribute and rematch the tripwith the 6 seater one, but because of thevery limited number of Vito taxis and 6seater metros on the circuit, they havebeen making the trip a two cab job. Onecan hardly say this is a benefit to them.However, should this number increase toin excess of a couple of hundred, thenthe suggestion of them benefiting couldbe the case. But this is no different towhen Metros first came on the circuitand also the TX1s.

In all cases, if the client wishes for us

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


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to supply a specific vehicle then we aimto meet their requirement.

In this issue there is an article written byRichard Potter with the heading asbelow. In it he mentions writing to thePCO to complain about minicabs at theCharing Cross Hospital and this is thereply received from the Carriage Office...

To taxi or not to taxi?Dear Mr Potter,I would like to let you know that we haveestablished that the private hire operator towhom the freephone connects is Triple AExpress Ltd of Unit 14, Hayes Metro Centre,Springfield Road, Hayes UB4 0LE (OperatorNo. 535). The freephone itself is maintainedby a separate company. They have beenadvised that under Section 31 of the PrivateHire Vehicles (London) Act 1998, the currentwording next to the freephone is illegal. Ihave been advised that it will be replaced,although this might take a few weeks toaccomplish. I can confirm that I will also bewriting to Triple A Express Ltd to remind thecompany of the requirements of the PrivateHire Act.

Thank you again for contacting this office.Your assistance is appreciated.M J MannOperator Licensing Section

Non-rejectable?Hi AlanI wrote to Mailshot back in March 2007about non-rejectable and A/D trips, butnothing changed. Now I read Mike Son’sarticle and the idea of making all tripsbetween 6am and midnight A/D. I thinkwe've missed the boat. Surely the time tohave done this was when we were mega-busy and could not cover the work? At thismoment, I think the work would get cov-ered better if trips in the morning wereunmasked. We're all sitting on ranks forhours and so long as the job was going fur-ther than we’re running, then I'm sure theywould get covered.Now I know where the Board is concernedand it's probably a non-starter, so whatabout some flexibility? When the work getsback to normal (soon please) and the callcentre can see we're going to struggle tocover it, make everything A/D and perhapseven non-rejectable at any time of the day.But when things are very quiet, thenunmask the jobs (not including the LAPs andA/D accounts).

That gives the Sales team something tooffer and the driver a bit of a chance... Colin Lewis (N55)I think it’s important to emphasise thatMike Son’s article was written from apurely personal point of view and not as

a Board member. A further two respons-es to Mike’s article can be read insidethis issue with ‘How can we win backour work’ from James Griffin (T97) andIan Connelly (T21). In addition, Colin, Ithink I’m right in saying that DaC con-trollers already have the power to makeeverything A/D or non-rejectable,should the need arise ...Ed

Non-rejectable 2I sat here originally to email Call Sign ask-ing Keith Cain what he has against Dial-a-Cab members getting a trip in the directionof home in the late afternoon, evening andnight time? As directed on EC5, no soon toclear on E14 and AD from there and SE75 -AD with fixed prices from there! Doesn’tleave many zones to find a trip in the direc-tion of home.

I was also surprised that no other mem-bers wrote about the rule change regardingAD trips no longer being recoverable, if run-ning further than trip is going. I rememberour Chairman, Mr Rice, saying at an AGMthat this was unreasonable. Funny howwhen it comes to changing Code 3 (5 tripsin 1 day!) and EC5, the members have tovote? With diesel at just over £5 a gallon andlooking to go higher and the huge amountof roadworks going on, I think this is unfair.

Also, while talking about AD trips, duringthe recent severe weather we suffered,would it not be better to unmask trip desti-nations and let a driver chose a trip on theway home, rather than drivers going off in alldirections, then leaving them with journeystaking hours to get home or like me andmany other of our drivers, just struggling togo home empty? The Bid zone was full thenight of heavy snow before Christmas and Iwould have been happy to stay in town anddo local journeys, but guess what – theywere AD as well! Even the trips with the ‘T’attribute seem to fire out as True AD? Can’tour IT department teach these accounts howto fill in a booking form?

But what really drove me to type this let-ter was Mike Son’s article in Call Sign, HowCan We Win Back Our Work? At last, aBoard Member looking to improve myincome? Wrong! The only suggestions MikeSon seemed to make involved me doingwork for less or possibly running further orlonger than the trip may even be going.Perhaps non-rejectable, he suggests? Driverswon’t even bother to book in if it ever getsbusy again! As Directed doesn’t always workie Brian Rice having to put out personalappeals to cover our work in the west ofLondon in the mornings a few years back!

Mike, you talk about our service needingto be better. You say our accounts, adminand our IT departments being the best thereare, then it must be the drivers or their taxisthat you think are to blame. Even if weoffered a chauffer service with our taxis, westill wouldn’t increase our work. And writingof service, why are we still unable to offer anAir-Conditioned taxi if required! You also sayyou don’t think reducing our admin charges

would do any good? I’m afraid I have to dis-agree with you. Ask any of our drivers thatspeak to their customers and they will tellyou that Dial-a-Cab is expensive. When com-pared with many minicabs trips around andacross town, the actual meter price is oftenseen as reasonable. I feel that’s why we arenot wining our work back - in total we mustbe too expensive. In addition, we seem tohave many more shorter journeys thanlonger ones. Is this because we are morecompetitive over a shorter distance?

I think DaC needs to find new ways ofgenerating income. I suggested in the March2009 Mailshot that trips going to outerLondon should be offered without anycharges or run-ins! £1 or £2 could be deduct-ed from the meter fare to fund it. Radical?Perhaps, but if drivers don’t like it, thendon’t accept it. Remember, a fixed price farestill has a booking fee! All fares outside theM25 having £2 or more deducted - or per-haps a set amount - would trigger no book-ing fee for trips within central London.Could an increase in subs generate morework? If drivers paid for each credit ride,how much would it cost to make admin andbooking fees disappear? A fantastic ITdepartment is great, but it seems our clientswant to travel at a competitive price. Letshave a vote and let our members decide.

I believe that if we carry on as we are, ourclient base will continue to shrink as privatehire tell our customers they are cheaper.When the economy picks up, we knowmany of these minicab companies will befound wanting, but our radio work may belost from the London taxi trade forever... Jon Robinson E88.Keith Cain has responded to Jon’s letteron page 17 of this issue ...Ed

Hi AlanI note that the January Call Sign wasn't car-rying the usual Eurostar ad. Have we lost theconcession now that we are no longer themain provider?Jon Francis (A39)Allan Evans has been trying to get ananswer for some time, but we cannot geta definitive reply. All we’ve had was anunofficial message saying that it was alltaxi drivers and that the loss of theaccount as main providers – althoughthe account has remained open – hasnothing to do with the decision. We’restill trying to find out ...Ed

Witness appealMy name is Steve Donovan and I drive an

Atlantic blue TX2, reg no LS55 LDE. Analleged incident between two passengersand myself happened on Wednesday 12August 2009 at the junction of


Mailshot

Southampton Road and Mansfield RoadNW3 between 23.30pm and midnight. Mypassengers were sick in the cab, losing me anight’s work. They paid the fare of £11.80but not the spoilage charge and then anargument ensued.

I have now been accused of commonassault. I totally repudiate these allegationsand seek any witness’s who may have seenwhat happened.

Please contact me on mobile 07941 172259 or email [email protected].

Thank youSteve DonovanBadge number 64842

Tom’s BlackwallTunnel bus lane battle... continuedHello Alan I have now received from Greenwich Councilfiles regarding the Tunnel Avenue bus lanethat leads to Blackwall Tunnel. It appears wehave no chance of using this bus lane eventhough private coaches are allowed throughit. The most annoying part for me is thatGreenwich Council are so anti-taxi. Onewould think they would be doing everythingpossible to help vehicles through the tunnelas quickly as possible! The O2 has many pas-sengers using taxis to get back to their centralLondon hotels, but they are obviouslydeemed to be unimportant by GreenwichCouncil. Recent horrendous problems thereshould make them think again, but I fear theywill not alter their stance. I have neverbelieved we were thought to be part of theLondon Transport System when it comes toany assistance from the authorities, and thisjust substantiates that belief.

Call me a sceptic, but I cant help wonder-ing if their decision has anything to do withthe tollgate they talked of having at theTunnel entrance? And what will happen withthe bus lane if the International OlympicCommittee get planning permission to useGreenwich Park for the horse shows (whichI sincerely hope they don't)? Perhaps it willopen for competitors to use for the durationof the games? After all, they do contribute toLondon in a big way... don't they? Not like usnuisance taxi drivers!

One final comment on the topic; it's worthnoting that Greenwich Council did at leastreply to all my correspondences, unlike act-ing Chief Superintendent Crundell fromthe Traffic Police whose jurisdiction thisroad falls under. He hasn't even bothered toreply to my letter to him, even though I gavehim two email addresses in addition to myhome address. Why am I not surprised?Tom Reynolds (O85)In the May 2008 issue of Call Sign, Tomexplained that he had been speaking tohis MP, Clive Efford, about taxi access to

Tunnel Avenue where there is a gateallowing buses to bypass traffic hold-ups going north through BlackwallTunnel. Tom has been battling for 4years to gain us access to this gate andhad finally arranged a site meeting withrepresentatives of Greenwich Council,Police, TfL and the PCO. Sadly, Tom’sfeeling at the meeting was that the mat-ter wasn’t really going to have theremotest chance of coming to fruitionand that out of all the parties present,only the PCO spoke up for the taxi trade.The police claimed that out of town cabswould use it and even more ludicrouslythat while motorists stuck in north-bound traffic would allow buses out,they would do all they could to stoptaxis pulling out! I wonder how thepolice would feel if taxis deliberatelyobstructed them when they had their‘blues and twos’ flashing to get to anemergency? Both suggestions are just asludicrous as they sound! The TfL repclaimed it would probably require a buslane of some considerable length to beeffective. Tom explained to him that amile or so away there were bus lanesthat were just 25 feet long, had a cameraand which were very effective(Kidbrooke Park Road). Sadly heremained unconvinced. The PCO’sRobin Gillis was on the trade’s side andsaid that a bus lane with a camerashould be all that was needed. As Tomhas said in his latest update, the Councilseem anti-taxi anyway.

Tom won’t give up, but you can’t helpfeeling that banging his head against awall would have been as much use.However, my sincere admiration goesout to him for his undoubted battlingqualities and as they say – it’s not over‘till the blond Mayor sings!...Ed

Accountants?Dear Sirs We would like to offer Call Sign’s taxi dri-ver readers a great accountancy / tax offer.PHT Accounting & Tax Resource are a prac-tice with clients throughout the UK special-ising in self employed and individuals whoare a part of self assessment.

The PHT offer is to complete taxi driversaccounts and tax return for 2009/10 for afixed rate of £350. Additionally, if they sign toour services before April 2010, we will offerthem the same service at the same rate for the2010/11 tax year. Not only is this a great offer,but we also add an incentive; if any driverrecommends another to our services and theysuccessfully become a client of ours, the dri-ver that introduced the new client will receive£50 for each successful referral made - this ispaid as soon as the referred client has paidfor the work done by ourselves.

As we understand our clients and realisethe economic climate is hitting everyone toa certain degree, as of April 2010 we will beoffering the option to clients to pay by a

monthly direct debit of £29.16, spreading thecost over the whole year, rather than payingin one lump sum!

If you should require any further informa-tion, please do not hesitate to contact HayleyThompson at our office on 01723 512572. Welook forward to hearing from you...Hayley ThompsonPHT Tax Resource

Forged note detectorsHi AlanWondered if you knew which edition of CallSign did you have an article about forgednote detectors?Peter Graovac (O54)In August 2005, Call Sign gave away 50Counterfeit Cabbies – a device for track-ing forged banknotes. I’m not sure whatlater devices are on the market, but I’mpretty sure there must be a selection. Itwas 4700 years in Mesopotamia (mod-ern Turkey) where people bartered withgoods, but some individuals would putdiffering values on similar items leadingto controversy and confusion. After all,is a bearskin really worth two bales ofhay? So money came into being. But hadthey had the hassle we get with thosedeliberately passing forgeries, perhapsthey’d have thought twice! ...Ed

The T-word!At last years AGM when the contentiousissue of T work arose, it was mentioned thatmany drivers, when busy, choose to ignorethis work in favour of other account work. Iadopt this attitude myself as I sometimes feelthat T accounts often just use us to covertheir less lucrative work, especially if it ispre-booked. For example, I did a N1W TrueAD but when I asked for the destination, thepassenger said: “You should know, I gave itwhen I booked, we’re going to St Pancras.”Despite this, I feel there is one T account Iwould like to offer a better service to andthat is McKinsey. This is because I havenoticed that on many occasions the jobnotes state that the passenger should alwaysbe sent a black cab, but this information isnot made available until the job is accepted.Do the passengers demand this becausethey realise we offer a better service thanWestOne cars?

There is a lady wheelchair user I havepicked up from Dolphin Square who, whilstchampioning DaC, says she dislikes havingto go through WestOne cars seeing as sheonly wants to use us and feels we should bedoing all their work. Another user missed atrain because the WestOne driver got lost onroute to Paddington, even asking if she knewthe way - another convert to ‘always send a


Keith ReadingProfessional ToastmasterMaster of Ceremonies

Tele: 01279 465 938Mobile: 07774 860 374Email: [email protected]

10% discount for DaC drivers

Fellow of the Guild of

Professional Toastmasters

Mailshotblack cab’ I think! So if the customer only wants to be sent a blackcab was seen on the trip offer, perhaps the account could blossom?Terry Felvus (M86)Keith Cain responds: Terry, we would welcome being able toshow more information on the trip offer, not just for the reasonsyou state, but for many others too. Unfortunately, to change thecurrent set up would mean a major rewrite of the dispatch sys-tem. The long term plan, however, is to redevelop and update thesystem and the trip offer screen is high up on that wish list.

How can we win back our work– the PH view?Hi AlanI would like to respond to the article written by Michael Son (Howcan we win back our work) in the January Call Sign. Mike was thevery first trade representative I ever met whilst on the Knowledgeand since then I have always held him in high esteem and respectboth his knowledge and integrity with regards to cab trade business.

I’m not on Dial-a-Cab, nor do I drive a cab at the moment; I havehowever worked within the private hire industry and currently owna small PH company in Central London. There are many factors asto why the cab trade is losing market share and I for one believe withsome real commercial thinking that the situation can be corrected,but it needs commercial not political solutions. Companies such asAddison Lee have become a major threat to the cab trade becausethey are well run and give the cash and account customer a goodservice at a cheaper rate than the cab trade; their coverage of Londonis far superior than that of any cab company and the earningexpectancy of their work force is approximately 50% less than a taxidriver has for the same hours worked! Plus they have benefited enor-mously from the PH industry consolidating to a point where thereare not a great deal of companies or competition left in the corpo-rate sector. So how do you combat this and win back market share?

1/ A merger of a radio circuit is vital; the need to create a super cir-cuit will give the real differentiator needed in the market place. A fleetof 6000 taxis will win work! Having three major circuits, all with thesame selling points, actually works against the cab trade; one majorforce will be able to dominate the market in so many ways - be thatfinancial strength, coverage ability and economies of scale that willadd to this new super power. It will also improve coverage of Londonas a whole, because at the moment the cab trade has only focused it’sefforts on Central London, which is complete and utter madness. Dial-a-Cab and Radio Taxis becoming one seems to me to be a good call?

2/ Forget being a taxi company and start being a GroundTransport supplier. Oh my God! I can hear all the dinosaurs roaringalready! Giving the client what they want is not such a bad idea. Itworks in every other business sector, so why can’t the cab tradegrasp this fact? Some have played with the idea, but whatever hasbeen done thus far has been done badly - due to trying to play pol-itics instead of being commercial.

3/ On account work and cash work, the biggest issue the privatehire industry highlight is the run-in fee charged. Cease charging itand work will return; clients fail to understand that they get into acab and there can be £7 on the meter and they haven’t gone any-where. Easier option? Charge a simple £2.50 charge at the back endand pick the client up with a clean meter – any waiting time canalso be charge separately too! By keeping the average docket pricedown, it assists the client’s budgetary targets.

4/ Gratuity Charge – stop it – it works against the black cab tradeand no PH company would dream of charging this.

5/ Smarten Up: It is well known that a cab driver is a far superi-or driver than a PH one, so why don’t they look like they are? I seecab drivers entering international company receptions looking likeslobs and I assure you it gets noticed and works against the trade.Have a sensible dress code and enforce it. I believe it should be partof the PCO remit – we can put a stop on a dirty cab, but we can’tdo anything about a driver that looks like Worzel Gummige!

6/ Flexible Charging: Be prepared to do more for less in a down-turned market; to have a sensible pricing structure and giving Salesteams of taxi companies some flexibility to negotiate will win you

contracts back that havebeen lost.

FACT: Accounts thathave been lost in recentyears to the PH industryare due to cost; service issecondary when FacilityManagers are tasked withsaving money! Especially when the service theychoose is good; the cab trade can no longer portray PH drivers asthe seedy characters they could during the last recession.

7/ Stop running your businesses as political clubs and start facingup to the reality that the PH industry is a real threat; if you ignore itand don’t react, the cab trade will lose the corporate sector entirelywithin 5 years. You have some quality businessmen in place withinthe industry, but they have their hands tied due to political issues.

Why as a PH proprietor would I advise the cab trade? Because Itruly believe in it; I still believe becoming a cab driver is the great-est achievement of my life, but this is mixed with the feelings thatrunning a radio circuit is like jogging through treacle. To win backLondon will need some drastic action, but I don’t feel the will to dothis is there. So you will continue to lose work to Addison Lee andother companies and the damage will soon become fatal!

I would love to be proven wrong on this and I hope you don’tmind me entering your debate.Martin Cox Chauffeur First, London E1The last time I published a letter from someone in the PHindustry, I was inundated with drivers telling me I shouldn’thave done it! But I disagree – if I feel the letter is constructive.And in this case, I feel that the view of someone like MartinCox who besides having great experience of the PH industry,also holds a green badge and was on the BoM of Radio Taxisfor several years, is one worth at least listening to ...Ed

Harvey Allen: We haven’t retired!Hi AlanI would like to thank you and your team for such a good article thatwas put together about North Eastern Motors and our father,Coleman Allen. However, at the end of the article it says that weare retiring from the trade. This is not true! We are still working everyday and managing our fleet from L&P Motors premises (as the arti-cle stated) in Dunbridge Street, so if anybody wants to hire a cabfrom us, they still are able to!

We would appreciate if you could publish these facts in your nextissue, so that drivers know that we are still available to give person-al service to our existing drivers and any new customers.Harvey AllenDunbridge St, E2 02077299900Pleased you like the article, Harvey. I’ve told my reporter that ifhe doesn’t get the facts right in future, he will be retiring early!...Ed

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