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Sovereign
As you will recall, earlier this year I informed you that Sovereign would
make a decision regarding their proposal for a stake in Dial-a-Cab by late
summer. As I had not heard anything, I wrote to their MD, Peter Brooks,
requesting their intentions. At the time of writing, I have not received an
official written response from them, however I have had a conversation with
Peter and he informs me that they are looking at the situation and their
decision is imminent. In their defence, I do understand the situation as
business has been fairly tough in recent times and to commit their company to
an expenditure of several hundred thousand pounds on a project that might fail
should our shareholders refuse to demutualise in a climate that has been
distinctly uninspiring, then their hesitancy comes as no great surprise to me.
However, in recent times there has been an upturn in business and consequently
they have been looking at the business with renewed vigour. You can rest
assured that immediately Sovereign have made their final decision, I will
inform you, the members.
Virgin Trains
We recently held a meeting with Virgin Trains and so impressed were they
with the service that we have provided them, that they have decided to extend
the contract so that it now takes in the whole of next year. There will be a
total shutdown for four or five days over the Easter period, a nine day total
shutdown at the end of May and also another nine day shutdown during August,
plus every week-end in between. As you can appreciate, this will be a major
contract, far larger than
anything that we have undertaken to date; I have every confidence that
Virgin will be every bit as happy with our service next year as they have been
to date.
Subscriptions
I’ve given you the good news about Virgin, now for the not so good news! You
will undoubtedly remember that we last increased your subscriptions in
September 2002 and fortunately we have not had to increase them this year,
however there will be an increase as from the 1 Jan 2004. It is proposed that
the normal subscription will increase from £123.50 per month to £129.50 per
calendar month including VAT and journeymen will increase from £65 to £70 per
month. However, if you are one |
 of
our older subscribers that refuse to carry our logo, then your new
subscription will increase from £160 per month to £170 per month. I would
also like to remind all members that if you have been fitted to Dial-a-Cab
after January 1996, then you have no alternative but to carry our logo and
pay the reduced subscription of £129.50.
Whilst it is regrettable when there is an increase in the price of
any commodity, I believe you will understand why this increase is necessary
and agree with me that Dial-a-Cab not only represents such excellent value
for money, but is still by far the best radio taxi service in addition to
having the lowest subscriptions in London.
Taxiboard
My feelings on the fragmentation of our industry has been very well
documented and you will recall that in previous editions of Call Sign, I
have suggested that all of our driver organisations should be invited to sit
on Taxiboard so as to ensure a united front when dealing with the
authorities. In an endeavour to bring this scenario to fruition, I attended
a meeting of Taxiboard and proposed that they extend an invitation to all
driver organisations to apply for membership of Taxiboard.
In turn, I attended a meeting of driver’s organisations that was
also attended by LCDC, SPLT, HALT and the Suburban Drivers and I asked them
to apply for membership of Taxiboard. I am delighted to inform you that I
have seen the letter where the driver organisations have indeed applied for
membership of Taxiboard, however, I have not been informed whether Taxiboard
have extended an invitation to those driver organisations to join. I will be
extremely interested to learn of the decision that Taxiboard reaches when it
discusses the applications and the criteria it uses to come to a decision.
Dial-a-Cab have done their bit in trying to unite the trade, I’m now waiting
to see the outcome – anyone taking any bets?
Conditions of Fitness
It would appear that the PCO are again to review the Conditions of
Fitness. That makes twice in one year when the previous review |
was over forty years ago! So what has prompted this? It
appears that a manufacturer who produces taxis which are not licensed in London
because they do not meet the current criteria, has informed the PCO that they
were going to seek a Judicial Review. TfL’s legal advisers looked at the
situation and informed the PCO that in their opinion, the procedure would not
withstand a Judicial Review. Consequently the PCO announced its intention to
review the conditions again.
Oh well, I thought to myself, it looks as though they are going to
relax the conditions of fitness, but the reply I received on behalf of the PCO
gives me food for thought. I quote:-
On the basis of legal advice, the PCO realised they should have done more to
reinforce their position and are going to present even stronger argument to
support the current conditions – particularly focusing on passenger benefits.
Ultimately, any changes to the conditions of fitness will be determined by a
political decision.
Is this a smoke screen or fighting talk? We shall see.
Private Hire
I’ve just read the latest edition of ‘Private Hire and Courier’ where Steve
Wright, Chairman of the Licensed Private Hire Car Association (LPHCA), is
bemoaning the fact that it is taking up to three months to licence new drivers
entering their industry, due to the fact that there has to be a check at the
Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). He states that around the Christmas period,
there can be up to 50,000 drivers in the Private Hire Industry. He anticipates
that because some drivers do not come up to the standards that are required to
licence a Private Hire Driver and due to that current three month wait, the
number of drivers will fall to approximately 30,000 by the end of this year.
Well, well, well, Mr Wright, welcome to the real world! You wanted your
industry to become legitimate, that’s fine. But you also need to absorb
everything that goes with it, just as the licensed taxi trade has done for
hundreds of years. It could, of course, be worse… they could be entering the
licensed taxi industry where it takes up to four years to obtain a licence! I
know you will understand when neither I nor my members offer any sympathy…
Brian Rice
Chairman,
Dial-a-Cab |
