The year so far…
By the time
you read this, business should have
calmed a little and we‘ll be in the
midst of the holiday season. It will
also give us the opportunity to regroup
as we get ready for the manic period
between early September and Christmas.
We are recruiting Customer Service Representatives as quickly as we
can and our two in-house trainers are
frantically training those CSRs and new
members alike as we endeavour to
increase the size of the fleet to
improve coverage during busy periods.
There is no point increasing the number
of call takers to allow us to take more
work if we do not have the mobiles to
accommodate the increase in the volumes
they produce. In contrast, there is no
point increasing the number of mobiles
if we do not have enough work for them.
We have always operated a policy of supply and demand at
Dial-a-Cab. We will not increase the
size of the fleet until we are confident
we have enough work for them, otherwise
we will lose members. Alternatively we
must have enough mobiles to fulfil the
client’s wishes otherwise we will lose
accounts due to bad service! I am sure
you can understand my dilemma as we
endeavour to operate a fine balancing
act between clients and members!
Dial-a-Cab has experienced enormous growth in recent times, but
nonetheless we are endeavouring to
compete in the market place with a
Society that has an antiquated
structure. We have done extraordinarily
well given our circumstances and I am
not sure how much further we can
progress under the current situation and
given our structure. Could this be as
good as it gets?
However and in the meantime, I am absolutely thrilled with the
progress we have made during the current
financial year. As you may recall, last
year was the best this |
Society had ever
experienced with our turnover increasing
by in excess of £5.6m or over 15% - a
phenomenal achievement.
However, this year I am very optimistic
that we will move from a medium-sized
company to a large company by exceeding
the £50m threshold and if the
year-to-date is an indication of how
things will be, then I am confident that
by the end of the current financial year
this Society will be trading as a large
company.
As you are probably aware, the start of our financial year is 1
September, however, the year-to-date has
been quite extraordinary, with turnover
increasing by a massive £5.7m up until
the end of May! This represents an
increase in excess of 18% over the
previous financial year. Consequently,
we could experience an increase in
excess of £12m over a two-year period;
an achievement that everyone connected
with this Society should feel justly
proud of!
The new building…
At the time of writing we have been in
our new building for just over two
months and everything seems to be going
well. We are gradually getting the
building to a position where it is a far
better working environment for your
staff than Brunswick House. The signage
has been erected and you will see that
we have called it Dial-a-Cab House –
very unusual! Anyway, before someone
writes in to tell me that Call
Sign ran a competition to name
the building and the winning entrant,
Mike
|
Pollington (K17), did not
name the building Dial-a-Cab House, it
was stated at the time that the winning
name might not be adopted.
The whole reason for the competition was that we were hoping a
driver somewhere would come up with some
sort of wonderful name that no-one here
had thought of. Alas that was not to be,
so here we are with Dial-a-Cab House –
probably the best name so far as
identification is concerned!
London Congestion
Charging – Fifth Annual Report.
I’ve just had a quick
glance at the above recently published
report – is it really more than five
years since the congestion charge began?
Anyway, there are one or two statistics that might be of interest
to you. When the charge was increased in
July 2005 by 60% from £5 to £8, it had
very little impact on congestion and
traffic levels in the capital increased
in 2006 as opposed to 2005 (due to an
increase in road works according to TfL).
However, congestion in 2006 was 8% lower than in 2002, but in 2003
the initial fall in traffic levels was
an amazing 30% against the 2002 level,
so it shows that congestion is on the
increase once again – what a surprise to
you all!
One other amazing statistic that TfL have admitted to has been in
reducing London’s road capacity since
2004 – again, what a surprise! They
claim to have done this for the benefit
of pedestrians, yet the percentage of
pedestrians being injured in the
congestion zone has increased, whereas
outside the zone it remained the same –
of course there must be some sort of
conclusion we can to draw from that, I’m
just not sure what it is!
Brian Rice
Chairman, Dial-a-Cab |
