Yet another report…!
It’s almost like déja vu when it
seems that all I’m currently doing of
late is writing various Chairman’s
report – except that had they all been
the same, I could have looked the other
way and just smiled! Unfortunately for
me, they all have to be as different as
I can make them regardless of whether
anything of note has happened!
I had just finalised my report for the end of year Annual Report
and the Chairman’s Report that
you read (hopefully!) in the December
Call Sign, when the Editor
was once again after me during the first
week of December to complete the report
for January! Not, I suppose, entirely
his fault but due to the printers
closing early for Christmas and not
re-opening until well into January.
Consequently, I’m led to believe that
the January issue of Call Sign
is going to be distributed on 21st
December. So, as I am writing this
report at the beginning of December, it
will not be as ‘fresh’ as I would have
liked, however, I am sure you can all
now understand why…
Mick Daly
One piece of news that I would rather
not have seen was when, with deep
regret, I learned of the death of Mick
Daly. I had known Mick for many years
and he was indeed one of the characters
within our industry, although like most
of us he had mellowed over the years. I
had always got on very well with Mick,
although I did not see as much of him in
recent years as I had in the past.
It was just a little over two years ago that I attended the funeral
of Mick’s darling wife Jackie. It was
such a sad day and
really felt for Mick and his daughters who were obviously so extremely
distraught. Now on the |
18th December, I will
be attending Mick’s. What a sad day it
will be for everyone, especially for his
two daughters who have lost both parents
in a fraction over two years.
Mick, you were a great guy who loved a drink and a cigar and above
all loved to have a moan at me, but that
mutual respect was always there and I
genuinely liked Mick – I’m pleased to
say that I believe he knew that!
God bless you Mick and my sincere condolences to your daughters and
family…
New building update
Just a very short update on the new
building. Following delays when
negotiations reached something of a
stalemate, the builders have commenced
work on our new premises, so everything
is pressing ahead at full steam – at
least until Christmas arrives when work
will stop and commence again in the New
Year.
However, everything has now been agreed and I am hopeful that we
will fully occupy the new building
during the next few months!
Records… and more
records
If you recall, I wrote last year that
the best month of trading this Society
had ever experienced was during November
2005. That record was broken in
October2006 and then in the |
following month of
November, we again exceeded the October
figure and set a new record for this
Society and I’m delighted to be able to
inform you that during that month of
November, this Society completed work
worth just a fraction under £5million –
a new record! Still, as they say,
records are made to be broken and
hopefully in the not-too-distant future,
we can exceed the November 2006 figure.
Service Levels
It would be unfair of me to say too much
about our service levels as at the time
of writing as we still have two weeks to
go until Christmas. So in reality,
whatever I say will have little bearing
on the issue because by the time you
read this, the busy period prior to
Christmas would have come and gone and I
won’t be in a position to know how we
performed.
However, at the time of writing, the work that we have been putting
through the system has been phenomenal
and under the circumstances - which I
appreciate have been very difficult - I
believe both you and the staff have
worked exceptionally hard in an
endeavour to give our clients the best
service possible.
Unfortunately, we will have to wait until the New Year to see
whether we have encountered any
casualties. I know for a fact that our
competitors also experienced service
issues just prior to Christmas, but I am
confident we have performed better than
the rest – but we will have to wait and
see!
In the meantime, I wish you all the very happiest of New Years…
Brian Rice
Chairman
Dial-a-Cab |
