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AGM time… It is that time of year again! The Dial-a-Cab AGM will be held on 8 February at The Brewery in Chiswell Street at 11am. By now you should have received your documentation regarding the AGM, together with the Annual Report. As you will see, it is an electable AGM where you can choose your BoM for the forthcoming two years. As most of you are aware, you are required to vote so if you do not vote by post you should attend the AGM, otherwise a fine of £50 will be levied against you. However, as you can appreciate if you do vote by post you are not required to attend, but you must do one or the other. No doubt you will be pleased to learn that we do not have any rule changes or propositions this year, but of course we do have to elect the BoM. Hopefully, I will see as many of you as possible on the day. Work – or the lack of! |
 You will read reminders in this issue’s Board Members reports of what we should and should not be doing. I must say that the vast majority of you are exemplary with our procedures, however, there is a tiny minority who are a little careless and consequently this throws our reporting into disarray and in turn, raises doubt as to the authenticity of our reporting. A good example of this is that customers who book on-line have the facility to track their vehicle on the way to the pick-up. What happens in some cases is that drivers hit their arrival button before they have reached the pick-up! Of course I know why this is done - to avoid as much as possible, any waiting time before the passenger gets into the cab. However, what happens in reality is that the client can see on-line that the vehicle is not outside and as you can imagine, this can and often does cause some confusion and throws our systems into doubt with the customer. So it is becoming very important you do not press your arrival button before you are actually there. Downturn …again! |
However, we must still look at our costs
in order to combat this downturn in business. You will see from the Annual Report, the largest outgoing the Society has is our wage bill, so at the moment we are looking to make savings in that area. I recently had meetings with all staff to explain the situation and explained that we would be looking to prune some positions in order to make our overheads more manageable. However, in this day and age a company has to go through the correct procedures in order lighten the load of the wage roll! There has to be a consultation process; this is not a pleasant task as you are dealing with people you have worked with for many years, but it is a task that has to be done to safeguard the future of the remainder of the employees and of course the members / shareholders. One of the reasons I had meetings with all staff and have reported the situation to you, the members, is that I have been in this industry for many years and I know how rumours spread and which in the main are totally incorrect. But now everyone has heard it from the horses’ mouth. Yes, we are on a cost cutting exercise in order that your business is managed efficiently, but we are not in any financial difficulty, as a quick glance at the Annual Report you have just received will illustrate.
Mad Hatters Brian Rice |
