FARE INCREASE
Those of you that skip page two are missing information each month that
could really make your life as a taxi driver much easier. Alan Nash’s column, giving
Call Sign readers the latest up-to-date collated info on everything from train time-tables
to fares to zone information, is usually interesting and always useful.
That brings me to his column in the May issue when he broke down the recent
fare increase into a comparison with last year. Now, unless Alan was wrong - and it would
be a first if he were - then the increase was virtually worthless.
The trade still base increases on the T&G’s old cost index. That has
served the trade well but, if this years increase is anything to go by, then either it
badly needs upgrading or to be totally replaced.
Since the previous increase, Derv had zoomed up by almost 50p a gallon (one
major and one minor Budget plus the fuel companies own increases). Yet, up to the
‘new’ £3.80 rate, there is no change from last year. Last year’s fiver
ride is up 20p while a £9 trip is now up by 40p to £9.40. The reasonably good ride of
£19 now upgrades by 80p. They, and many others hardly classify as an increase. They sound
more like the odd traffic differential.
I wrote to Gordon Brown following the last Budget asking why we were not
treated in the same way as buses; ie subsidised.
"Were we or were we not a vital part of London’s transport
system" I asked. After all, when Labour were in opposition, they certainly said that
we were!
I have so far had two replies; both on post cards informing me that my
question was being passed to another department. It will no doubt end up in Glenda
Jackson’s bin. It would have been more prestigious to end up in Gordon Brown’s
bin and about as useful…
SLANDEROUS STATEMENTS
I recently had the underground trade’s latest piece of garbage stuck
under my windscreen wipers. This involved
allegations about the Chairman of another radio circuit and
accused him of accepting ‘bungs’ by offering to buy equipment from anyone who
offered him money.
Firstly, I don’t for one minute believe any of the charges and secondly,
what right should these people have to levy outrageous charges at the head of an
organisation without signing their name to the paper? They are just cowards who
couldn’t care less about the damage they cause to their own organisation. I just hope
they get caught and booted off. If you don’t have the strength of your convictions,
then you should keep them to yourselves…
MINICAB AERIALS
We all know - especially those who work during the evening - how
outrageously minicabs act in picking up passengers who stick their hands out for a
(licensed?) cab. The police tell us that it is too time consuming to prosecute everyone
they suspect of touting because the evidence needed is so substantial - ie evidence from
the passenger who may not even want to give it. So, the following may be a silly idea and
if it is, then I apologise.
How about pushing for a law that makes it illegal to have a vehicle with
two-way aerial protruding that is not connected to a ‘registered’ minicab
company? So, if you have the aerial sticking out that many associate with minicabs, but
that it isn’t connected, then that is an offence and punishable by a hefty fine? If
the minicab were stopped and the passenger wasn’t interested in giving evidence, it
wouldn’t matter because just by displaying the aerial, he would be breaking the law
anyway. We all know that many of the touts just have the
aerial and nothing else and touting without the aerial would be a problem even for the fly-boys…
CURRY AND BOMBS
It isn’t often that I write about non-taxi matters, but I feel
extremely annoyed at the Indian Government’s detonation of five underground nuclear
test devices. We now know how this planet has been devastated by our own hand - ie fuel
emmissions or CFC’s out of spray cans and into the atmosphere that have diminished
the natural protection we used to have. Hence the increase in sunburn and skin cancers. I
am not a curry lover, but if I were, then there is no way I would ever go into another
Indian Restaurant. Perhaps the Indian Government would then hear from the owners that
ordinary people despise what they have done.
CALL SIGN ERRORS
My wife Linda and I recently popped over to Reims in Northern France for a
short break via Le Shuttle. On the second day (19th May), after returning from
a day touring the Champagne producing countryside, a message awaited me to phone home. My
daughter Kim had been rushed into Intensive Care and was linked up to a ventilator. She
was as fit as a fiddle when we had left.
Within thirty minutes, we had packed and began the 275 kilometre drive to Le
Shuttle in Calais, allowed to jump the queue (for which we thank them), followed by the
never ending drive from Folkestone to Chadwell Heath and King George’s Hospital. Just
over five hours later, we were at Kim’s bedside. She was in a very, very serious
condition.
She is now slowly improving, is out of danger and should make a complete
recovery.
So, I would ask you to forgive me if there are any errors in this issue that
I would normally be aware of and delete. Proofing is extremely important if you want to
produce a magazine that you are proud of. This issue’s proofing was far more rushed
than I would usually contemplate. I hope your enjoyment is not spoiled through it…
