THAT’S NO JOKE
I bumped into your picture and magazine on the Internet. I'm an expatriate Yorkshireman from Leeds and I've been living in Australia since 1962. I drove a cab in Adelaide for fifteen years. I enjoyed reading Call Sign on-line - haven’t things changed from 1962 ! Anyway, I thought I'd take a moment to send you the following joke. I thought it might give you a laugh.
Michael Cunnington
Huntfield Heights,
South Australia
5163

Thanks for the note, Michael. Taxi drivers may enjoy that type of joke but there is NO way I could ever print it!…Ed

AN OLDE WORLDE BACON SANDWICH!
In my recent article re the early DAC drivers and Charlie’s Coffee Stall, I omitted to mention the name of Harry Kanolik, the original Apple 14. He reminded me of this fact when we met recently. Actually, I couldn’t remember his surname! However, he always had a bacon sandwich on Saturdays, he said it brought it him good luck!
Sam Harris (Dan 93J)

Sam has another story of the old days in this issue…and speaking of bacon sandwiches, have a look at Ian Cameron’s sandwich Challenge…Ed

GOING HOME
Please correct me if I am wrong, but in Call Sign Magazine several months ago, I believe that the members were advised that anything our competitors could do, DAC could do better. I refer to the driver’s going home facility. On many occasions I sit in the City hoping to get a job going home, work all around me, but going in every direction but the right way. No doubt many other drivers have the same problem. Is it really beyond DAC’s capabilities to install this facility, a facility that was available on voice.
J.W.Herbert (E71)

Roy Masterson replies: DAC already have a ‘going home’ facility installed, the Reject Disable (code 3). At the end of your day, this facility allows you to look at as many jobs as you wish without any penalty until you find a destination

that will help you home. With the amount of work we are putting through the system now, an average of 7,000 trips most days, I would think that we had trips on offer that would head most drivers in the right direction. If you are actually talking about a facility that would only offer you trips that were in the direction you required, that is not available yet but is something that could be introduced. Real Time Concepts and myself have discussed destination validation, utilising the same method as currently validates the pick up address in the Geographers database that we use. Once established, it could then be possible to offer work in specific directions.

LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN???
I am writing this letter on Good Friday as I am so het-up at being cr***ed on, or to put it another way, the cab trade being messed up and none of us doing anything about it. I was waiting for an account customer in Queen Street EC2 and observed workmen taking plastic wrapping from sign posts showing both Queen and King Streets as one-way going north. I informed our dispatcher who in turn put a message through the terminal. I then got out of my cab and spoke to one of the workmen who told me that "…you lot can’t use Poultry any more. It’s going to be for buses only". He went on to tell me that Old Broad Street is to become one-way going north and Copthall Avenue is to become a no-entry from London Wall. He also said with a grin on his face that they were also thinking of knocking down London Bridge so that we couldn’t use it at all! It is about time that we showed these little dictators a thing or two. The only ones they are hitting are the cab trade, not the car that comes into town once in a blue moon. If they want the City closed off, let’s close it off. Show them we have voice and that we want our streets back with signs saying; London cabs only. I hate liberty takers…
Dennis Vogel (R5)

EC5 SOLUTION?
As you are no doubt aware, there seems to be an unprecedented amount of work flowing into the Society. This is especially true at night and even more so in the City when demand outstrips supply on a regular basis. To alleviate this problem on EC5, it is now common practise for the dispatcher to

disband EC5 and to place the work into the other City zones with an AD tag. This manual decision is normally made at the peak of uncovered work and invariably, clients have already been waiting some time for their cabs. I therefore suggest that this could be done automatically with a software change. Any uncovered job within the usual perimeters would not only go to the Bids, but would be offered to the four EC zones AD automatically. This would, I am sure, assist coverage at peak times and would not need a manual decision by the dispatcher who could monitor the situation and make adjustments as necessary. For those of us who were around at the birth of data, this was already in the software. Unfortunately, in those days, there was no reject penalty and the destination appeared in the back-up zones. Drivers sat in EC2 and just waited on the point until a good job turned up - which is why it was stopped. I am a great advocate of EC5 and would not like to see it disbanded on a permanent basis, but feel that something has to be done to maintain our unique position within the City.
Alan Sullivan (F20)

Roy Masterson replies: Thanks Alan, you have saved me the problem of getting an article ready for the Editor on a new EC5 working procedure we intend to trial in the near future. Your suggestion is almost identical to an enhancement I have asked Real Time Concepts to work on. Work will be dispatched as normal to the EC5 rank during normal operating hours. If there are cabs booked in they will receive the trips. If however there are no cabs booked in, after a certain time parameter the trip will automatically be sent into the primary zone of the pick up address as an AD rejectable trip. This will assist everybody - the drivers who like to work EC5 will get the work if they can get to the rank. If nobody is on the rank, drivers will be offered trips in the EC zones they are booked into, or can bid for work that is closest to them. The Call Centre will not have trips sitting in EC5 that are not being offered, waiting for drivers to take the chance of bidding for a non rejectable trip that may be nowhere near them. In fact, Alan, your suggestion was so accurate, I was wondering if you might let me know your predictions for future lottery numbers !

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