MountviewNews
RadioTaxis launches new website & online booking Autumn 2014
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 4 Roger Sligo’s ‘Ed Lines’ Roving Roger reports… 7 Our new Tri Borough Contract Peter Gibson gives us the lowdown 8 It is time to reinvent ourselves Says Chairman & CEO Geoffrey Riesel 11 Radio Taxis Chairman gives evidence At the Greater London Authority’s Transport Committee inquiry 12 A Toast to Real Choice Gordon Brown on real ale and taxis in London 13 Business Card Dan Ellis on the simplest, but important marketing tool 14 Why not join the credit union All you need to know is on one page here 15 CROSSRAIL and Tottenham Court Road Alan Franks with his views on its pedestrianisation 16 Curiosity Corner Roger Sligo – More mysteries of London revealed 18 The Digital Disrupters Ronald MacDonald Watson and the accelerating change in technology 20 George Shillibeer Roger Sligo on the London Omnibus Pioneer 22 Mountview driver retires after more than 40 years Robert Dulin (Baker 24)’s letter to the Chairman 23 Twittering about Taxis Geoffrey Riesel with more Tweeting Tips 24 Crossing the Thames Roger Sligo on building bridges 26 The Digital Age or... how and why we built a new website 28 At Home he feels like a Tourist Roy Hughes asks – Has there been a post-Olympic tourism boost to London? 30 The “Where Am I” Contest Win a £50 worth of Marks & Spencer Gift Vouchers 31 The Mountview Puzzler Page Get stuck in to these teasers
THE MOUNTVIEW NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM IS: Roger Sligo – Editor & photos / Penny Cuckston – Administration Doug Canning, DC-Graphics – Design, layout, artwork, print & distribution Geoffrey Riesel & Peter Gibson – Board production Design, Layout & Print: ©2013 / DC-Graphics / High Barnet / Herts / EN5 5TP T: 0208 440 1155 / W: www.dc-graphics.co.uk Content: © 2014 / Radio Taxis Group Ltd / Lennox Road / London / N4 3TX The information and images contained in this Newsletter are subject to copyright. Unauthorised use, disclosure or copying without prior written permission from RTG Ltd is strictly prohibited.
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Roger Sligo’s
NEWS I REALLY COULDN’T LET THIS ISSUE GO BY WITHOUT mentioning World War I, which began one hundred years ago this year – 4th August 1914. The “war to end all wars;” it lasted four years and the cost was Nine Hundred and Ninety Six Thousand British lives, almost double the population of Leeds. would guess most of us could find at least one family member killed in the Great War if we were all to search through the war records. I know I have one in my family and I would like to share his story with you in honour of all the many unsung heroes like him, who gave up their own lives for the freedom of future generations. I am reliably informed by my New Zealand cousin, working in the Australian Embassy in Thailand, that “Archie” was my first cousin, three times removed although I never understood these genealogy things... Anyway, John Archibald Sligo, better known to his friends as Archie, had decided to follow his father into the Army enlisting during 1902 in Taunton, Somerset, with his father’s old regiment, the Somerset Light Infantry. By 1911 he was serving in Malta in the 2nd Battalion Somerset Light Infantry, where they were inspected once by the German Emperor, The Kaiser Archie Sligo – Wilhelm II, who was of course, shortly to become their sworn enemy and who was visiting the island on his Imperial yacht. Three years later when war was declared, on Tuesday 4 August 1914, Archie was serving with the 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry in Colchester. The Battalion was swiftly readied for war and they landed in France on Saturday 22 August. Two days later the Battalion detrained late on the afternoon of Monday 24 August, taking up hasty defensive positions near Briastre, as they waited for the advancing Imperial German Army.
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Left Behind Archie Sligo was wounded in his very first engagement with the enemy the following day, Tuesday 25 August,
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WORLD WAR I A Hundred Years On
when his Company repulsed German attacks. Despite his wound Archie set off on his own, on foot, in heavy rain to catch up again with his battalion, becoming one of the many British stragglers fleeing in front of the advancing German juggernaut that night. By the following day, Archie had teamed up with another straggler Robert Digby, together their path took them about 13 miles across the rolling countryside to the small village of Villeret, then consisting of about 600 inhabitants, just over 11 miles north west of St Quentin in Picardy, Northern France. The rain had stopped and the early morning mist had helped hide the soldiers from enemy patrols, but as the day progressed the mist cleared, becoming a beautifully hot and sunny day in late summer. As the two exhausted soldiers made their way uphill in the gathering dusk that evening, they were spotted by a patrol of eight German Uhlans or Lancers, who promptly gave chase. Archie ran through “Villeret Square past the town hall and the butcher’s… ducking right, out into the open again, sprinting towards a dense copse some 200 yards from the edge of the village.” Slowed by fatigue and the pain from his wound, Archie lagged behind the eighteen year old Digby (who escaped into the woods) and he was shot dead at close range by the leading Uhlan before he could reach the safety of the woods. Once the Uhlans had departed, some men from Villeret recovered Archie’s body. In the darkness of the coming night, they buried him in an unmarked grave in Villeret’s tiny cemetery, after the Mayor of Villeret had written out a death certificate, based on information found on Archie’s identity discs and in his wallet. Lest We Forget (A message from the villagers of Curry Rivel, Somerset) Archie is buried in Villeret Old Churchyard, together with eighteen other graves of British soldiers. This story about Archie Sligo, told a century later, reminds us of the sacrifice made by men from our village, which was then much smaller than it is today. And yet at least 155 men and one woman from Curry Rivel served in the Armed Forces during the First World War and of these 21 were killed in action or died as a result of their service. (With special thanks to Tony Potter for extracts from the Curry Rivel Local Newsletter).
LONDON TAXI DRIVERS’ FUND FOR UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN’S TRIP TO SOUTHEND
Police escort the taxis in Southend
After a couple of weeks of continued sunshine, sooner or later the weather had to change. Sadly it did on Thursday 10th July for the children’s annual day trip to Southend-on-Sea. Not that the weather has ever stopped London kids from still enjoying a happy outing to the seaside! Leaving London’s Victoria Park just after 10am and with Police outriders escorting the taxis, they arrived at Southend in record time shortly before 11.30am, making their way along the seafront to the Kursaal, before returning back again along the Golden Mile to the Cliffs Pavilion. There was great excitement as the kids were welcomed inside the Cliffs Pavilion at Westcliff-on-Sea, where they were met by Salvo the Clown and animal characters as they entered the theatre.
The kids enter the Cliffs Pavilion
After a quick bite of lunch at the Cliffs, the excited children were then ferried by buses and cabs, to Adventure Island on the sea front. Vouchers had been given to the drivers and helpers for ice creams, donuts, candyfloss and drinks and it was hard to find a child whose face was not covered with these. At 4pm it was back to the Cliffs Pavilion for tea and disco with DJ Dave Davies and his team keeping the children entertained. As the entertainment came to an end, the kids lined up for a stick of Southend Rock before making their
way back to the cabs for their weary but very happy return journey home.
A warm welcome
THE DRIVERLESS CAR – LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE
The driverless car
Apparently, the driverless car is coming to Britain, with tests to start as early as next year. I don’t know about you but I would never risk my life sitting in a car without a steering wheel with a Google inspired automated driverless car! The mind boggles just thinking of pedestrians, cyclists and other road users running across the path of my automated invisible driver. It might be fine for the highways of America leading to the Grand Canyons or the Great Lakes but enormous, crowded, bustling cities like London; I don’t think so! To start with, the Highway Code would have to be thoroughly changed or even re-written; who would face prosecution for jumping lights or ignoring traffic signs for example – you or the unseen robot? How about drink-driving, after all it could be claimed you are in charge of the vehicle even though you are not the driver? Would there be an age limit and would you even need to have a drivers’ licence? Another thing which puzzles me is, if the driverless car is completely safe and accident free would we still need any insurance? As we all know UBER is financed through Google amongst others. Could their motive in introducing driverless Private Hire cars be that instead of taking 20% from drivers they could have the whole lot! I suppose on the plus side taxi-drivers could stay at
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home and send their cabs out to work on their own, providing a Google program device for taking the money and giving change! The one remaining thing that I just don’t get is, why would anyone actually want a driverless car – what would be the point? Presumably you would still be sitting in the same traffic jam as everyone else therefore getting there no quicker! If it’s just that people don’t want to drive themselves then fine, why not take a taxi – after all we have been around for over three-hundred years longer than Google! CHARITY SHOP FIND On a weekend away in the West Country recently, I visited Shaftsbury in Dorset. I went into a charity shop just near to where, what is generally claimed to be the best advert ever made, which showed a young boy, cap on head, walking his bike up the cobbled-stone hill, reminiscing about his love for Hovis bread – you know the one I mean? See the picture below.
Location for the famous Hovis TV ad
Anyway, as I browsed through some of the books in the charity shop I couldn’t believe my luck, as I found a book called “Taxi”. Flicking through the pages I discovered it was published in 1963, written by a London cab driver by the name of Maurice Levinson. It began by explaining that he was a London cabby for nearly thirty years, coincidently the same as me (30 years in January 2015). Of course I just had to buy the book which covered taxi-driving in the 1940s-50s and 60s – ranging from doing the knowledge and learning London, right up to minicabs and radio cabs. He wrote about working days verses nights, radio and non radio drivers. He writes; “The radio still remains a good proposition to the owner-driver who works long hours and who has a night driver to take over when he has finished. For a rental of a little under two pounds he has the equipment installed free and a round-the-clock use of the circuit to which he belongs.” More than Fifty Years later and with Radio Taxis “Pay As You Go” – our fees have hardly changed!
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I wouldn’t mind betting that Maurice was one of the earliest Mountview drivers! Many of the things which he encounters daily as he works the cab are the same things we have to deal with today. He mentions the stage-fright in doing his first job from the Imperial Hotel Russell Square to Euston Station. He recounted that all he had to do was go straight for a quarter of a mile, but even so his brain refused to budge, trying desperately to remember where Euston Station was and then recollecting his relief at seeing Euston in front of his eyes! His most famous passenger was Winston Churchill, who jumped the queue at Waterloo Station, after whacking his umbrella against Maurice’s taxi before Maurice had reached the head of the rank! I was quite disappointed to finish the book, as it was such a good read that I never wanted it to end. I searched his name online and found he has written several other books – the Alf Townsend of his day. I would really like to know if anyone knew Maurice Levinson. He mentioned having children. I wonder if any of them have become cabbies! Roger Sligo.
Our New “Tri Borough” Contract (also known as ‘3B’) By Peter Gibson, Group Strategic Director TRI BOROUGH is a combined West London “super-borough” comprising of Westminster City Council (WCC), Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC), Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF). The colloquial term used for Tri Borough is ‘3B’. hese three boroughs have combined their buying power and linked their back offices to save money and one of the areas that they have targeted is “Children and Adult Services transport.” All of the relevant Taxi, Private Hire and Coach Journeys supplied by the three boroughs, are now procured entirely via the consolidated Tri Borough. Previously Radio Taxis and One Transport serviced simply the Westminster City Council School Children and Adult Services account and we were successful in becoming one of only two Framework suppliers for the amalgamated 3B work. The new account started after the Easter school break and the term between Easter and the summer holidays were spent “bedding in” the new service. The account operates in a very different way to the old Westminster City Council account. We now have to liaise with the passengers and the parents and the Passenger Assistants directly, previously this was done by the council’s own personnel, now it’s our job. Some of the “rounds” (the rounds are routes there and back) which were previously serviced only in taxis are now done by Coaches or by Private Hire vehicles, in contrast on the plus side for taxis, we now have many new taxi pick-ups in areas which we didn’t have, before the forming of the Tri Borough. During the tender process we were made aware that financial constraints were the driving force behind the creation of Tri Borough and the rationale for its existence. Central government is limiting the cash being made available to councils, yet more and more is being demanded of local authorities for less. Therefore the “coming together” of neighbouring councils makes good economic sense. It may possibly make less political sense if the elected persuasion of one of the three participants were to change colour (as it has now done in Hammersmith); but even then the economic argument may prevail. So 3B is the new version of the Westminster account. Prices on all of this work is “fixed price,” as this is what was demanded – the mantra was, if no “fixed prices,” then no work. There isn’t any additional waiting time to be added onto the regular daily trips either. Again on the plus side, the very substantial “ad hoc” work, which is booked by Social Services personnel, or directly booked via the 3B centralised Transport department, is also on “fixed price” mileage rates.
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If waiting time is incurred on the “ad hoc” work, then it will be added to the “fixed price” in other words, for example; a £16.00 “fixed price” ad hoc trip that incurs a 30 minute wait will have a 20 minute waiting time charge added to the “fixed price” fare. This is because all the “fixed prices” on “ad hocs” include up to 10 minutes waiting time. Any request for additional waiting time on an “ad hoc” trip must be made by “voice” at the end of the journey. The 3B trips will be sent out, with destinations and with the Fixed Price. If you then accept and take a 3B trip, please complete the trip without any discussion about the Fixed Price, neither with the passenger nor with the passenger assistant. If you have an issue about the price then put a call in to me or to Ian Miller in the Call Centre. Also, do not involve any 3B personnel about the price of the trip. There have already been a few complaints made via Tri Borough about such conversations. The passengers do not know, nor do they care, what the Fixed Price for their journey is and they must not be engaged in discussion regarding the price, as it has nothing to do with them, they are merely recipients of 3B local authority services. I repeat for complete clarity, if you do have an issue and if you must, then – call me. But be completely aware that these trips will disappear completely if Fixed Prices are not offered. I am aware that a regular group of dedicated drivers carry out the majority of the Tri Borough work and if you are one of those drivers, then please let me thank you, sincerely for your support, you are doing a great job. This work is very regular, very dependable and not affected by economic cycles; other than the fact that it goes out to tender every couple of years. I know that some of the prices can be at a somewhat low level, especially on a bad traffic day; but conversely it’s the same price on a quiet day when there’s little traffic; and we have fought off a lot of competition to get this work. Please help us to keep this “bread and butter” work, we don’t want to give others (much of it was done before by Addison Lee) the opportunity to get it back. In addition, more importantly, other London Boroughs are watching developments very closely and if this is a success, those other Boroughs could either choose to join the 3B Framework, or join together in their local areas, to form new 3B type consortiums of their own; in either case we will be extremely well placed to pick up this work as well. I am sure we can count on you to make this into something really successful and significant, my thanks again.
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It is time to reinvent By RTG Chairman & CEO Geoffrey Riesel. BARRAGE OF ADVERTS ith a daily barrage of advertorials “eulogising” the merits of new entrants and “digital disrupters” appearing in a newspaper or on a television near you, I thought it was time to address the subject of the future shape of our industry. Therefore, this is possibly one of the most serious and important articles I have ever written. I ask you, our drivers, to read this very carefully and with an open mind as, by the nature of the job that you do, you are involved. Indeed we need to work in partnership and it is imperative that we all play our part by doing our bit to help shape our future. The time has come for the taxi industry to commence reinventing itself. The time is now especially for the radio taxi industry to reinvent itself.
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WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE? The alternative is for the industry to suffer a kind of “death by a thousand cuts” and you owe it to yourself, to your family and to your industry not to let that happen. We have a window of opportunity to revitalise not only Radio Taxis, but to do our bit to protect the trade by improving it. At the same time we can steal a march on the competition, especially the new entrant APPS which are causing so much consternation in our industry-worldwide. NOT GOING AWAY Some of the new APP entrants to our market aren’t going away, the public likes to use them, especially when the method of booking is so “easy and convenient.” RAISE OUR GAME So have our protests to TfL made any difference whatsoever? I doubt it; I suspect that this kind of competition is here to stay. Certainly some of these companies will not last, as they operate in a kind of financial “Bubble,” but some will remain and our response must be to raise our game. “Raise my game I hear you ask? I’m already a member of the best taxi industry in the world, why do I need to raise my game?” BEST KNOWLEDGE We unquestionably do have drivers with the best topographical knowledge, of their working area, of any taxi trade in the world; we certainly do have purpose built vehicles with lots of room for entry and egress; and those vehicles are thoroughly checked for safety to
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give passengers peace of mind. But… do we really have drivers who all genuinely understand customer care (including disability awareness) and who thus use the latest technology? – Do we really have drivers who all accept credit cards on their chip and pin devices? Do we really have drivers who all, conveniently for the customer, respond to online bookings either from a radio circuit or via an APP like the Radio Taxis one? What we do have is a “Mish Mash” of drivers “we’re all individuals,” I hear a few of you exclaim; some with nice new cabs, some with old ones. Some with well-kept cabs some… less so. Again I hear a few of you declaring, “my old cab takes the same money as a new one!” Oh yes in that case, it does for you, but what does it feel like to be your customer? Would a cab rider want to use you again in a hurry? Especially when the same driver has a big sign (next to his credit card machine) NO CREDIT CARDS. Then that very same driver now thinks he’s done something useful, by protesting about UBER, but has he? Perhaps if he/she took every credit/debit card journey offered to them, whether from a street hail job or whether booked online, whether for a long journey or a short one, because by refusing to do any of those, you are driving those former taxi riders, not only to their destination, but also into the arms of one of these new entrant APPs. YOU CAN ONLY BOOK ON NEW APPS BY CARD And that’s a place (on UBER) where you can only book and then pay by card; where booking by APP is really very easy and where the car that arrives, is these days usually fairly new, pretty clean and tidy and with a driver who is wearing a shirt and tie. I’m not
ourselves
The new home page of the Radio Taxis website
suggesting that everyone has to wear a shirt and tie, but for a small minority of drivers, who look as though they’d slept in their clothes, it would be a good start…. and we all know who they are. So OK the UBER/minicab driver always follows his SAT NAV slavishly which is usually a bit of a way around the houses and not the best way to get anywhere, so OK the UBER driver is also not a very good driver in the busy London traffic, which is more often than not a new experience to him, but it was ever so easy and convenient for the punter to book and for the car to arrive and the cashless payment is seamless (even bus fares are cashless these days) and every now and then their prices are cheaper than ours (except when they use surge pricing) and our arrogance, as a trade, has not helped. As taxi drivers, we run small businesses; yes every single one of us. But to listen to some drivers, they think somehow that they’re just doing a job, as though they are working for someone else. The difference is that small businesses do almost everything they can to make their customers appreciate the experience of using them so that in our case, giving up travelling by taxi should become a “wrench.” Small businesses (the ones who have a future) do not take their customers for granted, have we as a trade been taking our customers for granted? Cries of “not fair to the drivers” should be replaced instead with, what will make sure the customers keep coming back? End of rant, now please read on about what we are
doing at our end to mitigate some of the “disruption” being caused by these “cash rich” Digital Disrupters or APPs. OK – SO HOW DO WE MOVE FORWARD? For our part at Radio Taxis we are embarking on a marketing campaign to really fight back so as to win over a certain “niche” of new business, but at the same time we will be working with our drivers helping to raise standards “across the board” so that customers get a good experience when they use us and consequently keep coming back for more. NEW WEBSITE & ONLINE BOOKER The first ingredient in our campaign is the launch of our remarkable new website together with the launch of an online PRE-PAID (fixed price) credit card booking tool and a simultaneous re-launch of our APP which will now have a destination facility (fewer “As Directed’s”) and will also allow payment by credit card. The APP will have the normal run-in and in essence will be the same as any other cash booking or credit card journey. The website itself (which will work on tablet and Smart Phone as well) has a number of video films on its front/landing page which demonstrate how easy it is to book a Radio Taxis journey online or by phone. One of the videos is a short fly on the wall documentary about the wide-ranging experiences of three Radio Taxis drivers and at the same time shows our industry in a great light which will hopefully make you feel as proud as I was in seeing it. Cont...
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BEST WAY TO GET AROUND LONDON But more than that we have taken on a marketing agency who will be conducting a full online social media and marketing campaign – the theme of it all is: RADIO TAXIS – THE BEST WAY TO GET AROUND LONDON.
Stuck in a jam in a mini cab? Or do you use Radio Taxis? The best way to get around London
020 7561 5000 Download the App
www.radiotaxis.co.uk
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DISTRIBUTE HAND-OUT CARDS Additionally we will be distributing many hundreds of thousands of hand out cards (pictured here) for you to give to your customers, reminding them that taxis use the bus lanes, that our taxis will gladly accept credit cards, that our customers can book online and that they can book a Radio Taxis cab by using the Radio Taxis APP. So please make sure you give out these cards to your street hailed passengers. If you use them up and we run out I’ll be delighted to get more printed! These customers, having used us, (as non-account holders) paying by cash or credit card, will then get an SMS text message which will say “thank you for using Radio Taxis press this URL link for details about opening a Radio Taxis account.” £25 DRIVER BONUS FOR EVERY ACCOUNT OPENED We’ll be offering all drivers, who introduce a new account customer and who opens one of our New Radio Taxis “Black Cab Accounts,” a £25 bonus, paid when the first journey has been taken. We will be distributing account application postcards for you to keep in your cab with a space to record your call sign and with a Business paid reply on the reverse side. That is why we must all raise our game and why, most especially, it is imperative that we all collaborate as business partners, or else allow the “Steamrollers” that are the new APPs, to wash over us. For if we do raise our game, we can still have a very bright future ahead. Help us to help you. Geoffrey Riesel Chairman & CEO.
Radio Taxis Chairman gives evidence to key GLA Inquiry into Taxi and Private Hire Services THE GREATER LONDON AUTHORITY’S TRANSPORT COMMITTEE is currently holding an inquiry into how Taxi and Private Hire services can better meet the needs of London passengers. his Committee is made up of members of the Greater London Assembly who have responsibility for holding the Mayor and Transport for London (TfL) to account for their policies and performance.
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GLA inquiry into Taxi and Private Hire Services; Terms of reference: The Transport Committee is investigating how Taxi and Private Hire Services help play a part in moving Londoners and visitors around the capital, how they mesh with other forms of transport, and how they might change to provide a better service in the future. The Committee will also examine Transport for London’s (TfL) role as licensor and regulator of the trades, including how it tackles touting and other safety concerns. Over 300,000 trips per day in London are made by taxi or private hire vehicle. This represents around one per cent of total daily journeys in the capital. There are over 25,000 licensed taxi drivers and over 66,000 licensed private hire drivers in London. Licensed taxis (black cabs) are able to accept street hails, can operate from ranks and must have a taximeter. Private hire vehicles (minicabs) cannot accept street hails or use ranks, and must be pre-booked through a licensed operator. The investigation will look at a wide range of issues that have an effect on passengers including: ● Availability of Taxis and Private Hire vehicles ● Safety and security, including touting ● Fares and payment options ● The Mayor’s position on Taxis and Private Hire vehicles ● The performance of Transport for London’s Taxi and Private Hire Unit The Inquiry is taking written evidence from a wide range of organisations with an interest in the sector and has already held a first oral evidence session in July with representatives of passenger organisations and overseas experts on taxi licensing issues giving evidence. A second evidence session is being held in early September when representatives of the taxi industry will give evidence, as will Transport for London. Radio Taxis has provided written evidence to the inquiry in a joint submission with other taxi organisations including the other
Radio Circuits in London and Group Chairman Geoffrey Riesel has met with the Clerk to the inquiry to provide further input. You can read more about the Inquiry at this link www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/14-06-03-Taxis-andPrivate-Hire-Vehicles-Investigation.pdf Geoffrey Riesel said: “This is an important inquiry that comes at a time when many believe that TfL needs to improve how it regulates the Taxi and Private Hire industry, so that our sector can continue to grow and provide passengers with the kind of safe and secure, first class service that it has for so long, been renowned. Radio Taxis contributed to written evidence and I then met personally with the Clerk to the inquiry to ensure that views of our company are put across before the final report is published. Among the issues that we stressed to the inquiry is a need to maintain and protect the position that only taxis can be hailed and use ranks which means ensuring that private hire vehicles can only be “pre-booked”. I explained to the Committee advisor’s that modern technology, especially in the form of Smartphone Apps, has led to a position whereby the public are inadvertently making immediate ‘there and then’ hires of private hire vehicles, under the “guise” of these being pre-booked journeys. Not only is ‘hailing’ a private hire vehicle illegal, but it also undermines the public’s assurance of being in a properly insured vehicle and undermines all the cost and time that is put into people meeting the licensing standards for offering a Taxi service. Radio Taxis endorses the view that there needs to be an updated statutory definition of ‘pre-booking’ that would explicitly prohibit hiring a private hire vehicle ‘there and then’ which would address the confusion and inaction we are currently seeing around services such as UBER. This builds on the work recommendations made by the Law Commission to the Department for Transport. We also called for more consistency in environmental standards expected of the taxi industry and a longer-term plan for environmental standards that doesn’t unfairly penalise the taxi sector; improved arrangements for enabling passengers to pay for taxi journeys with a credit or debit card; greater enforcement against touting and improvements to the Taxi and Private Hire directorate at TfL. This Committee will report later in the Autumn and I am optimistic that it will make some positive recommendations which TfL can then look at to implement so that our industry is regulated in a way that is truly fit for the twentieth-first Century.
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AToast to Real Choice Gordon Brown – Group COO talks about a
favoured subject of Real Ale and the remarkable parallel of the future of the taxi business in London. I AM A MEMBER OF CAMRA – the Campaign for Real Ale – not to be confused with something that takes pictures. Its main aim is simply to promote the drinking of real ale and real cider in a traditional British pub and it is the largest single issue consumer group in the UK with over 150,000 members. lthough I have a beard it is not obligatory if you want to join – you just need to have an appreciation of the variety of beers that can be brewed and drunk and are interested in trying them. For those with long memories and a sense of nostalgia you may remember the 1970’s and early 1980’s of going into a pub and having to choose between Double Diamond, Watney’s, Red Barrel or Whitbread Trophy. All tasted similar and insipid, hence the growth in Lager which although not that different was colder, generally stronger and importantly was well marketed by the breweries because of the better margins– remember Hoffmeister the Bear anyone? CAMRA helped change all that and now the majority of pubs will sell a variety of beers, lagers and ciders on tap or in bottles and in addition there are now over 1,000 micro-breweries coming up with different beers all the time – knowing that there is demand for their product, if they get it right. Consumers at this moment have more choice than they ever have had in the beer that they drink. I think the main challenge now for CAMRA is to help keep all the good pubs open. So what has all this got to do with taxi
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Wally Gobetz
drivers? Apart from keeping a few of the more inebriated passengers awake when you’re taking them home, I think it is about ‘following the customer’. Generally speaking where there is a commodity that is available from a lot of places, those that service the customer will generally do well. The taxi industry has not had to deal with a large consumer group but if it did, I think you’d get these types of responses: ‘Fixed prices’; ‘Credit and debit cards’; ‘air conditioning’; ‘availability’; ‘book in advance’. These are the kind of things that are meaning more and more to many of our traditional customers who have started using private hire and of course UBER and they are unlikely to return, until the taxi industry (including drivers) prove that they are truly adapting to change. Improvements are being made, but everyone needs to adapt not just some – TfL will get around to specific customer gripes, but it is a slow pace of change and in the meantime others are taking advantage – so we must all act now and thereby we can all make a difference. So as I sample a beer at the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia (in the future as I write but finished as you read) I will be thinking of you all. Cheers!
Business Cards By Dan Ellis – Technical Manager Driver Services ONE OF RADIO TAXIS MOST POWERFUL marketing tools in our business is you, the drivers. ith over 2000 of you providing a great service to our customers, we look to you in order to promote Radio Taxis to all of your Street Hailed customers. This is so that we can start to generate new clients, who may start off as cash or credit card customers, but they may hopefully turn into loyal Radio Taxis account customers. With the launch of our fantastic new website, we want to get as many people viewing it as possible. So we are launching a business card that you can put in the back of your cab or hand to passengers when you give them their change. This will create more awareness of Radio Taxis and it will also encourage people to download our app or to view the website. So just what are the other benefits of handing out these cards? The business card is one of the most powerful business tools – pound for pound – you can invest in. It’s compact, energy-efficient, low-cost, low-tech and it keeps working for you hours, weeks and even years after it leaves your hands!
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These are some of the things a business card can do: ● Tell people the name of our business ● Provide passengers with a way to contact us ● Give them a taste of our work, style and personality ● It can be reused, as it passes from person to person, giving the same message to each person who comes into contact with it ● Win more work, which in turn, will make you more money However, from our point of view (and from your standpoint too) the main function of our business card is to gain business from the person you give it to. Now when a person books with Radio Taxis, they will receive an SMS text message asking them if they would like to open an account. So for every business card that you handout there is the chance, that person may open an account, which will generate more work. ACCOUNT CARDS In addition to the Business Cards we will also be supplying you with Pre-paid business reply paid post cards, which you can give to passengers who are
interested in opening an account with us. Just put your call sign on the card and for every customer that opens an account with us you will receive £25 (once they have spent their first £25). So get chatting to your customers and help us in this quest to start generating some new accounts. It can be a win/win for us all. We shall be handing out both types of these cards at Station Road and also at ranks around town. We really need you to be as enthusiastic and positive about this project as we are; as some of the potential success of this campaign will be driven by you. So if you can also, take some extra cards to give to your friends on the circuit, feel free to do so as it will be a great help. WHEEL CHAIR RAMPS I need your help and cooperation for one more thing. Can you please check that your wheelchair ramps are working properly in your cabs, we have had a couple of occasions, in recent times, where a passenger has required ramps on a job only for the driver to turn up with them not working, leaving the account customer very unhappy. So please, just have a quick check if you haven’t used them in a while. Many thanks. Dan Ellis.
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Why not join the Credit Union now! We are now over half way through the year and things do not get easier with all of the financial woes going on. It is the time of the year when those Tax demands start dropping through your letterboxes again, for some a time of dread. ur Credit Union has once again been inundated with applications for loans and savings withdrawals from members, not one has been disappointed, all have great peace of mind to get over this hurdle. The concern for many of you who do not belong to the Credit Union has again caused headaches for some of you; if you need a loan you will pay an exorbitant rate, that is if you can get one. If you join now you will be eligible, if needed, to take a loan to cover this expense for the next demand in January 2015, or just save as much or as little as you like. Once again I cannot emphasise enough how useful being a member is, you may apply for a loan for whatever reason you may have, no questions asked. Apart from the tax issue you may want to take a holiday or buy items for home, or you can just save for a rainy day, your choice. Ask any of your friends who are members just how easy it was to raise money for whatever reason they may have had. Join now, it is so much easier to have money deducted from your account work than having to come in to pay, alternatively if you wish, you may pay by Standing Order direct from your Bank/Building Society, you decide how much you wish to save each month.
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A TYPICAL LOAN FROM RADIO TAXICABS (LONDON) CREDIT UNION LTD IS AS FOLLOWS: £1,000 over 12 months will cost you £88.85 a month, total loan repayment is £1,066.20, interest payable is only £66.20, beat that if you can. In addition to this all loans and savings are insured and fully protected in the event of an untimely death, this normally costs a great deal more with other lenders. For an application form or other information, or if you just want to discuss anything relating to the Credit Union just give us a call, we would be happy to discuss this with you. Call Maria Collu on 020 7561 5148 Monday to Friday between 10:00am and 4:00pm. Email: maria.collu@radiotaxis.co.uk
CreditUnion Radio Taxicabs ( London) Credit Union Ltd No. 90C Mountview House, Lennox Road, London N4 3TX Tel: 020 7561 5148 Fax: 020 7561 5166
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Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Services Authority FRN. 213232
CROSSRAIL – Proposed Pedestrianisation of Tottenham Court Road By Alan Franks – Group Operations Director IS IT ME OR HAS SOMEONE GOT IT IN for taxi drivers in London? The latest barmy proposal comes from Camden Council. hey want to make Gower Street two-way for all vehicles, as if it’s not congested enough; and they recommend that cabs would then be banned from Charing Cross Road between Cambridge Circus and Oxford Street.
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I hear you sighing already, but wait, the main theme of this “batty” plan continues with Tottenham Court Road becoming two-way for buses and pedal cycles only, between 8am to 7pm Monday to Saturday. During these hours taxis would only be allowed access to a small section of Tottenham Court Road via side streets. The proposal goes on to say that the area would have less traffic as a whole, but some streets would see an increase in traffic (no kidding Sherlock!) Radio Taxis has put in a strong condemnation of these plans and hopefully so have other interested parties. Anyone who feels able to make a cogent argument using, wherever possible, an evidence based disapproval should write to Camden, let’s hope the trade takes this up (perhaps through social media too) before it becomes set in stone.
We will keep you all informed as soon as we hear any news. The Crossrail project of course continues to disrupt traffic in London, as forty two kilometres of new tunnels are being built to link Reading and Heathrow in the west with Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. There will be 10 new stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel, Canary Wharf, Custom House, Woolwich and Abbey Wood. The remaining are 30 existing Network Rail stations. These tunnels are being drilled using eight, one thousand ton, boring machines that are one hundred and forty metres in length and have the equivalent force of lifting three thousand nine hundred, London Taxis. This project is due to be ready and running in Central London by late 2018 and it should be completed in 2019 with the total funding amounting to £14.8 Billion. It is said that it will bring an additional one and a half million people to within forty five minutes of Central London. The impact on the Taxi trade is not yet known. Often the effect of more people coming in and through town is to bring the trade a small percentage of the additional footfall, who knows? Only time will tell.
Dear Customer Services
Please pass on our sincere thanks to the driver.
We booked a taxi a couple of weeks ago and my son left his toy taxi in the cab. As he rarely loses things, my son was quite upset. Imagine his delight when a few days later a neighbour gave us the same car and said that the taxi driver dropped it back to our apartment building.
If you need to work out who the taxi driver was, the pickup was on 5th June 2014 at around 3pm from, Eamont Street, London NW8 7DG.
We are very thankful to the driver (my son in particular)! That is truly great customer service!
Thanks, Jatin. Jatin Ondhia Shojin Capital Partners 32 Bloomsbury Street London WC1B 3QJ 15
Curiosity Corner Roger Sligo on the mysteries of hidden London
The Old AeroWorks
I ADMIT TO BEING an Art Deco lover and luckily enough, London has a good variety of buildings left to whet my appetite. Some of these wonderful buildings are unfortunately hidden away from public view in the wrong places.
ne such building is the former tyre factory which belonged to the Palmer Tyre Company and is at the back of Edgware Road near Lisson Grove bounded by Penfold Street, Frampton Street, Hatton Street and Boscobel Street.
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The plaque in Hatton Street
Spitfire sculptures
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Built in the 1920s for the Palmer Tyre Company who also produced wheels, tyres, brakes and gun turrets, which were fitted to wartime Spitfires, Hurricanes, Wellingtons and Lancaster’s, both fighters and bomber aircraft. You won’t however find the name Spitfire Works anywhere on this building as they never actually built Spitfires here, although there is a black and white plaque on the wall in Hatton Street depicting the aeroplanes they did make parts for, also metal Spitfire sculptures on the roof. The company continued aerospace research and development in this building right up until 1984. When you are in the St John’s Wood area make sure you divert to see this Art Deco beauty of Hatton Street, if you get the chance.
London Upside Down
FOLLOWING ON FROM the Upside Down House printed in our last issue and sent in by Jeff Middleton (V70) I am discovering more and more Upside Down things in London. hortly after the last publication Tim Harlow (G54) wrote to me about the original Upside Down House on the Regent Canal. The entrance to this house is from the upper storey at 120 Lisson Grove, known locally as “The Upside Down House.” It was built in 1902 for the manager responsible for controlling barges that supplied coal to the nearby electricity station. The detached house has five bedrooms, four bathrooms and two reception rooms and is worth an estimated £2,173,507 – What an upside down world we live in! Moving on to Kentish Town, our upside down readers may never venture far enough off the beaten track to find that Leighton Crescent has a small private park complete with an upside down tree. It’s a cut-down tree with an iron balcony or pulpit attached. I have searched all the council records and it is just called the “upside down tree” with no other explanation! Roger Sligo.
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The upside down tree
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The Digital By Robert MacDonald Watson, DIGITAL DISRUPTERS; NO IT IS not the name of a group, at least as far as I am aware, but it is a digitally based business that disrupts existing “heritage” businesses and indeed, sometimes can even disrupt whole industries, whole businesses and all because their staff and management are used to using old fashioned methodologies. Technology changes for sure and furthermore the pace of change is accelerating. he most recent phenomena is the Digital age, which has without doubt, “changed the game”. The so called digital disrupters have entered many markets, not just our own; and our competitors, our customers and our partners are now almost all going digital.
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I am grateful to the Research made available by the Networked Society at Ericsson, which looks into the whole picture. It is clear that businesses will have to create or improve their digital connections both internally and externally. Banking, for instance, is being transformed. The old full service banks aim to drive through more customer transactions at lower unit costs and to head for real time transactions to boot. Strangely, branches are still popular but visits are more interactive and appointments are now usually to see an expert of some sort. The costs of servicing fully digital bank accounts are said to be 70% lower per household than traditional accounts. There is also the little matter of 2.5billion people who are “unbanked”. In my profession as a Company Secretary I have had some experience of dealing with businesses who arrange payments in Africa via mobile phones, when access to banks and security for cash can pose significant problems. What digital disrupters often do is to “mine” big data,
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whereby they open up new revenue streams, measure risk and identify sales and cost saving opportunities. Every time we carry out a transaction these days someone is getting an insight into our behaviour and spotting trends using analytics from the internet. The mantra seems to be to eliminate the middlemen, have less waste, reduce storage, decentralise production and customise products. This obviously has an effect on manufacturing and retailing. Just look at the way Amazon operates, for example. They have developed in order to dominate e-trade over a vast range of retail categories and by no means only just in books now. You can order virtually anything through Amazon. Traditional businesses are giving ground to versatile technology platforms, to open market places and to networked company structures. A networked group, who may be in one company, will try to piece together products and services then test them out and at that juncture, improve them. Many fail quickly and at that point they try again. The process is much more inclusive at best and can involve “crowd sourcing” to pick brains in all sorts of places. At the same time tapping a new form of capital called “Crowd Funding” to raise the cash to support the developing business. These platforms are no longer things that we catch trains from but they are foundation products beyond product that encourage others to build, collaborate with and/or iterate on top of. Then along comes Apple with their APP Store. The platform, as a consequence, moves onto a technology infrastructure, which then includes a range of other outside products.
Disrupters Group Company Secretary Facebook – This is a classic, a rapidly expanding technology platform changing from a student network to a worldwide social network. A rapidly growing number of other services now use the Facebook login for marketing and advertising.
BT Sport – Nobody sits comfortably for long as BT decides to barge its way into the market of those current existing sports rights holders like Sky Sports.
The following internet based open market places are the natural disrupters, the key being simplicity and ease of use:
New disrupters are often on the mobile first, the idea being to build a great product that instead of being built up just by the old word of mouth method is promoted digitally. Digital businesses have to “monetise” themselves. In simple language they have to earn revenue from advertising, also from fee subscriptions as well as from pay-per-use. Other methods of “Monetisation” are sponsorships, service charges, download fees and even virtual in-service currencies like Bitcoin. What end users are looking for is data privacy and service quality. Inevitably, the use of ratings comes in hand, for instance a bit like those seen on Trip Advisor. Times have changed, not just in housing from owning to renting, driven by high costs. Users of digital services and products tend to rent, stream, share, download and subscribe rather than owning and consuming. I will leave the notorious disruption caused in our own industry by HAILO and UBER to those of our team who are much better qualified to comment, but we can look to see at what is coming up in our specific line of work. The invention of 3D printing may sell a vision of a product, designing it digitally and being able then to manufacture it on demand. Then there is the futuristic, wearable technology, such as Google glasses; smart watches and bionic contact lenses; as well as voice recognition; eye tracking and Geolocation. Finally, it will no doubt not just be pets that might carry implanted microchips. The “I want it and I want it now” syndrome, these days we have to give immediate access to exactly what the customer wants, whenever and however he or she wants it. Sales people referred to CRM or customer relationship management, which is now being turned on its head. The good news is that personal talent is the new asset. To be up with the disrupters we have to achieve a real understanding of current user needs and of technical solutions. We do have an ability to tackle these needs more quickly and effectively than most anyone else. As PwC put it, try designing your fiercest competitor.
ebay – Originated as a platform for second hand auctions, which people are familiar with and which expand exponentially. Airbnb – Suddenly the market moves from hotels to people’s own houses or rooms and opens up a huge range of new choices for accommodation. You can rent a place in over 34,000 cities and 190 countries. Netflix – This starts life as a mail subscription rental service and “morphs” into a huge streamer of video through its user interface design and recommendation system so as to jeopardise the Video rental business and cinemas. Google – Originally based on an algorithm for on line search engines and one that connects advertisers to those search results. Spotify – Free music downloads if you don’t mind putting up with advertising, otherwise its by subscription and they are involved in an on-going battle over royalties to artists. You Tube – As an example of building on a platform, it enables its sports partners to broadcast highlights, to archive material and even to “stream” live events, also to search and turn into cash the fans own selected content.
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George Shillibeer – The London Omni
Shillibeer’s grave, Chigwell
ON THE MORNING OF JULY 4TH 1829, a large crowd gathered outside of the Yorkshire Stingo pub in Old Marylebone Road almost opposite Chapel Street. The reason for such a large gathering to see the ith was w d e g r a h launch of the c was r e v i g r n d i n a n two “… ter for ru an first h g u a l s Omnibuses n a m illing a m for Bank over and k hile racing leaving Junction in the ad w o R y t i ” C … n i City of London. mnibus The chosen another O route was Marylebone Road, Euston Road, Pentonville Road, City Road and Moorgate terminating at Prince’s Street by the Bank of England in the City of London. This new service was provided by Mr George Shillibeer, who was born in 1797 at Tottenham Court Road. Shillibeer had worked for a while in Paris in 1825 for M. Lafitte,
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who, besides being a banker, was also the proprietor of the world’s first Omnibus and in which Shillibeer had also assisted in its building. The first Omnibus was started by Jacques Lafitte, in Paris, in 1819 during the reign of Louis XVIII and had been a popular success. Earlier Shillibeer had been a Midshipman in the British Navy; he quit the service to work at Hatchett’s in London’s Long Acre, Covent Garden, to learn Coachbuilding. After his training he took over his own premises in Bury Street Bloomsbury, where he began to build a new vehicle called an Omnibus, although many people at the time referred to them as “Shillibeer’s,” later of course, to be known simply as Buses. These first Buses carried twenty-two passengers all inside; the fare from Paddington to the Bank, was a shilling (five pence in today’s money), half way was six pence (two and a half pence). Newspapers and magazines were
bus Pioneer
Shillibeer stables entrance
provided free of charge. The first few conductors employed were friends of Shillibeer’s from the navy, who were attired in ‘blue cloth’ uniforms, cut to the style of a Navy midshipman. Once trade picked up, Shillibeer was taking £100 per day and naturally his buses soon spread across London! The first company to copy this service was “The Post Office” and very soon others competed for passengers, Shillibeer renaming his buses as “Shillibeer’s Original Omnibuses.” Then in 1835 the railway was introduced into London. The rivalry of competing Omnibus companies became so bad, that in 1842 a driver was charged with manslaughter for running over and killing a man in City Road while racing another Omnibus doing twelve miles an hour, a dangerous speed in crowded thoroughfares with horses to stop.
The offenders were fined only a few shillings and continued their subsequent behaviour. With all that growing competition, Shillibeer was ultimately pushed out of the London Transportation network altogether and he then moved into the building of ‘Shillibeer Funeral Coaches’ and his name, which had been connected with buses soon became forgotten. Shillibeer died in 1866 at the age of sixty nine. He is buried at St Mary’s Church Graveyard near to his home, Grove house (demolished in 1964) at Chigwell in Essex. Roger Sligo.
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Mountview driver retires after more than 40 years
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Twittering about Taxis Staying in touch with industry chat and personalities
by @radiotaxis_boss (Geoffrey Riesel) OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS this feature has been giving tips and advice on how to use Twitter and interesting accounts to follow. n that time I know that more and more readers of Mountview News have also joined Twitter – a valuable source of information and entertainment. I have become a regular on the site and find it helps me to stay in touch with news about London and communicate directly to drivers and customers. Recently I have noticed a lot more engagement on my TimeLine from people in the taxi industry, often talking about important issues affecting our trade. It has of course been a busy time with much of the trade uniting to raise concerns about how we are regulated by TfL and the future of our industry. I therefore thought it would be helpful to
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point you in the direction of a few accounts that would enable you to be involved in more conversations with, and about, those from our industry. They aren’t endorsements of the views or opinions you will find on the accounts – and everyone in the taxi industry has a view, but rather a cross section of a few who are talking about our industry and who you might like to follow. If you are in the trade and tweeting regularly send me a tweet to @radiotaxis_boss and I will follow you back: Even if you are not in the trade but a relative, tweet me and I’ll follow back too. Happy tweeting!
Name
Twitter address
Description
Knowledge of London
@KnowledgePoint
One of the most interesting London sites with lots of fascinating trivia, history and famous London Landmarks. Run and managed by our own Mountview News editor Roger Sligo. www.knowledgeoflondon.com
Radio Taxis
@Rtg_London
The world’s first carbon neutral taxi company – taxis that don’t cost the earth! To book now call 020 7272 0272 or download the App!
The LTDA
@TheLTDA
The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association.
Gordon Thom
@londontourguide
A London taxi driver and City of London tour guide with www.londontaxitour.com
Jamie
@SuperCabby
London Taxi driver of 21 years, passionate about our trade.
TfLTPH
@TfLTPH
Official updates for London Taxi and Private Hire trades by Transport for London.
TheLondonTaxiCoUK
@LondonTaxiCoUK
Since 1948 we’ve produced & sold THE Black Cab. London Taxi + Knowledgeable driver = global British icon.
Radio Taxis
@Rtg_London
The world’s first carbon neutral taxi company – taxis that don’t cost the earth! www.radiotaxis.co.uk
Thomas the Taxi! ©
@thomasthetaxi
Writer, Journalist, Short Film Maker, Taxi Driver, Troublemaker, Toutbuster. Never ever give up. www.taxileaks.blogspot.com
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Crossing the Thames By Roger Sligo
FOR MANY CENTURIES LONDON BRIDGE was the only structure for crossing the River Thames. London Bridge refers to several historical bridges that have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark. The “Old” (medieval) London Bridge was built by Peter de Colechurch and it was finished by 1209 during the reign of King John. It had taken thirty three years to complete and John licensed out building plots on the bridge, to help recoup the costs; but it was never enough.
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n 1284, in exchange for loans to the royal purse, the City of London acquired the Charter for its maintenance, based on the duties and toll-rights of the former “Brethren of the Bridge.”
By the Tudor era there were some two hundred buildings on the bridge. Some stood up to seven stories high, some of them overhung the river by up to seven feet; and some of them overhung the road itself. This formed a dark tunnel through which all traffic had to pass. The roadway was just twelve feet (four metres) wide, divided into two lanes, so that in each direction, carts, wagons, coaches and pedestrians each
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shared a passageway only six feet wide. When the bridge was congested, crossing it could take up to an hour. Those who could afford the fare might prefer to cross by ferry, but the bridge structure had several undesirable effects on river-traffic. The narrow arches and wide pier bases restricted the river’s tidal ebb and flow, so that in hard winters, the water upstream of the bridge became more susceptible to freezing and thus impassable by boat. This medieval bridge lasted over 600 years. In 1799, a competition for designs to replace the old bridge was held. Entrants included Thomas Telford, whose proposal of a single iron arch spanning six hundred feet (one hundred and eighty metres) was rejected as unfeasible and impractical. John Rennie won the competition with a more conventional design of five stone arches. It was built one hundred feet (thirty metres) west (upstream) of the original site by Jolliffe and Banks of Merstham, Surrey, under the supervision of Rennie’s son. Work began in 1824 and the foundation stone was laid, in the Southern Coffer, on 15th June 1825. The old bridge continued in use while the new bridge was being built and it was then demolished after the latter opened in 1831. New approach roads had to be built, which cost three times as much as the bridge itself. The total costs, around £2.5 million (£192 million in today’s money). The approach road to the Old London Bridge was from Fish Street Hill and through the side of St. Magnus the Martyr. The present church was built by Wren after the
fire of 1666. It was found necessary to provide better accommodation for pedestrians crossing Old London Bridge; an archway was cut through the tower of St Magnus. Wren had anticipated this, so the work was carried out without difficulty. When the newer bridge was built it was moved one hundred yards west, so Fish Street Hill and the church entrance became redundant. After London Bridge, the next to be built was Putney Bridge in 1726 and then Westminster Bridge in 1738 – today we have a line of bridges crossing the Thames with the newest being the Millennium Footbridge, which opened in June 2000 – because it wobbled so much it closed after just two days, modifications were made to eliminate the wobble entirely. It reopened in 2002. Plans are now underway for a new £40m pedestrian and cycle only bridge which could be named after its sponsor. The only other river crossing named after the sponsors is the Excel to Greenwich cable cars – the Emirates Air Line – which received £35m backing from the Middle East carrier. The new bridge would be built somewhere between Nine Elms and Pimlico. One of the favoured spots is from the new American Embassy to Dolphin Square. I can just imagine some big American brand names sponsoring that one, calling it the Coca Cola Bridge, Google Bridge, Amazon Bridge or the McDonalds Big Mac Bridge! As it is going to be for cyclists and pedestrians only I would like it named after bicycles – how about the BMX Bridge or Penny Farthing Bridge? Bridges are just like buses, you wait for one to come along and two come all at once! Boris Johnson has plans for a garden Bridge without traffic including no cycling, although it is thought that many cyclists will ignore the ban as they do with pavements and traffic lights! The London Mayor insisted that the £150 million bridge, which is being built with £30 million of government money and £30 million matched by Transport for London, which Johnson oversees as chairman, would “transform” the local area. The bridge was devised by actress Joanna Lumley and designed by Thomas Heatherwick. It is hoped that the hanging garden, will, after planning permission has been given, be finished by 2018. The reason for a garden river
crossing from the Temple to the Southbank is unclear, but I think I have the perfect name for it – “Paradise!” Roger Sligo. NB: Since writing, Radio Taxis Chairman Geoffrey Riesel attended a consultation presentation organised by the London Chamber of Commerce, at Canary Wharf. He told us about this presentation of the current consultation on River Crossings in East London which was made by Richard de Cani, who is the Director of Strategy and Policy, TfL in respect of Bridges and crossings. It seems that the main reason there are less crossings East of Tower Bridge is the logistics of the increasing width of the river. To build bridges on wider reaches of the river, height clearance is required for bigger ships more spans etc, swivel bridges which stop traffic are counterproductive and if bridges are built too high, it could be a problem for City Airport in terms of take-off and landings. Also the bigger the bridge the longer the run up to them and bridge run up areas frequently become blighted. Digging tunnel crossings are also considerably more expensive and time consuming to build as well as being huge feats of engineering. However TfL are looking at the possibility of a tunnel possibly somewhere not far from the Woolwich Ferry, which is in itself becoming obsolete. The difficulty with a new tunnel is that in South London; particularly the road network would need to be totally revamped to cope with the traffic. So there are lots of knock on effects and demands on constrained financial resources. To have your say, go online respond to the consultation and also find out what the issues are: www.consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/river-crossings
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The Digital Age and w or... how and why we IN THE NEW DIGITAL AGE, WEBSITES ARE the modern day version of the shop window. As John Lewis and Debenhams race towards a higher percentage of turnover being realised from their online sales, rather than through their stores and what is more, many companies are now opting to have only an online presence and not even having any “physical” shops or high street outlets, so it follows that a company’s website says a lot about an organisation. n other words a small company with a great website can make them look better than say M&S for example. Well we feel that we are the “M&S” of the taxi trade and it’s certainly about time that our online presence reflected that.
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Over the past six months Radio Taxis has been designing, building and testing the new www.radiotaxis.co.uk website. It was built by an innovative, young company called “Foxcreateur” who work out of the “Google Campus” near Old Street roundabout. The coordinator and art director for the purposes of the project was our own Marketing Director, Robert Stead and the three other contributors to the finished product were our esteemed chairman, Geoffrey Riesel, long term RT staff member Penny Cuckston and Group Strategic Director Peter Gibson (Penny, who is finance manager, has been seconded to very ably assist in our marketing drive.) There are three very short films on the homepage of the website and the fourth, the driver segment is the longest of the four and it is also, conceivably, the most impressive – we hope that you will play this mini documentary film all the way through, (about 7 minutes) as it is quite moving and shows Radio Taxis
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drivers in a very favourable light as well as being reflective of what a good industry we are. The rationale behind the creation of a new website is to drive revenue. In cabman’s terms, “to drum up work!”
www.radiotaxis.co.uk built a new website Peter Gibson told the story of when he worked for Sketchley Dry Cleaners, many years ago, in his pre-cab driver days; he described how they had some fairly robust statistics which confirmed that, sales increased by up to 15% in the first year after the shop front had a facelift. In this new digital age it will be interesting to see if this is translated through to our online sales. Of course we will not just be leaving it to chance, we have employed an agency to undertake a substantial and
vibrant. If you have an idea to help us reach out to the great, digital taxi using public, please email us and let us know what you think we should be doing to drum up even more work. The website is formatted for all devices, so that means it works not only on a PC or Laptop but also on a “Tablet” or “Smartphone” and it will automatically adjust the website parameters to fit the device. There’s a Driver’s section as well as all the other “departments” or “sections” required to
complete digital marketing campaign, not to mention the quarter of a million hand-out cards that we will be giving to you to distribute to your passengers. That combined with an incentive scheme for drivers to get their customers to fill out an enquiry card to open an account. The system will have our new online quote fixed price & pre-pay by card booker on it and we will then “complete the circle” by automatically sending every cash or credit card customer, an SMS text message with a link to open an account. A new shop window with a different and much easier way to book and pay for a taxi online is all good stuff but, as Selfridges Christmas window display is only any good if you get to see it, we do need to make the world aware of the new website and we will need your help in driving traffic towards the new www.radiotaxis.co.uk website. Take a look at it yourself and if you like what you see, tell others. If you don’t like what you see, then tell us. Like all good shop windows it needs to be alive, dynamic and relevant. You can help us to keep the new website
complete our digital shop window. The overarching theme of the website is “the best way to get around London”. We know this to be true and we need to make sure that we say it often; and that we also say it out loud. Your assistance will not go amiss as far as spreading the word of how the new and refurbished “digital” Radio Taxis – is open for business as well as bigger and better than ever!
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At Home he feels like a Tourist By Roy Hughes Director of Commercial Development THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT ARE expecting a sustained rise in domestic and overseas visits to Scotland in general and Glasgow in particular, as a result of an increase in the profile of Scotland internationally, afforded by hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games this summer. t’s one of those relatively odd facts, that during the 2012 Olympics, the amount of overseas tourists visiting London actually fell by 5% when compared to the previous August in 2011; at least that’s according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This may have been because of fears of overcrowding due to the London Olympics and the ‘unseasonably’ wet weather in August 2012. So has there been a post-Olympic tourism boost to London? The answer, according to the 2014 Global Destinations Cities Index produced by Mastercard, UK is a resounding “yes”; with London topping a list of the most popular global city destinations. The city is expected to receive 18.7 million visitors in 2014, equating to about £11bn being spent. Bangkok was the second most popular city with 16.4 million visitors predicted for 2014. The MasterCard index ranks cities on the number of their total international visitor arrivals and the cross-border spending by those visitors, incorporating visitor and passenger growth forecasts for 2014. The top 5 cities for overnight visitors predicted for 2014 are:
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● London: 18.7 million ● Bangkok: 16.4 million ● Paris: 15.6 million ● Singapore: 12.5 million ● Dubai: 12 million
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With Nostradamus’ levels of predictive ability, Gillian Edwards, spokesperson for the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) said shortly after the 2012 Games: “We would expect a tourism boost from the Games to come in the next few years and it will be essential for the UK to continue to market itself at home and overseas to make the most of the opportunities that being a host nation has opened up.” Indeed, this is the third time in four years that London has topped the list, missing out to Bangkok last year – although the running street battles in Thailand, the military coup, the curfews and the imposition of martial law have probably all not helped much to encourage their prospective visitor numbers in 2014! Earlier this year the ONS released data which showed that London had 16.8 million visitors in 2013 which was the highest recorded number of overseas visitors since records began in 1961. Using information on the total number of international arrivals and spending from overnight visitors, Mastercard found that 67% of London’s international visitors come from other European cities, although our capital city’s top “feeder” was New York. With his usual level of understatement, Boris Johnson remarked; “Our city perfectly combines history, heritage, arts and culture, not to mention vast amounts of green space and major events that are the envy of the planet.” Certainly, the envy of those tourists who got stuck behind a tank in a traffic jam in downtown Bangkok! FARES FAIR We are constantly hearing about how expensive airport taxi fares are in London. So much so that you would think that the rest of the world is a
Utopia of cheap airport transfers, but actually London has some serious competition when it comes to the cost of airport taxi fares. According to recent research, conducted by Digital Hothouse, taxi passengers in Christchurch, the biggest city on New Zealand’s South Island, face an average rate equating to £2.30 per kilometer. Christchurch’s near neighbour Queenstown was barely any cheaper, coming second in the poll at an average rate of £2.25 per kilometer. Two other New Zealand cities – the capital Wellington and the biggest metropolis Auckland – also made the top ten. Costs seem to be barely any less on the other side of the Tasman Sea – where three Australian cities also make the top five for the most expensive airport cab journeys. Sydney is listed as the chief Australian offender, with an average rate per kilometer of £2.17, while, west-coast metropolis Perth and the capital of Victoria, Melbourne, are also named and shamed
for the price of their airport taxis. London only ‘achieved’ eighth place in the costs of taxis table, below the likes of Wellington and Perth – however, London was listed as the most expensive city in Europe, and pricier than cities in the United States. All worth remembering next time you have a visitor from New Zealand or Australia in the back of your cab!
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Roger Sligo asks: WIN £50 “Where am I?” *
N
o winners for the March issue of the Where Am I Contest, so again we repeat the same clue from the last issue; CLUE 1: I am looking through the window of a London Undertakers. They are so proud of a famous person whose funeral they arranged over two-hundred years ago, from this very same establishment that they have kept several artefacts associated with the deceased person and which are still on display, including a block of wood and a rusty nail shown in our picture. Where Am I? CLUE 2: To help you in your search I am adding another picture clue (right) also displayed in the same window of the undertakers. This picture is of a miniature coffin, an exact copy of the original made for their famous client, who was buried in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral after a colourful state funeral. Where Am I?
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The prize goes up to *£50 worth of M&S Vouchers. If you think you know the answer please email: mvn.editor@radiotaxis.co.uk with your answers. Include your name and call sign. You can also enter by sending your answer via Snail Mail to: Where Am I Contest Mountview News Radio Taxis Group Limited Mountview House Lennox Road LONDON N4 3TX
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The Mountview Puzzler Page
CLUES ACROSS 1. Wave riders 5. Restraint 8. Marine crustacean 9. Moment 10. Small common brownish bird 12. Internal part of poultry 15. Impertinent 18. Abduct 20. Postmortem examination 23. Capital of Georgia 25. Incomplete 26. Visage 27. Listener
Jotting space
MOUNTVIEW SUDOKU Give your brains a really good work out!
CLUES DOWN 1. Slender cord 2. Clarets 3. Angers 4. Old sailors 5. Venomous snake 6. Member of a Rotary Club 7. Muscular strength 11. Select 13. One-celled organisms 14. Makes brown 16. Ceded 17. Downy 19. Actor 21. Composure 22. Seaport in the Crimea 24. Resting place
HAVE A GO AT THIS ISSUE’S SUDOKU PUZZLE! The object is to write in the missing numbers in the empty boxes below. But to satisfy only one condition: each row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain the digits 1 through to 9 exactly once. What could be simpler? Hooked? Well you can find many more Sudoko puzzles online FREE by going to: www.sudoku.cc
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