Mountview News Spring 2015

MountviewNews ——

——

— — — N — O I — T C E EL CIAL SPE——— ——

Time to Decide Spring 2015

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 4 Roger Sligo’s ‘Ed Lines’ Roger interviews Peter DaCosta of KPM 8 Twitter Votes Geoffrey Riesel – using your follows to decide your vote 9 GLA Transport Committee’s ‘Future Proof’ Report & Recommendation 10 Geoffrey Riesel interviews Caroline Pigeon of the Greater London Assembly 12 Uber and other Disruptions

By Chairman & CEO Geoffrey Riesel 13 Jon Bonfils Remembered Alan Franks reports on Jon’s sudden death 16 Deptford Wanderings Roger Sligo strolls by the Thames with his camera 18 Mobile Phones & Data Terminals Dan Ellis on Cells, Masts & Radio Base Stations 20 What will Deflation be like for you?

Gordon Brown is the man doing the asking 21 Taxi’ing Times No. 6 Terry gets the hump about those London cyclists!

21 Obituaries – Brian Glossman & Stanley Cohen – a sad passing 22 Marketing Corner – Being Social Akshay Raj’s guide on where to post on social media 23 Curiosity Corner Roger Sligo and the tale of the Disappearing Queen!

24 History of the Chelsea Flower Show Ronald MacDonald Watson’s colourful description 26 Our Man at the Wheel Graham Livingstone retires after 2 decades of cabbing 28 Going Digital Robert Steadman explains how to get connected 30 ULEZ (ULtra Low Emission Zone) Peter Gibson asks – a drastic change looming, or not?

32 The Big Bang Theory Roy Hughes talks about the trend for both Corporate & Public Sector customers 33 Emergency Swipe...

What to do if your Chip & Pin terminal has a problem 34 Our Regular “Where Am I?” Contest Roger Sligo asks! A £25 M&S Voucher is up for grabs!

35 The Mountview Puzzler Page A Crossword & Soduko to keep you thinking

THE MOUNTVIEW NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM IS: Roger Sligo – Editor & photos / Penny Cuckston – Administration Doug Canning, DC-Graphics – Design, layout, printing and distribution Geoffrey Riesel & Peter Gibson – Board production Design, Layout & Print: ©2014 / DC-Graphics / High Barnet / Herts / EN5 5TP T: 0208 440 1155 / W: www.dc-graphics.co.uk Content: © 2015 / 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.

? r e h e s i Recnobge n on page 23 d n u o f a

She ca

Exclusive Interview with Peter Dacosta, Chief Executive of KPM

Roger Sligo’s

NEWS Radio Taxis driver as was his father Mike 21) and with many of their loyal workforce and satisfied customers returning to KPM presumably because they have retained, despite recent difficulties, the trade’s trust. Peter DaCosta, Chief Executive, kindly agreed to give an exclusive interview to Mountview News, speaking frankly of his love of the taxi trade and the past present and future of KPM.

KPM, ONE OF THE MAJOR NAMES IN THE LONDON taxi industry, began life in a small tin shed in Brady Street, Bethnal Green. The name KPM was taken from the forenames of the founders, Keith Marder, Peter DaCosta and Michael Troullis. KPM was to grow from its humble beginnings in 1975, to become not only a main dealer for the traditional London taxi, but they also became famous for giving the London cab trade the choice of an alternative vehicle with the Mercedes Benz Vito taxi. y that time KPM had taken over nearly the whole of Hemming Street, plus the railway arches around the front. Over the intervening years and with a workforce of a hundred and forty people, who between them, run the garages, the showrooms, the meter suppliers and the bodywork shops.

Abruptly, just a year after London Taxi International (LTI) the makers of the famous traditional London taxis, themselves went into receivership, the cab trade was again left in a state of shock to learn that drivers were turning up for their appointments finding KPM locked-up with receivership notices pinned to the doors, which very few could have ever have foreseen.

Today, however, we are pleased to report that KPM is once again back in business, and this time owned singlehandedly by one of the original founders Peter DaCosta, (himself a former

B

4

Ed: Thanks for agreeing to talk to us Peter. How long have you been involved in the taxi trade?

Peter: I have been in the cab trade since I was twenty-one, at the time I was the youngest cab driver in London. I had to wait six-weeks for my badge. I passed out in seven months and two weeks. My father and three uncles were all cab drivers. I did work hard on the knowledge though, fourteen hours a day seven days a week. I never really wanted to be a cab driver myself, but my old mum said to me ‘Peter you are going to become a cab driver’ when I said I’m not, she would retort ‘oh yes you are!’

We were in the fruit business, with shops and stalls and things like that. My mum said to me, one day “you are going to take all this over,” I said “not me, it’s a dying game.” One of our fruit stalls was in Burdett Road, so when Tesco’s took over Victor Value I said “that’s going to be the future, Tesco’s are going to open up all over the place!”

Ed: Are your ancestors originally from Spain or Portugal?

Peter: Originally from Spain and from Portugal, my ancestors were Sephardic Jews, who have been in this country for 360 years, ever since the time of Oliver Cromwell. So we are considerably Anglicised and assimilated and we’ve always come from the East End. Today the East End has become “Hipster-Ville” with most East Enders moving further out east to places like Southend. Before the war my dad used to work in the Kursaal at Southend, I was brought up on Rossi’s ice cream. My dad also had furniture shops in Southend which he later sold and it became Smith’s. I left Morepeth Secondary School in Bethnal Green at sixteen and in those days in the East End, you either went to Spitalfields/Covent Garden, or you worked in the markets for your family, or else you went into asphalting, that was very big in those days. We were street people weren’t we, to be fair? We never went on to university and things like that. Who did you know, back then who became doctors or dentists?

Ed: Were you shocked when KPM went into administration and do Keith and Michael have any involvement?

Peter: It’s me solely on my own. I made the decision to get back involved and to run it myself after the company went down. I knew things hadn’t been right here for some time. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but when the replacement people came in to run the businesses things did not go to plan. It was great in the good times, but not being at the helm myself, it was very hard for me to watch from the side lines when things turned bad. You see you need to be experienced to get through in the bad times.

I wasn’t as much shocked as I was upset. We had started in a tin shed and there was nothing the three of us couldn’t do. But then it gets to the stage where you become too big and have to rely on other people and sometimes that’s when things go wrong!

I have had some fantastic staff with me and Andy bless him, is still here now. He has been with me for thirty-nine years of the forty years we’ve been in business. I have some very loyal people with me now and since starting back again and having taken back over myself, I have been able to give positions to them. I didn’t take the old company over; I just bought the assets of the old company and started again with those assets.

Ed: Was it very difficult starting up again?

Peter: I had to believe in myself, because obviously the company had gone into administration and the stigma that brings with it. I was also at war with myself. My heart and my brain were at war with each other. I was bored out of my skin since stepping down circa 2 years ago and watching other people run the business.

I have to tell you. Retirement was not for me. My heart was telling me one thing and my mind another. My heart was telling me – how can you let all these people that would follow you into a fire, be out of a job? And to watch the good name I had built up over many years, I mean, love or hate me, all the time I was here, before the last couple of years, people respected me and I respected them.

I had always run a different ship to that which the people who came in at the end over the last period ran and that’s because I am cab trade through and through.

The cab trade has given me everything in life. I had been instrumental in the building of this company and I’ve seen it go from strength to strength – I’d seen it become a main dealer for LTI and then it went on the AIM market so as to do Electric vehicles and then we introduced the Mercedes Vito into London, which frankly has been a massive drain on the company.

There were also many more things going on which caused a lot of grief to the company and which honestly should never have been, but then as I’ve said I was virtually watching from the side lines powerless to do anything.

After the company went down and after much soul searching, including speaking at length to my family, I decided to step in at the eleventh hour and to buy the assets of the company. I wouldn’t have done it if I thought I couldn’t turn it around.

And it’s not ego or anything like that. I’m very grateful to the London Taxi Company who have been so supportive of me.

They said, “get back in there and we will give you your service agency back again.’

Unipart also welcomed me back because we wholesale parts as well, so I felt I had something still going and I wasn’t going in blind. With many of the old and some new customers gradually coming back in we have been kept very busy, I’m delighted to say.

Ed: Was it good to have got involved with Mercedes then?

Peter: I think Mercedes was the right thing to do, but one thing about it was – unfortunately we were not engineers, so we had to rely on other people’s brains and expertise on the engineering side.

We all know now that the cab has been fantastic cab except for the rear wheel steering (RWS). When it became abundantly clear that there was a fault the KPM Group did not shirk its responsibilities.

The company again paid out circa £400K to Penso the convertors to rectify the RWS glitches which again failed. We understand that they have re-engineered it once again with Mercedes Benz approval, so we must now see if it is successful this time.

Before going down, the company had ploughed back all the profits into trying to rectify the issue.

Mercedes Benz are not covering themselves in glory either and people are now seeing the results of this. Customers are telling me of their horror experiences going to their dealerships and not being able to get their work done quickly. In the past these appointed dealerships only wanted the cream work, like servicing and brakes but they didn’t want the warranty work. Welcome to the real world boys! So KPM got suffocated with warranty work which eventually brought the company down, as they were not being paid for the warranty work at least not without a fight! KPM was painted as the villain of the piece but that was far from the truth.

A Cab driver doesn’t bring his/her cab in to have time off the road – he/she wants to get back to work. All this nonsense of people taking days to get their work done now, I do hope they now appreciate that getting drivers in and out fast was what KPM used to do for them.

Since buying back the assets and starting again, we also had to get back our credit consumer licence, which is typically very hard to do now, because it’s the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority,) not the FSA who used to only take a couple of weeks. The new authority could have taken six months, but obviously they had already done their due diligence on me and they were gracious enough to do it all very quickly for me, which got me back in the game. So I am extremely grateful that my good name remains unblemished with the regulatory financial institutions.

Ed: So what are KPM doing now?

Peter: So effectively what the company does now is all mechanical work for retail and trade customers with new low cost repairs and servicing. We are doing warranty and servicing work for LTC vehicles. We are also doing all forms of repair and servicing work on Mercedes Benz but not Mercedes Benz warranty work which we’re not authorised to do. Mercedes Benz however, have just introduced to their customers an outside extended warranty and we are authorised to do the work for that that and of course anything for Mercedes which is out of warranty we can do as well.

The garage is run in the old way which we were known for – you book in at eight o’clock and you’re in at eight o’clock; you break down – our job is to get you back on the road in double quick time, that’s how it used to run here, you were always seen on time. You can’t re-invent history, what’s done is done I look forward, I don’t look back.

We also sell wholesale spare parts and we have a fantastic sales department of LTC and Mercedes Benz used vehicles run by my step-son Joe. We are also now able to organise an Autoprotect

5

warranty as used by Mercedes Benz as well as one operated by Tobell which we can straight away put onto the used vehicles, complemented by some great finance rates as well.

I haven’t opened the bodywork shop up, because as it stands at the moment I need to run this “new business” mean and lean, I need to be able to control things. I didn’t come back to bury myself here, I came back here to enjoy it again.

I have to tell you I’m smiling once more, in a way that I haven’t done for a long time. I have been out there having a laugh with my old customers. It’s great and the atmosphere is fantastic here. I set a plan out and the plan has been executed quicker than I thought and customers are coming back in their droves. It’s like the old days, it’s been really enjoyable.

Ed: There are rumours doing the rounds that Mercedes Benz are re-introducing the Vito with the front wheel turning circle, do know anything about it?

Peter: I believe it will be unlikely that will happen in its present form because I should think they would have to completely redesign the donor vehicle to facilitate a front wheel drive. I have not been privileged to any information for a long time. We tried to do a front wheel system here ourselves to see if we could make it work. To make it work you would have to flare the wheel arches and start redesigning the vehicle. The fact is major manufacturers don’t talk in hundreds of vehicles they talk in tens of thousands when they design something. The Euro 6 will be aesthetically a different design. If they are to stay in the market I think it will continue to be a rear wheel steer! How robust a new RWS will be, we’ll have to wait and see.

Ed: Can you see a time when the turning circle is dropped?

Peter: This is a major talking point, the turning circle debacle has been going on for some time and I’m a traditionalist. One of the problems you have doing away with the turning circle requirement is how many vehicle will be allowed to ply for hire, at the moment the passengers know what they are getting into.

When I brought the Vito out, the headlines in the Guardian News Paper called me a murderer – “I killed the traditional taxi,” “I put an end to the traditional cab.” There was no such thing as putting an end to the traditional cab! I love the traditional cab because I’ve grown-up with it. It was an alternative.

As an industry we are getting eaten alive by Private Hire because we don’t change quickly enough; we are a fragmented body of people. That’s why when you go and sit in front of some of these committee’s and listen to some of the conversations coming out of the people representing the cab trade, you would want to get under the table, because that’s what I felt like doing some of the time. So many are just self-serving around these tables; if we were united we would have a better way of communicating and add more steel to our armour. The people making the decisions do not want to meet half a dozen representatives from trade organisations representing only a couple of thousand drivers and all with completely different views “The trade has to wake up and smell the coffee” If I hail a cab I don’t want to get into a dirty cab, I don’t want to get into an old cab. I will wait for a newish cab. I use cabs a lot and will never get into an old cab. So am I different to the public? No. So if we are going to compete with Private Hire we have to change!

6

Ed: Should all cabs be black?

Peter: In Manchester they have to be now. We should have trade marked the word “Black Cab.” Should they all be black in London? It would be good but it’s not really my beef. My beef is the cab should be clean and not falling to pieces and the driver bless him, should look a bit tidy. A driver pulls up wearing flip flops shorts and a sloppy Joe and goes into a corporate such as Goldman Sachs to pick up the managing director. How many accounts has the cab trade lost because of this?

And cabs with “cash only” signs. What’s that all about? I can go into my local sweet shop and buy a newspaper using my card.

Look how long Marks & Spencer remained “cash only” because they were arrogant enough to think they were too big and look how much trouble they got into before they accepted that credit cards were a must!

The majority of people aren’t like cab drivers, they are not carrying cash. It’s beyond belief that in this day and age cab drivers are putting socks or Sainsbury’s bags over their machines – cash only? – I’m sorry but hello – you’re not helping yourself are you?

Believe me I’ve seen some of the stats showing what these boys are taking in cards, you wouldn’t believe some of the jobs they get are going all over the place. Because a business man gets a receipt and claims the money back from his card.

The worst of it for me is “Yea but Addison Lee” Hello taxi drivers you made Addison Lee! Because of all the inadequacies of the cab trade, how many drivers still refuse jobs? John Griffin exploited it – and by the way they aren’t cheap they’re usually dearer than us!

The meter needs to be torn up. For someone paying £40k for a cab and the meter starts at £2.40 is a disgrace – the fares should be loaded at the front end; and the longer journey is now far too dear. How can a passenger hail a cab at say Tottenham Court Road and go to Marble Arch for a Fiver – if there are a few of them it’s cheaper than getting a bus. We should be lobbying Boris to say the meter is wrong!

If I get in a cab in New York there is a sign saying JFK Airport $55. Why don’t we have a sign for example with LAP £55? If I get in a cab with a friend at Holborn and am going to Heathrow from Paddington and see a sign Heathrow circa £55 – why would I bother going to Paddington for £20 and paying another £38 on the Heathrow Express train – it’s a no brainer! And it’s no different from giving a Linkman from a hotel £10/15 to get an airport for £70.

Ed: You said you had a lot of support from your family, how many children and grandchildren do you have?

Peter: I have a daughter Sara who you met outside in the reception and she works here for me. Sara has two boys. Then there is my son Lee who owns Cabvision Network. Lee has four children, three boys and a girl – and Joe who runs sales I have three children and six grandchildren. My granddaughter is eighteen and she wants to become a doctor. My eldest grandsons will be twenty this year, one of them is at acting college and the youngest one will be twelve. I have a partner of 11 years and yes I am a very happy man.

Ed: Thank you for your time Peter on behalf of Radio Taxis, Mountview News and its readers.

Roger Sligo, Editor.

7

TwitterVotes

by @radiotaxis_boss

Use Your Follows to Decide Your Vote

THE 2015 GENERAL ELECTION is nearly here with polling day to be held on Thursday May 7. hese elections have little direct impact on the Taxi sector now that we are regulated by the Mayor and Transport for London but the decision of who will form the Government for the next five years will still have a big impact on all those who live and work in London.

This will be the biggest election ever on social media. Not the first, but certainly the first time that twitter has been mainstream and how candidates and parties grasp this new campaign tool will play a significant part in the final outcome which looks too close to call.

Twitter has become the latest arena of political debate and campaigning in the UK, breaking down barriers between

T

politicians and voters. It is a channel of communication over the head of spin doctors and the press allowing us to interact directly and make up our own minds.

Set out below are some of the Twitter accounts you might want to follow to stay on top of all that is happening as the election progresses and to help you make up your mind how to cast your vote.

I am also a regular Twitter (handle: @ RadioTaxis_boss) and find it a valuable business tool for communicating with drivers, clients and other key stakeholders.

I hope readers of Mountview News will find my Twitter account a good way of getting more information about what’s important for our industry and of course the work of Radio Taxis.

General Election Twitter accounts to follow:

8

Twitter Name

Twitter Account

Description

David Cameron

@Number10gov

The official Twitter channel for Prime Minister David Cameron’s office, based at 10 Downing Street. Read social media policy.

Ed Miliband

@Ed_Miliband

Leader of the Labour Party, MP for Doncaster North, husband and dad. Follow this account for tweets from Ed Miliband and the @UKLabour team.

Nick Clegg

@nick_clegg

Official Tweets from the Deputy Prime Minister & Leader of the @LibDems.

Nigel Farage

@Nigel_Farage

UKIP Parliamentary Candidate for South Thanet, Leader of @UKIP, Member of the European Parliament for the South East of England

YouGov

@YouGov

Opinion Poll Company – ‘What the world thinks’

Nick Robinson

@bbcnickrobinson

Political Editor, BBC News

BBC Politics

@BBCPolitics

The official account for political news from the BBC team based at Westminster

The Green Party

@TheGreenParty

Join with the 100,000s of people voting Green for the first time at http://join.greenparty.org.uk

GLA Transport Committee publishes ‘Future Proof’, its Report and Recommendations on the future of Taxi and Private Hire Services in London OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS THE GREATER London Assembly’s Transport Committee has been holding an inquiry into the future of Taxi and Private Hire Services in London. The Assembly’s role is to hold the Mayor and Transport for London to account. here is an interview with Caroline Pidgeon, the Chair of the Transport Committee, in this edition of Mountview News with Mountview House Group Chairman Geoffrey Riesel.

Geoffrey also gave written evidence to this inquiry and was subsequently invited by the Committee to attend a session in person and answer their questions. He said: “I was impressed with the rigour with which the Committee went about their work. They gathered as much evidence as they could and listened to many witnesses to inform them ahead of producing a detailed report with many recommendations. It is a positive contribution to the debate about where our industry needs to go and the increased role that the Mayor and TfL need to play to work with us. Their primary call for a greater strategic approach from TfL for the Taxi sector is one those of us who see it every day would greatly agree with. Now it is for TfL to consider the recommendations carefully and respond with an explanation of what they plan to do”.

T

Mountview News has set out below a summary of the Recommendations made by the GLA Transport Committee

1. By May 2015, the Mayor should publish a long term strategy for the development of both taxi and private hire industries.

The strategy should clearly set out the Mayor’s position on the continued role of taxi and private hire services in London, and actions that will improve passenger and driver safety, guarantee a sufficient number of high quality drivers and vehicles across the city, and ensure that all services meet the highest possible standards for accessibility. The strategy should also set out how TfL will strengthen its enforcement and clamp down on illegal activity, within a clear and transparent governance and decision-making framework.

2. By March 2015, The Mayor and TfL should report back to the Assembly on options to incentivise the uptake of cashless payment options, for both the taxi and private hire industries.

3. By May 2015, the Mayor and TfL should set out how they intend to monitor and improve supply and demand, for both taxi and private hire industries, across London. This should include a specific study into potential demand for taxi services in outer London town centre locations.

4. By May 2015, the Mayor and TfL should set out plans to ensure that all Underground stations located on the 24hour Tube network have a taxi rank in place.

5. By May 2015, the Mayor and TfL should satisfy this Committee that the entry requirements into each market are fit for purpose. This should include providing evidence that there are no artificial barriers to entry, that the requirements are relevant to the specific demands of each industry and that they ensure protection for passengers, drivers, and other road users.

6. By March 2015, the Metropolitan Police should improve the information it collects on cab-related crime, to ensure greater understanding of whether offences are committed by licensed taxis, private hire vehicles and Pedicabs, and by licensed or unlicensed drivers/vehicles.

7. By May 2015, The Mayor and TfL should provide the Committee with a definitive assessment of the resources currently devoted to enforcement, setting out costed plans to increase these where necessary and address funding gaps. This should include options to increase licence fees to ensure adequate enforcement resources are available.

8. By May 2015, the Mayor and TfL should enable greater joined-up working on enforcement, including working with the private hire trade and boroughs to develop a cohesive, pan-London policy on picking up/setting down arrangements.

9. The Government should act upon the findings of the Law Commission Review and propose legislation that introduces stiffer penalties for touting, and greater enforcement powers for borough and police officers, including higher fines and vehicle seizure powers.

10. By May 2015, The Mayor’s office, TfL and the trades should develop and publish a Memorandum of Understanding which clearly sets out terms of reference and defines the respective roles, responsibilities and expectations of each party. This should include specific service level agreements.

11. By March 2015, TfL should revise its driver engagement activity to ensure that it is as widely representative as possible, and improve the transparency of taxi and private hire policy and decision making processes by routinely publishing the minutes of meetings with the trades.

TfL should also provide and publish a detailed breakdown of annual licence fee spending.

9

Mountview House Group Chairman Ge Chair of the Greater London Assembly T The Greater London Assembly recently published its Report Future Proof, making recommendations to the GLA on how to better manage the Taxi and Private Hire Industries.

GR: Hello Caroline. Thank you very much indeed for coming to talk to us. You Chair the London Assembly’s Transport Committee – can you tell us a little bit about the work and what actually that Committee does?

CP: It’s great to be with you today Geoffrey and to talk about our work but if we take a step back, what is the London Assembly? A lot of people don’t know that when you go out to vote for the Mayor of London, you also vote for London Assembly members and there are 25 of us. Our job is to hold the Mayor to account, but also to hold all of his different functional bodies to account. People like Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police, the Fire Brigade, all of these different areas, we are there to hold them to account, to hold the Mayor to account to make sure he is spending public money wisely and to challenge him where we think there are issues, such as in the area of transport.

On the Transport Committee which I chair, we carry out a number of investigations. I’ve been the rotating chair since 2008 and we have carried out a huge number of investigations looking at things like the upgrade of the tube, the bus network and walking; we did a very visionary piece of work on cycling and the Mayor has adopted a lot of it and of course our recent bit of work has been on Taxi and Private Hire services.

GR: Talking of the Taxi and Private Hire Services, you recently conducted an Inquiry. What led you to do that, in other words what made you look into that subject?

CP: Well, when we looked at the range of topics that we had covered over recent years, it was the one area we just had not looked at. We had done river services, we had cycling and the road network, but we hadn’t actually looked at Taxi and Private Hire.

And we’ve always had a range of complaints from both the taxi industry and private hire but with the arrival of people like Uber as well, it felt really that it was the topic we needed to look at and that’s why we spent considerable time looking at it and money doing some actual proper research, talking to passengers and talking to drivers to really understand the issues.

GR: And were you surprised at the amount of evidence you received in that inquiry and also were you surprised at the amount of people that expressed concerns and worries about the future?

10

CP: I knew we would get a huge response but we were delighted really rather than surprised by the number of individual drivers, not just the representative bodies, the number of individual drivers who got in touch and we did proactively go out to hear from drivers so we had about a 1000 leaflets handed out both at private hire offices and to taxi drivers. We were tweeting a lot, we were using the internet, so we really wanted to engage with drivers and passengers and that is why we did this really good research.

We employed a company to do that, we spoke to over 1000 passengers to get their views of both taxi and private hire and understand their issues to really help shape this piece of work to make sure that Transport for London would take it seriously.

GR: What would you highlight as being the key recommendations from the study?

CP: Well, it is a very, very detailed report and we actually have 19 recommendations. There are so many issues that we felt need to be addressed. But one of the over-arching ones is there is no strategy or vision at Transport for London or coming from the Mayor of London of where they want to see the taxi and private hire industries going in the future, and therefore what support they need to maintain them and grow them and that seems to be one of the key things missing and alongside that is the real need for enforcement.

We know that touting is a really serious problem and a very dangerous problem for passengers and we need to make sure that that is properly tackled and when we look at the number of enforcements officers in cities like New York, it’s five times the number that we have in London, we want to see a much bigger enforcement team and for TfL to take that side of the role seriously.

One of the other things is investing in infrastructure, every other mode of transport infrastructure is invested in to upgrade the tube or to invest in more buses but not things like taxi ranks; we could not believe there’s a huge backlog and there were no plans for when they would be installed. We need to make sure taxi ranks are available throughout London, particularly with things like the 24 hour tube coming and getting Taxi infrastructure invested in is a key recommendation.

eoffrey Riesel interviews Caroline Pidgeon, Transport Committee.

GR: The taxi industry and taxi drivers in particular are very concerned about Uber and other digital disrupters; these organisations are throwing vast amounts of venture capital money into public relations, into marketing and there are huge concerns that their current way of operating is just a technical way of getting round laws that Parliament made not that long ago which should ensure the safety of the public and these operations appear to be in complete contradiction of that.

Is there anything you can say to give the industry some reassurance about the future?

CP: We think overall that Uber is just the tip of the iceberg, it’s almost just one issue compared to the whole range of issues that are affecting the trade. We were very concerned that TfL weren’t looking forward. Technology is moving very, very fast, they need to get to grips with this and to be ahead of the game, rather than running to try and catch up. I think, particularly now the Mayor has said that he actually thinks how Uber is operating is wrong, we think TfL maybe should actually be looking at that and maybe should have made a different ruling but obviously that’s now in the courts but I do think technology is going to keep moving at a pace, there will be more and more competitors coming into the market, they need to make sure that they are seen to be giving a level playing field to everyone – at the moment, their actions don’t appear to show that.

GR: The report has come up with a huge amount of recommendations and it is indeed very detailed. Do you think that TfL and the Mayor will listen and act? And does the Assembly have a good track record in that respect?

CP: I think the Transport Committee does have a really good record on many of our reports, such as the one we did on cycling, the Mayor’s cycling vision reflected a huge amount of our recommendations. We’ve also done other ones on buses and they are making some changes there and so on so we do have influence and actually several years back when we first had a massive load of snow in London our report not only changed how TfL practiced and the bus companies and others, they also influenced the select committee and parliament’s work in that area. So we have got quite a bit of clout. I think it’s very interesting; I have had an email from Transport for London already saying that they support many of our recommendations, I don’t know how many out of 19, but that’s promising and I look forward at the end of February at our Transport Committee to have a really good dialogue with Peter Hendy to understand where he’s coming from and to see how many recommendations we can persuade him to adopt. But also the Mayor of London has got to have some leadership here and

needs a bit of political will as well and he needs to show that leadership in this area.

GR: Caroline, I’ve heard a rumour that you might be putting yourself forward to stand for the Mayor. Is there anything you can you tell us that would encourage support of the taxi industry for you if you do stand?

CP: Well first of all, it is an ‘if ’ and it’s something that I may well be considering but clearly my party members would have to decide if I was to be the candidate. But clearly the report, although it is cross party, it is absolutely where I see we need the industry to go and we need to have proper vision and strategy and work to support the industry. We heard certainly in the taxi industry, we heard the evidence we had internationally where we said this is the gold standard and we could squander that unless we invest in it and support it but one of the controversial things coming up which we didn’t touch in our report because the environment committee is going to look at it, is the issue of clean air in London and having to get rid of diesel vehicles in the centre of London particularly to clean up air and I absolutely support this but what we need to do is it cannot be the industry whose having to pay out huge amounts of money for this reform that’s needed and the Mayor has talked for a long time about a clean taxi fund and that’s never materialised and that’s something I think would need to be looked at as we move forward to look at cleaner electric vehicles in central London because it’s your business and your livelihoods but you should not be subsidising this change.

GR: Finally on a personal note, I would be interested to know, do you use taxis much and if so do you have a favourite taxi story?

CP: Well, I have a one year old so the times I used to go out a lot more in central London and get a taxi back, I feel like those days are long gone as I am at home with the little one often in the evening. But this is probably my most entertaining and interesting taxi journey, I have to say. But when I do get taxis, I like to talk to the drivers, it gives me a good idea of what’s going on, what the issues are, I get the real feel, I often talk to them about the knowledge and other stuff, so I get a good feel of the industry but also what the issues are that are affecting Londoners that they see every day and that’s valuable for my work as a London Assembly member.

GR: Caroline Pidgeon, London Assembly Member, Chair of the Transport Committee, thank you very much indeed for answering all my questions, much obliged.

CP: My pleasure and thank you very much for your time today.

11

UBER and other disrup

By Geoffrey Riesel, Chairman & CEO, IS THERE SUCH A THING AS BAD PUBLICITY? Well I used to believe there is, but as I get older I sometimes wonder now if that still holds true? ver the 25 years or more that I’ve been running Radio Taxis, certain principals have been at the centre of everything I’ve done and everything I’ve believed in. That is to always try to act with decency, integrity and fairness, when dealing with clients, with staff and with drivers.

A primary function of that of course has been to jealously protect our reputation, especially in this era of “instant” Social Media.

So that if we make a mistake, or if it looks like we got something wrong, we then quickly respond to the complainant, we investigate what has happened; and if we were indeed at fault we take responsibility.

In this day and age, many speak of their “rights,” but very few seem to comprehend the responsibilities that go with those “rights!”

One example of this is Michael O’Leary boss of budget airline Ryanair (Source Forbes magazine July 2012) publicly announcing that he thought his customer was “stupid!” http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2012/09/07/ ryanair-ceo-calling-customers-stupid-makes-this-airlinekids-blood-boil/ He obviously enjoys the notoriety of his “dumb” announcements Here are some others of his “infamous” and very public pronouncements:

O

■ “I don’t give a **** if no one likes me… I don’t like aeroplanes. I never wanted to be a pilot like those other platoons of goons who populate the airline industry.”

■ “You’re not getting a refund so **** off. We don’t want to hear your sob stories. What part of ‘no refund’ don’t you understand?”

■ “One thing we have looked at is maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door, so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in the future.”

■ “If drink sales are falling off, we get the pilots to engineer a bit of turbulence. That usually spikes sales.”

■ “Anyone who thinks Ryanair flights are some sort of bastion of sanctity where you can contemplate your navel is wrong.

We already bombard you with as many in-flight announcements and trolleys as we can. Anyone who looks like sleeping, we wake them up to sell them things.”

■ “Screw the travel agents. Take the ******** out and shoot them. What have they done for passengers over the years?”

12

Yet despite, revelling in being obnoxious and in a BBC report some years ago Ryanair was described in the BBC online headline as being the “… least liked airline”… Ryanair was voted the world’s least liked airline because of cramped seating, unfriendly staff and delays.

Online travel service Trip Advisor said it polled 4,000 of its users on a range of subjects from airlines and airports, to worries and holiday hotspots.

Ryanair was not the only low-cost carrier singled out for criticism, with EasyJet voted the second worst.

British Airways was picked as the best airline.

DESPITE BAD PR NOW THE BIGGEST So if all that’s is true how come that IATA (International Air Transport Association) survey shows that now Ryanair is the biggest and busiest airline in the world carrying almost 90M passengers per year.

Does reputation count for nothing in this era of instant gratification?

IS THERE A PARALLEL? So what’s all that got to do with us in the cab trade?

There are considerable parallels between Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary and UBER’s “maverick” boss Travis Kalanick.

Kalanick has been criticised publicly for misogynistic and sexist comments in his own company, he’s been quoted saying he’d like to be able to completely cut out the drivers and have “Robot” driven vehicles, because presumably he’d make more money?

And over the last year the “bad” headlines about

ptions

Mountview House Group UBER just keep coming here’s a tiny fraction of them from 2014 – to 2015 (thus far). ● Uber’s Campaign Platform: Avoid Safety Costs, Shift Risk Burden, Evade Taxes and Fees. ● Uber Gets an ‘F’ from Better Business Bureau: Failing Grade Latest in Recent Setbacks for Company. ● Uber’s Unresponsiveness Forces Passengers to Take Grievances to Social Media: Company’s Refusal to Provide Live Contact Could Worsen Emergency Situations. ● Uber Admits New “Bring Your Own Device” Program Enables Unsafe Individuals to Drive for Company: Despite Claims to Be Fortifying Background Checks, Uber Creates New Offering That Will Allow Unscreened Drivers to Slip Through Cracks. ● Uber Passenger ‘Kidnapped’ and Taken on HighSpeed Chase Through Washington, DC and Virginia. ● ‘Ridesharing’ Drivers at Airport Found Lacking Licenses, Registrations and Insurance. ● Uber Continues to Speed Away From Responsibility: Assaults, Kidnapping and Death Continue to Point to Massive Insurance Gaps for Uber… ● More Myth than Math: Uber Deceives Drivers With Its Rosy Income Picture. ● Uber focused on safety after another driver charged with sexually assaulting customer. ● Add to that UBER’s questionable practice of surge pricing at every rush hour and the moment it gets a little busy.

In that case so how on earth does UBER continue to plough on, growing exponentially like the man eating plant from “Little Shop of Horrors?” It’s probably by throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into marketing? And it is that marketing, alongside expensive PR and in conjunction with their high powered lobbyists (Obama’s former campaign manager has joined them) and their army of lawyers to fight regulators and law suits which is gaining them publicity and customers among the Millennia generation who are “umbilically” attached to their smart phones.

UBER does not at this stage need to make any

money and I would be amazed if it has yet done so.

Their business model is not to sustain a business like the rest of us but after having “bought” a few billion customers worldwide, they hope to go to the market and realise the $41B or more, that they are currently said to be worth, based on the funding they’ve raised founded on the shares they have sold.

Indeed HAILO who originally professed, to be “bringing the work back to black” recorded an annual loss (albeit posted a year late) of over £30m. What UBER is doing is using colossal amounts of funding (most of it raised in financing from investors) in a race to the bottom. Bargain-basement pricing trying to win market share unless its busy, when surge pricing kicks in; and once the market is cornered they would then be in a position to surge charge whatever they like.

HAILO and GetTaxi are not dissimilar in that respect, however HAILO, it appears, has not been as successful, having made a number of high profile PR gaffes, nor have they raised anything like the money that UBER has. As well as recently withdrawing from North America, HAILO appointed within a few months of each other, three UK based CEO’s and they have already lost some of the high powered salesmen they “poached” (one of those salesmen was from us) and he’s already left after only a few months. It sounds like HAILO is in disarray.

GetTaxi is reputed to have an Israeli, Russian Oligarch funding them. The blurb says he’s a serial entrepreneur who invented the app while waiting half an hour for a cab at an airport, who writes that misty eyed “schmaltz?” Great story but totally unbelievable, except by the most naive. GetTaxi are offering the market the equivalent of huge “bribes” or should I say “financial incentives” to customers for them to open accounts with them. Another last-ditch form of marketing, it sounds as though, to use a famous phrase “something stinks in the state of Denmark.” How long will it last, as long as the Oligarch Sugar Daddy doesn’t get fed up of wasting his money, as in my view they must fail in the UK eventually? One presumes that point will arrive more quickly if they burn through too much cash buying market share? Our intelligence is that GetTaxi has only a few hundred active taxis and that, in all probability, must mean that their service levels are poor. I do know they are going all out to try to recruit drivers, more bribes (sorry financial incentives) I expect.

But in the meantime, they are indeed doing real damage to the industry, across the taxi world, according to academics, the bad always drives out the

13

good. APPs deliver far less flexibility and far less transparency than an account facility with any of the three radio circuits. The APPS (as part of their business model) do not have account managers to look after the clients, indeed one of the biggest issues is when things go wrong, which they do inevitably in this business, traffic, hold ups, roadworks by pick-ups, incorrect pick up details from the client etc etc, there is no one to speak to let alone to take responsibility or to put things right.

GROWTH DESPITE BAD PUBLICITY Yet in spite of all the bad publicity, UBER particularly, continues to propagate at a disconcerting rate. If I had to guess I’d say that UBER with its massive funding and lobbying power will not be going anywhere, because of the vast amount of funding its raised and thus the huge amount of powerful people and institutions who would lose (their investment) if it were to crash and burn.

OUR ROLE We the “traditional” taxi industry, have to adapt and modernise. We have to accept technology; and we all must readily accept payment for any journey large or small by Credit Card. In the radio taxi industry we have to all ensure that while we must become far more efficient by using, much more automated systems, so as to increase customer convenience and to further reduce our costs. Our overheads need to be cutback drastically so for us to stay in the game in the coming years.

Part of this is the ongoing merger talks which we are having with Dial a Cab, which if we can reach agreement, would create a powerful force in the trade

to fight off the competition in the future and which would provide a commercially resilient amalgamation.

There are no guarantees that we can reach a consensus; however we continue to try to get there if we can.

MOUNTVIEW HOUSE PROPERTY The time has arrived for us to consider moving from these wonderful premises here at Mountview House after 27 years. Under the Government’s permitted change of use scheme, permission has been granted for a residential development, which means that we can move to a much more modern and more “tech suitable” premises, albeit it is likely to be a little further out of the centre of town.

We have had a significant number of offers for the premises and we hope to be able to update you about where our new home is likely to be, before too long.

A TIME OF CHANGE There is much change ahead of us and there are many who are eyeing up our customers, because they think there is a “pot of gold” to be had. They don’t realise that our business never yielded a pot of gold, nor were we situated at the “end of the Rainbow.” There is (or there was) however, a living for those of us in this trade, to be earned by working hard, by being customer focused, by continuously embracing new technology and most of all applying ourselves so as to protect our meticulously earned gold standard reputation, it may not be the Ryanair or the UBER approach but it is what we believe to be most important.

Geoffrey Riesel, CEO, Mountview House Group.

I didn’t write this – but I may as well have... his supporter of the London taxi trade makes it very clear in his letter to the Evening Standard. It clearly shows up all those “self-regarding” members of our trade, bent on destroying the industry (as UBER and others take up the business they turn away) by refusing to offer complete consistency of service, accepting credit cards for any or for every journey where the passenger requests it.

T

Geoffrey Riesel CEO, Mountview House Group.

14

Alan Franks, Group Operations Director, writes about the sad loss of a member of the Operations Team who was also somewhat of a celebrity: Jon (Kan) Bonfils IT IS WITH GREAT SADNESS THAT I HAVE TO report the sudden death of a highly respected member of staff Jon Bonfils. on worked in the call centre at Radio Taxis, on the night shift for over 10 years. Working at Radio Taxis at night was only part of who Jon was, as it fitted perfectly with his other occupation, that of a very accomplished singer and actor.

Jon tragically collapsed on January 5th while rehearsing for a new play, Dante’s Inferno, at the Craft Theatre in the East End. Moreover, the cause of death has not yet been established.

Jon was taken distressingly young as he was only in his mid-forties.

As far as we know, Jon was born in Korea but never knew his birth parents, as he was adopted by a Danish couple before eventually following his dream to act and in order to do this he moved to London.

Jon was a very fit guy and he trained extraordinarily hard, in actual fact he was a black belt, “Fifth Dan” in the art of Kung Fu. He had achieved numerous roles in many films which included the Jedi Master “Saesee Tiin” in the block buster movie Star Wars episode one.

Jon had also appeared in many other high profile movies such as, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, Batman Begins, The Cradle of Life, and most recently in the James Bond film Skyfall and also in The Traveller opposite David Essex.

He’d also had the starring role in The King and I in London’s West End. At Radio Taxis, Jon was enormously popular and this was borne out by the numbers of staff (at least 40 attended from Mountview) past and present members who paid their respect by their presence at his funeral held at Golders Green Crematorium on 23rd January 2015.

Jon’s funeral was attended predominantly by friends as the only family present were his two stepsisters.

There were a number of Eulogies, one was read by the director of the film The Traveller Benjamin Johns and the other by David Essex who starred alongside Jon in that movie.

The wake was at the Old Bull and Bush in Hampstead and this was organised and paid for by his friends.

A video was shown of Jon’s life and of his many

J

accomplishments. There were many letters of sympathy read out including one which was articulated by our Call Centre manager Fiona Pierce, this letter was from Sam Mendes, the renowned Film Director and who had directed him in Skyfall.

You may have seen a piece at the time on TV’s BBC London News, about Jon’s sudden and tragic death; however for us it was much more personal, we will all miss him very much.

May he rest in peace.

15

Deptford Wanderings

By Roger Sligo

ON A HOT AFTERNOON LAST AUGUST, with a couple of hours to spare at Deptford while waiting for my taxi to return from the NSL test centre at Crayford, I decided to stretch my legs with a stroll along the Thames. t had been a very long time indeed since I had last wandered this far along the riverside, although when I was a young Bermondsey school boy it was my regular patch. In those days of the early 1960’s my friends and I would cycle all the way along from Bermondsey Wall, visiting Cherry Garden Pier, where one of my friend’s Grandad lived in a prefab. Passing by what was Surrey Docks, back then, we could see large ocean liners having a lick of paint and a face lift in the dry docks. We always thought this was worth a look before finishing our day out at Greenwich.

I

16

My Deptford wanderings on this latest occasion began after a short walk from Ascotts garage and once I had zigzagged my way across a few side streets. It soon became clear to me that the south side of the river had kept up its shabby and derelict appearance. What is now called the Thames Path was completely deserted, unlike the crowds you would expect to find further down at Shad Thames.

Looking across the river front from a rotting wooden pier, at the glitzy skyscrapers that make up Canary Wharf, you are left wondering how on earth these two riverside places could have developed so differently. One of them having had multiple

Tomb and Watch House

billions spent on it and the other with council estates, or so called affordable housing, in a place which time has forgotten, being left to its own devices. I was happy to see that Deptford has kept much of its original charm, which hasn’t been lost or changed by the developers – yet!

I made up my mind that any pictures I would take should have to be in black and white, so as to do justice to this place and to keep its full character intact.

Gates

One of the first things which caught my eye, which I thought would make for a good picture, was of a decorative metal lamppost. I could nicely line it up behind two iron lifting devices or cranes, which appeared to have been overlooked and left behind by the previous occupiers of what now appeared to be revamped warehouse buildings, where the cranes would have previously been and where they were used to carry things up and down to the basements.

Near this spot is a plaque reminding us of the Royal Docks where Sir Frances Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth 1 on 4th April 1581, as she stepped onto his famous ship the Golden Hind. Reading the wall plaque of this historic event at such a desolate place, it is hard to imagine the scene full of Elizabethan people pushing and shoving each other to glimpse this special occasion.

Another place in Deptford’s history is Sayes Court, which was once a manor house belonging to John Evelyn

Over the other side

Cranes and lamp post

the famous diarist and gardener (remembered by nearby Evelyn Street). It is said that he had some of the most exotic plants growing in his celebrated garden, which is rather fitting as part of Sayes Court is now a public garden and a wildlife area called Sayes Court Park.

The ancient church of St Nicholas, standing close to the river, is worth a few minutes of anyone’s time, with its Kentish Ragstone tower, with its moss covered tombstones and the old watch house guarding the graveyard from any unwanted body snatchers from a bygone era.

My Deptford wanderings had come to an end once I realised the time. As I hurried back to the garage, I was just in time to see my cab passing me by and looking nice and shiny with its new plate on the back.

If you want to see this area before the developers move in and before it becomes lost forever then I would suggest making a visit very soon. A new riverside project called Sayes Court Gardens is, I’m reliably informed, about to happen!

17

Mobile Phones &

By Dan Ellis – Technical Manager, Driver HOW IT ALL WORKS A MOBILE PHONE OR AS A MATTER OF FACT our equipment, the Zeus or PDA mobile data terminals, are low powered two way radios, which convert either human voices or data messages into radio waves. hen making a call, these radio signals are transmitted, for example, from your Zeus to the nearest base station. Once the signal reaches a base station it is then transmitted to the main telephone network where it is transferred to the network of the person receiving the call. So a connection from the Zeus terminal is the equivalent to making a telephone call except it is a data transmission rather than voice.

W

MASTS Radio base stations are commonly called masts, you may have heard about these in the news where people have complained about a new mast being put up near a school, or those who have feared a link between radio signals and cancer, however, to date, research has found absolutely no association between the risk of cancer and exposure to mobile phone base stations.

However a mast is in fact somewhat different from a Radio base station. A mast is a free standing structure, roughly the same size as a telegraph pole and which supports antennas at a height where they can transmit and receive radio waves. To minimise the environmental impact, more slimline versions have been introduced, sometimes even disguised as trees or used in conjunction with street lighting.

RADIO BASE STATIONS Radio Base Stations, the sites that enable mobile phones to work, have transmitters, receivers and antennas and are usually mounted on top of large buildings. Before we changed over to the public mobile network we had our own base stations mounted on about 15 sites throughout London including the Hilton Park Lane, the Barbican and St Thomas’s hospital.

18

Data Terminals Services Now we are using the mobile network we are using over five thousand aerial sites, however now we are sharing them with everyone else who uses a mobile phone in London.

CELLS In order to enable millions of people across the country to make calls, each of the network operators (O2, Vodafone, EE) divide the UK into thousands of individual areas known as cells. These cells overlap at the edges to prevent holes in coverage.

If they are too far apart, calls cannot be handed over from one area to another which gives rise to a dropped call or a loss of signal (resulting in a no-entry sign on the Zeus).

Cells come is different sizes a Macrocell is the largest and usually provides the main coverage, Microcells provide infill radio coverage and additional capacity where there are high numbers of users and Picocells, are customarily located inside buildings, such as airports and train stations.

THE SIZE OF THE CELL DEPENDS ON: ● Current and future customers call use, because each cell can only support a limited number of calls simultaneously. So in London where most people have a mobile phone capable of streaming video, receiving e-mails, online betting and making calls it puts a considerable strain onto the network. ● The physical terrain of an area, as radio signals are frequently blocked by man-made obstacles such as buildings. This is why when you are in a built up areas such as the City or Canary Wharf, you can have a perfect signal one moment, but then you pull round the corner or move up the street and you lose connection, resulting in the appearance of the dreaded no-entry sign.

EXPANDING THE MOBILE NETWORK There are now almost ninety million mobile phones in the UK and approximately thirty millions of these are in London. So you can see the challenge the network providers have. More base stations were built to enhance the infrastructure for 2G, 3G and 4G mobile networks. New base stations are required as each one can only support a finite number of mobile phones at any one time.

So with the increase in devices and in London’s population the network continually needs to be upgraded and this why you will see the no-entry sign at certain spots throughout London as sometimes the base network cannot cope with the amount of traffic.

Recently some of you have may have seen the message “we cannot offer you this job due to poor signal” when trying to accept a job. The reason you may see this message is that we are not getting your accept message back from the terminal. Our system automatically attempts to continue to try to offer you the job for another 30 seconds, however if the system does not receive a message back from the terminal (albeit it’s because of signal issues and not your fault) it then offers the job to the next closest driver on the system. This is a problem with the signals in the area and it is not a problem with your Zeus or with your PDA mobile data terminal.

I hope that has been helpful.

Dan Ellis Technical Manager, Driver Services

19

What will Deflation be like for you?

By Gordon Brown – COO, Mountview House Group IN THE FINANCIAL SECTIONS OF THE PRESS recently you will have seen articles explaining why we might be heading for a period of deflation. So is deflation good or bad? Like most of these economic questions it depends on your circumstances. he first thing to understand is why there might be deflation – the main reasons are the fall in oil prices that has a major effect on prices for a lot of what we buy (Diesel and energy prices directly and most manufactured products indirectly) and the supermarket price war as the wounded Tesco takes on Lidl and Aldi among others. With inflation now at 0.5% down from 1%, most of the pundits predict it will go negative during the course of the year – and it is already currently minus 0.6% in the Eurozone.

Surely falling prices are a good thing? On a day to day basis that is undoubtedly true – your Diesel costs will have reduced and that means you will have more money in your pocket.

But what if you are a saver and rely on interest on your savings for much of your money? Interest rates are low at the moment, but what if the banks start charging for holding your money? In that case “secure mattress” sales will certainly go up.

The real risk to us all is from an economic standpoint, it presents us with a genuine danger, that spending decisions are deferred, in other words, “I won’t invest in a new piece of machinery or much needed kit” if I’m a business owner, or “I won’t yet buy a new car” as a consumer and that’s because with deflation I will think that over the next few months the price of whatever it is that I might buy may well will come down in price. As a direct consequence of this the economy starts to stagnate (as it did in Japan for over ten years.)

This has a crucial and damaging impact on business and on the economy as a whole as it

T

20

stops the growth of our economy and similarly it diminishes or hinders any growth in employment and jobs as well. Equally as a business any money you owe becomes harder to pay back, as prices of what you’re selling falls and this leads to bankruptcies.

In the Great Depression of the 1930’s which started in Wall Street, USA, deflation was a leading factor in the mix.

It also makes it more difficult to reduce the level of UK debt, the savings that all the main political parties have said that they will need to make after the up and coming election, are substantial. With deflation it will get harder if you have to start talking about making cuts in NHS spending or in weekly pension amounts.

Despite all of this, there’s no need to worry too much as of yet, for deflation to take hold (other than a transitory readjustment in the price of oil) we would need a sustained drop in prices in general for it to have a major effect, but it could happen especially given the continuing Eurozone problems associated with Greece and others together with the slowdown in the Chinese and the Russian economies.

But for the time being keep working hard and enjoy the extra money in your pocket and spend it wisely.

OBITUARIES – Brian Glossman and Stanley Cohen UNLESS YOU READ E-VIEW, OUR ONLINE magazine, you may not be aware of the sad passing of two Mountview stalwarts. he first is Brian Glossman, who died late last year.

Brian was a former long term driver/member of Radio Taxis and someone who regularly worked in the Control Room as a part time voice despatcher (on the box).

Brian was a really nice, kind and decent man who had a phenomenal love and knowledge of music. Indeed he used to write a regular column in the Mountview News about, Jazz, Blues, about Rock and about Pop. What he didn’t know about those subjects wasn’t worth knowing. Brian and his wife Estelle really were a lovely couple and we all send our most sincere condolences to Estelle and to their sons and families.

A number of our colleagues on the Board attended Brian’s funeral at Hoop Lane, Golders Green and it must be said, that we were very proud to see so many of our long serving drivers who had also attended in force, in order to pay their last respects. Brian will be much missed by us all, may he rest in peace.

The second set of unhappy news received was the sad passing of Radio Taxis former Company Secretary, Stanley Cohen. We understand that this was after a short period of

T

Brian Glossman

Stanley Cohen

ill health. Stanley was Company Secretary for approximately 10 years from the mid 80’s until the mid 90’s. Although we had lost contact with him, we know that he’d moved to the Southend area, we saw and spoke with him again at the funeral of former Control Room manager Sylvie Darling about four or five years ago. So we were quite shocked to hear of his untimely demise. To his family and to all who knew him we send our most sincere condolences.

21

Marketing Corner

Being Social

By Akshay Raj

SOCIAL MEDIA HAS CHANGED the landscape for companies and brands, previously a disgruntled customer would share his negative feedback with a friend, acquaintance or a relative at the most and the impact of that experience on a company or a brand was limited. ut now people can share their negative as well as positive experiences on social media and it remains there for posterity, well err... almost! But anyone can see it, comment and share on that experience making the reach wider and the impact greater.

This is the reason companies and in this case our trade needs to be active on social media. We need to ensure that we are able to listen to our customers, their needs, concerns and appreciations so that we may adjust our services, adopt best practices and adapt to this new medium of engagement.

Ok, so what is social media? At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It’s a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many).

Now that we understand the term social media, we can move on to social media websites. Since social media is such a broad term, it covers a large range of

B

I “Like” Black Cabs, and I share opinion, images and videos of black cabs.

I have joined a circle of Black Cab lovers, I will start a virtual hangout with them & chat.

I’m travelling in a #Blackcab, and trying to share my opinion within 140 characters.

Here is a photo of a vintage Black Cab, remember a picture tells a story!

Here is my video of a Black Cab ride.

I can view and share videos I like.

Here is my list of Black Cab fare comparison, and interesting articles.

I am a licensed Black Cab driver, this is my professional profile with all my skills and competencies.

This is where my taxi picked me up, and this is where it dropped me. Anyone nearby?

Let’s meet!

We will fight this technology battle with the “Digital Disruptors” one post at a time, and clearly differentiate ourselves as being “Beautifully British” something that cannot be copied, but only earned.

And in this new world of instant and constant connectivity, we can truly stand out as a company

22

websites. But the one common link between these sites is that you are able to interact with the website and interact with other visitors.

But all these terminologies need not confuse you; here is an interesting image (above) that explains how social media is just a technological substitute for our favourite activities of yesteryears.

Now supposedly you want to use the social media channels, here below is a handy guide which helps you decide which channel to use for the type of communication you have in mind.

with human interaction, not forgetting that people do business with people not just software!

So come on, it’s time be social. Connect with us, share your views and opinions about this article.

Akshay Raj.

Curiosity Corner Roger Sligo on the mysteries of hidden London

The Disappearing Queen “

Move Queen Anne? Certainly not! Why it might someday be suggested that my statue should be removed, which I should much dislike.

Queen Victoria 1897.

”

he statue of Queen Anne dating from 1866 which stands at the front of Saint Paul’s Cathedral on Ludgate Hill is a replica of a much older one. The original was sculptured by Francis Bird and unveiled in 1713, eleven years after Queen Anne’s coronation and a year before her untimely death aged forty-nine.

Over the next century and a half, the weather beaten “Carrara Marble” statue of Queen Anne started showing signs of decay, with fingers and other fragments falling off. Sculptor Richard C Belt was commissioned to make a copy of the statue, which he had to finish while in prison after being found guilty of fraud.

The original statue of Anne disappeared overnight leaving no trace of its whereabouts behind. For the next two years writer Augustus Hare searched for the missing statue, a friend told him to look for it at a mason’s yard in Vauxhall Bridge Road. It was indeed there waiting to be broken up and sold as scrap. Hare discovered that the statue had Richard C Belt’s replica Queen Anne never belonged to the city council; instead it was the property of three persons, the Archbishop of London, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Mayor of London. The three of them all agreed for Hare to buy the statue and to have it moved to his home at Holmhurst, Near Hastings in East Sussex. When the statue arrived at Hare’s home it was made perfect again with all the missing parts replaced, but over the years the winter storms have worn away all the reproductions and only the original marble now remains.

Hare’s home at Holmhurst, on the downs above Hastings was eventually turned in to a convent and it is where Joanna Lumley OBE went to school (Joanna was the honourable guest of the London Taxi Benevolent Association for War Disabled Fund’s trip to Worthing in 2009).

She mentions the Queen Anne statue ‘crumbling away’ in her autobiography.

Sadly the convent school is no more, with the old house incorporated into a new housing estate. The land where the statue still stands is no longer part of Holmhurst. Plans are Queen Anne original Joanna Lumley OBE being made to allow public access to view it.

T

23

History of the Chelsea Flower Show

By Robert MacDonald Watson, Company Secretary, Mountview House Group THIS IS A TIME WHEN THE DESCRIPTION “a potted history” might be very apt. As the dark winter days recede, snow drops herald green shoots, crocuses open out and then the army of daffodils trumpet their calls.

Thoughts of amateur gardeners everywhere turn to their own creations in every window box, back yard, roof terrace and border. ne of the biggest inspirations comes from the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show. The show takes place in the grounds of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, home of course, to the Chelsea Pensioners. This year it will run from 19 – 23 May.

O

The show started life in 1862 as the RHS Great spring Show at the RHS garden in Kensington. It moved from there to Temple gardens in 1888 and by 1897 was sporting five marquees. The RHS also had summer shows at Holland House in Kensington and used the Chelsea site in 1905. The Temple gardens site was however, collecting complaints, not least from the Temple itself.

In 1912, the Temple Gardens show was cancelled. Instead, the renowned nurseryman Sir Harry Veitch obtained the present Chelsea site for the Royal International Exhibition. The show proved to be so popular that the spring show went there the following year and hasn’t moved since.

The show even went on in the first two years of the Great War (World War 1) but then neither in 1917 nor in 1918 similarly. The roaring twenties saw lively tea parties and lots of Royal visits. In 1937, there was a special Empire Exhibition to celebrate the Coronation year of George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Exhibits from all over the Empire must have made very exotic displays.

Once into the 1940’s, war again intervened. This time

24

the show was cancelled throughout the war years and the site was used for anti-aircraft defences. Despite the reluctance of some of the horticultural industry who were still recovering from the war and from shortages, the show resumed in 1947 and was once again a great success.

In 1953, it was Coronation year again, this time for Queen Elizabeth II. During this special year of the dawning of the new Elizabethan age, a lot of Royals visited the show, the glaring exception being the Queen herself as she was somewhat busy. Of course, as we all know, she now attends regularly as Patron of the RHS; she goes on Press day which is the first Monday of the show. You will also find a number of other celebrities wandering around in a very informal way.

We tend to see the main images of the show gardens, especially from coverage by the BBC. Over the years, fashions change in horticulture just as it does in fashion and clothes.

Moving from Japanese gardens, through to rock gardens, to cottage gardens, as well as sculpture adorned gardens, to charity gardens, to eco gardens and even a garden in the air. All the show gardens are built from scratch in just 19 days and then they are dismantled after the show in just 5 days.

The show period extended in 2005 from four days to five days and the first two days are open only to RHS members. It now has about 157,000 visitors to the eleven acre site. It has suffered in the past from overcrowding and from a shortage of tickets. This has probably been alleviated somewhat by taking over the Hampton Court Palace Flower show later in the year.

Even the temperamental English weather does not deter the exhibitors and visitors. In 1928 they had real issues with hailstones but the show still went on.

Clearly for the exhibitors, winning awards and the resulting potential business is a major feature.

There are gold, silver, silver-gilt and bronze awards

though there is amusingly no medal for a bronze award.

Those awards cover the following exhibits: Gardens and Floral, Trees, vegetables including herbs, special educational or scientific interest, pictures, photos, floral arrangements and floristry.

There are then a host of special awards such as for the Best Show Garden. Hillier Nurseries currently hold the record for the greatest number of gold awards having won sixty six in all.

New plants are launched at the show and personal naming ceremonies are very much part of publicity.

You can imagine what is being carefully nurtured in greenhouses all over the country waiting for their big

moment. It is a bit like the horticultural equivalent of the Harrods food halls, built to impress and to showcase but with sales in mind.

It is very much an integral part of the London social season and the sight of the Marquees being erected as seen from the Embankment builds up the excitement of things to come. And of course I am also told that, in the cab trade, the Flower Show marks the end of the Kipper season and the beginning of the busy!

Roll on the spring!

25

Our Man at the Wheel Our client FRESHFIELDS BRUCKHAUS DERINGER LLP discovered that Radio Taxis driver GRAHAM LIVINGSTONE and who had been a regular on the John Carpenter Street rank was retiring. By their kind permission we have reproduced the article they printed in their in house magazine which is a lovely tribute to a driver that we should all be proud to call our colleague.

London wishes Graham Livingstone all the best in his retirement after two decades in the driving seat.

GRAHAM LIVINGSTONE THE MAN AT THE WHEEL ver been driven home in a Radio Taxis cab to the soothing sounds of Mozart’s Horn Concertos? If so, you were probably in the company of the alwayscharming Graham Livingstone, driver of an iconic London black cab, Thames boat-dweller, cyclist and Kayaker.

Graham retired just before Christmas after 15 years as a member of the Radio Taxis fleet, working from the rank on John Carpenter Street, just round the corner from London’s Fleet Street premises. His passengers were almost entirely Freshfields staff and he got to know many familiar faces over the years. He says: “It felt like I was on the payroll.”

E

ON THE ROAD Graham, who is also fond of Handel, Vivaldi and Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto (the ‘Emperor’) – which his regular passengers may already know – developed his love of classical music on the road, listening to Classic FM. His musical taste was definitely appreciated by (Freshfields) London staff on their way home after a long day at work.

Peter, a London partner and general counsel, says: “Graham combined the attributes of a good London cabbie, independence and self-sufficiency, with a real loyalty to his Freshfields passengers. He very much valued their friendliness and they in turn appreciated his quiet courtesy and consideration and the optional classical music in the background. He will be missed by many of us and we wish him all the best for what will certainly be a very energetic and athletic retirement.”

Other partners were keen to pay tribute to Graham, among them Ali, a London dispute resolution partner, who says: “I used to walk to and from work until I had children. Cabs home then became one of the ways of

26

squeezing time out of the day and trying better to juggle work and family. Graham is such a lovely man. It was an absolute pleasure getting his cab home, especially if it was quite late or after a challenging day. I would always turn off my own music to listen to Graham’s and I would often put down the BlackBerry for the journey to listen properly or chat about the music. I wish him all the very best for his retirement – I am sure music will play a large role in that somehow.”

Meanwhile Neil, a London dispute resolution partner, says: “It was always very nice after a long day at work to find it was Graham who was driving the taxi home. A combination of rather nice classical music and chit-chat about cycling made the journey very pleasant.

I am sorry to see him retire!”

It is not just his passengers who remember him.

Gillian, a booking desk team leader, says: “He was always off on cycling or walking holidays and he would send us postcards from his jaunts and sweets at Christmas.

He’s a very nice, pleasant, friendly man – there was always good conversation. The whole of the evening team at the booking desk wish him well in his retirement.”

PRAISE FOR THE PASSENGERS While London expresses gratitude for the man behind the wheel, Graham is full of praise for his former passengers. “I was usually driving people home, or occasionally to meetings or restaurants,” he says.

“People work long hours. My record was driving someone home at 4am and it never ceased to surprise me how pleasant and cheerful they were, even at that time. It was nice to have civilised passengers and the job was very stressfree. I got to know where Freshfields people lived so they didn’t need to tell me and I also knew who liked to work in the back with the light on so they didn’t need to ask.”

GRAHAM IN HIS NATURAL HABITAT Graham may have worked in the midst of London traffic, but at home he is surrounded by water – for the past 20 years he has lived on a boat moored on the River Thames at Ash Island near the historic Hampton Court.

He explains that a boat takes a lot of work to maintain and that it has a “desert climate – the external temperature is always exaggerated. On a hot day, it’s very hot, on a cold day, its freezing”. (Reassuringly, he has a

good heater.) “It was the first thing I did,” he says. “I got my cab licence in November 1994 and I moved here in April. I like water, I like looking at it, I swim and I kayak.”

THE KNOWLEDGE It’s quite a change for a boy who grew up in Johannesburg, 400 miles from the sea. He is the son of anti-apartheid activists – his father was a lecturer in politics at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) in Johannesburg and both his parents were founder members of the Liberal Party of South Africa.

His mother was also an early member of the Black Sash, a non-violent women’s resistance organisation which provided black South Africans with legal advice and campaigned for an end to apartheid laws. She worked for the Black Sash for the rest of her life.

His parents were Geordies from near Newcastle, who moved to South Africa in the 1940s and they just didn’t come back, which is why he has a UK passport.

He first came to Britain in the 1970s then returned for ten years before making his home here in 1989.

Graham previously worked as a journalist and in publishing before deciding to make his living on his bicycle – he covered 37,000 miles of despatch riding as a cycle courier over a five-year period. He then became a London taxi driver in his 40s.

His main claim to taxi fame is that he did “the Knowledge” (the in-depth knowledge of routes that all London taxi drivers must possess) on a bicycle rather than on a scooter. The average time taken to gain the Knowledge is 34 months and drivers must be able to decide routes immediately without consulting a map, nor by using a Sat-Nav or by calling their office on radio. Graham covered 16,000 miles of knowledge runs by bicycle before gaining his taxi driver’s green (all of London) badge. As this is a feat that has only been performed by a handful of drivers in recent years, colleagues nicknamed him “Reg” after the British champion racing cyclist, Reg Harris.

ThisWeek (the Freshfields in house publication) sends warm wishes to Graham for his retirement.

Following the publication of the article, there were a number of responses and here are just two of them: Wow! – What a lovely story about an amazing man.

Cab drivers here in New York also often blow me away with the stories of their lives. Seems Graham really will be missed by many – and thanks to “this week” for introducing him. ● Daniela, January 29, 2015, 5:06pm.

What a crackerjack story – thanks! ● Denvy, January 30, 2015, 1:44am.

27

Going Digital

By Robert Stead, Head of Marketing, Mountview House Group WE’VE SPOKEN A LOT IN THESE PAGES about web sites, apps and all things digital, all good stuff of course; but where does this leave those, who like the author (and one suspects many of you too) grew up when the pinnacle of domestic technology was a colour TV to watch the 1966 World Cup Final? s the digital world just a way for teenagers to waste enormous amounts of time having pointless conversations with their friends and is the Internet just a place where “scammers” lurk round every corner, or is there actually benefit to joining the digital revolution?

I’d argue that in 2015 there is almost no choice, the Internet gives access to so much that is positively useful, maps, traffic reports, weather forecasts, news, price comparisons and yes cab bookings too.

I

HOW TO START? There are two basics, a Broadband connection to the Internet and a device to access the Internet. Wireless Broadband (generally called Wi-Fi) is available almost everywhere. They can be available at home, usually from the phone provider, for a few pounds per month.

Or alternatively in lots of locations outside, most of them often for free.

Moving on to the devices themselves, all smartphones will give Internet access, but if like me, you have aging eyesight and fat fingers they are not that convenient.

PCs or Apple Macs are great, but they can be expensive are not that portable and do far more than is needed for just Internet access.

PCs in particular can be susceptible to viruses, which are bad bits of software than can cause havoc if downloaded by accident. For me the best solution is a tablet with a screen somewhere between A5 and A4 in size. It’s both easy to see and to use, it’s also portable and very good for streaming video. Moreover it can be available from only around £100 (from supermarkets such as Tesco for example) up to several hundred pounds for the nicest iPad that will impress your digital friends.

NOW WE HAVE BROADBAND AND A TABLET, WHAT NEXT? The first thing is to connect them together using the Wi-Fi connection. Most will do this automatically, if not the helplines for your home’s Wi-Fi will give you good advice.

28

SO NOW YOU ARE CONNECTED AND ONLINE, WHAT NEXT? The way to access the internet is to fire up a piece of software on your tablet called a Browser (thus named because it allows you to browse the Internet.) Generally this will be in an obvious place on your screen, the most popular Browsers are “Chrome,” “Internet Explorer,” “Safari,” and “Firefox;” but there are other choices. Tap or click on the browser and you’ll be presented with a home page and an address bar. Despite all the hype the World Wide Web is no more nor is it less than an enormous global digital library and the search bar is the place to access it.

The search bar will give you access to a search engine, there are several but the most popular and user friendly one to use is “Google.”

Type in www.google.com to the address bar and tap return/enter. (Incidentally the www is for World Wide Web invented by Tim Berners Lee, the confused Englishman you saw in the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony).

This will give you the Google home page with a search bar at the centre. Type anything you like into here and Google will find the most relevant information in that mega library. “Radio Taxis London” might be an interesting thing to type to start with!

You will find lots of interesting things via Google, so a couple of pointers about how it works.

Anything which is underlined, often in blue text, is a hyperlink (another Berners Lee invention) Click here and you will be taken to another web site or another set of information.

If you don’t want to stay there and would like to return there will be a back button or left pointing arrow to do that. The other thing to understand is that Google makes money; it does so by giving you adverts, it does so with your search results and by charging suppliers to place those adverts. For example typing “cheap tyres Finsbury Park” into the search bar will give you a page of replies. The top three on the page and those in the bar on the right are always adverts relevant to your question; if you look carefully they are highlighted in a slightly different colour and marked as ads or sponsored links. The other links on the page are provided by Google for free and are the ones that best match the question you asked.

That’s it, how to get online, how to surf the web for no more than a hundred quid! Now you can choose join the digital world, or perhaps go back to that black and white TV?

● We go that extra mile ● Driver friendly fleet

● Pay by cash, at any Lloyds Bank ● Pay online

29

Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ)

By Peter Gibson, Strategic Director, MVHG LIKE YOU, I HAVE READ A LOT ABOUT THE Mayor’s proposed ultra low emission zone where all the vehicles running during working hours are supposed to be either zero or low emissions. or taxi drivers, whose workplace is London, this sounds like a drastic change looming and I thought that I would have a look-see at what these proposals are. How likely are they to see light of day?

And what preparations will we need to make to become “compliant” by “D” day?

The air pollution effect on the quality of life is the “driver” for the Ultra-Low Emission Zone initiative. It is estimated that, in London, more than 4,000 deaths annually can be attributed to long term exposure to air pollution. And, as taxi drivers, we are prime candidates to be affected by air pollution as we spend our working lives following exhaust pipes around all day and all night.

To tackle poor air quality, the Mayor has announced his ambition for a central London Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in 2020 to: ● Reduce air pollutant emissions from road transport, particularly those with the greatest potential health impacts, to support Mayoral strategies and contribute to achieving compliance with EU limit values ● Reduce CO2 emissions from road transport ● Stimulate the low emission vehicle market by increasing the proportion of low emission vehicles and promoting sustainable travel Apparently, the “Boffins” at City Hall believe that addressing air quality is not only an environmental and health objective, but also an economic opportunity and a driver for innovation. The Mayor is also keen for TfL to ensure that the ULEZ can stimulate London’s economy.

A public consultation on the ULEZ took place between 27 October 2014 and 9 January 2015. This included proposals to introduce a vehicle emissions charging scheme in central London, alongside proposals for buses and revised Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle licensing requirements.

The draft proposal, along the lines of Congestion Charge, is that private and commercial vehicles may be issued with a PCN (Penalty Charge Notice) if: ● The vehicle does not meet ULEZ emissions standards and is not exempt or registered for a 100% discount*(It is proposed that all taxis will be exempt from the ULEZ standards and charges) ● The relevant charge isn’t paid by midnight on the next working day after the first day of travel ● The vehicle has not been registered with TfL ● The owner has provided an incorrect vehicle registration mark or incorrect date of travel when

F

30

paying the charge ● The owner paid by post but did not allow at least 10 days before date of travel for payment to clear Owners may receive separate PCNs for each charging day that is driven within the LEZ. The charging hours would be from midnight to midnight. PCNs will be issued to both GB and non-GB registered vehicles.

Penalty Charges

Penalty If paid within Charge 14 days

Vehicle

Weight

The amount of the penalty charge depends on the type of vehicle you’re driving & how soon you can pay it.

The amount of the penalty charge depends on the type of vehicle you’re driving & how soon you can pay it.

£500

£250

Motor caravans Ambulances

2.5 – 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight

£500

£250

Minibuses (with more than 8 passenger seats)

5 tonnes or less gross vehicle weight

£500

£250

Lorries Goods vehicles Motor caravans Motorised horseboxes Breakdown & recovery vehicles Snow ploughs Gritters Refuse collection vehicles Road sweepers Concrete mixers Tippers Fire engines Removals lorries Other specialist vehicles

More than 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight

£1000

£500

Buses Coaches (with more than 8 passenger seats)

More than 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight

£1000

£500

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR TFL BUSES The TfL bus fleet in London is the youngest of any major European or world city with an average age of six years. In addition to meeting the ULEZ standards, it is proposed all double deck buses operating in central London will be hybrid and all single deck buses will be zero emission by 2020.

Approximately 300 of the New Routemasters (which are already hybrid and have NOx emissions much closer to the Euro VI standards than other Euro V buses) would continue to operate in the ULEZ without modification at 2020 London’s air quality has improved significantly in recent years and is now considered compliant for all but one air pollutant for which the European Union has set legal limits. This pollutant is nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which has impacts on public health. London is currently in breach of legal limits. The Capital also faces challenging targets to mitigate the effects of climate change.

THE ULEZ WOULD INCLUDE ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR TFL BUSES, TAXIS (BLACK CABS) AND PRIVATE HIRE VEHICLES (PHVS): ● A requirement that all new taxis and new private hire vehicles presented for licensing from 2018 would need to be zero emission capable ● A reduction in the age limit for all non zero emission capable taxis from 2020 from 15 to 10 years (irrespective of date of licensing) ● Investment in the TfL bus fleet so that all double deck buses operating in central London will be hybrid and all single deck buses will be zero emission (at source) by 2020.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR TAXIS AND PHVS The ULEZ proposal has been tailored to reflect the different vehicle types used as taxis and PHVs, their contribution to emissions in the ULEZ and the likely development of the vehicle market for each sector.

TAXIS (BLACK CABS) It is proposed that from January 2018 all vehicles presented for licensing as taxis must be ‘zero emission capable’.

Since 2012, a 15 year age limit has removed over 6,000 of the oldest and most polluting taxis. TfL proposes to reduce the age limit for all non zero emission capable taxis from 15 years to 10 years (irrespective of date of licensing), with effect from 2020.

The taxi requirement will apply London wide as well as in the ULEZ. *It is proposed that all taxis will be exempt from the ULEZ standards and charges.

PRIVATE HIRE VEHICLES (EG MINICABS) It is proposed that from January 2018, all newly manufactured vehicles (under 18 months old) presented for licensing as PHVs must be ‘zero emission capable’.

Other vehicles presented for licensing as PHVs must comply as a minimum with the ULEZ standards and also continue to meet the 10 year age limit. The PHV

requirement will apply London wide as well as in the ULEZ. Every PHV driven in the ULEZ will be required to meet the ULEZ standards or a daily charge (similar to other cars, vans etc) must be paid.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE ULEZ? The ULEZ would make central London a more pleasant place to live, to work and to visit. The ULEZ is projected to at least halve emissions of NOx and particulate matter PM10 (which is said to be carcinogenic) from vehicle exhausts. This means more than 80 per cent of central London is expected to meet the NO2 annual legal limits in 2020. The ULEZ would also lead to a significant reduction in the number of people living in areas of poor air quality (where levels of NO2 exceed legal limits) – by 74 per cent in central London, 51 per cent in inner London and 43 per cent in outer London.

● ●

● ●

● ●

SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR US TAXI DRIVERS? The 15 year age limit for taxis will be reduced to 10 years in one foul swoop.

This will become a de facto “default” date for a lot of taxi drivers retiring from driving a taxi completely, as there will be several hundred cabs disappearing overnight and a shortage of vehicles available to rent for the older “part-timer”.

Manufacturers will need to have a functioning “hybrid” or totally electric licensed taxi within 4 years.

Presumably this could potentially necessitate a change in “Conditions of Fitness” for taxi vehicles if current manufacturer (LTC) does not have a “hybrid” drive train?

There will be a change of London Mayor before 2018 and perhaps the next Mayor maybe inclined to soften the timescale to get taxi driver “voters” on side?

It looks like Diesel is fast becoming the new “leaded petrol” and it is likely that it will be taxed out of the (inner city) market place.

31

The BIG BANG THEORY

By Roy Hughes, Director of Commercial Development at Mountview House Group 2015 HAS STARTED with a bang! Already we have several new accounts signed up – ranging from large Public Sector and Travel Industry clients with a UK requirement, to Legal Firms and Architects. owever here’s the rub, none of them are just what we used to know as ‘Taxi Accounts’.

They are all One Transport customers who have a requirement for consolidated, mixed use of vehicles – although some, particularly the Legal Firms and the Architects, still have a majority requirement for Taxis, thank heavens.

The trend for both Corporate and Public Sector customers has been a move away from exclusive Taxi usage, to a greater or lesser extent, usually they tell us, for reasons of cost.

At one extreme is a Bank that we are currently talking to and who took Taxis out of the equation completely after the 2007 crash and moved over entirely to Private Hire; at the other end of the spectrum are the Architects who have been using Private Hire in recent times, exclusively but have become frustrated at slow response ‘ASAP’s’ (“as soon as possibles”) for the arrival times with private hire is not generally good and of course they complain that “the Drivers don’t know where they were going.” (Now there’s a surprise?) In both cases we have been able to sell One Transport as a completely flexible booking tool that allows them access to multiple vehicle types. In the case of the Bank, this may well mean re-introducing Taxis into their vehicle mix of supply, initially for shorter journeys around town and in the case of the Architects, only using Private Hire for a minority of longer journeys out to the suburbs and beyond.

Taxis as an integrated part of the One Transport consolidation offering, is a major “USP” (Unique selling point) and it is allowing us to sell wideranging ground transport solutions (including national and international supply) to a broad range of clients and in markets that our competitors have either no experience in, or are well behind in the development of their product in order to compete effectively.

H

32

A good example of this is our link-up with the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC).

One Transport as a consolidator is now a partnermember and this is allowing direct access to Travel Management Companies (TMC’s) who provide Business Travel services for corporate clients and with both Airline and with Train companies.

In each of these cases there is a growing customer requirement for ‘value-add’ services – principally ‘end to end’ ground transport solutions and supply. Again the ability to offer Taxis as an important part of the mix of supply is a differentiator for these organisations – nobody else is doing this.

One Transport attended the Business Travel Show in late February. Although the usual suspects from the Car and from the Taxi industry also were in attendance, One Transport was the only Ground Transport operator attending as part of the GTMC ‘Pavilion’ which obviously adds greater legitimacy to our reputation as a trusted partner of the Travel Industry.

The Business Travel Show attracts Travel and Ground Transport buyers from across all corporate sectors and they were able to book appointments with chosen suppliers – at the time of writing, which was just as the show commenced, we already had fourteen appointments booked from an extensive range of potential clients to discuss their ground transport requirements and we expect that by the time you read this, we will have held some thoroughly fruitful and ultimately rewarding conversations.

Emergency Swipe...

ONCE UPON A TIME… in the days before Chip and Pin the MDT (Mobile Data Terminal) had a swipe that enabled the driver to take a credit card or convert a street hail trip into an account trip by swiping a Taxicharge card.

e now have Chip and Pin and because all other methods of accepting a credit card carry some sort of financial risk to the company we will be bringing to an end the practice of taking credit card numbers over the telephone in the Call Centre, as this method is totally non PCI (Payment Cards Industry) Compliant and leaves Radio Taxis totally exposed to financial loss.

With immediate affect nobody in Operations is allowed to take a credit card number for a job over the telephone. They are forbidden from taking credit cards. If you have a problem with this the please contact Driver Services or one of the directors but the staff have been instructed to no longer take credit cards in this manner.

In a “technology” meeting at Mountview House recently a comment was made by the great Millari (Ian Millar for any new drivers) that Operations take calls on a daily basis from drivers that have a real or perceived problem with their Chip and Pin machine and do not know how to swipe a credit card.

Ian was quick to let me know that all new drivers are only shown the functionality of the Chip and Pin machine as we actively want to discourage the swiping of credit cards for security reasons. So this article is to try and reacquaint the uninitiated in the art of swiping a credit card but for an emergency only.

If you genuinely have a problem with your Chip and Pin machine – get it fixed as soon as possible. But meanwhile this is how you can use the swipe on your MDT to create or covert a credit card trip.

W

1. Engage the Meter.

2. Swipe card on the left hand side of the Zeus with the Magnetic swipe (back of the card) facing you. If you have a PDA swipe the card through the printer, with the magnetic strip facing upwards.

3. The card details should appear on the screen. If the job is under £88 Press OK, then press OK to any messages that appear on the screen. If the job is going over £88 please fill in the “Auth Val” box on the screen with the amount you think the job will go plus 20% extra, then Press OK, then press OK to any messages that appear on the screen.

4. It should now display “CC Credit” in the top left hand corner of the screen.

5. Stop the meter to clear the job. You MUST print and get a signed receipt that you keep for your records. If the passenger requires a receipt press print again.

6. Reset meter or press “Finish” on the screen to clear the job.

From September 2015 the contactless card (Debit /Credit Card) will be able to be used in transactions up to £30. No doubt this will be increased again over the coming years and this is good news for the taxi trade. Credit Cards are the strongest “good news” growth area in “radio circuit” world. Street hail Credit Card

business continues to grow and will continue to grow as passengers get used to paying by card, contactless or chip and pin.

Just in case you didn’t know, all Uber customers, all Hailo customers and all GetTaxi customers pay by credit card. Any passenger that prefers this method of payment is lost to the taxi trade at the first sight of a “Cash only” sign or “Credit Card machine is broken” comment. Most of our drivers are great credit card supporters, we know this from the stats, but there is a hard core of drivers that continuously refuse to take credit cards and this next paragraph is especially for you if you are one of them. ● Credit Card mandating from TfL is coming. It’s not an “if ” but a “when”. ● Any work lost from the licensed taxi trade to Uber, Kabbee, Hailo or any other App where a credit card is linked is down to you as you do not like to make it convenient for the customer, you like to say “if you have a credit card then go somewhere else”. ● Any driver that has a visible sign saying “Cash only” will be put on complaint or asked to leave the circuit. ● Any driver that continuously covers over their Chip and Pin machine will be put on complaint or asked to leave the circuit. ● Any driver that continuously swipes credit cards and doesn’t have any use on their Chip and pin machine will be put on complaint and will have to explain themselves. ● If your Chip and pin machine is faulty – go to Driver Services and get it fixed. ● Do not try and “ring through” a credit card number on the telephone – it’s no longer allowed. ● If you have a moral objection to passengers using the convenience of a credit card then you should consider if you are cut out to be a “radio man” and perhaps consider another profession as credit card usage for taxi fares is going to continue to grow.

33

Roger Sligo asks: WIN £25 “Where am I?” *

I THOUGHT OUR DECEMBER LOCATION WOULD be very tough and would go into a roll-over for several issues, but I know that I am dealing with London’s elite taxi-drivers after all! ven so we had only three who took on the challenge, with only one winner. The two near misses were; Kieran O’Leary who said Pudding Lane and Darren Hart who thought it might be Botolph lane EC3.

The winner of a £25 M&S gift vouchers goes to Ron Turner E35 – who not only correctly guessed the location, but also went a step further by making a visit to it!

He writes: “The picture shown is in the side wall of “The Olde Wine Shades” in Martin Lane EC4 off Arthur Street. According to staff in the bar it was used as a safe.

Apparently a building stood on what is now an open space to the side of the pub, so it was accessible from inside and not open to the elements as it is now.

Writes Martin – “Well done Roger – Keep them coming.”

To which my reply is “No, thank you Ron and you keep searching for them!”

With this in mind, my next challenge is going to get even tougher and you are going to have to be on the ball to find this next obscure place in a hurry!

E

WHERE AM I? This time I am standing down a run-of-the-mill street in South East London.

The house in the picture looks down on its luck, but in better days it was a museum, according to the plaque on the front wall dated 1890. Where am I?

34

“Where am I?” If you think you know then please email me at: editor@eviewmagazine.com or send your answer by snailmail to: Mountview News Editor, Mountview House, Lennox Road, London N4 3TX. The winner who correctly names the location of this contest will receive a *£25 M&S Gift Voucher.

? ? ?

The Mountview Puzzler Page

CLUES ACROSS 1. Mobster (8) 6. Flat circular plate (4) 8. Curve upward in the middle (6) 9. Recluse (6) 10. Thick fleshy underground stem (5) 11. Italian astronomer (7) 13. Ripe (6) 15. Sweet (6) 17. Imitate (7) 19. Silly (5) 22. Brawn (6) 23. Semitic language (6) 24. Indolently (4) 25. Submissive (8)

Jotting space

MOUNTVIEW SUDOKU Give your brains a really good work out!

CLUES DOWN 2. Sea north of Australia (7) 3. Architectural feature (5) 4. Tarpaulin (4) 5. Practice (8) 6. One dearly loved (7) 7. Long-billed sandpiper (5) 12. Like leather (8) 14. Ill-fated (7) 16. Brutal bully (7) 18. Shape (5) 20. Give merit (5) 21. Labyrinth (4)

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

35