Call Sign Feb 08

Call Sign February 2008 Page 4
Reflections Of The Chairman
Christmas Incentive
By now you should all have received your
payment regarding the Dial-a-Cab Christmas
bonus. I must say it was very successful and
some members really did extremely well. The
thinking behind the philosophy was really
quite simple; we wanted to return something
to members whilst enhancing the service we
gave to our customers during what I knew
would be an extremely busy period before
Christmas (November 1 to December 21).
As you are aware, we have been extremely
successful as a company in recent years,
however, as a Mutual Trading and a Drivers
Co-operative we cannot return a dividend to
our members. Consequently, it was decided
to implement an incentive that was very easy
to achieve for members who wanted to do
that little bit extra.
Our old building, Brunswick House, has
now been sold and if you look at the
Balance Sheet on page 11 of this year’s
Annual Report, you will see that it is shown
as an Asset held for Resale valued at £1.42m.
I am delighted to report that I was able to
negotiate a deal with the purchaser, whereby
they paid £2.75million. As you can no
doubt appreciate, if you can replace a tangible
asset with £2.75million of cash, then you
have had a little windfall of £1.33million
It was decided that we would endeavour
to return some of that cash to members,
especially the ones who endeavoured to
enhance the service we give to our clients
during a very busy period such as the leadup
to Christmas. As I stated earlier, it worked
extremely well and from a mercenary point
of view, made my life so much easier during
that period! Under normal circumstances, I
would spend a great deal of time endeavouring
to visit all our large clients in an
attempt to placate them regarding service
levels etc. You and I know the problems that
we experience at that time of year regarding
supply and demand, however, our clients
quite rightly are not interested in our problems,
they want a cab to arrive the same as
it does for the remainder of the year.
However, this year was so much better as
members were accepting trips rather than
rejecting them, which in turn put less pressure
on our Call Centre because clients were
not constantly ringing them up with an
enquiry as to where their cab was? This, in
turn, freed up our Call Takers to take calls
instead of dealing with queries.
The figures this year for December were
better than the corresponding period last
year despite all the gloom and doom that
was reported on the High Street! But regardless
of figures, I would like to make it quite
clear the amount of Christmas bonus that
was paid to members this year was a one-off,
purely due to the cost involved. However, as
I explained earlier, we experienced that little
windfall and that will not happen again in
the near future.
Now for the bit you’ve been waiting for.
The cost of the Christmas Incentive was in
excess of £520k! Yes you read that correctly,
over half a million pounds paid to members
as a bonus, which will probably make our
competitors choke on their corn flakes and
turn their drivers a rather pale shade of green.
But let me repeat that this was a one-off and
any bonus next year will not be so generous
– always assuming of course we continue to
be as busy as we are at the moment.
Elsewhere in this issue of Call Sign, I
believe there is more of an in-depth report
regarding the incentive, but I am delighted to
say that we had two members that received
in excess of £2,500 and one over £2,000. We
also had in total, sixty seven that received
more than a £1,000 and four hundred and
eight who received more than £500, while
no less than eight hundred and twenty
picked up over £250.
The remainder of the fleet varied between
£250 and nothing, however, everyone had the
same offer and chance to make the 2007
Christmas period an extremely profitable one.
I am just delighted we were in a position to
reward our members – long may it continue.
Tariff Increase
It has been recommended to the TfL Board
there should be a tariff increase on the 5 April
this year, although at the time of writing it has
not been agreed by the Board as they do not
meet until 6 February. However, I have no reason
to doubt that the increase will not be
granted. I am led to believe the 20p
Environmental charge is going to be removed,
but that the flag fall will be increased to £2.20
– if that makes sense! The reasoning is that the
flag fall will remain the same even though the
Environment charge is no longer there. It had
originally been introduced in April 2005.
Also the extras button will be changed so
that in future it will go up in 50p units rather
than the current 20p, which basically means
you will not have to press the extras button
so many times to achieve the desired amount
on the meter.
Overall the increase will amount to 4.7%
across all three tariffs, however, I would like to
re-iterate the above increase has not yet been
endorsed, but hopefully will be on 6 February.
Dial-a-Cab AGM
Finally, I would like to remind you that our
AGM is on Sunday 10 February at 11.00hrs at
The Brewery in Chiswell Street. I would also
like to remind you that should you choose
not to vote by post, then you must attend the
AGM otherwise a £50 fine will be imposed. I
look forward to seeing as many of you as
possible on the day.
Brian Rice
Chairman
Dial-a-Cab