Time toDecide

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Spring 2015

ELECTION

SPECIAL

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4 Roger Sligo’s ‘Ed Lines’Roger interviews Peter DaCosta of KPM

8 Twitter VotesGeoffrey Riesel – using your follows to decide your vote

9 GLA Transport Committee’s ‘Future Proof’Report & Recommendation

10 Geoffrey Riesel interviews Caroline Pigeonof the Greater London Assembly

12 Uber and other DisruptionsBy Chairman & CEO Geoffrey Riesel

13 Jon Bonfils Remembered Alan Franks reports on Jon’s sudden death

16 Deptford WanderingsRoger Sligo strolls by the Thames with his camera

18 Mobile Phones & Data TerminalsDan 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. 6Terry 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 CornerRoger Sligo and the tale of the Disappearing Queen!

24 History of the Chelsea Flower ShowRonald MacDonald Watson’s colourful description

26 Our Man at the WheelGraham Livingstone retires after 2 decades of cabbing

28 Going DigitalRobert 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 TheoryRoy 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?” ContestRoger Sligo asks! A £25 M&S Voucher is up for grabs!

35 The Mountview Puzzler PageA Crossword & Soduko to keep you thinking

THE MOUNTVIEW NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM IS:Roger Sligo – Editor & photos / Penny Cuckston – AdministrationDoug Canning, DC-Graphics – Design, layout, printing and distributionGeoffrey Riesel & Peter Gibson – Board productionDesign, Layout & Print: ©2014 / DC-Graphics / High Barnet / Herts / EN5 5TP

T: 0208 440 1155 / W: www.dc-graphics.co.ukContent: © 2015 / Radio Taxis Group Ltd / Lennox Road / London / N4 3TXThe 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.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Recognise her?

She can be found on page 23 Recognise her?

She can be found on page 23

Exclusive Interviewwith Peter Dacosta,Chief Executive ofKPM

KPM, ONE OF THE MAJOR NAMES IN THE LONDONtaxi industry, began life in a small tin shed in BradyStreet, Bethnal Green. The name KPM was takenfrom the forenames of the founders, Keith Marder,Peter DaCosta and Michael Troullis. KPM was togrow from its humble beginnings in 1975, to becomenot only a main dealer for the traditional Londontaxi, but they also became famous for giving theLondon cab trade the choice of an alternativevehicle with the Mercedes Benz Vito taxi.

By that time KPM had taken over nearly the whole ofHemming Street, plus the railway arches around thefront. Over the intervening years and with a

workforce of a hundred and forty people, who betweenthem, run the garages, the showrooms, the metersuppliers and the bodywork shops.

Abruptly, just a year after London Taxi International (LTI)the makers of the famous traditional London taxis, themselveswent into receivership, the cab trade was again left in a state ofshock to learn that drivers were turning up for theirappointments finding KPM locked-up with receivership noticespinned to the doors, which very few could have ever haveforeseen.

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

Radio Taxis driver as was his father Mike 21) and with many oftheir loyal workforce and satisfied customers returning to KPMpresumably because they have retained, despite recentdifficulties, the trade’s trust. Peter DaCosta, Chief Executive,kindly agreed to give an exclusive interview to MountviewNews, speaking frankly of his love of the taxi trade and the pastpresent and future of KPM.

Ed: Thanks for agreeing to talk to us Peter. How long have youbeen involved in the taxi trade? Peter: I have been in the cab trade since I was twenty-one, atthe time I was the youngest cab driver in London. I had to waitsix-weeks for my badge. I passed out in seven months and twoweeks. My father and three uncles were all cab drivers. I did workhard on the knowledge though, fourteen hours a day seven days aweek. I never really wanted to be a cab driver myself, but my oldmum said to me ‘Peter you are going to become a cab driver’ whenI said I’m not, she would retort ‘oh yes you are!’

We were in the fruit business, with shops and stalls and thingslike that. My mum said to me, one day “you are going to take allthis over,” I said “not me, it’s a dying game.” One of our fruit stallswas 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 overthe place!”

Ed: Are your ancestors originally from Spain or Portugal?Peter: Originally from Spain and from Portugal, my ancestorswere Sephardic Jews, who have been in this country for 360years, ever since the time of Oliver Cromwell. So we areconsiderably Anglicised and assimilated and we’ve always comefrom the East End.

Today the East End has become “Hipster-Ville” with most EastEnders moving further out east to places like Southend. Before thewar my dad used to work in the Kursaal at Southend, I wasbrought up on Rossi’s ice cream. My dad also had furniture shopsin Southend which he later sold and it became Smith’s. I leftMorepeth Secondary School in Bethnal Green at sixteen and inthose days in the East End, you either went to Spitalfields/CoventGarden, or you worked in the markets for your family, or else youwent into asphalting, that was very big in those days. We werestreet people weren’t we, to be fair? We never went on to universityand things like that. Who did you know, back then who becamedoctors or dentists?

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

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

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

I have had some fantastic staff with me and Andy bless him, isstill here now. He has been with me for thirty-nine years of theforty years we’ve been in business. I have some very loyal peoplewith me now and since starting back again and having taken backover myself, I have been able to give positions to them. I didn’ttake the old company over; I just bought the assets of the oldcompany and started again with those assets.

Ed: Was it very difficult starting up again?Peter: I had to believe in myself, because obviously thecompany had gone into administration and the stigma thatbrings with it. I was also at war with myself. My heart and mybrain were at war with each other. I was bored out of my skinsince stepping down circa 2 years ago and watching other peoplerun the business.

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

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

The cab trade has given me everything in life. I had beeninstrumental in the building of this company and I’ve seen it gofrom strength to strength – I’d seen it become a main dealer forLTI and then it went on the AIM market so as to do Electricvehicles 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 alot of grief to the company and which honestly should never havebeen, but then as I’ve said I was virtually watching from the sidelines 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 atthe eleventh hour and to buy the assets of the company. Iwouldn’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 theLondon Taxi Company who have been so supportive of me.They said, “get back in there and we will give you your serviceagency back again.’

Unipart also welcomed me back because we wholesale parts aswell, so I felt I had something still going and I wasn’t going inblind. With many of the old and some new customers graduallycoming 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 thingabout it was – unfortunately we were not engineers, so we had torely on other people’s brains and expertise on the engineering side.We all know now that the cab has been fantastic cab except for therear wheel steering (RWS). When it became abundantly clear thatthere was a fault the KPM Group did not shirk its responsibilities.The company again paid out circa £400K to Penso the convertorsto rectify the RWS glitches which again failed. We understand thatthey have re-engineered it once again with Mercedes Benzapproval, so we must now see if it is successful this time.

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

Mercedes Benz are not covering themselves in glory either andpeople are now seeing the results of this. Customers are telling meof their horror experiences going to their dealerships and not beingable to get their work done quickly. In the past these appointeddealerships only wanted the cream work, like servicing and brakesbut they didn’t want the warranty work. Welcome to the realworld boys! So KPM got suffocated with warranty work whicheventually brought the company down, as they were not beingpaid for the warranty work at least not without a fight! KPM waspainted 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 theroad – he/she wants to get back to work. All this nonsense ofpeople taking days to get their work done now, I do hope they nowappreciate that getting drivers in and out fast was what KPM usedto do for them.

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

Ed: So what are KPM doing now?Peter: So effectively what the company does now is allmechanical work for retail and trade customers with new low costrepairs and servicing. We are doing warranty and servicing workfor LTC vehicles. We are also doing all forms of repair andservicing work on Mercedes Benz but not Mercedes Benz warrantywork which we’re not authorised to do. Mercedes Benz however,have just introduced to their customers an outside extendedwarranty and we are authorised to do the work for that that andof course anything for Mercedes which is out of warranty we cando 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; youbreak down – our job is to get you back on the road in doublequick time, that’s how it used to run here, you were always seen ontime. You can’t re-invent history, what’s done is done I lookforward, I don’t look back.

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

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warranty as used by Mercedes Benz as well as one operated byTobell 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 atthe 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 burymyself here, I came back here to enjoy it again.

I have to tell you I’m smiling once more, in a way thatI haven’t done for a long time. I have been out there having alaugh with my old customers. It’s great and the atmosphere isfantastic here. I set a plan out and the plan has been executedquicker than I thought and customers are coming back in theirdroves. It’s like the old days, it’s been really enjoyable.

Ed: There are rumours doing the rounds that Mercedes Benzare 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 presentform because I should think they would have to completelyredesign the donor vehicle to facilitate a front wheel drive. I havenot been privileged to any information for a long time. We tried todo a front wheel system here ourselves to see if we could make itwork. To make it work you would have to flare the wheel archesand start redesigning the vehicle. The fact is major manufacturersdon’t talk in hundreds of vehicles they talk in tens of thousandswhen they design something. The Euro 6 will be aesthetically adifferent design. If they are to stay in the market I think it willcontinue 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 debaclehas been going on for some time and I’m a traditionalist. One ofthe problems you have doing away with the turning circlerequirement 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 NewsPaper called me a murderer – “I killed the traditional taxi,” “Iput an end to the traditional cab.” There was no such thing asputting an end to the traditional cab! I love the traditional cabbecause I’ve grown-up with it. It was an alternative.

As an industry we are getting eaten alive by Private Hirebecause we don’t change quickly enough; we are a fragmentedbody of people. That’s why when you go and sit in front of someof these committee’s and listen to some of the conversationscoming out of the people representing the cab trade, you wouldwant to get under the table, because that’s what I felt like doingsome of the time. So many are just self-serving around thesetables; if we were united we would have a better way ofcommunicating and add more steel to our armour. The peoplemaking the decisions do not want to meet half a dozenrepresentatives from trade organisations representing only acouple of thousand drivers and all with completely differentviews “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’twant to get into an old cab. I will wait for a newish cab. I usecabs a lot and will never get into an old cab. So am I different tothe public? No. So if we are going to compete with Private Hirewe have to change!

Ed: Should all cabs be black?Peter: In Manchester they have to be now. We should have trademarked the word “Black Cab.” Should they all be black inLondon? It would be good but it’s not really my beef. My beef isthe cab should be clean and not falling to pieces and the driverbless him, should look a bit tidy. A driver pulls up wearing flipflops shorts and a sloppy Joe and goes into a corporate such asGoldman Sachs to pick up the managing director. How manyaccounts has the cab trade lost because of this?

And cabs with “cash only” signs. What’s that all about? I cango into my local sweet shop and buy a newspaper using my card.Look how long Marks & Spencer remained “cash only” becausethey were arrogant enough to think they were too big and lookhow much trouble they got into before they accepted that creditcards were a must!

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

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

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

The meter needs to be torn up. For someone paying £40k for acab and the meter starts at £2.40 is a disgrace – the fares should beloaded at the front end; and the longer journey is now far toodear. How can a passenger hail a cab at say Tottenham CourtRoad and go to Marble Arch for a Fiver – if there are a few ofthem it’s cheaper than getting a bus. We should be lobbying Boristo 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 ina cab with a friend at Holborn and am going to Heathrow fromPaddington and see a sign Heathrow circa £55 – why would I bothergoing to Paddington for £20 and paying another £38 on theHeathrow Express train – it’s a no brainer! And it’s no different fromgiving 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, howmany children and grandchildren do you have?Peter: I have a daughter Sara who you met outside in thereception and she works here for me. Sara has two boys. Thenthere is my son Lee who owns Cabvision Network. Lee has fourchildren, three boys and a girl – and Joe who runs sales I havethree children and six grandchildren. My granddaughter iseighteen and she wants to become a doctor. My eldest grandsonswill be twenty this year, one of them is at acting college and theyoungest one will be twelve. I have a partner of 11 years and yesI 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.

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Use Your Follows to Decide Your Vote

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THE 2015 GENERAL ELECTION is nearly herewith polling day to be held on Thursday May 7.

These elections have little direct impact on the Taxi sectornow that we are regulated by the Mayor and Transport forLondon but the decision of who will form the

Government for the next five years will still have a big impacton all those who live and work in London.

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

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

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

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

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

I hope readers of Mountview News will find my Twitteraccount a good way of getting more information about what’simportant for our industry and of course the work of RadioTaxis.

General Election Twitter accounts to follow:Twitter Name Twitter Account Description

David Cameron @Number10gov The official Twitter channel for Prime Minister DavidCameron’s office, based at 10 Downing Street. Read socialmedia policy.

Ed Miliband @Ed_Miliband Leader of the Labour Party, MP for Doncaster North, husbandand dad. Follow this account for tweets from Ed Miliband andthe @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 Eastof 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 basedat Westminster

The Green Party @TheGreenParty Join with the 100,000s of people voting Green for the first timeat http://join.greenparty.org.uk

TwitterVotesby @radiotaxis_boss

OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS THE GREATERLondon Assembly’s Transport Committeehas been holding an inquiry into the futureof Taxi and Private Hire Services inLondon. The Assembly’s role is to hold theMayor and Transport for London toaccount.

There is an interview with Caroline Pidgeon, the Chair of theTransport Committee, in this edition of Mountview Newswith Mountview House Group Chairman Geoffrey Riesel.

Geoffrey also gave written evidence to this inquiry and wassubsequently invited by the Committee to attend a session inperson and answer their questions. He said:

“I was impressed with the rigour with which the Committeewent about their work. They gathered as much evidence as theycould and listened to many witnesses to inform them ahead ofproducing a detailed report with many recommendations. It is apositive contribution to the debate about where our industry needsto go and the increased role that the Mayor and TfL need to play towork with us. Their primary call for a greater strategic approachfrom TfL for the Taxi sector is one those of us who see it every daywould greatly agree with. Now it is for TfL to consider therecommendations carefully and respond with an explanation ofwhat they plan to do”.

Mountview News has set out below a summaryof the Recommendations made by the

GLA Transport Committee1. 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 onthe continued role of taxi and private hire services inLondon, and actions that will improve passenger and driversafety, guarantee a sufficient number of high quality driversand vehicles across the city, and ensure that all services meetthe highest possible standards for accessibility. The strategyshould also set out how TfL will strengthen its enforcementand clamp down on illegal activity, within a clear andtransparent governance and decision-making framework.

2. By March 2015, The Mayor and TfL should report back to theAssembly on options to incentivise the uptake of cashlesspayment options, for both the taxi and private hireindustries.

3. By May 2015, the Mayor and TfL should set out how theyintend to monitor and improve supply and demand, for bothtaxi and private hire industries, across London. This shouldinclude a specific study into potential demand for taxiservices in outer London town centre locations.

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

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

6. By March 2015, the Metropolitan Police should improvethe information it collects on cab-related crime, to ensuregreater understanding of whether offences are committedby licensed taxis, private hire vehicles and Pedicabs, and bylicensed or unlicensed drivers/vehicles.

7. By May 2015, The Mayor and TfL should provide theCommittee with a definitive assessment of the resourcescurrently devoted to enforcement, setting out costed plansto increase these where necessary and address fundinggaps. This should include options to increase licence fees toensure adequate enforcement resources are available.

8. By May 2015, the Mayor and TfL should enable greaterjoined-up working on enforcement, including workingwith the private hire trade and boroughs to develop acohesive, pan-London policy on picking up/setting downarrangements.

9. The Government should act upon the findings of the LawCommission Review and propose legislation thatintroduces stiffer penalties for touting, and greaterenforcement powers for borough and police officers,including higher fines and vehicle seizure powers.

10. By May 2015, The Mayor’s office, TfL and the tradesshould develop and publish a Memorandum ofUnderstanding which clearly sets out terms of referenceand defines the respective roles, responsibilities andexpectations of each party. This should include specificservice level agreements.

11. By March 2015, TfL should revise its driver engagementactivity to ensure that it is as widely representative aspossible, and improve the transparency of taxi and privatehire policy and decision making processes by routinelypublishing the minutes of meetings with the trades.TfL should also provide and publish a detailed breakdownof annual licence fee spending.

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GLA Transport Committee publishes ‘Future Proof’,its Report and Recommendations on the

future of Taxi and Private Hire Services in London

The Greater London Assembly recentlypublished its Report Future Proof,making recommendations to the GLAon how to better manage the Taxi andPrivate Hire Industries.

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

CP: It’s great to be with you today Geoffrey and to talk about ourwork but if we take a step back, what is the London Assembly? A lotof people don’t know that when you go out to vote for the Mayor ofLondon, you also vote for London Assembly members and there are25 of us. Our job is to hold the Mayor to account, but also to holdall of his different functional bodies to account. People likeTransport for London, the Metropolitan Police, the Fire Brigade, allof these different areas, we are there to hold them to account, tohold the Mayor to account to make sure he is spending publicmoney 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 anumber of investigations. I’ve been the rotating chair since 2008and we have carried out a huge number of investigations looking atthings like the upgrade of the tube, the bus network and walking;we did a very visionary piece of work on cycling and the Mayor hasadopted a lot of it and of course our recent bit of work has been onTaxi and Private Hire services.

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

CP: Well, when we looked at the range of topics that we hadcovered over recent years, it was the one area we just had notlooked at. We had done river services, we had cycling and the roadnetwork, but we hadn’t actually looked at Taxi and Private Hire.And we’ve always had a range of complaints from both the taxiindustry and private hire but with the arrival of people like Uber aswell, it felt really that it was the topic we needed to look at andthat’s why we spent considerable time looking at it and moneydoing some actual proper research, talking to passengers andtalking to drivers to really understand the issues.

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

CP: I knew we would get a huge response but we were delightedreally rather than surprised by the number of individual drivers,not just the representative bodies, the number of individual driverswho got in touch and we did proactively go out to hear from driversso we had about a 1000 leaflets handed out both at private hireoffices and to taxi drivers. We were tweeting a lot, we were usingthe internet, so we really wanted to engage with drivers andpassengers and that is why we did this really good research.We employed a company to do that, we spoke to over 1000passengers to get their views of both taxi and private hire andunderstand their issues to really help shape this piece of work tomake sure that Transport for London would take it seriously.

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

CP: Well, it is a very, very detailed report and we actually have19 recommendations. There are so many issues that we felt need tobe addressed. But one of the over-arching ones is there is nostrategy or vision at Transport for London or coming from theMayor of London of where they want to see the taxi and privatehire industries going in the future, and therefore what support theyneed to maintain them and grow them and that seems to be one ofthe key things missing and alongside that is the real need forenforcement.

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

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

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Mountview House Group Chairman GeChair of the Greater London Assembly T

GR: The taxi industry and taxi drivers in particular are veryconcerned about Uber and other digital disrupters; theseorganisations are throwing vast amounts of venture capitalmoney into public relations, into marketing and there are hugeconcerns that their current way of operating is just a technicalway of getting round laws that Parliament made not that longago which should ensure the safety of the public and theseoperations appear to be in complete contradiction of that.Is there anything you can say to give the industry somereassurance about the future?

CP: We think overall that Uber is just the tip of the iceberg, it’salmost just one issue compared to the whole range of issues that areaffecting the trade. We were very concerned that TfL weren’tlooking forward. Technology is moving very, very fast, they need toget to grips with this and to be ahead of the game, rather thanrunning to try and catch up. I think, particularly now the Mayorhas said that he actually thinks how Uber is operating is wrong, wethink TfL maybe should actually be looking at that and maybeshould have made a different ruling but obviously that’s now in thecourts 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 levelplaying field to everyone – at the moment, their actions don’tappear to show that.

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

CP: I think the Transport Committee does have a really goodrecord on many of our reports, such as the one we did on cycling,the Mayor’s cycling vision reflected a huge amount of ourrecommendations. We’ve also done other ones on buses and they aremaking some changes there and so on so we do have influence andactually several years back when we first had a massive load ofsnow in London our report not only changed how TfL practiced andthe bus companies and others, they also influenced the selectcommittee and parliament’s work in that area. So we have got quitea bit of clout. I think it’s very interesting; I have had an email fromTransport for London already saying that they support many of our

recommendations, I don’t know how manyout of 19, but that’s promising and I lookforward at the end of February at ourTransport Committee to have a really gooddialogue with Peter Hendy to understandwhere he’s coming from and to see howmany recommendations we can persuadehim to adopt. But also the Mayor of Londonhas got to have some leadership here and

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

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

CP: Well first of all, it is an ‘if ’ and it’s something that I may wellbe considering but clearly my party members would have to decideif I was to be the candidate. But clearly the report, although it iscross party, it is absolutely where I see we need the industry to goand we need to have proper vision and strategy and work tosupport the industry. We heard certainly in the taxi industry, weheard the evidence we had internationally where we said this is thegold standard and we could squander that unless we invest in itand support it but one of the controversial things coming up whichwe didn’t touch in our report because the environment committee isgoing to look at it, is the issue of clean air in London and having toget rid of diesel vehicles in the centre of London particularly toclean up air and I absolutely support this but what we need to do isit cannot be the industry whose having to pay out huge amounts ofmoney for this reform that’s needed and the Mayor has talked for along time about a clean taxi fund and that’s never materialised andthat’s something I think would need to be looked at as we moveforward to look at cleaner electric vehicles in central Londonbecause it’s your business and your livelihoods but you should notbe subsidising this change.

GR: Finally on a personal note, I would be interested to know, doyou 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 lotmore in central London and get a taxi back, I feel like those daysare long gone as I am at home with the little one often in theevening. But this is probably my most entertaining and interestingtaxi journey, I have to say. But when I do get taxis, I like to talk tothe drivers, it gives me a good idea of what’s going on, what theissues are, I get the real feel, I often talk to them about theknowledge and other stuff, so I get a good feel of the industry butalso what the issues are that are affecting Londoners that they seeevery day and that’s valuable for my work as a London Assemblymember.

GR: Caroline Pidgeon, London Assembly Member, Chair of theTransport Committee, thank you very much indeed foranswering all my questions, much obliged.

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

11

eoffrey Riesel interviews Caroline Pidgeon,Transport Committee.

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS BAD PUBLICITY?Well I used to believe there is, but as I getolder I sometimes wonder now if that stillholds true?

Over the 25 years or more that I’ve been runningRadio Taxis, certain principals have been at thecentre 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 staffand with drivers.

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

So that if we make a mistake, or if it looks like we gotsomething wrong, we then quickly respond to thecomplainant, we investigate what has happened; and if wewere indeed at fault we take responsibility.

In this day and age, many speak of their “rights,” but veryfew seem to comprehend the responsibilities that go withthose “rights!”

One example of this is Michael O’Leary boss of budgetairline Ryanair (Source Forbes magazine July 2012) publiclyannouncing that he thought his customer was “stupid!”http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2012/09/07/ryanair-ceo-calling-customers-stupid-makes-this-airline-kids-blood-boil/

He obviously enjoys the notoriety of his “dumb”announcements Here are some others of his “infamous” andvery public pronouncements:

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

� “You’re not getting a refund so **** off. We don’t want tohear your sob stories. What part of ‘no refund’ don’t youunderstand?”

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

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

� “Anyone who thinks Ryanair flights are some sort of bastionof sanctity where you can contemplate your navel is wrong.We already bombard you with as many in-flightannouncements and trolleys as we can. Anyone who lookslike sleeping, we wake them up to sell them things.”

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

Yet despite, revelling in being obnoxious and in a BBCreport some years ago Ryanair was described in theBBC online headline as being the “… least likedairline”… Ryanair was voted the world’s least likedairline because of cramped seating, unfriendly staffand delays.

Online travel service Trip Advisor said it polled4,000 of its users on a range of subjects from airlinesand airports, to worries and holiday hotspots.

Ryanair was not the only low-cost carrier singledout for criticism, with EasyJet voted the second worst.British Airways was picked as the best airline.

DESPITE BAD PR NOW THE BIGGESTSo if all that’s is true how come that IATA(International Air Transport Association) survey showsthat now Ryanair is the biggest and busiest airline inthe world carrying almost 90M passengers per year.Does reputation count for nothing in this era ofinstant 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 MichaelO’Leary and UBER’s “maverick” boss Travis Kalanick.

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

And over the last year the “bad” headlines about

12

UBER and other disrupBy Geoffrey Riesel, Chairman & CEO,

UBER just keep coming here’s a tiny fraction of themfrom 2014 – to 2015 (thus far).

� Uber’s Campaign Platform: Avoid Safety Costs, ShiftRisk Burden, Evade Taxes and Fees.

� Uber Gets an ‘F’ from Better Business Bureau:Failing Grade Latest in Recent Setbacks forCompany.

� Uber’s Unresponsiveness Forces Passengers to TakeGrievances to Social Media: Company’s Refusal toProvide Live Contact Could Worsen EmergencySituations.

� Uber Admits New “Bring Your Own Device”Program Enables Unsafe Individuals to Drive forCompany: Despite Claims to Be FortifyingBackground Checks, Uber Creates New OfferingThat Will Allow Unscreened Drivers to Slip ThroughCracks.

� Uber Passenger ‘Kidnapped’ and Taken on High-Speed Chase Through Washington, DC and Virginia.

� ‘Ridesharing’ Drivers at Airport Found LackingLicenses, Registrations and Insurance.

� Uber Continues to Speed Away From Responsibility:Assaults, Kidnapping and Death Continue to Pointto Massive Insurance Gaps for Uber…

� More Myth than Math: Uber Deceives Drivers WithIts Rosy Income Picture.

� Uber focused on safety after another driver chargedwith sexually assaulting customer.

� Add to that UBER’s questionable practice of surgepricing at every rush hour and the moment it gets alittle busy.

In that case so how on earth does UBER continue toplough on, growing exponentially like the man eatingplant from “Little Shop of Horrors?” It’s probably bythrowing hundreds of millions of dollars intomarketing? And it is that marketing, alongsideexpensive PR and in conjunction with their highpowered lobbyists (Obama’s former campaign managerhas joined them) and their army of lawyers to fightregulators and law suits which is gaining thempublicity and customers among the Millenniageneration who are “umbilically” attached to theirsmart phones.

UBER does not at this stage need to make any

13

money and I would be amazed if it has yet done so.Their business model is not to sustain a business likethe rest of us but after having “bought” a few billioncustomers worldwide, they hope to go to the marketand realise the $41B or more, that they are currentlysaid to be worth, based on the funding they’ve raisedfounded on the shares they have sold.

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

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

GetTaxi is reputed to have an Israeli, RussianOligarch funding them. The blurb says he’s a serialentrepreneur who invented the app while waiting halfan hour for a cab at an airport, who writes that mistyeyed “schmaltz?” Great story but totally unbelievable,except by the most naive. GetTaxi are offering themarket the equivalent of huge “bribes” or should I say“financial incentives” to customers for them to openaccounts with them. Another last-ditch form ofmarketing, it sounds as though, to use a famous phrase“something stinks in the state of Denmark.” How longwill it last, as long as the Oligarch Sugar Daddy doesn’tget fed up of wasting his money, as in my view theymust fail in the UK eventually? One presumes thatpoint will arrive more quickly if they burn through toomuch cash buying market share? Our intelligence isthat GetTaxi has only a few hundred active taxis andthat, in all probability, must mean that their servicelevels are poor. I do know they are going all out to tryto recruit drivers, more bribes (sorry financialincentives) I expect.

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

ptionsMountview House Group

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good. APPs deliver far less flexibility and far lesstransparency than an account facility with any of thethree radio circuits. The APPS (as part of theirbusiness model) do not have account managers to lookafter the clients, indeed one of the biggest issues iswhen things go wrong, which they do inevitably in thisbusiness, traffic, hold ups, roadworks by pick-ups,incorrect pick up details from the client etc etc, there isno one to speak to let alone to take responsibility or toput things right.

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

OUR ROLEWe the “traditional” taxi industry, have to adapt andmodernise. We have to accept technology; and we allmust readily accept payment for any journey large orsmall by Credit Card. In the radio taxi industry wehave to all ensure that while we must become far moreefficient by using, much more automated systems, so asto increase customer convenience and to further reduceour costs. Our overheads need to be cutback drasticallyso for us to stay in the game in the coming years.

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

to fight off the competition in the future and whichwould 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 fromthese wonderful premises here at Mountview Houseafter 27 years. Under the Government’s permittedchange of use scheme, permission has been granted fora residential development, which means that we canmove to a much more modern and more “techsuitable” premises, albeit it is likely to be a little furtherout of the centre of town.

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

A TIME OF CHANGEThere is much change ahead of us and there are manywho are eyeing up our customers, because they thinkthere is a “pot of gold” to be had. They don’t realisethat our business never yielded a pot of gold, nor werewe situated at the “end of the Rainbow.” There is (orthere was) however, a living for those of us in thistrade, to be earned by working hard, by being customerfocused, by continuously embracing new technologyand most of all applying ourselves so as to protect ourmeticulously earned gold standard reputation, it maynot be the Ryanair or the UBER approach but it iswhat we believe to be most important.

Geoffrey Riesel,CEO, Mountview House Group.

I didn’t write this –but I may as wellhave...

This 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.

Geoffrey RieselCEO, Mountview House Group.

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IT IS WITH GREAT SADNESS THAT I HAVE TOreport the sudden death of a highlyrespected member of staff Jon Bonfils.

Jon worked in the call centre at Radio Taxis, on thenight shift for over 10 years. Working at RadioTaxis at night was only part of who Jon was, as it

fitted perfectly with his other occupation, that of avery accomplished singer and actor.

Jon tragically collapsed on January 5th whilerehearsing for a new play, Dante’s Inferno, at the CraftTheatre in the East End. Moreover, the cause of deathhas not yet been established.

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

As far as we know, Jon was born in Korea but neverknew his birth parents, as he was adopted by a Danishcouple before eventually following his dream to act andin order to do this he moved to London.

Jon was a very fit guy and he trained extraordinarilyhard, in actual fact he was a black belt, “Fifth Dan” inthe art of Kung Fu.

He had achieved numerous roles in many filmswhich included the Jedi Master “Saesee Tiin” in theblock buster movie Star Wars episode one.

Jon had also appeared in many other high profilemovies such as, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, BatmanBegins, The Cradle of Life, and most recently in theJames Bond film Skyfall and also in The Travelleropposite David Essex.

He’d also had the starring role in The King and I inLondon’s West End.

At Radio Taxis, Jon was enormously popular andthis was borne out by the numbers of staff (at least40 attended from Mountview) past and presentmembers who paid their respect by their presence athis funeral held at Golders Green Crematorium on23rd January 2015.

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

There were a number of Eulogies, one was read bythe director of the film The Traveller Benjamin Johnsand the other by David Essex who starred alongsideJon in that movie.

The wake was at the Old Bull and Bush inHampstead and this was organised and paid for by hisfriends.

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

Alan Franks, Group OperationsDirector, writes about the sad loss ofa member of the Operations Teamwho was also somewhat of acelebrity: Jon (Kan) Bonfils

accomplishments. There were many letters of sympathyread out including one which was articulated by ourCall Centre manager Fiona Pierce, this letter was fromSam Mendes, the renowned Film Director and whohad directed him in Skyfall.

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

May he rest in peace.

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It had been a very long time indeed since I hadlast wandered this far along the riverside,although when I was a young Bermondsey

school boy it was my regular patch. In those daysof the early 1960’s my friends and I would cycleall the way along from Bermondsey Wall, visitingCherry Garden Pier, where one of my friend’sGrandad lived in a prefab. Passing by what wasSurrey Docks, back then, we could see large oceanliners having a lick of paint and a face lift in thedry docks. We always thought this was worth alook before finishing our day out at Greenwich.

My Deptford wanderings on this latest occasionbegan after a short walk from Ascotts garage andonce I had zigzagged my way across a few sidestreets. It soon became clear to me that the southside of the river had kept up its shabby and derelictappearance. What is now called the Thames Pathwas completely deserted, unlike the crowds youwould expect to find further down at Shad Thames.Looking across the river front from a rottingwooden pier, at the glitzy skyscrapers that make upCanary Wharf, you are left wondering how on earththese two riverside places could have developed sodifferently. One of them having had multiple

billions spent on it and the other with councilestates, or so called affordable housing, in a placewhich time has forgotten, being left to its owndevices. I was happy to see that Deptford has keptmuch of its original charm, which hasn’t been lostor changed by the developers – yet!

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

ON A HOT AFTERNOON LAST AUGUST, with a couple of hours tospare at Deptford while waiting for my taxi to return from theNSL test centre at Crayford,I decided to stretch my legswith a stroll along the Thames.

Deptford WanderingsBy Roger Sligo

Tomb and Watch House

17

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

Near this spot is a plaque reminding us of the RoyalDocks where Sir Frances Drake was knighted byQueen Elizabeth 1 on 4th April 1581, as she steppedonto his famous ship the Golden Hind. Reading thewall plaque of this historic event at such a desolateplace, it is hard to imagine the scene full of Elizabethanpeople pushing and shoving each other to glimpse thisspecial occasion.

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

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

The ancient church of St Nicholas, standing close tothe river, is worth a few minutes of anyone’s time, withits Kentish Ragstone tower, with its moss coveredtombstones and the old watch house guarding thegraveyard from any unwanted body snatchers from abygone era.

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

If you want to see this area before the developersmove in and before it becomes lost forever thenI would suggest making a visit very soon. A newriverside project called Sayes Court Gardens is, I’mreliably informed, about to happen!Over the other side

Cranes and lamp post

Gates

HOW IT ALL WORKSA MOBILE PHONE OR AS A MATTER OF FACTour equipment, the Zeus or PDA mobile dataterminals, are low powered two way radios,which convert either human voices or datamessages into radio waves.

When making a call, these radio signals aretransmitted, for example, from your Zeus tothe nearest base station. Once the signal

reaches a base station it is then transmitted to the maintelephone network where it is transferred to thenetwork of the person receiving the call. So aconnection from the Zeus terminal is the equivalent tomaking a telephone call except it is a data transmissionrather than voice.

MASTS Radio base stations are commonly called masts, you mayhave heard about these in the news where people havecomplained about a new mast being put up near aschool, or those who have feared a link between radiosignals and cancer, however, to date, research has foundabsolutely no association between the risk of cancer andexposure to mobile phone base stations.

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

RADIO BASE STATIONS Radio Base Stations, the sites that enable mobile phonesto work, have transmitters, receivers and antennas andare usually mounted on top of large buildings. Before wechanged over to the public mobile network we had ourown base stations mounted on about 15 sitesthroughout London including the Hilton Park Lane, theBarbican and St Thomas’s hospital.

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Mobile Phones & By Dan Ellis – Technical Manager, Driver

Now we are using the mobile network we are usingover five thousand aerial sites, however now we aresharing them with everyone else who uses a mobilephone in London.

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

If they are too far apart, calls cannot be handed overfrom one area to another which gives rise to a droppedcall or a loss of signal (resulting in a no-entry sign onthe Zeus).

Cells come is different sizes a Macrocell is the largestand usually provides the main coverage, Microcellsprovide infill radio coverage and additional capacitywhere there are high numbers of users and Picocells,are customarily located inside buildings, such asairports 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 NETWORKThere are now almost ninety million mobile phonesin the UK and approximately thirty millions of theseare in London. So you can see the challenge the networkproviders have. More base stations were built toenhance the infrastructure for 2G, 3G and 4G mobilenetworks. New base stations are required as each onecan only support a finite number of mobile phones atany one time.

So with the increase in devices and in London’spopulation the network continually needs to beupgraded and this why you will see the no-entry sign atcertain spots throughout London as sometimes the basenetwork cannot cope with the amount of traffic.

Recently some of you have may have seen themessage “we cannot offer you this job due to poorsignal” when trying to accept a job. The reason you maysee this message is that we are not getting your acceptmessage back from the terminal. Our systemautomatically attempts to continue to try to offer youthe job for another 30 seconds, however if the systemdoes not receive a message back from the terminal(albeit it’s because of signal issues and not your fault) itthen offers the job to the next closest driver on thesystem. This is a problem with the signals in the areaand it is not a problem with your Zeus or with your PDAmobile data terminal.

I hope that has been helpful.

Dan EllisTechnical Manager, Driver Services

19

Data TerminalsServices

What will Deflationbe like for you?By Gordon Brown – COO, Mountview House Group

IN THE FINANCIAL SECTIONS OF THE PRESSrecently you will have seen articlesexplaining why we might be headingfor a period of deflation. So isdeflation good or bad? Like most ofthese economic questions itdepends on your circumstances.

The first thing to understand is why theremight be deflation – the main reasons arethe fall in oil prices that has a major

effect on prices for a lot of what we buy (Dieseland energy prices directly and mostmanufactured products indirectly) and thesupermarket price war as the wounded Tescotakes on Lidl and Aldi among others. Withinflation now at 0.5% down from 1%, most ofthe pundits predict it will go negative duringthe course of the year – and it is alreadycurrently minus 0.6% in the Eurozone.

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

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

The real risk to us all is from an economicstandpoint, it presents us with a genuinedanger, that spending decisions are deferred, inother words, “I won’t invest in a new piece ofmachinery or much needed kit” if I’m abusiness owner, or “I won’t yet buy a new car”as a consumer and that’s because with deflationI will think that over the next few months theprice of whatever it is that I might buy maywell will come down in price. As a directconsequence of this the economy starts tostagnate (as it did in Japan for over ten years.)This has a crucial and damaging impact onbusiness and on the economy as a whole as it

stops the growth of our economy and similarlyit diminishes or hinders any growth inemployment and jobs as well. Equally as abusiness any money you owe becomes harderto pay back, as prices of what you’re selling fallsand this leads to bankruptcies.

In the Great Depression of the 1930’s whichstarted in Wall Street, USA, deflation was aleading factor in the mix.

It also makes it more difficult to reduce thelevel of UK debt, the savings that all the mainpolitical parties have said that they will need tomake after the up and coming election, aresubstantial. With deflation it will get harder ifyou have to start talking about making cuts inNHS spending or in weekly pension amounts.

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

But for the time being keep working hardand enjoy the extra money in your pocket andspend it wisely.

20

21

UNLESS YOU READ E-VIEW, OUR ONLINEmagazine, you may not be aware of the sadpassing of two Mountview stalwarts.

The first is Brian Glossman, who died late last year.Brian was a former long term driver/member of RadioTaxis 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 towrite a regular column in the Mountview News about, Jazz,Blues, about Rock and about Pop. What he didn’t know aboutthose subjects wasn’t worth knowing. Brian and his wifeEstelle really were a lovely couple and we all send our mostsincere condolences to Estelle and to their sons and families.

A number of our colleagues on the Board attendedBrian’s funeral at Hoop Lane, Golders Green and it must besaid, that we were very proud to see so many of our longserving drivers who had also attended in force, in order topay 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 sadpassing of Radio Taxis former Company Secretary, StanleyCohen. We understand that this was after a short period of

OBITUARIES –Brian Glossman and Stanley Cohen

Brian Glossman Stanley Cohen

ill health. Stanley was Company Secretary for approximately10 years from the mid 80’s until the mid 90’s. Although wehad lost contact with him, we know that he’d moved to theSouthend area, we saw and spoke with him again at thefuneral of former Control Room manager Sylvie Darlingabout four or five years ago. So we were quite shocked tohear of his untimely demise. To his family and to all whoknew him we send our most sincere condolences.

22

But now people can share their negative as well aspositive experiences on social media and it remainsthere for posterity, well err... almost! But anyone

can see it, comment and share on that experience makingthe reach wider and the impact greater.

This is the reason companies and in this case ourtrade needs to be active on social media. We need toensure that we are able to listen to our customers, theirneeds, concerns and appreciations so that we mayadjust our services, adopt best practices and adapt tothis 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 andshare news, information and content. It’s a fusion ofsociology and technology, transforming monologue(one to many) into dialog (many to many).

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

websites. But the one common link between these sitesis that you are able to interact with the website andinteract with other visitors.

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

Now supposedly you want to use the social mediachannels, here below is a handy guide which helps youdecide which channel to use for the type ofcommunication you have in mind.

MarketingCorner

SOCIAL MEDIA HAS CHANGEDthe landscape for companies andbrands, previously a disgruntledcustomer would share hisnegative feedback with a friend,acquaintance or a relative at themost and the impact of thatexperience on a company or abrand was limited.

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

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

Here is my video of a Black Cab ride.I can view and share videos I like.

I am a licensed Black Cab driver, this is myprofessional profile with all my skills andcompetencies.

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

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

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

This is where my taxi picked me up, and this iswhere it dropped me. Anyone nearby? Let’s meet!

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

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

with human interaction, not forgetting that peopledo 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.

Being SocialBy Akshay Raj

23

Roger Sligo on themysteries of hidden London

CuriosityCornerCuriosityCorner

“ Move Queen Anne? Certainly not! Why it mightsomeday be suggested that my statue should beremoved, which I should much dislike.”Queen Victoria 1897.

The statue of Queen Anne dating from 1866 which stands atthe front of Saint Paul’s Cathedral on Ludgate Hill is areplica of a much older one. The original was sculptured by

Francis Bird and unveiled in 1713, eleven years after QueenAnne’s coronation and a year before her untimely death agedforty-nine.

Over the next century and a half, the weather beaten “CarraraMarble” statue of Queen Anne started showing signs of decay, withfingers and other fragments falling off. Sculptor Richard C Belt wascommissioned to make a copy of the statue, which he had to finishwhile in prison after being found guilty of fraud.The original statue of Anne disappeared overnight leaving no trace ofits whereabouts behind. For the next two years writer Augustus Haresearched for the missing statue, a friend told him to look for it at amason’s yard in Vauxhall Bridge Road. It was indeed there waiting tobe broken up and sold as scrap. Hare discovered that the statue hadnever 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 ofLondon. The three of them all agreed for Hare to buy the statue and to have it moved to hishome 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 overthe years the winter storms have worn away all the reproductions andonly the original marble now remains.

Hare’s home at Holmhurst, on the downs above Hastings waseventually turned in to a convent and it is where Joanna LumleyOBE went to school (Joanna was the honourable guest of theLondon Taxi Benevolent Association for WarDisabled 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 theold house incorporated into a new housingestate. The land where the statue still standsis no longer part of Holmhurst. Plans arebeing made to allow public access to view it. Joanna Lumley OBE

Richard C Belt’s replica Queen Anne

Queen Anne original

The Disappearing Queen

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THIS IS A TIME WHEN THE DESCRIPTION“a potted history” might be very apt. As thedark winter days recede, snow drops heraldgreen shoots, crocuses open out and then thearmy of daffodils trumpet their calls.Thoughts of amateur gardeners everywhereturn to their own creations in every windowbox, back yard, roof terrace and border.

One of the biggest inspirations comes from theRoyal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea FlowerShow. The show takes place in the grounds of the

Royal Hospital at Chelsea, home of course, to the ChelseaPensioners. This year it will run from 19 – 23 May.

The show started life in 1862 as theRHS Great spring Show at the RHSgarden in Kensington. It movedfrom there to Temple gardens in1888 and by 1897 was sportingfive marquees. The RHS alsohad summer shows atHolland House inKensington and used theChelsea site in 1905. TheTemple gardens site washowever, collectingcomplaints, not least fromthe Temple itself.

In 1912, the Temple Gardensshow was cancelled. Instead, therenowned nurseryman Sir HarryVeitch obtained the present Chelseasite for the Royal InternationalExhibition. The show proved to be so popularthat the spring show went there the following year andhasn’t moved since.

The show even went on in the first two years of theGreat War (World War 1) but then neither in 1917 norin 1918 similarly. The roaring twenties saw lively teaparties and lots of Royal visits. In 1937, there was aspecial Empire Exhibition to celebrate the Coronationyear of George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Exhibits fromall over the Empire must have made very exotic displays.

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

the show was cancelled throughout the war years andthe site was used for anti-aircraft defences. Despite thereluctance of some of the horticultural industry whowere still recovering from the war and from shortages,the show resumed in 1947 and was once again a greatsuccess.

In 1953, it was Coronation year again, this time forQueen Elizabeth II. During this special year of thedawning of the new Elizabethan age, a lot of Royalsvisited the show, the glaring exception being the Queenherself as she was somewhat busy. Of course, as we allknow, she now attends regularly as Patron of the RHS;she goes on Press day which is the first Monday of theshow. 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 coverageby the BBC. Over the years, fashions

change in horticulture just as itdoes in fashion and clothes.

Moving from Japanesegardens, through to rockgardens, to cottage gardens,as well as sculpture adornedgardens, to charity gardens,to eco gardens and even agarden in the air. All theshow gardens are built from

scratch in just 19 days andthen they are dismantled after

the show in just 5 days.The show period extended in

2005 from four days to five daysand the first two days are open only to

RHS members. It now has about 157,000visitors to the eleven acre site. It has suffered in

the past from overcrowding and from a shortage oftickets. This has probably been alleviated somewhat bytaking over the Hampton Court Palace Flower showlater in the year.

Even the temperamental English weather does notdeter the exhibitors and visitors. In 1928 they had realissues with hailstones but the show still went on.

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

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

History of the Chelsea Flower ShowBy Robert MacDonald Watson,Company Secretary, Mountview House Group

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though there is amusingly no medal for a bronze award.Those awards cover the following exhibits: Gardens andFloral, Trees, vegetables including herbs, specialeducational or scientific interest, pictures, photos, floralarrangements and floristry.

There are then a host of special awards such as for theBest Show Garden. Hillier Nurseries currently hold therecord for the greatest number of gold awards havingwon sixty six in all.

New plants are launched at the show and personalnaming ceremonies are very much part of publicity.You can imagine what is being carefully nurtured ingreenhouses all over the country waiting for their big

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

It is very much an integral part of the London socialseason and the sight of the Marquees being erected asseen from the Embankment builds up the excitement ofthings to come. And of course I am also told that, in thecab trade, the Flower Show marks the end of the Kipperseason and the beginning of the busy!

Roll on the spring!

London wishes GrahamLivingstone all the best in hisretirement after two decadesin the driving seat.

GRAHAM LIVINGSTONE THE MAN AT THE WHEEL

Ever been driven home in a Radio Taxis cab to thesoothing sounds of Mozart’s Horn Concertos? If so,you were probably in the company of the always-

charming Graham Livingstone, driver of an iconic Londonblack cab, Thames boat-dweller, cyclist and Kayaker.

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

ON THE ROADGraham, who is also fond of Handel, Vivaldi andBeethoven’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 definitelyappreciated by (Freshfields) London staff on their wayhome after a long day at work.

Peter, a London partner and general counsel, says:“Graham combined the attributes of a good Londoncabbie, independence and self-sufficiency, with a realloyalty to his Freshfields passengers. He very much valuedtheir friendliness and they in turn appreciated his quietcourtesy and consideration and the optional classicalmusic in the background. He will be missed by many ofus and we wish him all the best for what will certainly bea 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 hadchildren. Cabs home then became one of the ways of

squeezing time out of the day and trying better to jugglework and family. Graham is such a lovely man. It was anabsolute pleasure getting his cab home, especially if it wasquite late or after a challenging day. I would always turnoff my own music to listen to Graham’s and I would oftenput down the BlackBerry for the journey to listenproperly or chat about the music. I wish him all the verybest for his retirement – I am sure music will play a largerole in that somehow.”

Meanwhile Neil, a London dispute resolutionpartner, says: “It was always very nice after a long day atwork to find it was Graham who was driving the taxihome. A combination of rather nice classical music andchit-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 wasalways off on cycling or walking holidays and he wouldsend us postcards from his jaunts and sweets at Christmas.He’s a very nice, pleasant, friendly man – there was alwaysgood conversation. The whole of the evening team at thebooking desk wish him well in his retirement.”

PRAISE FOR THE PASSENGERSWhile London expresses gratitude for the man behindthe wheel, Graham is full of praise for his formerpassengers. “I was usually driving people home, oroccasionally to meetings or restaurants,” he says.“People work long hours. My record was driving someonehome at 4am and it never ceased to surprise me howpleasant and cheerful they were, even at that time. It wasnice to have civilised passengers and the job was very stress-free. I got to know where Freshfields people lived so theydidn’t need to tell me and I also knew who liked to work inthe back with the light on so they didn’t need to ask.”

GRAHAM IN HIS NATURAL HABITATGraham may have worked in the midst of Londontraffic, but at home he is surrounded by water – for thepast 20 years he has lived on a boat moored on the RiverThames at Ash Island near the historic Hampton Court.He explains that a boat takes a lot of work to maintainand that it has a “desert climate – the externaltemperature is always exaggerated. On a hot day, it’s veryhot, on a cold day, its freezing”. (Reassuringly, he has a

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

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

THE KNOWLEDGEIt’s quite a change for a boy who grew up inJohannesburg, 400 miles from the sea. He is the son ofanti-apartheid activists – his father was a lecturer inpolitics at the University of the Witwatersrand (WitsUniversity) in Johannesburg and both his parents werefounder 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 whichprovided black South Africans with legal advice andcampaigned for an end to apartheid laws. She workedfor 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 justdidn’t come back, which is why he has a UK passport.He first came to Britain in the 1970s then returned forten years before making his home here in 1989.Graham previously worked as a journalist and inpublishing before deciding to make his living on hisbicycle – he covered 37,000 miles of despatch riding asa cycle courier over a five-year period. He then becamea London taxi driver in his 40s.

His main claim to taxi fame is that he did “theKnowledge” (the in-depth knowledge of routes that allLondon taxi drivers must possess) on a bicycle ratherthan on a scooter. The average time taken to gain theKnowledge is 34 months and drivers must be able todecide routes immediately without consulting a map,nor by using a Sat-Nav or by calling their office onradio. Graham covered 16,000 miles of knowledge runsby bicycle before gaining his taxi driver’s green (all ofLondon) badge. As this is a feat that has only beenperformed by a handful of drivers in recent years,colleagues nicknamed him “Reg” after the Britishchampion 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 anumber 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 awaywith the stories of their lives. Seems Graham really willbe missed by many – and thanks to “this week” forintroducing him.� Daniela, January 29, 2015, 5:06pm.

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

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WE’VE SPOKEN A LOT IN THESE PAGESabout web sites, apps and all thingsdigital, all good stuff of course; butwhere does this leave those, who likethe author (and one suspects many ofyou too) grew up when the pinnacle ofdomestic technology was a colour TVto watch the 1966 World Cup Final?

Is the digital world just a way for teenagers to waste enormousamounts of time having pointless conversations with theirfriends and is the Internet just a place where “scammers” lurk

round every corner, or is there actually benefit to joining the digitalrevolution?

I’d argue that in 2015 there is almost no choice, the Internetgives access to so much that is positively useful, maps, trafficreports, weather forecasts, news, price comparisons and yes cabbookings too.

HOW TO START?There are two basics, a Broadband connection to the Internet and adevice to access the Internet. Wireless Broadband (generally calledWi-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 oftenfor free.

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

PCs or Apple Macs are great, but they can be expensive are notthat portable and do far more than is needed for just Internet access.

PCs in particular can be susceptible to viruses, which are bad bitsof software than can cause havoc if downloaded by accident. For methe best solution is a tablet with a screen somewhere between A5 andA4 in size. It’s both easy to see and to use, it’s also portable and verygood for streaming video. Moreover it can be available from onlyaround £100 (from supermarkets such as Tesco for example) up toseveral hundred pounds for the nicest iPad that will impress yourdigital friends.

NOW WE HAVE BROADBAND AND A TABLET, WHAT NEXT?

The first thing is to connect them together using the Wi-Ficonnection. Most will do this automatically, if not the helplinesfor your home’s Wi-Fi will give you good advice.

SO NOW YOU ARE CONNECTED ANDONLINE, WHAT NEXT?

The way to access the internet is to fire up a piece of software onyour tablet called a Browser (thus named because it allows you tobrowse the Internet.) Generally this will be in an obvious placeon your screen, the most popular Browsers are “Chrome,”“Internet Explorer,” “Safari,” and “Firefox;” but there are otherchoices. Tap or click on the browser and you’ll be presented witha home page and an address bar. Despite all the hype the WorldWide Web is no more nor is it less than an enormous globaldigital library and the search bar is the place to access it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Going DigitalBy Robert Stead, Head ofMarketing, MountviewHouse Group

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� We go that extra mile� Driver friendly fleet

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

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LIKE YOU, I HAVE READ A LOT ABOUT THEMayor’s proposed ultra low emission zonewhere all the vehicles running during workinghours are supposed to be either zero or lowemissions.

For taxi drivers, whose workplace is London, thissounds like a drastic change looming and Ithought 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 isestimated that, in London, more than 4,000 deathsannually can be attributed to long term exposure to airpollution. And, as taxi drivers, we are prime candidates tobe affected by air pollution as we spend our working livesfollowing exhaust pipes around all day and all night.

To tackle poor air quality, the Mayor hasannounced his ambition for a central London UltraLow Emission Zone (ULEZ) in 2020 to:� Reduce air pollutant emissions from road transport,

particularly those with the greatest potential healthimpacts, to support Mayoral strategies and contributeto 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 vehiclesand promoting sustainable travelApparently, the “Boffins” at City Hall believe that

addressing air quality is not only an environmental andhealth objective, but also an economic opportunity anda driver for innovation. The Mayor is also keen for TfL toensure that the ULEZ can stimulate London’s economy.

A public consultation on the ULEZ took placebetween 27 October 2014 and 9 January 2015. Thisincluded proposals to introduce a vehicle emissionscharging scheme in central London, alongside proposalsfor buses and revised Taxi and Private Hire Vehiclelicensing requirements.

The draft proposal, along the lines of CongestionCharge, is that private and commercial vehicles maybe 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 exemptfrom the ULEZ standards and charges)

� The relevant charge isn’t paid by midnight on thenext 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

paying the charge � The owner paid by post but

did not allow at least 10 days before date of travel forpayment to clear

Owners may receive separate PCNs for each chargingday that is driven within the LEZ. The charging hourswould be from midnight to midnight. PCNs will beissued to both GB and non-GB registered vehicles.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTSFOR TFL BUSES

The TfL bus fleet in London is the youngest of anymajor European or world city with an average age of sixyears. In addition to meeting the ULEZ standards, it isproposed all double deck buses operating in centralLondon will be hybrid and all single deck buses will bezero emission by 2020.

Approximately 300 of the New Routemasters (whichare already hybrid and have NOx emissions much closerto the Euro VI standards than other Euro V buses)would continue to operate in the ULEZ withoutmodification at 2020

London’s air quality has improved significantly inrecent years and is now considered compliant for allbut one air pollutant for which the European Union hasset legal limits. This pollutant is nitrogen dioxide(NO2), which has impacts on public health. London iscurrently in breach of legal limits. The Capital alsofaces challenging targets to mitigate the effects ofclimate change.

Ultra Low EmissionZone (ULEZ)By Peter Gibson, Strategic Director, MVHG

Penalty ChargesPenalty If paid within

Vehicle Weight Charge 14 daysThe amount of the penalty The amount of the penalty £500 £250charge depends on the type of charge depends on the type ofvehicle you’re driving & how vehicle you’re driving & howsoon you can pay it. soon you can pay it.

Motor caravans 2.5 – 3.5 tonnes gross £500 £250Ambulances vehicle weight

Minibuses (with more than 8 5 tonnes or less gross £500 £250passenger seats) vehicle weight

Lorries More than 3.5 tonnes gross £1000 £500Goods vehicles vehicle weightMotor caravansMotorised horseboxesBreakdown & recovery vehiclesSnow ploughsGrittersRefuse collection vehiclesRoad sweepersConcrete mixersTippersFire enginesRemovals lorriesOther specialist vehicles

Buses More than 3.5 tonnes gross £1000 £500Coaches (with more than 8 vehicle weightpassenger seats)

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THE ULEZ WOULD INCLUDE ADDITIONALREQUIREMENTS FOR TFL BUSES,

TAXIS (BLACK CABS) AND PRIVATE HIREVEHICLES (PHVS):

� A requirement that all new taxis and new private hirevehicles presented for licensing from 2018 wouldneed to be zero emission capable

� A reduction in the age limit for all non zero emissioncapable taxis from 2020 from 15 to 10 years(irrespective of date of licensing)

� Investment in the TfL bus fleet so that all double deckbuses operating in central London will be hybrid and allsingle deck buses will be zero emission (at source) by 2020.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTSFOR TAXIS AND PHVS

The ULEZ proposal has been tailored to reflect thedifferent vehicle types used as taxis and PHVs, theircontribution to emissions in the ULEZ and the likelydevelopment of the vehicle market for each sector.

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

Since 2012, a 15 year age limit has removed over6,000 of the oldest and most polluting taxis. TfLproposes to reduce the age limit for all non zeroemission 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 wellas in the ULEZ. *It is proposed that all taxis will beexempt from the ULEZ standards and charges.

PRIVATE HIRE VEHICLES (EG MINICABS)It is proposed that from January 2018, all newlymanufactured vehicles (under 18 months old) presentedfor licensing as PHVs must be ‘zero emission capable’.Other vehicles presented for licensing as PHVs mustcomply as a minimum with the ULEZ standards and alsocontinue 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 pleasantplace to live, to work and to visit. The ULEZ is projectedto at least halve emissions of NOx and particulatematter PM10 (which is said to be carcinogenic) fromvehicle exhausts. This means more than 80 per cent ofcentral London is expected to meet the NO2 annuallegal limits in 2020. The ULEZ would also lead to asignificant reduction in the number of people living inareas of poor air quality (where levels of NO2 exceedlegal limits) – by 74 per cent in central London, 51 percent in inner London and 43 per cent in outer London.

SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEANFOR US TAXI DRIVERS?

� The 15 year age limit for taxis will be reduced to 10years in one foul swoop.

� This will become a de facto “default” date for a lot oftaxi drivers retiring from driving a taxi completely, asthere will be several hundred cabs disappearingovernight and a shortage of vehicles available to rentfor 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 achange in “Conditions of Fitness” for taxi vehicles ifcurrent manufacturer (LTC) does not have a “hybrid”drive train?

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

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

2015 HAS STARTEDwith a bang! Alreadywe have several newaccounts signed up –

ranging from large Public Sector andTravel Industry clients with a UKrequirement, to Legal Firms andArchitects.

However here’s the rub, none of them are justwhat we used to know as ‘Taxi Accounts’.They are all One Transport customers who

have a requirement for consolidated, mixed use ofvehicles – although some, particularly the LegalFirms and the Architects, still have a majorityrequirement for Taxis, thank heavens.

The trend for both Corporate and Public Sectorcustomers has been a move away from exclusive Taxiusage, to a greater or lesser extent, usually they tellus, for reasons of cost.

At one extreme is a Bank that we are currentlytalking to and who took Taxis out of the equationcompletely after the 2007 crash and moved overentirely to Private Hire; at the other end of thespectrum are the Architects who have been usingPrivate Hire in recent times, exclusively but havebecome frustrated at slow response ‘ASAP’s’ (“assoon as possibles”) for the arrival times with privatehire is not generally good and of course theycomplain that “the Drivers don’t know where theywere going.” (Now there’s a surprise?) In both caseswe have been able to sell One Transport as acompletely flexible booking tool that allows themaccess to multiple vehicle types. In the case of theBank, this may well mean re-introducing Taxis intotheir vehicle mix of supply, initially for shorterjourneys around town and in the case of theArchitects, only using Private Hire for a minority oflonger journeys out to the suburbs and beyond.

Taxis as an integrated part of the One Transportconsolidation offering, is a major “USP” (Uniqueselling point) and it is allowing us to sell wide-ranging ground transport solutions (includingnational and international supply) to a broad rangeof clients and in markets that our competitors haveeither no experience in, or are well behind in thedevelopment of their product in order to competeeffectively.

A good example of this is our link-up with theGuild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC).One Transport as a consolidator is now a partner-member and this is allowing direct access to TravelManagement Companies (TMC’s) who provideBusiness Travel services for corporate clients andwith both Airline and with Train companies.In each of these cases there is a growing customerrequirement for ‘value-add’ services – principally‘end to end’ ground transport solutions andsupply. Again the ability to offer Taxis as animportant part of the mix of supply is adifferentiator for these organisations – nobody elseis doing this.

One Transport attended the Business Travel Show inlate February. Although the usual suspects from theCar and from the Taxi industry also were inattendance, One Transport was the only GroundTransport operator attending as part of the GTMC‘Pavilion’ which obviously adds greater legitimacy toour reputation as a trusted partner of the TravelIndustry.

The Business Travel Show attracts Travel andGround Transport buyers from across all corporatesectors and they were able to book appointmentswith chosen suppliers – at the time of writing,which was just as the show commenced, we alreadyhad fourteen appointments booked from anextensive range of potential clients to discuss theirground transport requirements and we expect thatby the time you read this, we will have held somethoroughly fruitful and ultimately rewardingconversations.

The BIG BANGTHEORY

By Roy Hughes, Director of CommercialDevelopment at Mountview House Group

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We now have Chip and Pin and because all other methodsof accepting a credit card carry some sort of financialrisk to the company we will be bringing to an end the

practice of taking credit card numbers over the telephone in theCall Centre, as this method is totally non PCI (Payment CardsIndustry) Compliant and leaves Radio Taxis totally exposed tofinancial loss.

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

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

Ian was quick to let me know that all new drivers are onlyshown the functionality of the Chip and Pin machine as weactively want to discourage the swiping of credit cards forsecurity reasons. So this article is to try and reacquaint theuninitiated in the art of swiping a credit card but for anemergency only.

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

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 aPDA swipe the card through the printer, with the magneticstrip facing upwards.

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

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

5. Stop the meter to clear the job. You MUST print and get asigned receipt that you keep for your records. If thepassenger 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 /CreditCard) will be able to be used in transactions up to £30. No doubtthis will be increased again over the coming years and this is goodnews for the taxi trade. Credit Cards are the strongest “goodnews” growth area in “radio circuit” world. Street hail Credit Card

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

Just in case you didn’t know, all Uber customers, all Hailocustomers and all GetTaxi customers pay by credit card. Anypassenger that prefers this method of payment is lost to the taxitrade at the first sight of a “Cash only” sign or “Credit Cardmachine is broken” comment. Most of our drivers are greatcredit card supporters, we know this from the stats, but there isa hard core of drivers that continuously refuse to take creditcards and this next paragraph is especially for you if you are oneof 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 downto you as you do not like to make it convenient for thecustomer, you like to say “if you have a credit card then gosomewhere else”.

� Any driver that has a visible sign saying “Cash only” will beput on complaint or asked to leave the circuit.

� Any driver that continuously covers over their Chip and Pinmachine will be put on complaint or asked to leave the circuit.

� Any driver that continuously swipes credit cards and doesn’thave any use on their Chip and pin machine will be put oncomplaint and will have to explain themselves.

� If your Chip and pin machine is faulty – go to DriverServices and get it fixed.

� Do not try and “ring through” a credit card number on thetelephone – it’s no longer allowed.

� If you have a moral objection to passengers using theconvenience of a credit card then you should consider if youare cut out to be a “radio man” and perhaps consider anotherprofession as credit card usage for taxi fares is going tocontinue to grow.

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Emergency Swipe...ONCE UPON A TIME… in the days before Chip and Pin

the MDT (Mobile Data Terminal) had a swipe thatenabled the driver to take a credit card or convert astreet hail trip into an account trip by swiping aTaxicharge card.

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I THOUGHT OUR DECEMBER LOCATION WOULDbe very tough and would go into a roll-over forseveral issues, but I know that I am dealing withLondon’s elite taxi-drivers after all!

Even 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 ArthurStreet. According to staff in the bar it was used as a safe.

Apparently a building stood on what is now an openspace to the side of the pub, so it was accessible from insideand 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 keepsearching for them!”

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

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

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

If you think you know then please email me at:editor@eviewmagazine.com or send your answer by snail-mail to: Mountview News Editor, Mountview House,Lennox Road, London N4 3TX. The winner who correctlynames the location of this contest will receive a *£25 M&SGift Voucher.

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

“Where am I?”“Where am I?”

Give your brains a reallygood work out!

HAVE A GO AT THIS ISSUE’SSUDOKU PUZZLE!

The object is to write in the missing numbers inthe empty boxes below. But to satisfy only

one condition: each row, column and 3 x 3 box mustcontain 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

Jotting space

MOUNTVIEW SUDOKU

35

The Mountview Puzzler Page

???

CLUES ACROSS1. 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)

CLUES DOWN2. 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)