Call Sign May 14.Qxp

4 1 0 2 y a M G oo ke dbye Kupka 19 May 1947 – 1 April 2014 Call Sign May 2014 Page 2 NASH’S NUMBERS From Alan Nash (A95) June 4th 2014 sees the opening of Terminal 2 at Heathrow. The first airline to move to T2 is United Airlines. Other airlines will move on a timetable through to October. Knowing HTR, the move dates may change and as there is no June edition of Call Sign, this is the best advance information that I can give you. The list below is valid as of 10/04/2014... Heathrow Airline Transfers of Terminals May 2013 was the last time the HTR departure terminals article was published; little has changed from that issue which is still available from www.nashsnumbers.co.uk. However, the following changes have occurred. BA to Bangkok, Bucharest and Tel Aviv now depart T5. New airline Air Serbia T4 code JU Tel 020 8976 6000 Airlines just cannot stop changing their phone numbers, here are their latest changes. Air Mauritius 020 7434 4375 Bulgaria +359 2402 0400 China Southern +86 2022 3956 Ethihad 0845 608 0644 Iran Air 020 8741 8000 Libyan 0871 222 9222 Tarom 020 8745 5542 Turkmenistan 020 8577 2211 Uzbekistan 0844 482 1695 Avianca (Columbian airline) 0871 744 7472 And finally Saudi Arabian Airlines is now called Saudia The www.myfav.co.uk website is going through a major revamp, please bear with me whilst the update is fully implemented. The “Taxi” page can now be displayed without signing in. Just click the “Taxi < --------” link in the list below “Left screen selector”. New facilities are being regularly added which will make this website your ideal “Home Page”. Call Sign May 2014 Page 3 from the editor’s desk Awful April meter. So that has to make one ask what it actu - After Call Sign slipped in its April Fool gag ally is then? about a six-wheeled taxi that could park side - My view is that if a smart phone can tell a taxi ways and the phone calls from drivers enquiring passenger the fare it has gained from a combi - about this “amazing taxi” had slowed, I assumed nation of time and distance, then it is a taxime - that April would slide away along with the first ter. Otherwise what is it and what other pur - three months of 2014. But not in a million years pose could it be used for? did I expect April to herald the two most When Uber first approached TfL, their appalling pieces of news concerning the deaths spokesperson claimed they couldn’t get over how of two very long-standing Dial-a-Cab drivers – easy and accommodating the licensing depart - Call Sign’s poet David “Kupkake” Kupler ment was. If TfL is now saying that Uber’s meter (Y74) and Ray Marks (K80) . isn’t a meter – and there are passengers who will Ray had been working in his cab just days assume Uber to be a reputable company purely before he suddenly collapsed and died. David on the strength of them having meter facilities – had suffered since last November when a small then perhaps they could explain what it actually shadow appeared on his lung and within three does, because there is an act – The Private Hire months had quickly spread. Both drivers had Vehicles (London) Act 1998 (section 2) - that Director Surface Transport: “As Londoners and specifically forbids PH companies using meters. been with the Society since the 1970s, although visitors change the way they pay for goods and David had left in the 80s to try life in California Uber CEO and joint founder, Travis services in the capital, I am proud that we are at Kalanick , gained a reputation for doing what - before eventually returning. the forefront of that change. Customers will not There was a huge turn-out of drivers at Ray’s ever he thought would be best for his business only benefit from a quicker, cheaper and more and not allowing red tape to stand in his way. funeral with many of his old friends from both convenient method of paying their bus fare; it will the Finsbury Square rank and the Gresham That philosophy seems to have crossed the also enable us to save millions of pounds each Atlantic along with the Uber name and meters Street Piccolo sandwich bar. Terry Bezant even year – which will be reinvested in further drove down from Wales, while Brian Rice came will be the first stop along the road if no one improvements to the capital’s transport network.” takes a stand now, because it seems that TfL in from Hampshire to the Waltham Abbey ceme - I know that Leon Daniels has been castigated tery. won’t be doing anything other than approving by some taxi trade papers, but I have always whatever Uber wants. So I’m pleased to note David had decided many years ago that when found him to be someone who, when asked a the time came for his passing, he would ask for Call Sign that that the LTDA are contemplating a judicial question by , gave an honest answer. So review and looking at a possible private investi - his body to be donated to medical science. I have just have two things to say to him. Firstly, Having worked in a mortuary many years before Oyster gation into Uber’s actions, which seems to drive not every tourist is going to have an card, a coach and horses – with a meter - through the starting his cabbing career, he always queried so thank you because that decision may well how prospective consultants could ever learn Private Hire Act. make this trade busier. And secondly, please Even the Licensed Private Hire Car with nothing to practice on. Then again, David PLEASE don’t invest the money you are saving in always had a mind of his own and looked at life Association (LPHCA) through Steve Wright even more buses because we can’t move in says it has lost confidence in TfL's ability to somewhat differently than most – something that London as it is for empty ones running around. often showed in his poetry for Call Sign . He even bring cab apps into line and – obviously refer - So if you want to save even more money, cut the ring to Uber - accusing them of masquerading as dictated his own obituary from a hospital bed numbers of buses running around - which will and that is inside this issue, as well as two poems private cabs without following the same rules. get Boris closer to his emissions target - while God knows what they will make of Lyft when that he dictated to me just days before he died. also helping to cut traffic jams. Yes, taxi emis - Ray’s passing was very sudden compared to they come over, as they undoubtedly will. sions aren’t good, but ask any motorist and they The problem is that the taxi trade is regulated David’s, which involved the sad sight of his will tell you that it is the unnecessary number of physical condition gradually deteriorating and if done in a correct manner, is beneficial empty buses causing hold-ups everywhere that because our passengers know what they are get - although his brain kept its sharpness right till exacerbates the problem. the end. His passing could have been made so PS Mr Daniels: If you could get someone to ting. We put up with a lot of unnecessary stuff in much easier had some pen pushing twerp in the teach bus drivers how to pull out safely, we’d order to get the excellent name that we have. UK allowed his daughter, Ossie – who lives in appreciate it... But if TfL through LTPH are going to let Uber do California - to get an emergency passport and whatever they like, then there seems little point help David to get all three daughters together to Signals in taxis remaining as they are. LTPH like to think say his goodbyes. He had organised one last trip of themselves as our teachers. So the question Call Sign This issue has O2 responding to an invitation must be: Who teaches the teachers??? where was going to take them to explaining why signals aren’t as good as we Southend to have a fish and chip lunch at a expected from our new terminals. Whilst they beach-side café, something they used to love Hailo and PH can be like lightening at times, at other times Call Sign has often wondered aloud in print doing in their younger days. But that was they seem to be the opposite. I spoke to drivers denied to them because someone insisted on about what would happen if London’s Hailo on both ComCab and Radio Taxis and both cir - fleet failed to cover work during busy periods keeping strictly to protocol – something a fit cuits seem to be suffering from similar prob - David Kupler would have created merry hell because of the poor returns involving no run- lems, with RTG also having problems with the ins and free waiting time. about. By the time it had been okayed, it was far same job occasionally being duplicated and too late. The question was how long would it be going out to two different drivers. before Hailo began using cars? Well, if New Both drivers have left their mark on this Society The answer? I dunno, but I’m hoping that O2 and all we can but do is to wish both Jan Kupler York’s Hailo fleet is anything to go by, then the do and can sort it out because I think the ter - answer could be fairly soon, especially as Hailo and Frances Marks long lives with the sincere minal itself is excellent, as is the mapping and hope that these two losses should be their last..

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