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Hello to you wherever you are in the world, as the Editor of Call Sign
Magazine, I'm delighted to welcome you to the on-line CS library.
Call Sign - in various guises - has been around since 1964 and I am its
fourth editor, following on from Joe Toff, Phil Emden and Gerald Craig.
What my three predecessors would think about the magazine they cared for
so passionately, whizzing around the world from keyboard to keyboard, heaven
knows! However, each in their own way progressed the magazine a bit further and
this is my bit - Call Sign International. We have been on-line since 1998 and
they are the issues you can research on.
Call Sign is not independent, neither does it claim to be. It is the
house magazine of Europe's most advanced radio taxi company, Dial-a-Cab. If you
are not a DaC driver - for whom this site is aimed as a library facility - but
you have been to London, you could not fail to notice the logo that adorns
every one of our 2,200 taxis. As a reminder, you can see it whizzing by at the
top of the page.
Dial-a-Cab's fleet have the latest in in-screen terminals. Each terminal
can instantaneously bring up detailed full colour maps of London, including the
facility to close in on any part and scroll it along. It contains a list of
various important parts of London in addition to stations, hospitals etc which
when highlighted, will bring up that point on the map.
The system can also bring up a keyboard on which messages can be typed
and sent to a central dispatcher. Of course its main function is to provide the
driver with trips and these are shown in two colours, which the drivers can
choose from around 1000...!
Dial-a-Cab also look after their clients and offer regular management
reports which our clients tell us are a great help in managing their transport
outgoings. We have also developed our own on-line Management Reports (DaCport)
which many clients have heard of and are now starting to apply for. Those who
have it say they couldn't now live without it!
We also believe that we were the first taxi organisation in the world to
develop a true on-line real-time booking system as against one where you just
send an email and hope for the best. With this system, clients use their own
log-in code and are immediately transported into our system where they can
order, cancel or even check on the progress of their taxi without ever needing
to speak to one of our Call Takers.
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As for Call Sign itself, we are the only radio taxi organisation in London to
have a regular magazine for drivers and staff giving updates of the company,
together with general taxi news and individual articles by the drivers and even
their families. Our Internet issue usually contains around half that of the
hard copy, but I hope that it is enough to give outsiders a glimpse of how
Dial-a-Cab operate and enough for drivers to use as a reference library.
Before leaving you to browse, can I thank Call Sign's regular computer
columnist Vince Chin, who built this site for Call Sign. His knowledge of web
development is second to none and Call Sign are proud to have him.
If you would like to have a look at our latest issue, click on the icon
below, if you want to look at a particular issue, then just click on the icon
for it. Otherwise go to the search option and type in the part you are looking
for and hopefully our engine will find it for you.
Alan Fisher,
Editor
March 2010
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