Fuzzy TV screen

January 13, 2010

Dear Sir,

Here we are in another NFL post-season and the fans watching it on cable are treated to sub-par service. After the pre-game show on Fox for the game between the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals, Bermuda CableVision switches from a decent Fox feed to an awful looking picture from a Canadian feed channel. I mean where do they get this picture from, the 1960s? It's blurry and makes a flat screen television look likes it's covered with grease. For example, when the starting lineups are shown with pictures and names underneath you can't make out the names unless you know the player or stand about two feet in front of the screen to read it.

Now if that wasn't enough, the signal goes off every three to five minutes for a second which makes the viewing quite irritating. The NFL playoffs are highly watched year after year but why are we subjected to such poor quality? I can tell you, after seeing those same highlights for the game on NFL Network you saw what the game was supposed to look like – clean and crisp. This constant switching of the Fox feed is getting a bit out of hand. Later in the evening, anyone watching The Simpsons 20th special also saw CableVision switch the feeds and cut off an amount of the programme before someone realised the show wasn't finished and switched it back.

Now I don't know if this is CableVision's way of getting us to switch to the HD boxes and get the FoxHD which they probably don't interfere with as much, but c'mon, give the viewers a decent viewing experience.We still have two weeks of playoffs on FOX left, I would like to be able to make out everything on the screen.

UHF

Pembroke

Cable policy is unfair

January 13, 2010

Dear Sir,

I am a young adult who lives in the Rockaway condominium complex with my two parents – both seniors. They are both people who do not like to make a fuss and would probably object to me writing this letter but I would like public opinion and advice on a particular issue we are facing where we live.

The Rockaway board has apparently been facing a problem with getting the owners of the Rockaway condos to pay their maintenance fees on time. To remedy this situation they instilled a policy recently of turning anyone's cable off whose maintenance is not paid up to date. On Friday evening ours was turned off, along with several others. To add insult to injury our maintenance is actually paid up to date. So even with the new policy, our cable should not have been turned off. We were not informed that it was going to be turned off. Our cable bill is also paid up to date so when the cable went off we thought it was a weather issue as we have lost some or all of our cable channels in bad weather on previous occasions. By the Saturday afternoon when the cable was still not turned back on, we then of course called CableVision. I then spent about an hour on the phone with a CableVision customer service representative trying to figure out what was wrong with our cable connection. I ended up scheduling an appointment with a technician.

My father found out the next day after running into a member of the board what the real cause of the loss of cable was. We were then told that we would have to write a letter and it would take several days to have our cable turned back on. If they can simply turn it off with a switch, why can't they turn it back on with a switch. It is now the Tuesday following the Friday when our cable was turned off and I am still watching dvd boxed sets that I received for Christmas. We have lived in Rockaway for 25 years and have never faced the kinds of issues that we face with this current board. I have several other stories of things they have done in the past which I will not get into.

I do not think CableVision is aware that Rockaway has adopted this policy. My question to the public, particularly somebody in a position of know at CableVision, is – is this policy legal? I know it is illegal for anybody but Belco employees to turn on and off somebody's electricity. Does this rule apply to cable? I can certainly understand the problem the board must have in maintaining the property if people are not keeping their maintenance payments up to date but this particular policy does not seem legal.

Doesn't CableVision have an issue with Rockaway interrupting their service to their paying clients? This would hardly generate good feelings from CableVision customers who live in Rockaway if they allowed this. Legally is there anything Rockaway residents can do to fight against this board, which has become a dictatorship, and this new policy? The public's opinion and advice on this problem would be greatly appreciated.

FRUSTRATED RESIDENT

Southampton

GPS: Inconvenient, unsafe

January 12, 2010

Dear Sir,

This letter is about the out-dated GPS taxi dispatching system that was forced upon us taxi drivers by a Premier with little understanding of the taxi business. And how unsafe and inconvenient GPS is to use! It doesn't even have modern mapping technology built into it. It does not feature a colour screen. GPS is so despised that one dispatching company went back to using its two-way radio at the request of their drivers. Too bad the other dispatching association didn't do the same. It's simply that GPS is too difficult and dangerous to use.

The old two-way radio is much more effective. GPS is designed for big American taxis fleets all owned by one company, not independent owner/drivers like us. But Transport Minister & Premier Ewart Brown thinks if taxi drivers turned on their GPS units all the time everything would be tickety-boo! He thinks that this will improve local service. It won't. Because so many drivers do not use their units all the time. And threats from the Premier will not change that.

The drivers did not want GPS in the first place when they were forced by Government into installing the extremely expensive devices ($3,000 each) that actually appear to be old technology. And most drivers don't like the GPS now that they have tried it out. So they turn their units off. After spending over $150,000 on their taxi including the Government $100,000 licence fee, drivers resent being told what to do by someone who doesn't understand the taxi business. Brown seems to have a vendetta out for drivers. Why? Because the drivers didn't buy into "his" recommended GPS system?

Here's why I dislike the present GPS system: If you think using a cell phone while driving is unsafe, GPS is way more hazardous to use than a cell phone! Here's how it works: When the GPS unit alerts you to a job by beeping, you must take your eyes off the road and push a button on the unit to accept the job. Then you must attempt to read the directions on the unit which involves more button pushing (scrolling) and taking your eyes off the road for extended periods. In my case, I cannot read the GPS typeface without putting on my reading glasses ... some older drivers are not the best readers either. So we must pull over to the side of the road and stop safely, then put on our glasses to be able to read where the job is at (the typeface is so small) – all this before the time runs out on accepting the job. You only have about 15 seconds to make a decision on the GPS unit if you can take the job or not. If you can't take the job you have to push two more buttons. In my opinion it is virtually impossible to do all this safely without stopping the taxi by the side of the road, which often can be unsafe too – or impossible to do in 15 seconds!

For example, here's what happened to me the other day when I was using my GPS: I got an alert as I was driving west up Scaur Hill. There is no safe place to pull over on Scaur Hill, so by the time I was able to turn into the gate to Fort Scaur and stop my time had run out on the system and I lost the job! "Are you there?!" it asks. Then I get disconnected from the GPS as the system thought I was not in my cab. It's totally inconvenient to use!

The GPS has a poor interface at best. Even if you do have your unit turned on you still have no idea of what is going on in the rest of the Country. Now and then you get a message that shows up as a little mail box symbol on your GPS unit – if you notice it at all. To read your mail box message you must go to the menu by pushing a button and then push a second button, then scrolling down to read what it says – all while you are driving? Difficult and absolutely unsafe. Your message may say that taxis are needed at a certain hotel or at the airport, so you dash over to the hotel, but find that your message is 20 minutes out of date and there are are already ten cabs there.

Now with the two-way radio, you never have to take your eyes off the road to receive a call. You never have to pull over within 15 seconds. You can choose the jobs you want by how close you are to the address because they all come over the radio. You always know what is going on around the Island, in real time, by the constant chatter on the radio. If more cars are needed for the airport, the dispatcher calls for cars in real time for all drivers to hear – and if you are relatively close by you head for the airport. If you hear a job that is close to you, you radio in to claim it. All while keeping your eyes on the road. Again in my view the two-way radio is the only way to go. The GPS system simply is not safe to use in its present form, has not really improved Island taxi service to locals, and is totally inconvenient for older drivers who need reading glasses or are poor readers.

Much to the Premier's chagrin, another of his ill-thought-out ideas has crashed and burned. Badgering drivers and selling more minibus licences will not solve the taxi issue either, it will only aggravate the drivers more. Taxi drivers are not happy with the PLP Government right now. The new minibuses thay have just licensed are taking away a lot of our business. Same with the new Airport Taxis, which are also taking away well paid jobs. One large hotel even has used their Airport Taxi to ferry golfers around – which I believe is illegal.

It is difficult enough now to make a living as a taxi driver during the off-season without having to deal with a bunch of minibuses and airport limousines essentially stealing our business! And a seemingly vindictive Premier who refuses to understand our predicament, and wants to fine us $1,400 a day for disobedience. That is over the top in my view! We don't make that kind of money. For instance, I worked from 5.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. on Sunday and made $110. And that's good for the off-season! But it works out to be just $12 an hour for both car AND driver. Would you work for that?! And I still had to pay rent for the cab out of that money.

By the way, on the evening of November 11, when apparently there where not enough taxis at the airport to effectively service visitors, I was told those flights arrived very late and drivers had already been sitting around (unpaid) for a couple of hours waiting for them to arrive. Do you blame drivers if a few went home to their beds? On holidays like Cup Match, Christmas and New Year, Easter, Remembrance Day, and so on, when many drivers take much needed time off with their families, this is the time to use the minibuses and Airport Taxis to help out at the airport. When they are needed most – rather than competing with us on a daily basis.

Believe me, it's not easy being a taxi driver in Bermuda under the present Government. And the Premier seems to have a big chip on his shoulder for us drivers. Is it pay-back time for us too? Dr Brown, haven't you got anything better to do? Like maybe dealing with a 30 percent drop in tourism, empty hotels, dwindling hotel beds, hotels in financial trouble, education that needs dramatic reform, international business on edge because increasing gang violence in the streets, etc., etc. – yet you choose to pick on us. I don't get it.

JOE TAXICAB

Sandys