Train travel companies are notoriously unpopular amongst commuters for poor timekeeping. Northern Rail topped a national list of shame for cancellations earlier this year and have now managed to secure further wrath from it’s customers by deciding to withdraw their ‘Northern Duo’ ticket offer for Saturdays and Sundays during December.
Although Northern Rail states that they always suspend such offers at this time of year claiming such deals could cause capacity issues. It still reeks of profiteering by the rail company who are clearly looking to take full advantage of the usual increase in rail travel during the festive season.
With fares set to rise around 6% during 2009, which is above the rate of inflation they may find themselves coming unstuck in the New Year as commuters show their appreciation by using alternative means of transport.
Local campaigners are pushing the company to introduce a loyalty cards scheme for those not captured by existing schemes. Senior citizens and young people alike, enjoy lavishly discounted prices, yet, like every other area of finance, the people considered most affluent, generally those aged between 35 and 55 years old are not considered worthy of such schemes.
There is an opportunity being missed here by travel companies that fail to recognise that these people are probably one of their best sources of additional revenue.
Any business will recognise that consumer buying is a fickle science and can change at the drop of a hat. It doesn’t always have to be as a result of a financial downturn in the economy, it can just simply be trends in the current fashion.
Technology continuosly evolves and any business failing to move forward at the same pace could find themselves struggling to keep sales flowing.
Larger organisations such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda invest a lot of time, money and effort in monitoring consumer trends and adjust their buying accordingly.
Loyalty cards and money off, discount vouchers are excellent modes of gathering up to the minute consumer purchasing data. It offers retailers an opportunity to collate information to feed through to their analysts and inform future buying early. Such information also helps them establish volumes and thereby help them to negotiate better prices with suppliers.
Marketing specialists have always been big advocates of merchandising products through loyalty and money off schemes.
Now that customers quite simply, cannot be relied on to just buy whatever they want as they have done during the better years, retail businesses need to make sure they use all systems in their arsenal to improve their understanding of consumer purchasing trends and behaviours. In doing so, they will realise that it will help them to make decisions on fundamentals such as products, pricing and stock levels.
The Christmas and New Year holidays provide us with a good opportunity to remind ourselves of the threat from theft and unauthorised access to business premises, which is especially heightened during this time of year.
It is a good time to remind employees to be extra vigilant and ensure they report anybody they see around the premises behaving suspiciously. Employees should alert security if they see people wandering around on the premises that they don’t recognise or are not displaying suitable ID cards.
Businesses should make sure that the emergency authorities have up to date contact details in the event of any business continuity incident and that anybody present on the premises is aware of the correct procedures should something happen. Do your security personnel know who to contact in the event of an emergency?
Is there special ID cards, jacket or arm band for your on-site emergency liaison officer (ELO) to wear and therefore be easily identified by the emergency services.
It may equally be prudent to remind your employees that if they intend to travel abroad during the Christmas and New Year holidays, they would do well to check travel advice out on the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) Home website.
If travelling to a country with civil unrest check the Government’s Travelling & Living Overseas website for up to date travel advice.
Military and Government establishments have, throughout the years, regularly been subject to attempted hacking of their software systems and the data contained therein.
Luckily, through their contracts with major service providers, they have the benefit of access to experts, extremely sophisticated ID access control systems, coupled with virtually limitless funding to assure protection. But none the less, hackers are continuously trying, even though there are severe sentences attached if caught.
To protect data loss, a number of UK Government Departments have now imposed blanket bans on the use of external flash drives on any departmental PC or Laptop. Their use of ID Card Systems and smartcard technology to control and monitor IT systems access will enable them to monitor and subsequently take disciplinary action against any attempts to breach the system.
Smaller businesses using standalone systems, however, will not be able to afford such protection from inappropriate attempts to access their systems from either internal or external sources. Therefore, they need to take their own precautions.
It makes sense to consider utilising smartcard technology by distributing computer access ID cards to all employees. Such systems will offer you the opportunity to not only control who can access what is on your systems, but also enable you to monitor systems accessed by any individual, at any time.
Never forget, the sale of personal data can be very lucrative. Therefore, ignoring the fact that employees and customers will not be appreciative for any breach in trust, furthermore you could also potentially be open to prosecution.
The new UK identity card scheme introduced for foreign nationals towards the end of last month has had its first success.
33 year old Ranjit Singh, originally from India and currently residing in Caddington, Luton, has the dubious honour of being the first illegal immigrant identified following biometric fingerprint testing at the identity card centre in Solihull.
He was required to attend the centre as part of his application for a visa to stay in the UK.
The fingerprints taken for the ID card actually confirmed that Singh was a failed asylum seeker also using the alias Ranjit Singh, aged 23. Under questioning, Singh confessed that he had previously made an application for asylum using a false date of birth.
Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary said:
”Identity cards ensure that foreign nationals living, working and studying here legally are able to prove their identity easily - but they also make it much harder for people to use false or multiple identities; and this case shows that the scheme is already working, and that with tough enforcement by UK Border Agency officials, those who don’t play by the rules will be caught out.”
As well as ID cards assisting in the apprehension of criminals by immigration officers and the police, the ID cards provide immediate proof to employers and educational institutions that a person is legally entitled to be working or studying in Britain.
Accusations by the human rights group, Liberty that a sub-clause in a draft bill allows immigration officers and police authorities to demand an identity card refers to anyone who ”has entered the UK”, which could mean anyone who has entered the country.
In response, Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith has put on record that this would not be the case. The government is pushing ahead with plans for ID cards, with the first ones being issued this year to foreign nationals, but has said it will not be compulsory for Britons to carry them.
Liberty claims the authority is hidden in a sub clause of the draft bill and centres on powers to examine those who ”arrive in, enter or seek to enter the UK”.
It is the interpretation of the meaning of this sub-clause that is causing concern in that it refers to anyone who ”has entered the UK”, which could be interpreted to mean a person who has entered the country at any time, past or present.
Interestingly enough, whilst the announcement was welcomed by all parties in the house, responses have focussed around assuring people that the intention is to enable ID checks at our borders; there was no inference of any intention to withdraw or rewrite the offending sub-clause.
Whilst The Home Office is wallowing in glory following news that the fingerprinting system of the controversial identity card scheme has caught its very first illegal immigrant weeks after launching. The question must be asked, is the new system is in fact a sledgehammer to crack a nut?
Nobody will dispute that the protection of our country and its people is of paramount importance, and the fact that the system has caught its first illegal is newsworthy. Yet, what data has been made available to substantiate all the effort and expense put into developing the scheme?
There is no inference in articles written about the capture of Ranjit Singh that he was connected to some terrorist organisation, which was the principle reason for the introduction of the scheme in the first place, if everything that has been written is to be believed.
Just how many people have been tested? What is the success rate?
Do they really believe that illegal immigrants are going to voluntarily attend the ID Card Centres – whether legally required to or not.
To identify just one or two illegal immigrants following the testing of one or two hundred thousand, quite simply seems like the government are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut and they must be questioning the value of such an expensive system.
These people are already illegal immigrants staying under the radar so it’s unlikely they will voluntarily put themselves up for expulsion.
It’s always wonderful to watch children as they start to explore their imagination and draw pictures etc.
Rather than simply draw pictures of things they may never see or be able to turn into anything tangible, why not get your children’s schools to run a competition.
The security and safekeeping of our children is forever at the forefront of every parent’s mind and some schools are already adopting lanyards as a means to proving their pupils entitlement to being in the school.
Children, particularly teenagers are notoriously difficult to get to accept any kind of hierarchical instruction whether it comes from the parent or the school master. So what better way could there be to encourage acceptance by letting them get involved in the design.
There are specialist suppliers out there that would be able to convert any ideas into custom printed lanyards and there could be a prize or different lanyard design for each year in the school if preferred.
We have of course only discussed the use of the lanyard for children in their role of school pupil. There are so many uses for lanyards that there is nothing to stop youth clubs, sports clubs or even football clubs adopting a similar scheme.
For years the police have been banging on about personal security and looking after purses and wallets when walking around busy shopping centres.
Purse snatchers simply love such areas and as long as there are people that still wander around thinking it cannot happen to them, the thieves will continue to seek them out and prove them wrong, bringing them down to earth with an expensive bump.
Lanyards are proving very successful at deterring would be thieves, and a lot of police forces all around the UK are giving them away in an effort to beat the potential misery bestowed upon people by these thieves.
Lanyards are not however the answer to all security threats, particularly in and around the home.
Personal security sometimes gets forgotten, often when the doorbell goes.
We all too often simply open the door without thinking to put the chain on the lock.
The festive period is equally attractive for bogus callers. They know that most people will have bought presents for family and friends so there are more valuable items in a house, ripe for the picking.
People, especially the elderly, should ‘chain, check and call’ when they receive a cold call.
Don’t simply think they are legitimate if they show you an ID Card.
Any genuine visitor will not mind waiting whilst you verify their visit.
