Thursday, November 17,1988
The Battalion
Page?
9% premium increase
>as given to worker’s comp
;unes and busim
iffering repair a:
s.
tie night in the
up in Scott,
ic affairs direct!
in Little Rock.
AUSTIN (AP) — The State Board
| Insurance on Wednesday ap-
oved unanimously a $700 million
crease in premiums for workers’
impensation insurance in Texas.
neighbors,” Job
ce’lljustbesenii
upward from
es, AP&L spot
The decision means Texas em-
oyers will see an average 19 per-
nt increase in workers’ compensa-
m premiums when the new rates
ke effect Jan. 1.
Richard Geiger, a Dallas attorney
ople that hadbfMpresenting the National Council of
accommodaticc impensation Insurance, described
e raise in premiums as a “survival
crease.”
“I believe the best that can be said
the storm, 16,(1 >out it is it will allow the industry to
kansas Power t mg on,” Geiger said. The insur-
vithout power (i ice council had recommended a
5.7 percent rate increase.
But a state consumer representa-
Bve said the increase probably will
prison said
riing, only akJ force some businesses to drop work-
nostly in ScottarMs’compensation.
io power, he said ■ “I don’t know how Texas employ
e's are going to be able to pay this
dditional almost 20 percent in-
a P Sf Computer-equipped taxicabs
ow cut down on ‘customer theft’
Id
apable ofimer-
emitted radio
ial bodies up to
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ists understand
iniverse.
surveyor of the
of covering the
y, and was situ-
al radio quiet
f manmade ra-
by act of Con-
d.
was completed
f $850,000 and
build, he said.
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> determine the
will do that as
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tier.”
the telescope,
oundation and
sortium of nine
ding Harvard,
rpkins, was
e world.
crease,” Kay Doughty, of the Office
of Consumer Counsel, said.
“A lot of employers are going to
have to consider dropping their cov
erage entirely,” she said. Workers’
compensation premiums have in
creased 109 percent since Ian. 1,
1985.
Doughty’s group had recom
mended a 10.2 percent increase.
The insurance board staff suggested
a 6.7 percent hike.
The three-member insurance
board, Doughty and Geiger called
on the Legislature to address prob
lems in the system of compensating
workers who are injured on the job.
A House-Senate committee study
ing the issue is scheduled Dec. 9 to
send its Final report to the Legis
lature, which convenes in January.
Board chairman Edwin J. Smith
Jr. said workers’ compensation in
surance is in “a hell of a fix.”
He said proposals by the staff and
Office of Consumer Counsel would
bankrupt some insurers, while the
insurance industry’s recommended
increase would ruin some busi
nesses.
Board member James L. Nelson
said the board faced providing a
sound workers’ compensation mar
ket and preserving the economic
well-being of businesses.
“We may be near the point where
meeting both of these (objectives) is
impossible,” Nelson said.
Doughty said a 10.2 percent in
crease would have given workers’
compensation insurers a fair profit.
She said internal expenses at the in
surance companies are too high, and
that by granting the 19 percent in
crease, “I wonder if we’re not en
couraging inefficient operation.”
But Geiger said the insurers in
Texas have lost hundreds of millions
of dollars in the past few years.
“What needs to be done is to get
control of the system,” he said.
Geiger blamed the courts for giving
high awards to people injured on the
job and thus driving up the cost of
doing business.
DALLAS (AP) — For the big-city
raveler who phones for a yellow tax-
cab but gets a blue one 10 minutes
ate, and for the cab driver who ar-
ives promptly to find no traveler,
here is hope in the form of a com-
juter.
Rad M. Kuhlman is president of
iellow Cab of Dallas Inc., one of sev-
ral cab companies in the nation re-
yingon computer dispatchers as the
vaveof the future.
“It will be terribly efficient com-
ared to what we have now,” he said
if the $2.5 million system to be in-
italled at the first of the year.
What he has now, just before
unch on a Wednesday, is four peo-
)le sitting at a desk answering the
elephone, taking hand-written mes-
ages with customer addresses, and
ticking them on a conveyor belt
vhich carries them to a lone dis-
Mtcher at the end of the desk.
The dispatcher, whose work space
'ery much resembles‘ a card table,
licks up the messages and calls them
mtover the cab company’s radio.
es
ree
vn he has a lot?
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rical engineeritif
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Continued from page 1)
)allas-Fort Worth Airport, the in-
erim space facilities and the avail-
ibility of sufficient available and af-
ordable housing,” Foster said.
The Las Colinas location was se-
ected over three other area sites.
When I see GTE, that means:
Give Thanks Everybody,’ ” said Ir
ving Mayor Bob Pierce, who was in-
trumental in landing the headquar-
:ers site.
GTE joins a string of companies
hat have relocated to Texas in the
recent past.
AMR Corp., parent of American
/Airlines, moved to nearby Fort
Worth about five years ago, and J.C.
Penney Co. Inc. is in the process of
noving its headquarters to Plano,
ust north of Dallas. Both companies
previously were based in New York
City.
M
And that, Kuhlman said, is where
most of his problems begin.
“Anyone can own a scanner that
will pick up our frequency,” he said.
“So when the customer is standing
on the curb waiting for a cab, about
four show up.”
He says it’s stealing when other
cabs listen in on his radio and pick
up customers who called for a yellow
cab, not a purple, black, brown, blue,
red or checkered one.
What Kuhlman’s company will
soon have is a system which will elim
inate scanner eavesdropping.
The system still relies on humans
to answer the phone and type the
address into a computer, but the ma
chine takes it from there, Kuhlman
said.
After the telephone answerer
types in the address, the computer
system automatically alerts cab driv
ers of the address through their own
car computers.
Cab drivers are constantly scan
ning their portable units for the next
call, and the one in the section of the
city who responds first by typing in
an answer is assigned the customer.
Kuhlman said all employees will
be trained to use the system and an
ticipates no one will be replaced by
it.
“Right now, most of our drivers
are on paid mileage (the meter is
running) about 49 percent of the
time,” Kuhlman said.
He said cab drivers could expect
to carry passengers 75 percent to 80
percent of the time, once they begin
using the more-efficient computer
dispatches.
To R. Seriki, who drives a Yellow
Cab, that means more money.
“Oh, I tell you man, this is gonna
be real good,” said Seriki, who
moved to the country from Nigeria
seven years ago. “No more are they
gonna be taking our calls. I’m ex
cited. I’ve been doing this two years
and it gets worse and worse.
“I work 16 hours a day sometimes
now,” he said. “Two years ago, I
worked 10. Things will be better
TE
The announcement also comes six
days after the federal government
picked a site about 30 miles south of
Dallas to build the “super collider”
project. The $5.4 billion high-en-
ergy physics project also is expected
to generate thousands of jobs.
“We have worked hard to get this
move to Texas,” said Gov. Bill Clem
ents, who was in Seville, Spain,
where he is promoting Texas busi
ness and tourism but neverthless
learned of the GTE decision. “Eco
nomically, it’ll be a good thing for
Texas, and particularly for the Met-
roplex area.
“It means jobs, jobs, jobs, and
that’s what we’re trying to do to help
our economy.”
Clements traveled to Stamford
twice this year to meet with Johnson,
a Vernon, Texas, native and a grad
uate of Texas Tech University in
Lubbock. And although he said Fos
ter had the final say in the selection,
Johnson said he was naturally ex
cited when he heard the decision.
“As a matter of fact, I nearly
broke into a Texas two-step,” John
son said. “But in spite of my Texas
upbringing, I’ve had no real part in
this decision. Not many people be
lieve that, and I can understand
why. I’ve been accused for 25 years
of trying to direct this company back
to Texas.”
GTE already has a significant
presence in Texas. In the Dallas-
Fort Worth area, GTE Corp. and
GTE Southwest together employ
about 4,000. GTE Southwest em
ploys about 300 in Dallas and 1,800
in San Angelo.
Foster said the relocation will not
affect the San Angelo operation “in
any significant way.”
Dallas Mayor Annette Strauss said
positive effects from the latest relo
cation to the Dallas area will be felt
statewide.
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ALL MAJORS INVITED TO APPLY
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