This was sent to me last night
Dear Sir/Madam
Having read a fair bit of your site, I am still trying to work out where you are coming from.
Are you in favour of restricted taxi numbers, or are you one of those disruptive taxi drivers who are against?
The one thing we do have in our favour over the PHC, is that our businesses are actually worth something. The majority of plate holders have bought the plates, paying large sums of money for them, suffering years of financial hardship, trying to build up a business. Many things have come along to give us sleepless nights, like the OFT report suggesting all taxi operators are faced with financial ruin overnight and until very recently, not being able to find drivers to help support the business, has caused enormous difficulties. The drivers will become scarce again as 16% of all taxi drivers are over the age of 60. Yet it is our colleagues, our fellow taxi drivers, often even our friends who stab us in the back trying to take that hard earned investment away from us and make the plates worth nothing. I don't see the PHC or the council trying to destroy my livelihood in that manner. I'm afraid the old saying still rings true. "A taxi drivers worst enemy, is his fellow taxi driver".
In my opinion, if any taxi driver wants a taxi plate, then go out and buy one like anyone else.
Unfortunately PHC will always be a problem until something is done about it at government level. It is the same in any city, with controlled taxi numbers or not, with a whole city of taxi work to chip away at, the PHC eventually out number the taxis.
Regards
My Response
You don’t have restricted numbers the Ph have more than doubled in 3 years. What you have is de-restriction by the back door. (Not to mention the surrounding areas working the town i.e. Mid, East, West Lothian and Fife)
We are in favour de-restriction just like in London. No restriction there. Other than through quality controls i.e. The Knowledge. Any qualified driver is entitled to a licence plate if he so wishes.
No one guaranteed you a driver when you bought the plate. And no one forced you to pay an artificial plate value for a publicly owned licence. You bought nothing B****. Other than the hope the council would not de-restrict leaving you an artificial plate value through rationing. No rationing of plates, no artificial value.
No one should be paying an artificial plate value (in the region of £40,000) when the Hack trade as a whole is losing their market share to the Ph and the Council subsidised bus company. You don’t have a business B**** you are a pseudo employee of the Council. Neither you nor anybody else for that matter has any control over Taxi Licence Plates, Tariffs, and Vehicle types the Ph or anything else for that matter. You are an employee of the council with no rights and no council pension.
B**** you bought into an illusion. It was never there to start with. How can you call yourself a businessman when you have no control over your business? Who said you would be guaranteed a driver ? Who said there would be no increase in plates? And who said a driver should furnish you with a living?
No one forced you to pay a ridiculous amount of money for something you never really owned.
Have a look on the plate B**** it doesn’t say "The Property of B**** ******".
Driver’s rentals go up. Plate premiums go up. Hours worked go up. Private Hire increase in number. Night busses increase. Tariffs increase. Profits or earnings go down. And you want drivers to buy into the same illusion you did just to make your dream of being a businessman more real.
Sorry B**** as the saying goes “What’s wrong with this picture”?
Best Regards
Garry Thomson.
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