captain cab wrote:
I enjoyed this article
Not as good as the one like that you wrote nearly 4 years ago.
Are you in reminiscing mood?
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| It’s Clusterf*ck http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20779 |
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| Author: | captain cab [ Mon Nov 26, 2012 9:12 pm ] |
| Post subject: | It’s Clusterf*ck |
It’s Clusterf*ck The urban dictionary describes ‘clusterf*ck’ as a “Military term for an operation in which multiple things have gone wrong”. Clint Eastwood whilst playing Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway in the excellent film ‘Heartbreak Ridge’ used the expression. It appears to describe, quite perfectly, what happened in the Republic of Ireland before and since their experience with taxi deregulation. Multiple things going wrong due to circumstances beyond the control of a single person. Allow me to throw a few things into the melting pot. We have a largely ignorant press, a few stupid local authorities, we’ll add an equally ignorant public, throw in a few devious politicians, add some civil servants with their own agendas, let’s sprinkle a dollop of political dogma on the top and finally entrench ourselves in a position where we will not turn away from the policy despite the oven being on fire. In the above-mentioned order we will consider the press, whom are for the most part sadly ignorant. I have written about this before and I will write about it again in the future. They appear to have very little enthusiasm towards educating the public in their various articles about the differences between taxis and private hire – they simply use ‘taxi’ as a ubiquitous term which suitably describes both. Of course, to you and me there is a clear and important distinction – the licenses are different – one license permits plying for hire – the other must be pre-booked only with work coming via an operator. The lack of initiative from the press to ensure the differences are made clear to the public, further breeds the widespread ignorance. As the person who regularly updates the National Taxi Association website with ‘trade’ related articles, I have become accustomed to altering articles to a more correct and palatable state. The press are not entirely to blame. Numerous councils describe ‘private hire’ as ‘private hire taxis’, as do numerous police forces – indeed – numerous councils actually issue a single dual license which covers both taxis and private hire – so if the people empowered to uphold the law don’t give a tu’penny toss – why should we expect the press to be any different? We should consider how understaffed newspapers are – it’s easier, due to print deadlines, to reproduce a practically verbatim press release from a local authority – than to do any sort of investigative journalism or checking the source is actually correct. Not that this is entirely a bad thing – as any trade representative in any area will tell you of bad press stories emanating from ignorant journalists in search of a juicy quote. There is one example from last week, where the ‘Hemel Hempstead Gazette’ gave the following headline; “Illegal taxis are being driven out of borough”, giving a story of Dacorum Borough Council having success in taking someone to court. They even quoted the Dacorum Borough Council spokesman Madeleine Taggart-Smith as saying: “This was the first prosecution for operating a private hire taxi illegally within Dacorum”. Of course, there is no such thing as a “private hire taxi”, indeed considering the furious headline; the article wasn’t about taxis at all. Furthermore, having read the article numerous times, I can honestly say I haven’t got a clue why the person was prosecuted or what the offence actually was. Yet the article appears to show, firstly, the local authority doesn’t have a clue and secondly, the reporter didn’t have much of an idea either – a quite strange position considering the duty to report and the duty to uphold the law. We are all aware of budding local journalists making a fare increase of a paltry ten pence into something as devastating as a tsunami, describing a couple of bob increase as a massive fares hike. As I’ve already mentioned some local authorities describing private hire as ‘private hire taxis’ lets also add those local authorities such as Rossendale, Gedling, Pendle, Ribble Valley, Bury, Newport, Cheshire East, Cheshire West, South Lakeland and West Lindsey permitting their taxis to be used exclusively in other areas alone – this creates further confusion to the public. Whilst the vehicles may well be used perfectly legally – there can be little doubt the drivers have chosen to license themselves elsewhere due to localised licensing standards being more lax. The fact these vehicles are equipped with taxi roofsigns and suchlike appear to be all but irrelevant. To put this into something the wider public can understand is difficult and one the taxi trade hasn’t yet seemingly done. I suppose it’s a little like obtaining planning permission for something in Carlisle and saying it applies to Manchester and using the consent to build a house there – without the council from Manchester being able to say or do anything about it (of course planning laws are different but the gist is the same). There is something these councils could do about it – they could put a question on an application form asking where the license will be used and if the vehicle was intended for use in another area – they could lawfully refuse to issue – and they would win if they were challenged about the refusal in court. Such is the stupidity and downright greed of the local authorities concerned – they are coming up with all manner of excuses not to take any responsibility. Due to press ignorance – due to regulator incompetence there can be little wonder as to why the public are confused. A constant barrage describing private hire as taxis will eventually have its toll – although the public themselves are partially to blame – as we are approaching Christmas we can almost certainly expect the propaganda departments of local authorities to begin their annual warning to the public about the dangers of hiring illegal minicabs. This has already started in London where they are promoting a ‘cabwise app’. In terms of publicity, this year’s slogan seems to be the rather catchy “If your minicabs not booked, it’s just a strangers car”. Yet despite the warnings (when given) the public will hire illegal minicabs across the UK not only this Christmas and New Year, but also every weekend after that. With local authority austerity measures, and licensing departments losing staff, things are only likely to get worse. Of course, it shouldn’t get worse, in fact licensing departments should be recession proof as licensing departments should be self funding entities. Despite the self-funding nature of licensing, numerous local authorities have cut licensing staff, which is a shame a good number have decent staff that work towards the betterment of our jobs. Whereas some (and those named above are obvious examples) simply deserve to be taken outside and shot, they are clearly incompetent and clearly don’t take any responsibility for the licenses they issue. Having blamed the media, local authorities and general public let’s get to the politicians, those that will jump on any suitable bandwagon that will further their own cause. Examples this year are obviously those in the labour Party who jumped in bed with the cab trade in respect of Addison Lee and their bus lane shenanigans – the fact AL funds the conservative party and there was a mayoral election in the offing had more than a little to do with labours stance. The cab trade were a useful (and disposable) tool at the time. In Ireland, as explained by John Ussher, President of the Irish Taxi Drivers Federation to the NTA Conference, prior to deregulation politicians felt themselves under pressure by an ill informed press and TV campaign against taxi numbers controls – incidentally, the same press and TV are now questioning the effects of deregulation. We have more or less the same in this country – we have a press that will on one hand launch a campaign for taxis to be equipped with CCTV after one of our brethren is killed - but with the other warn of the dangers of a big brother state. Politicians eager to jump on any bandwagon that increases their profile jump on either. You only need read a transcript of the debate in the House of Commons (29 February 2012) which was supposed to be about taxi driver safety – it ended up with the public needing protection from us. The politicians (courtesy of those nice folks in the DfT) threw the taxi trade to the wolves of the Law Commission – whom are now resolutely tearing us to pieces. The LC statements regarding cross border hiring and numbers control say much towards their generally dismissive attitude towards the cab trade. Of course, the cab trade are also culpable – I’ve explained this in previous articles and won’t toil on the point now. However, let’s consider what the public apparently want. We are told they want the driver to be of good character, they want a vehicle in good condition that is safe and reasonably modern, they also want a fast service, available 24 hours per day & 7 days per week which is realistically priced. Throwing the above all into the pot and trying to come up with something that satisfies everyone is going to be a difficult if not a completely impossible task, there will be losers and losers – in other words, it’s clusterf*ck. |
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| Author: | captain cab [ Sat Apr 30, 2016 12:33 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: It’s Clusterf*ck |
I enjoyed this article |
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| Author: | 187ums [ Sat Apr 30, 2016 2:40 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: It’s Clusterf*ck |
Very well written and I enjoyed reading it too. |
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| Author: | Nidge2 [ Sat Apr 30, 2016 4:46 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: It’s Clusterf*ck |
captain cab wrote: I enjoyed this article Me too. |
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| Author: | Sussex [ Sat Apr 30, 2016 6:36 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: It’s Clusterf*ck |
captain cab wrote: I enjoyed this article Not as good as the one like that you wrote nearly 4 years ago. Are you in reminiscing mood? |
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| Author: | captain cab [ Sat Apr 30, 2016 11:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: It’s Clusterf*ck |
Sussex wrote: captain cab wrote: I enjoyed this article Not as good as the one like that you wrote nearly 4 years ago. Are you in reminiscing mood? I was 
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| Author: | youbeenbusy [ Tue May 03, 2016 6:40 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: It’s Clusterf*ck |
Nice read . Maybe we should bombard local media Facebook pages about the difference between taxis and minicabs , till they get the message. |
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| Author: | ven2112 [ Tue May 03, 2016 6:56 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: It’s Clusterf*ck |
far too long for a forum, didn't read, give me the gist then, read shorter books tbh
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