Sussex wrote:
Skull wrote:
It's got to be said Sussex this forum is not like the good old days when Jim and I were regular contributors. Are things really that bad?
It's like your members have no fight left in them and given up the will to live.
I don't think so, it's just that some priorities have changed.
I think the trade has changed to a degree. I think non plate holding drivers have a bit more freedom, and I think Uber has spoofed operators big time giving drivers on their circuits a bit more freedom to control the way they work.
Doesn't mean everything is fab, but there seems a lot more emphasis nowadays about drivers working rights and conditions, and that can't be a bad thing.
In respect of taxi quotas, well most of the country doesn't restrict, and in some of those ares that do the likes of Uber have decimated plate prices. So maybe it's not that much of an issue as it once was.
You might be correct about drivers rights and working conditions at least from the perspective they are getting more of a fair shake than in the past. They may not be making a lot of money for the hours they work but at least everyone is in the same boat. Gone are the days when the big radio companies could just Lord it over people and as you have already indicated, Uber and the likes ... have turned plate prices and radio positions on their heads. I know from radio position holders in Edinburgh they are fully expecting their companies to go down the pan at some point in the near future. It looks like my predictions for the trade as a whole and Edinburgh, in particular, are all coming true.
Although from reading some of the threads on TDO I do get the feeling that people have just accepted that technology is taking over and there is nothing they can do about it. Ironically their rights and working conditions are all they have left, so it might not be a bad thing, no more plate barons or pretendy businessmen...