I click on a few links and found this.
It is a post of a cab drivers wife, just shows you cant even trust her indoors.
Plus these jokers even scanned all the taxi forums to get the low down on the new Merc cab.
http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mi ... sort=whole
Author: Neithikret Number: 109509 of 112607
Subject: Re: Taxi ! taxi !
My husband is a london cabbie - times are a bit hard at the moment - all the late night city work has dried up in comparison to a couple of years ago, very little radiocircuit work about - so he is hanging out at the airport at the moment (learning to play the guitar between jobs).
Be careful of using cab drivers as too much of a barometer though as they always complain about times being hard. (Antique dealers and second hand car dealers are another lot that always moan). August would be the worst month to do a survey as this is a notoriously bad month - you would think that cab drivers after 20 years in the trade would plan ahead and take a holiday or spend time with their families - nope instead, they will sit around drinking tea - (except my husband who hates tea) - saying "it is the worst August ever, no Americans, no suits, I don't know why I ever did the knowledge".
I digress.
Regarding the Tanfield joint venture, 100 miles would be useless - my husband laughed when I showed him the press release. One way to provide a workable solution would be to have battery change points at some of the central london eateries - but it would have to be an economical alternative (though with the current price rises in diesel I suppose it becomes more viable). It is a very good idea, but it would need to be at least double. You would be surprised how many people do long distance taxi journeys (one of his friends took 4 people to Nottingham for a poker tournament - still worked out cheaper than a first class train ticket each, bought on the day).
He is excited about the new merc too - but it seems it will be a van (minivan?) so maybe not as exciting as originally thought. From his point of view though anything would be better than the current models available - I think pp mentioned that the ride can be a bit bumpy/uncomfortable. Let me tell you, it is 1st class deluxe compared to how uncomfortable the taxi drivers themselves are - so the merc will be an improvement at the very least in these terms. Prices on second hand black cabs have dropped just on the news - but no one is kidding themselves that there will be any real competition.
With respect to MNGS he wouldn't touch them with a proverbial bargepole - mainly due to lack of confidence regarding management of just about anything to do with the black cab trade. I could write an Alice in wonderland length rant about the shenanigans in some of the cab trade organisations/institutions - but you really would be falling asleep at the monitor.
Not sure when an oil price surcharge will kick in - as far as I know there is not any pressure building from within the trade yet (though as the local branch of the T&G has not met for nearly 2 years due to some of the aforementioned shenanigans who knows - though one of the other cab trade organisations would have been screaming by now). August would be my best guess.
What is it they used to say, Walls have ears!.
Nice find Captain
Login
Register
FAQ
assengers will be fine, just worry about the poor drivers''
