Taxi Driver Online

Be careful with that "thought" Skippy, it might die of lonelyness.

_________________
Former taxi driver

Maybe towns and city centres could have WAV only ranks...

Such as was proposed by Lincoln City Council in 1992....

(and I have the documentation to prove it)

_________________
Former taxi driver

Here's an interesting opinion on wav provision.

http://www.taxidriver.fsnet.co.uk/NoTX1.htm

Regards

JD

_________________
Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

Annual costs.

Description and scale of key monetised costs by ‘main affected groups’ Approximately 15,000 saloon car taxis across GB would need to be converted to taxis meeting the interim standard at a cost of £18,000 per vehicle. The interim accessible vehicles would have poorer fuel consumption and greater emissions than saloon cars and would attract a high level of VED.
_______________________________

Annual Benefits

Description and scale of key monetised benefits by ‘main affected groups’
The accessible taxis will have longer service lives than saloon cars..
_____________________

I wonder which make of accesible taxis they have in mind? And are they correct?
________________________

Owners who convert will save on the cost of replacing a saloon car every four years (which they would do twice in the 12 year life span of an accessible taxi).
___________________________

There is no evidence that the majority of cab drivers change their vehicle every four years. Is it more economical to let the vehicle run the full life cycle of a councils conditions on vehicle age or exchange the high milage vehicle with a drastically reduced trade in value?
_____________________________

There will also be a small (1 per cent) increase in turnover for drivers who convert.
______________________

Absolute nonsense very few people benefit from an increase in trade, the bottom line is that cab drivers suffer a huge financial loss when converting from saloon to wav and continue to make a loss year on year especially on fuel consumption. Those who are already mandated to purchase WAVs are also making a loss because of the lack of choice.

Regards

JD

_________________
Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

Can't argue with any of that JD.

_________________
Grandad,

There is also the other factor, In places where they are being introduced people are ignoring them and taking saloons, or PH, leaving the driver sitting there in his 25K so called investment.
In the areas that are manditory how many owners have actually picked up a WC passenger from a rank or hail, since they have paid through the nose for a WAV I would say around 2% and thats being generous

This Idea is a total no brain-er in rural areas,
take ours for instance apart from the main roads most are singe track some are even unpaved and the nearest service point would be 35 miles away 60 miles for the furthest away
The 5 largest towns have a population of around 8k and apart from Galashiels the other 4 are all tucked up in bed by 2AM at weekends
Out of those 8K only a few hundred are actual taxi users on a regular basis

As expected, there is absolutely nothing in these proposals except increased costs and more regulation for the taxi trade.

Perhaps the best response to this document should be to concentrate on the increased costs factor and all related issues surrounding those higher costs. Personally I don't think it will make any difference because the DfT are oblivious to the costs incurred by taxi owners.

Regards

JD

_________________
Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

Costs that will cause vast amounts of job losses

I am in agreement with you JD. for some of the reasons stated and for others of my own. the important thing is to put together a Response to the consultation documents. if people asked nicely maybe you would consider taking on the task. and getting as many people as possible to reply.

_________________
Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Isn't that 3 times? Or am I having a Toots moment?

_________________
Life? Don't talk to me about life!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjm2eslm6hI

I can't see why the DfT are trying to justify the costs, let them be honest and just say it's dearer to run a WAV.

Now would it help if WAVs were zero rated, clearly not to those VAT registered, but to the other 99% maybe?

I like the idea of reduced licensing fees, but that only works if you have saloon HCs, and isn't the idea to bin them off?

Cheaper car tax would help, and free reign to all lanes that the buses hog would be nice. But in the end I still think it's going to be urban areas 100% WAVs, rural areas predominately saloon HCs.

_________________
IDFIMH

You are having a Toots moment.
If 2 people each buy a car. One buys a WAV with a 12 year lifespan. the other buys a saloon with a 4 year life span. The saloon would need to be changed at year 4 and year 8. Then both would be replaced at year 12. Therfore the saloon has been changed twice.

_________________
Grandad,

Doh! Bald as a coot and having a Blonde moment!

_________________
Life? Don't talk to me about life!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjm2eslm6hI

Maybe someone should Draft a letter of reply we can all copy and send to the consultation team....probably thats why few reply...they like me dont know what to write...

We can always tweak it to suit...