Taxi Driver Online

As you and I both know the redevelopment of Bootle is well under way, I do not think there is any shortage of people wishing to invest, whether Delta is in Sefton or Liverpool is of no consequence, except for the retraining and re licensing of all vehicles and drivers, your choice, their choice what ever, it is no concern to me, you already know my views .

licensing fees are not always the issue, departments can always be made smaller, I think the reporter, wrote a article on what he saw, and I know that the bees are swarming. but that is your problem not mine. regards.Trevor

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

I don't think this issue can nor should be oversimplified to a war between two types of taxi. Please allow me to elaborate...

Delta is a public transport service provider. Our competitors are, in order of the most obvious
1. other private hire companies
2. hackneys
3. buses
4. trains
5. push-bikes
6. walkers
7. people using their own car
8. supermarket home delivery services
9. mobile hairdressers
10.SKY TV

Before you think i've started to lose the plot here, just bear with me... each and every one of the above affects our drivers' takings in some way. I've included the last three just to illustrate. If people order their groceries online and have them delivered to their door then they do not need a taxi to carry them home with their shopping. If pensioners can rely on their hairdresser to come to their house to give them a champagne rinse they've no need to get a taxi to and from the hairdresser. You could even argue that due to increasing SKY TV subscriptions, HD quality broadcasts and cheaper widescreen tellies and home projectors, there are less people using taxis to go to the cinema.

When a hackney driver in Liverpool (or anywhere else for that matter) has had a bad day on the road, does he ever scrutinise a passing pedestrian and ask himself 'Why is she walking home with her shopping bags instead of using my cab?' 'Why are those people waiting at that bus stop instead of using my cab?' 'Why are those people running to catch the last train instead of staying out later and using my cab?' 'Why am I stuck in traffic made up mostly of privately owned vehicles when the drivers could have left their car at home and used my cab?' No, all they see is a private hire car pulling in to pick up a fare and fueled by the sensationlist headlines of the newspaper on his lap he shouts 'BAS****, i bet you that was a flag!!!!'

To say Delta is taking on the Liverpool Cab trade is like saying 'Cyclists are taking on the buses!' There are a whole host of transport alternatives out there and Delta's job is to try and climb to the top of that list. There are advantages and disadvantages to being licensed on either side of the taxi trade and yes, we play to our strengths. We've a duty to capitalise on every available form of emerging technology. Did your average hackney driver ever ponder the implications of mobile phones? We certainly did. We reckon that in the next few years every hotel, doctors surgery and hairdressers on Merseyside is going to have a reception computer permanently connected to the internet. A double click on a desktop icon could easily generate a private hire booking every time a punter asked for a car. Now is that cheating or just smart?

Buses play to their strengths. They can secure squillions of pounds in subsidies through local transport plans. Do the hacks think the buses are out to get them? Jeremy Clarkson admirably fights for the rights of the private motorist. It doesn't mean he is deliberately engineering the downfall of Britain's taxis.

The papers would have you believe that we have deliberately targetted the cabs because it sells newspapers, but it's just not true, and such crude and misleading sensationalism only breeds discontent. One of the biggest challenges facing our transport system is to convince people to leave their cars at home and that responsibiltiy rests with both sides of the trade, so come on hacks, PULL YER SOCKS UP!

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Don't knock it, 'til you try it....

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Don't knock it, 'til you try it....

oops, tried three times to post, nothing at first then THREE POSTS! sorry

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Don't knock it, 'til you try it....

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Don't knock it, 'til you try it....

Please remind me of what I have that I got for free Sussex.


B. Lucky

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"Here's a simple solution. If you don't want to pay more for a premium service then wait in the queue, problem solved".
Skull on TDO

TF pi$$ed on his chips.

OK Mr Delta, but I think you're being slightly disingenuous with your claim, because it's surely self-evident that your expansion in Liverpool is competing against the Liverpool trade, indeed you effectively say so yourself.

You seem to differentiate between 'competing with' and 'targetting' but to me there seems little difference here, if at all - merely a slight nuance.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

No problem, everyone's at it

The system can be very slow some times, especially at this time of the morning.

If the 'submit' button looks like it's registered your click then it'll almost certainly work, although it may take a while and I've waited up to a couple of minutes or so in the early hours of the morning.

If you click again then all that will happen is that the post will appear twice when it eventually does appear.

What seems to happen is that the message is sent but the forum server/software takes a while to acknowledge it, by which time the poster may well have clicked 'submit' again

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

WAV plate, PH plate and a f***ing great chip on your shoulder.

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IDFIMH

Come on Mr D, we both know, moving to Liverpool would be a huge gamble. You would very probably, just end up becoming another, anonymous, Private hire company. Struggling like most of them, for drivers. No your competitive edge, is the fact you’re based in Sefton. A competitive edge, you would be a fool to chuck away. Perhaps the echo was a bit blunt, with this article.
But its obvious the customers your after, are the same customers, .the Liverpool taxi trade, P H or hacks, are serving at the moment. Not people on buses or bikes.
You must have knew, when you embarked on this expansion, you were going to upset, some not very pleasant people. Did you think, ,when you opened your call centre, no one would notice. At least this way, people will have plenty of time, to get used to the bigger improved delta. The Liverpool taxi trade, still living in the seventies, have only got them selves to blame. ” Bees are swarming” I hope that does not mean, what i think it means. Streetcars

Why does it matter where a call centre is located? When you phone Comcab in London you might be answered by someone in Aberdeen.

With todays technology it does not matter where your office is actually located, calls can be answered anywhere in the world and the data dispatched to any part of the world.

GETTING BACK 2 THE TAIL WAGGING THE DOG !!!!!!!

The problem with a call centre in a different area is simply down to local knowledge that is why one failed here a couple of years ago, but saying that as the technology advances and the information storage is more correct I see no problem, and I'm sure that it is the way it will go , unfortunately it will also bring with it a more draconian control over drivers, I really do think that drivers need to look towards unions for their protection in the future.

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

Hi
Local knowledge will only be required on a small number of bookings. With systems that can store the phone number of the folk so that the correct address is brought up next time, the use of IVOR (booking system) which Delta was one of the first in the UK to actually use, then internet booking systems (this will start to take off IMHO).

Also when someone phones and so many systems now having a mapping station near the terminal they can easily find things. The technology is already there to make things better for the customer (paying passenger) the customer (the driver) and the company operating the callcentre.

As for unions well I cant possibly comment on that as I have never been a member of one.

The taxi and PHV industry is changing with regards the sizes of fleets etc, there are more larger fleets and smaller companies being bought up all the time, its very hard to run a small fleet and make ends meet. The main cost for any company these days is staff wages.

Its good to see a company putting the money back into the local economy and it will give folk work.

regards

The 1976 act allows that for PH, and taxis don't need an ops license.

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IDFIMH