Fare to Currie. City Cab driver. Wants his own taxi. But only if he can pay £50 grand for the plate.

When I told him he will soon get one for just the cost of the licence fee he didn't believe me.

So I told him I was going to make sure he could. His response? Then you must be Mr Taylor .....

Well that certainly exercised his brain

Seems he didn't want the town full of taxis.

It appears that his objection comes down to one simple premise.

A driver gets his plate, then the owner is gonna work longer to make up his rental so there will be two taxis on the road when previously there was only one.

Quality! This is real sound thinking Batman.

Now his £250 rental, for which he works six days, his day off being a busy Friday which the owner keeps for himself, would require this owner to work an EXTRA 3 shifts to cover loss of rental. Actually if you include extra tax, this would more likely be FOUR more shifts.

So, this owner would be working 9 or 10 shifts a week with tis guy's argument. Quality!



Isn't there a point being missed here? Like the impending heart attack this poor wee owner would be heading for? Or the divorce because his wife is fed up with him being posted missing?

I suggested two more likely alternative possibilities.

First, the owner could go to the wall. Problem solved. His business model, based on the flaw of depending on having a bewildered driver, always doomed to failure.

Or two, he could reduce the the rental to a level where there would be no incentive for the driver to go it alone. He could break the habit of a lifetimecut his driver a decent shake by not commandeering one of the only two busy nights.

Then he might just keep his "business" and the illusion that comes with it.

We should remember that 75% of local authorities in the UK are already de-restricted, so how on earth do they manage but the poor wee dears in Edinburgh wouldn't?

Of course this is all just puerile nonsense. A vested interest protecting itself.

Perhaps the real message from this conversation is that the needs of the public were never raised by this happy slave. Isn't this is what our council should really be taking from this whole campaign to modernise the taxi trade in Edinburgh?

Aren't the really important people in all this, and shouldn't they always be - the fare-paying PUBLIC?

If the trade places them at the forefront, we will be repaid with loyalty and custom and benefit through increased business.

This guy's parting words were, "Although you've talked nothing but sh*te on this journey, I am an honest man, so I will tip you". He then handed over £15 for a £12.95 fare, got out and wandered bacto his illusion.

I pashed myself laughing all the way back to th city.

and More weekend night buses, the way ahead

Are you nuts?

Are you nuts?

Guys and girls.

The fewer buses out there, the more demand for taxis and private hire.

The more buses out there, the lesser the demand for the likes of us.

Maybe in your part of the world but not ours

So are you saying the more supply, the higher the demand?

If so then methinks you are in bed with Mr Jasbar.

So are you saying the more supply, the higher the demand.

If so then methinks you are in bed with Mr Jasbar.

My point concerns the demand for Taxi's in Edinburgh is different, No 2 cities are the same

Too aid times of occasional high demand in Edinburgh (it's the occasional 10 hours a week,) i'm saying why is the call alway's we need more Taxi's too service the extreme occasional high demand?

Why not extra buses on the nights of occasional high demand, LRT could do with the extra revenue, bus drivers could do with the overtime or extra job availability, and yes it may have an effect on radio work but it doesn't have much of an effect during normal bus times, the loser in Edinburgh would be the PHC as most of their customer base comes from the housing scheme's who are more likely to use a weekend bus service if it was say every 1/2 hour.

Buses could be more flexible as far as a 1hr nightly service at times of low demand but a 1/2 hour service at times of occasional high demand such as xmas, rugby weekends and the Edinburgh festivals.

The solution in Edinburgh is simple but in your town/city it may not be if your market is de-restricted, then i agree extra buses would throw your taxi service over the edge

Every punter that gets on a bus is one less for the taxi/PH market. Or am I wrong?

If the buses stopped running at 19.00pm then all those previous bus punters would either have to get mum to pick them up, or us. Or am I wrong?

Therefore less buses mean more cab ride, and more buses mean less cab rides. Or am I wrong?