Taxi Driver Online

Is the taxi earth flat? (2/2/2006)

(This article will be published in a forthcoming edition of Press Cuttings Monthly magazine)

While there’s probably little point in writing an article that does little more than state the obvious, given some of the misinformation peddled in the trade it’s perhaps occasionally worth spending a little time countering some of the more outlandish claims, particularly when it’s some of our own material being rubbished.

A case in point (pardon the pun) is “The Casey Column” in the January issue of Taxi “talk” magazine. First, there’s the question of representation, which we have addressed in previous articles. Mr Casey makes the point that because there are [plateless] drivers who are members of associations affiliated to the National Taxi Association, then to that extent they are represented. He is absolutely correct, but we weren’t just talking about nominal membership; our point regarded whose substantive interests these organisations represent and to this end we have pointed out that since the cornerstone of the NTA’s (and T&G’s) policies is restriction of taxi numbers then to that extent they primarily represent vehicle proprietors, with drivers playing second fiddle.

Our perspective on this is partly due to the fact that drivers pay inflated rentals in order that they can work in areas that restrict taxi numbers. However, to the extent that Mr Casey denies this fact then his stance on the representation issue is not surprising. But his attitude seems rather bizarre – why would anyone pay £10,000 for a vehicle and £50,000 for a plate if they intended to rent both out for what the vehicle itself could fetch in an unrestricted area? Of course, one difficulty in this regard is separating the plate rental from a sum that will probably include the vehicle itself, maintenance, insurance and perhaps office fees. However, where plate sales are not allowed rental markets for plates flourish, and in Dundee a council report stated that plates were being rented for thousands pf pounds per year, with the licensing fee paid to the council being only a fraction of this. Surely even Mr Casey would regard income in excess of one thousand per cent of the related expenditure as “inflated”, and of course this is due pure and simply to restricted license numbers.

However, where the plate is attached to a vehicle the rental for this may well be disguised by other elements included in the overall figure, as mentioned above. Thus Mr Casey’s fatuous comparison with a one-week, £249 mini-MPV from a car rental business – who on this (flat?) earth would pay this sort of money on a long term basis for a vehicle to be used in the trade? How about a more relevant comparison? For example, in Brighton a saloon to be used as a private hire vehicle could quite easily be leased from a specialist trade supplier, plated, insured and maintained for around £100 per week. However, try renting a similar vehicle on a hackney plate and you’re looking at perhaps up to £300.

The fact is that plates are bought to boost revenue, and if an otherwise worthless plate is bought for tens of thousands of pounds then it follows that the income derived from it will be inflated as well. Of course, since Mr Casey’s NTA laughably claimed that evidence of plates selling for these sums was merely “unproven and largely anecdotal” then his stance on rentals is possibly not surprising, but the truth isn’t quite so palatable.

Mr Casey also takes issue with the use of the word “cartel” to describe restricted taxi numbers policies in that “an industrial combination for the purpose of regulating prices, output etc” doesn’t apply because local authorities set prices/fares. Err, what about “output”, which is basically another term for supply, which in the trade means taxi numbers? Perhaps a more straightforward definition of cartel would have made things more obvious – how about “an agreement to restrict competition”? Even the trade’s flat-earthers couldn’t disagree with this, surely?

Mr Casey also seems to think that we look down our noses at people because we don’t credit them with enough intelligence. However, in assuming that people are naïve enough to afford this kind of stuff much credence, surely it’s Mr Casey that thinks we’re all fools?

Anyway, there seems little point in wasting more than a page of Press Cuttings Monthly on pointing out that things not dissimilar to the Pope being a Catholic or that ursine mammals defecate in wooded areas, but we may revisit these matters in a future article that will be posted on our website.

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

if your the top bod of the nta then no only is the world flat.
but tdo is owned by a sports lawyer from manchester.
talking of cartels.
i must give OFT a ring.