Taxi Driver Online

It's still all very confusing, but for the average owner-driver it's looking like another £1.5k per badge (which was more or less cut and dried) and £1k per plate.

Knew the suggested £10k per plate wouldn't happen - I'd have come out of the pandemic better off than when we went in

But slightly disappointed by the £1k per plate - thought it would be a tad more than the £1.5k badge grant, but looks like it's just £1k.

But still not clear what the £10k figure for operators/plateholders is all about precisely, but it looks like there may be a tiered system for multi-owners, and the £10k figure will be the maximum. But it also looks like that's been increased to £15k for the very biggest multi-owners, following pressure from Unite

This is what Kate Forbes told the Scottish Parliament:


The £1k per plate isn't outlined above, and in fact to me the highlighted statement is a bit misleading, and makes it sound like individual operators(plateholders) will be getting more than £1k per plate.

But the £1k per plate is what's being stated online by Unite, and a Daily Record report says:


So looks like someone with half a dozen or so plates will only get £3k, therefore a lot less than the £10k per plate that Unite were demanding, and some were assuming we'd be getting.

But, in essence, looks like the average owner-driver like me will be getting another £2.5k, comprising £1.5k per badge, and £1k per plate, both HC and PH.

To slightly confuse things further, this is what the finance secretary said about booking offices, the meaning of which should be obvious, and applies to both HC and PH up here.

Found this on the Scottish Government's website:


No sign of the 'further details', though.

But the highlighted bits underline that the plate grants will be based on number of plates held, and will be limited to £10k maximum. Unless, of course, the £15k maximum stated by Kate Forbes in her speech for the biggest plateholders comes into play

Funny thing too is that Unite seem to have sucured a ceiling of £15k for the very largest multi-plateholders, which looks like that would require dozens of plates, so why would Unite be pressing for that? I'm assuming that numbers like that would only be relevant to PH multi-owners

Unite posted these figures:

1 cab = £1000
2-9 cabs =£3000
10+ cabs £7000

So if you've got half a dozen plates that's only £500 per plate, or just £333 per plate if you've got nine plates

Anyway, with the two £1.5k grants for badgeholders, and the new £1k grant for a single plate, I'll have copped £4k in total from the Scottish Government

Which is a lot more than many in the UK have gotten from their council, I'm guessing

But the SNP definitely favouring those with badges. Someone with eight cars (say) but no badge will be getting less than the average owner-driver (total grants of £3k and £4k respectively).

The Mill owners best friend.

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IDFIMH

And whats to happen those of us with 3 cars or less who are not required to have a booking office licence, will each of our plates receive a payment?

Can't see any relevance of the booking office licence - it's based purely on plates and numbers held. (Kate Forbes mentioned possible future support for booking office licence holders, but that's still to be ironed out, as far as I know.)

So the £1.5k per badge will be paid again, automatically by the looks of it, and councils will start doing that by next week at the latest.

The councils should then contact plateholders, who are eligible for £1k per plate, or a bit more if they have more than one plate. Apparently you shouldn't apply until the council contacts you inviting applications, so pretty much like the process for the badge grants.

Now here's a quirk - although the more plates someone has, the less they'll get per plate, someone with two plates gets £3k, so that's more per plate than if they only had the one plate


Owner/operator here just what I generally call a plateholder:

As for the £10k figure that was originally bandied about, recall that was 'up to', and £10k seems to be the limit that an individual applicant can apply for:


But can't really see what the £10k limit is all about. An individual with up to 49 plates gets £7k for the plates, and could also get the two £1.5k badge grants, which is £10k total.

But if you've got 50+ plates then you get a £15k grant, thus the £10k limit is busted. Maybe the difference is that if you get the £15k grant for the plates then you wouldn't get the £3k total for the badges, because you're past the £10k limit

So sounds a bit daft, but I'm guessing that's because the £15k for 50+ plates seems to have been added at the last minute after lobbying by Unite.

But can't be many plateholders in Scotland with 50 or more plates, and who was Unite lobbying for for this to be included, precisely?

Anyway, doubt if the £10k limit will be relevant in Fife, because I doubt any individual plateholder has 50 or more plates, and certainly not in my zone.

If both your plates are in the same name (individual, partnership or company) then the quirk could work in your favour, as you'd get £3k.

But if you were named on one plate, but your wife named on the other plate (say) then you'd only get £2k, ie £1k per plate. I think

I hope your right as mine are both run as a partnership between SWMBO (She who must be obeyed) and HWML (He who must listen).

Forgot to include the link to the full Scottish Government stuff if anyone hasn't seen it. There's several pages:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coron ... /overview/

As regards the large fleet owners, I was maybe a bit quick off the mark in associating Unite with the last minute help of £15k for fleet owners with 50 or more vehicles. Yesterday the finance secretary said this:


Kind of got the impression she was only meeting with Unite, but who precisely 'sector representatives' are isn't clear, so it could have been other trade representative bodies or fleet owners themselves.

Anyway, if they've got 100 cars (say) then it looks like they're getting £8k more than was originally intended, but it's only an £80 more per car, so not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things.

So this was announced 2 June, and the Scottish Government said:


So apparently some councils started paying out several days ago, and certainly others had paid out by Friday 11 June.

But letter has arrived from Fife Council, which states:

As regards the £1k grant for plateholders, I suspect the vast majority were paid around a month ago. I got mine in the first couple of days of July, and got the impression at that time that that was relatively late.

However, according to stuff posted on Twitter by Unite and others, even a few days ago Glasgow City Council still hadn't paid out, at least to some plateholders.

Back when it was all up in the air I said:



So a few days ago Glasgow Unite said:


Who'd have expected that there would be confusion and thus delays in that regard?

Too many people giving different information it would seem.

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IDFIMH