Taxi Driver Online

Not sure what to make of this. I assumed from the headline he'd just had one £6 run, but turns out he'd had four runs, and the £6 is the profit figure he'd worked out.

I'd only £25 in fares last night, so can't have been much better off than him, but decided to call it a night a bit earlier than I'd intended, and certainly didn't sit it out for nine hours like the driver here.

And I certainly wouldn't go near the station on a strike day, and won't be contacting the press about my bad shift last night

And, of course, despite the headline below, he didn't quite burst into tears, and was only close to tears


Heartbroken Sheffield taxi driver in tears as he makes just £6 in one day

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/loc ... s-24611952

He said it was one of his worst days a taxi driver

A taxi driver who usually works outside of Sheffield train station was extremely distraught and near the point of tears in the city yesterday.

Mohammed Raza, 57, a father and family man, was left licking his wounds after industrial action led to delays and cancellations of trains, with passengers being asked not to travel unless necessary. The station itself resembled an abandoned ghost town, with very few people in attendance.

Meanwhile, businesses inside the station told Yorkshire Live they had seen very little traffic since the strike began on the morning of Wednesday July 27. A staff member who works in a coffee shop inside the platforms said they had gone for as long as two hours without serving a single person.

The platforms themselves were eerily quiet and only a handful of people were on platforms one and seven in what is usually peak time at Sheffield Station. The train from Sheffield to London St Pancras for example, which is usually among the busiest, only had a handful of passengers.

And a teary eyed Mr Raza said this lack of passengers had hit him where it hurts the most. He said: "This is now 4pm and I have been here since 8am.

"I have only had four trips. So maybe I make £6 or £7 profit.

"It is really bad, you can stay and see. I have been here all day and made nothing."

Mr Raza told Yorkshire Live that whilst he understood the plight of those who engage in industrial action, he was annoyed to be caught in the crossfire. He said: "There is nobody travelling.

"It is affecting travellers. It is affecting me.

"How would someone with a family survive with £6 in a single day? It is less than an hour of minimum wage work and I work nearly nine hours today.

"Imagine nine hours for so little? It is not fair."

Mr Raza's frustrations were equally echoed by other colleagues, who did not want to be named, but all complained that the rail worker strike had negatively impacted their earnings.

The industrial action, which saw thousands of workers down tools caused massive disruption across the country, and Network Rail have warned that it could take up to next week for all services to return to normal. A spokesperson for Network Rail said: "Strike action will cause severe disruption to some parts of the railway on Saturday 30 July and into the morning of Sunday 31 July."

There are three more strikes scheduled for August 2022.

so how many hours to earn that £6.00

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

I doubt you could find a taxi driver anywhere who is going to admit to having a good day on Wednesday.
However, a friend told me he took £380 in fourteen hours…

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Former taxi driver

Quite.

What on earth did the fella expect?

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IDFIMH

Probably expected a row of punters desperate for a cab because there were no trains.

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Grandad,

often works round here however maybe the fact that it was the whole network disrupted maybe put people off travelling altogether

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Rather than that it's national, maybe more to do with the fact that it's been well flagged up in advance, so everyone knows about it. Often it works better for the trade when it's disruption that's unannounced and unpredictable, like a wildcat strike, signal failures or an incident on the track meaning major delays or cancellations.

Of course, the fact that it's a national thing means that everyone knows about it, thus avoid the railways completely. Disruption could be well known locally, but those travelling a bit further might be unaware of it. Eg those travelling from London to Scotland in the last few weeks may have been unaware that there's very few or no late evening services

Wildcat strikes are illegal these days. Unions must ballot members to get approval for strike action and give advance notice of strike dates. There should be no more than 6 people on a picket line at any one time.

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Grandad,

But if it's wildcat then by definition it might not be legal

But, yes, maybe 'wildcat strike' wasn't the best words to use. In essence, I just meant that the less predictable a disruptive event on the railways is, and the more local it is, the more likely it will benefit the trade.