Letter in today's Edinburgh Evening News:
Taxi map test is not rocket science
T MILLIGAN accuses the private hire car drivers of "theft" (Your Views, April 4). He/she obviously regards any potential passenger as the sole property of the black taxi trade. What a ridiculous assumption to make! Has it escaped the correspondent that it is entirely up to the passenger which mode of transport takes preference, be it a private hire car, a black cab or even an early morning milk float?
As a black cab driver for some 15 years, I can vouch for the fact that I had a lot more fares "stolen" by ill-mannered and unscrupulous black cab drivers than I ever had by private hire car drivers.
And, the boring drivel about having passed the topographical test being somehow an academic super achievement, belies the facts, also. You don't need to be Einstein to succeed in that test, I myself being living proof of that.
Furthermore, it could be argued that a private hire car driver of let's say two years experience will outclass any newcomer black cabbie in the knowledge of the city by a mile. And we must not forget that new inventions like satellite navigation have all but confined the need for a topographical test to the dustbin.
Maybe it is the sad realisation that the private hire trade appear to be a lot smarter in their approach, by staying outside the restrictive council regulations that apply to and hold back the black cab trade, which makes your correspondent so bitter towards the old foe.
Tony Sedlatschek, Loganlea Drive, Edinburgh
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/lette ... =562482007
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