Taxi Driver Online

Speaking of sitting on fences, I had to laugh at Peter Perkins - at the outset he said that because his members were split 50/50 on quantity restrictiions, he had to sit on the fence.

Not long after he said that deciding de-limitation nationally would be a DISASTER!

He came off the fence pretty quickly!

But as John says, the session was full of..err....dubious stuff.

Funniest one was when Mr Efford the ex-London cabbie seemed to think that drivers would need increased waiting times charges if they had to spend more time sitting on the ranks if things were de-limited!!!

Or maybe it was just me!

Dusty

John,

Good enough points, and I stand corrected.

However, there was one working cab driver in front of that committee, and I know for a fact that the people he represents have paid him less than what the day actually cost him in lost takings.

I wonder if you can guess which one?

But then, some people are committed, and others are just there for the ride. Certainly at least one person has gone up in my estimations as a result.

As daft as it seems, at least the taxi groups represented at the select committee had not gone around the country collecting many thousands of pounds by using scare tactics.

The same people that have shunned the rest of the trade when they have been in trouble, but now feign interest because the OFT would directly affect them.

I have sympathy for owner drivers and those that have built up businesses, but some in this trade need a stark shock, take, take, take, is their whole attitude. They dont give a [edited by admin] about me and you, they just want surfs, only taking an interest when their worlds are affected.

Where will these people be after the OFT?

The true trades answers are with the bodies currently representing the trade, it is upto us to give them the boot up the backside and bring them both into the 21st century.

Regards

Captain cab

Perkins was describing how the meter fare worked on time and distance, Efford thought he was talking about cabs spending time waiting on ranks. For a an Ex Cab driver he was pretty stupid.

I've got a cracker of a question one of them asked about Telephone bookings but I can't think of it off the top of my head lol I'll look it up and post it, I [edited by admin] myself laffing.

Best wishes

John Davies.
Manchester.

You know Captain I was specificaly looking for working Cabbies, I'm going to have to go look at the video again or is that allowed? lol

Best wishes.

John Davies.
Manchester.

One has to wonder exactly why we have MPs deciding anything in our trade, when even an ex cabbie doesn't realise what waiting time charges are.

The world has gone mad.

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IDFIMH

john,

more of a clue, he's an old guy with grey hair, sitting beside a solicitor and a T&G man, he's also speaking with a cornish accent!

regards

Captain Cab

Generally speaking though the committee was clearly pro status quo, and the questioning reflected this.

The OFT were pretty unimpressive, as John said, but there's plenty of opportunity to catch someone out on the contents of an 800 page report.

For example Mr Efford begun by asking how many taxi drivers there were in the UK, which seemed pointless and just designed to catch them out. Anyway, if they numbers are based on the DfT stats then they won't be accurate anyway - that's what I would have said!

On the other hand, most of what the other witnesses said was effectively accepted without question, and the questioning was hardly incisive.

For example, a OFT survey of 6,000 people was belittled on the grounds that it was only a small sample of total taxi users. On the other hand, the T&G's oft-quoted job count decrease from 35 to 20 per day in Edinburgh following de-restriciton was accepted without question.

One of the MPs in particular could have almost had her questions scripted for her by the ant-delimiters.

But one of the panel did not know that taxi prices could be negotiated down from the metered price, which just about summed things up.

Dusty

One place I've always wanted to visit is Cornwall. I'm going to have to look at the video because I supsect you are talking about the first set of people that were interviewed. I know its not Kavanagh, so that exludes him, was it the chap on the end nearest to stringer?

Heres one for you, Can you guess which one was the CND member who also had his bookshop raided by the police for selling and distributing anarchist books. lol

Best Wishes

John Davies
Manchester.

now CND, different topic, but wow they were well wrong.
regards

Captain Cab

Yes I was going to say in an earlier post that the questions asked by the committee were nonsensical at times and the OFT were put in an unenvial position. How do you reply to a nonsensicle question that asks, why did you not survey those people who book cabs by phone? lol presuming you can find them, what question do you ask them?

It was hard for the OFT reps to answer questions that were pointless and misguided, yet they were expected to give coherent answers. That was the first thing I picked up on, that is one of the reasons why I was so dissapointed with the performance of the committee.

With regard to survey stats, six thousand is an extremely large survey. I have figures here that relate to constituency and election surveys that have quotas ranging from 1500. Three thousand is viewed as a large sample.

The offiicial minutes will be out soon, we can all have a good laugh then.

Best wishes

John Davies.
Manchester

The best quip from a union leader was Jimmy Knapp when announcing a 50/50 split for a train drivers strike the reporter asked

" doesnt this mean half of train drivers dont want to strike?"

Jimmy knapp said the reverse was the truth!

priceless

Yeah. Just how credible can a group of women be, who lie on their backs outside American AirForce bases.

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

there all mp's now, you can tell by their beards

They've never been any thing but unimpressive all that money waisted on what???? A pie in the sky survey

Are you talking about the NWTA's survey that recently cost £15,000 for nothing?

Apart from saying instead of having one type of survey, they should have two types, and both must be adhered too.

And that taxi growth in un-restricted areas, is greater than taxi growth in restricted areas.

It might have been better, and certainly cheaper, if the consultants just bought a dictionary.

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IDFIMH