Taxi Driver Online

I agree to many the grass is sometimes greener, but is it right that people can be stopped from even looking?

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IDFIMH

What do you mean?

I certainly hope that GBC was joking!!

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

Oh dear, you weren't joking
In that case can you get "Jim'll fix it" people to fixit so we can get same amount of work and maybe earn the same amount of money as London drivers. Please.

So are you disagreeing with the principle that Sheffield drivers could earn much the same as London drivers?

And to answer your question more specifically, perhaps you could tell me:

- how much London taxi drivers earn;

- how much Sheffield taxi drivers earn;

- how much London minicab drivers earn.

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

What question is it that you wish to answer by asking more questions?
I didn't ask any questions only requested a solution but looks like you’re looking for answers too. Maybe solution can only be found after we can agree that there is a problem, and of course to appreciate a different perspective as equally as valid is one step towards a solution. A yes it is, and no it isn't game hasn't got us anywhere near a solution yet, why do you think that is?
Simple rule of supply a demand apply to most markets. Then, not accept that London has a higher demand for taxi services than Sheffield, and that there is an oversupply of taxis in Sheffield (now, compared to two years ago)for the existing demand, is either ignorant of laws of market or deliberately disingenuous. How come you lads set your self up to help the trade and yet only have a limited knowledge of the variations within the trade up and down the country, and push only your own world view as the only correct one? There is no such thing as one size fits all.

TDO I think STF has a valid point, we in the Borders are not restricted, about April last year, there where roughly 50 cabs in our area, now there are 110, most of the cabs are near 7 years old or just over given that there is a 7 year age limit, but you can still licence a cab for 3 years if its 7 years 11 months and 3 weeks, still in its 7th year according to the council, most of the owners have bought the cabs for no more than £1,500,
1 of them has payed £100 for a mondeo from the scrap yard all it needed was a door, it passed the taxi test, then there are the owners like me who shell out for new or nearly new cars, then we still have to make a living since April last year due to the number of cabs my takings have reduced by 30%, as its dog eat dog and due to there being freedom of choice on the rank the punters do not give a dam what decent cab or shed they get into, I belive an Edinburgh driver can make in a day what it takes us to make in 4 days

Mr STF.

You will learn very quickly not to debate with Dusty, it'll be war and peace style answers until you finally give up trying to make her see the light.

Do what I do, make your point and leave it at that, 99% of the forum user's and readers know exactly what you mean.

Your point was that London's busier than Sheffield, I and the vast majority of others see exactly where you are coming from.

I think that about sum's it up.

Yes Skippy, you make a good case regards lack of quality control in your area, but the point was about why London drivers should make more than Sheffield drivers just because London is more populous than Sheffield

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

But I thought you kept on saying that London PH drivers were earning Jack?

Can't be right, London being so big and all that?

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

Well you keep on telling us that London drivers are earning so much more than Sheffield drivers just because London is bigger, yet when asked what the earnings are you clearly can't answer the question.



Quality control, works in London, innit?



Well the point is that if there's an oversupply in Sheffield as compared to London black cabs then it's naff all to do with the size of the place.

What would it be like in London if anyone could have a green badge if they merely passed a simple CRB test.



Well I think quality control works everywhere, but since it hasn't been tried everywhere then you can't say it doesn't.

But what I am certain is that discrimination, and some in the trade poncing off others by way of buying and selling plates and hiked rentals, isn't the answer.

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

So going back to the original point, GBC said:



So suppose that TfL abolished the KOL etc and gave a hackney badge to any driver or vehicle that met the current minicab standard, what would be the problem given what GBC said above?

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

Thanks GBC, voice of experience, but just this last time What a weird way to debate. Silly questions like "how long is a piece of string?" are none starters. Is there realy a fixed figure any taxi driver earns in any place? Clearly anybody attempting a such an answer has to be mad, so maybe you are better suited than I to giving those answers. What I do contend however is that London as a market has higher demand for taxi services than Sheffield, Comprende?
So clearly there is no desire to or is it inability to appreciate another point of view and "Yes it is, no it isn't game goes on. Wonderful. Quality control works in London? So what else is new? How about, quality controls don't work in Sheffield? Oh sorry you don't know about that and probably don't want to know about it either.
So it is possible to have over supply of cabs then? Welcome to the real world, and no it has naff all to do with size of the place, now do you also agree then that over supply means undersupply of customers per cab and therefore reduced money in pocket, which has naff everything to do with my point that London has more demand than Sheffield!!!!!!



Errrrm It has been tried here, Sheffield IS qualitity control. Has been tried and worked for a while till now we have something you recognise as over-supply, means too many cabs, less work, less money, thus generating complaint on here only to be pompously told that I am earning as much as London drivers but I don't know it. The play with semantics is nausiating and only proves your limited experince about the wider trade. And OH YES I can say it doesn't work. Unlike yourself I do believe in balance maitained by local authorities.
The only discrimination so far evident has been from from TDO against any driver wishing to earn a decent living.
I would rather pay a plate premium and have the work there for me to earn enough to pay it off than sit on ranks doing nothing all day to spite others that they can't make any money either. Free market? Nope, personal vendetta market.

"Free market? Nope, personal vendetta market."

Funny - that's also the real reason for the rantings of JimTaylor and The Skull in Edinburgh yet they can't see that de-limitation of numbers isn't the one size fits all cure they seem to think.

On here and in Edinburgh they (and others) often quote "The London Model" and the rise of PHC as reasons for delimitation. Yet no one has yet answered the question as to why there are 42000 LPH in London compared to over 20000 Licensed Black Cabs in London when there is no restriction on the number of Licensed HC's in London - nothing to do with people trying to make a fast buck and wanting to lower the standards rather than raise themselves up to the higher standard of green badge holders. The Knowledge Of London is notoriously difficult to pass, but it's no reason to dispense with it, and the same argument applies wherever there is a tough knowledge test - even Edinburgh or Brighton

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Keyboards and Cretins : Facts - not opinions - are the only truths

Damascus Moments - easy excuses for a sociopath

TDO the website of double standards and changing identities

Yes, and you'll note how GBC has failed to answer the question about minicab earnings in London, and how his statements that they're earning Jack contradict his assertion that because London is so big drivers there must be earning more.

That's why these things often go on and on, because ill-informed remarks are made but when questioned evasion rather than explanation is often the order of the day.

So perhaps you could help him out seeing as how you clearly thought I was incorrect to question his statement?




No, I was just trying to get you or GBC to substantiate the point about a larger location ipso facto having higher earnings, but if it's taken you all this time to get nowhere on that point then you can hardly blame me for prolonging these things.



It's a question of principle - vehicle numerical controls = exploitation and profiteering, quality control doesn't.

It's that simple.




Well of course London has more demand than Sheffield, but then it has well over 20,000 drivers as compared to 1,000 or less in Sheffield?

The point is that it's not the size of the location per se that determines earnings etc, it's labour market and regulatory considerations.

I ask you again, why do London minicab drivers earn Jack given the size of the place?




What a lot of guff, where have I suggested that?



So what does quality control in Sheffield amount to?



I believe in equality, the minute you start controlling vehicle numbers you're down the discrimination road, innit?



Yes, but you'd much rather sell a plate at a premium, correct?



Again you're wrong since I don't know anyone on here who advocates a free market; it's generally about stiff regulation, but not in a way that benefits mr STF to the detriment of others

And your point about vendettas is typical of someone who can't make a cogent case without sounding as if they're only interested in themselves, which sounds a bit like a few others on here.

It's all about equality, accountability, democracy and the rule of law.

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

It reminds me of one those think of a number and double it questions where you implant your own number and and end up giving the correct answer. You are determined to steer debate away from weakness in your argument and into rhetoric that you know always works. When someone goes down the path of quoTing rhetoric, it usually means debate is as good as over.
So instead of answering a point you ask series of questions for others to answer, and no that's not prolonging things . It seems some kind of a psycological block on accepting an alternative solution to a problem. To accept that there is a problem would be a step forward. The fact that the much trumpeted delimitation has failed in Sheffield, you have a problem on your hands. Instead of sticking your head in the sand and keeping up the rhetoric of the London model, you need to accept there may be a flaw.

It is a clear statement,"I would rather pay a plate premium and have the work there for me to earn enough to pay it off than sit on ranks doing nothing all day" And yet you read that as,"I'd much rather sell a plate at a premium?" Your powers of deduction are amazing. I'm not psycologist but seems it must have been a difficult experience in early life, methinks. Clearly lacking in experience of the wider trade.
I stand corrected GBC