Taxi Driver Online

Well we will just have to disagree on that.

But say it was authored by Andy Smith, would that be different that being authored by Taxi Driver Online?

As for what the 'powers that be' think about M&R, who knows, but didn't this government go to war on the basis of a degree students thesis?

_________________
IDFIMH

Yes thanks for the advice Mr Guest, I did say that it was a good point.

The point being made about the govt documents was that if it's good enough for them then it's good enough for little old us.

As for comparing our (and your) work with official stuff, I agree entirely. I certainly wouldn't want our work compared to the select comm's report (for example) and I doubt if you want the OFT's report (for example) compared to yours.

I think you are misrepresenting what was said about typos Mr Guest, there are one or two typos, as with the vast majority of documents of any length. Please clarify.

You can change a .pdf document into Word format just by typing it out

A quicker way to do it with just the stuff I've got (ie Word and the Acrobat reader) is to Edit..Select All in the .odf, copy it and paste it into Word.

It's a bit of a mess, especially with long and complex documents, but if anyone wanted to they could reformat it and edit it if they wanted to.

And it's useful enough just as it's pasted for pasting extracts into other documents - AFAIK you can't paste EXTRACTS from a .pdf document.

But as regards the basic issue at point, I don't think it's really much of an issue at all at this point, when the NWTA produced its response to OFT I didn't see anyone raising the point that it was produced in Word format.

Thanks for that Mr Guest, we may have a look at this for any future documents.

I doubt if we would have used it for this one, since the time available meant that learning new software wasn't really an option - you know how fiddly these things can be, even with software that you know reasonably well.

It's a fair point Mr Guest, but as the original has gone to 90% of MPs, 100% of MSPs, and 90% of councils, then anybody who tries to amend it to look and read differently, is going to make themselves look stupid.

Alex

_________________
ʎɐqǝ uo pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ɐ ʎnq ı ǝɯıʇ ʇsɐן ǝɥʇ sı sıɥʇ

Simply the best taxi forum in the whole wide world. www.taxi-driver.co.uk

What are you on about?

In what way are you being misquoted?

What you said was that the personal cirumstances of the authors might make the document 'biased' - which presumably was intended to mean that this would invalidate the the document's case.

Or what exactly do you mean when you say that the document is biased?

Well it's on the world wide web, I don't think it could be any more openly published than that!!

Which public documents do you mean when you say everyone involved is named? I can't really think of any off hand, but I'm not saying they don't exist.

What do you mean about people being consulted - I think you are confusing TDO with some official body that has a duty to consult!!! TDO doesn't, just like the T&G, NWTA or individual people who put their views across on the issue.

If anyone wants to discount the work on the basis that the authors' personal details aren't on it then that's up to them, but I suspect it would be a case of them using that as an excuse to dodge the issues.

Now that sounds like a familiar ploy!!!!

Funny that, yesterday someone was accusing others of being touchy.

Wonder who that was??

Getting back to this M&R publication.

I must ask this question

are you telling everyone you give it to that it has been compiled following consultation with the members of this forum

You see if you are you have acted improperly, and on that point alone your hard work will be flung down the drain as inadmissable.

The whole report you have written will be discounted, having re-read the whole thing it is based on one single in-accuracy.

• An individual is granted a taxi plate at nominal cost in an area with restricted numbers. This ‘free’ plate can be sold on almost immediately for £40,000 (say), thus immediately cashing in on the scarcity value. Once again, the successful recipient may have never even driven a taxi. The payment is made by someone who cannot get a ‘free’ license because of the quantity controls in operation.

How could an individual be granted a licence at nominal cost, surely if its granted then its free.

If the individual were able to get a free plate then how would it be so easy to sell it for £40,000 (say), when any other individual would be able to do exactly the same. (monetry figures quoted far exceed the National Average).

If the individual got a plate he could not have got one from an area where the council adopted a policy of restricting numbers.


Funny that only a few months ago you were celebrating some lads down in Brighton for getting some plates after waiting 15 years, then you were'nt to be seen when it was pointed out that most of these people immediatly sold their plates and continued driving their P/H.

I just hope you haven't claimed that the paper was written after consultation with the membership of this site as you did not request my permission nor did you consult with me.

B. Lucky

Reality is slipping here isn't it. Everyone knows what is meant by the original text Mick.

Nominal cost actually means "Free or effectively so"

Thus your suggestion that the whole document is tainted by that single paragraph, is, well... stretching the imagination too far.

C'mon Mick. You are well capable of providing credible arguments, so don't let your credibility slip by arguing unarguable points that everyone else knows to be true.

_________________
There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

I'm not sure where you got that idea from, Mr Guest, perhaps you could share it with us.

Taxi Driver Online is a small-scale internet-based publication. Like any other publication the vast majority of readers would assume that anything published on it does not necessarily represent the views of the publication. That includes the site's frontpage, but even more so for the forum - I doubt if anyone would assume that the views of the publication represented the views of forum contributors - perhaps an analogy comparing new with old could be the forum representing a readers' letters page.

Maybe you are harking back to the days of TTFUK, where there was an attempt to build a quasi-representative organisation, but as regards internet publications and forums generally, any reasonable person would regard that as representing the exception rather than the rule.

Maybe you could provide some evidence for your assertion, since you seem to be trying to trying to undermine the publication by dredging up issues with no reasonable basis.

Actually that is quite a good point. The document has route reference to TDO, yet the membership on here is made up of different views. And certainly views that would not agree with the content (that is a different issue). Perhaps the author/authors ,when using the terms "Taxi Driver Online" as the source, is trying to give credence to the contents rather than relying on their own credibility.

Anyway, we will all soon see if it has made any difference.

Maybe the posts crossed Mr Guest, but perhaps you could address the reply to Mr Angel's point rather than just endorsing the original and ignoring the response.

I think there's a bit of winding up going on here

To suggest that the document represents the views of posters on here is about as ridiculous as suggesting that the Transport Committee's views represented that of Parliament.

Having said that, there are no doubt many people in the country who would think think that the Committee's report represented the views of the country, but I think the standard by which the question should be addressed is that of the reasonable man, and to that extent your arguments are unreasonable.

Rather than TDO trying to misrepresent things, it looks like it is you that is doing so, so unless you can supply evidence to support your assertion, then perhaps it's your own credibility that's at stake here.

In short, put up or shut up

Well you might be misrepresenting the extent of what happened in Brighton, but it does stink, and this was pointed out at the time in an opinion piece that you presumably didn't read:

"Sadly, the murky world of plate premiums has already raised its ugly head before any new vehicles have even been licensed, with successful applicants allegedly being offered £10,000 for transfer of the license."

http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/brighton2.htm

Indeed, since this is the point being made in the passage from the document that you quote, I can't really see what your point is here.

What you refer to is also a variation on the 'drawbridge mentality' that is mentioned in the document.

As for the point in your second paragraph, your hope is correct, no such claim has been made, what makes you think it had?