Taxi Driver Online

They tried reducing the amount of cars that go into Sunderland by basically making it as hard as posible to get through it, yes its worked, but none jumped on public transport, all the cars go somewhere else like the metro centre where they can park for free,

Isn't it strange as well that we are now deemed as public transport when it suits them but forget about us for example when it comes to bus lanes, surely if we are part of the anti conjestion stratergy and stoppping people bringing their own cars into the towns we should have quicker routes too.

Derek

Derek,

you are just beggining to learn.

That is a problem easily overcome Derek, taxis and private hire should have access to all of the bus lanes, its contained within the LTP.

Ph operators in my area object to restrictions, they believe that everyone should be public hire. What they want is the PH obligation to work through an operator but for their drivers to pick up from the street in an attempt to get rid of the ranks and those independant HC who are not contributing to their wealth.

I'm not sure which is worse, quotas or drivers being forced to work for an operator.

Then you have to define an operator. You can be an operator of one vehicle i.e. your own.

There are areas where some of the large fleets now have a mixture of ph and hackney. Aberdeen and Dundee are two that I know of.

If they do delimit the amount of taxis and all HC and PH go the same, fine it should not have much effect on the busy nights, its the other nights, an example of this is on a wednesday night in South Shields, there is only one place open till 1am, fine when it started then the offices started to send their HC drivers down and it ended up with a queue of about 20 taxis, once derestricted, this would probably end up being 50-60 taxis, one job if you are lucky, how can people survive on that, the two busy nights fair do's but what about the rest of the time. I work during the week and only taxi part time, because it was so slow during the day, this move certainly wont make it better will it and with taxi insurance going through the roof its just getting harder and harder, the only way to survive is going to work for an office, emphasis on the WORK FOR. I did have an option, but not now once this comes in.
Derek

Why would anyone spend £30,000 on a motor, to earn nothing more than they do at present.

If you are right, and the works not there, then they would be as daft as a brush to change what they are currently doing.

An operator currently licensed as a PH operator.

My area experienced those exact problems following deristriction of numbers a few years ago. At the time of deregulation we only had one nightclub, fortunatly another was built and straight over the road a fun pub open till 1 am followed. The problem was that the number of vehicles rose from under 90 to just under 300, your right, one job each at kicking out time if your lucky.

More and more lads either went into offices, handed cabs back or sold up being replaced by people with no experience.

BTW, numbers of new PH licenses had risen during the same period, however the areas largest operator is now pushing all new drivers into HC to make it appear he can't recruit PH drivers, in an attempt to justify a "must work for a licensed operator" application, coupled with the application for "HIS DRIVERS" to pick up flaggers. (not all PH to pick up, just those that pay him £110 a week).

This whole trade is in decline because of the actions of some who insist they know better than we do.

Do you think he will succeed?
I do not, but your area is an officers nightmare where everyone asks for the law to be broken.

you are a bit different, as you believe you can win.

he probably knows hes winding you up no end.

The law as it stands allows a single PH driver to have his own ops license. It also states that taxis don't need an ops license for bookings within their area, outside is anyones guess.

So the chances of anyone de-limiting taxi numbers on the basis of those new plates working for an office is, in my opinion, less than nil.

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IDFIMH

"Sussex", I think you will find that the result of delimitation is more HC vehicles working through offices.

I work PH, I work in an open sector with no limits, yet on the same nights the HC fleet have people waiting at ranks we have people waiting for us, becausae of this the owner of my office wants to attract more vehicles in order to reduce the amount of job "knock backs" at weekends.
If he is only able to attract HC vehicles then it doesn't solve his problem if those vehicles work the ranks, and if they don't work the ranks then it adds ammunition to your calls for more HC as people waiting at the ranks wait longer.

The point I'm trying to make here is that PH provision must be maintained, people must be able to pre-book at taxi, this "rose tinted" ideal that everyone should be able to flag down a taxi when they need one just wouldn't work.

I have no inclination to work HC, I work for a good office that provides me with adequate amounts of work and provides a reliable service to those customers good enough to use us. Over the last couple of years most new drivers at our office have been HC, some have relicensed PH as the extra expense of a WAV isn't justified by either the WAV customers they carry or indeed the amount of work they do from the ranks.

But should it be maintained by not allowing drivers the choice?

Drivers should be the best people to decide which side of the trade they want to work, not out-dated legislation.

If a taxi driver wishes to work with an office, then good luck to him. He should be free to do what he wants, as should a PH drivers be free to own their own taxis and work the streets.

Without having to pay some mush up to £50,000 for something he got for f*** all.

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IDFIMH

New legislation should be written, but it should concern the demands of the public and be primarily written to represent their best interest.

I don't think drivers or operators should decide, the provision of a well balanced taxi strategy by the local authority taking into account the needs of their local community is the only way to make good local policy.



A romantic ideal. Drivers should decide to offer the services their local community demand.
If you believe that signifigant numbers of people are being let down or are not being offered the best service possible then you should look to provide the service they want, a PH operators licence can be obtained for a single vehicle from your home address in most areas.

The problem, as I see it, is based on this idea that HC drivers working from offices get "two bites of the cherry", this maybe true when things are quiet but when its busy they must choose what to bite as they like you only have one mouth. The office I work from has a number of HC some of whom abandon the office to work the ranks at weekends, these people then return to the office when the ranks have gone quiet looking for work as our office stays busy for most of the night, if they went to the ranks without the consent of the clerk their datas are "blocked", this rule is based on the theory that the needs of our customers should come first.



Another romantic ideal. Most, if not all, of the current HC owners in my area have paid for their plates, albeit, possibly, from people who got the plate for free. I would also suggest that in some areas HC licenses are available free from the issuing authority for saloons and following deregulation free plates are available for those presenting a WAV, in both instances the plates hold no value.