Latest edition o "The Cabbie" has just dropped through the letterbox.
Again it is full of cabbies bleating about how unrestricted numbers are taking their work and how they can't make a living.
Isn't it time these cabbies, these so called "businessmen" woke up and smelled the coffee?
Every other business is fnding times tough during this recession. They adapt , improvise and change in order to survive. Most will, the weak will go tot he wall.
Our trade should be no different.
Lurking about on already overfull taxi ranks is not adapting, it's just filling up the the comfort zone social clubs to bump gums and moan. If they can't make enough money by working when it is busy and taking time off when it is quiet, or they can't diversify then they deserve to fail.
But that doesn't confer the right to stifle another individual's enterprise by restricting their access to the tools of their trade.
What really mystifies me though is the clamour to put caps back on. If there are "too many taxis" for the work available, then isn't there an argument for taking licences away from holders so that their notional piece of the pile can be distributed amongst the rest of the brothers? Ridiculous? Of course it is, and no one is suggesting this.
But what would be the point of capping? The effect would be to cement the oversupply and perpetuate it. There would be no reduction. Those who were struggling would continue to do so because they would be protecting their false plate value. Unable to get back in at a later date they wouldn't want to give up their plate value, so they keep it. And they work it. And the dilution of the market continues to hurt everyone.
At least with a free market then folks have the option of putting their licence on hold (council's should be encouraging this) knowing they can come back into the market when things pick up. They may choose to go part time. They may choose to return to a previous trade. Whatever. With the free market they have the choice and the rest benefits.
With caps on, all that happens is that the situation remains bad. Everyone sits tight and no one makes any money.
This is what happens in every other market sector. So why doesn't it happen within the taxi trade? Why are cabbies singled pout for special treatment. And why do taxi trade "businessmen" have so much difficlut understand this?
Couldn't be because they're not really businessmen after all could it? Couldn't be that they are just pseudo council employees but without all the usual employed status benefits? Couldn't be that they are so used to being spoon-fed they wouldn't be able to survive on their best day if they have to think for themselves.
Time to grow up guys, don't you think?
All "The Cabbie" serves to achieve is to amplify the views of the editors, there is no balance. So, is it relevant?
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