2 Jobs wrote:
I accept I am probably very wrong on this having been connected at arms length from the trade (PH & HC) for many years, it has always puzzled me why councils that restrict the number of hackney plates permit the "sale" of the plates.
Would a "dead mans shoes" procedure be the answer in some form. You want or have to give up a HC plate, you HAVE to surrender it to the council who will then offer it to the name at the top of the waiting list for reissues. Transfers NOT permitted. Now I accept that people who have paid £000's for a plate wouldn't like this but surely there must be a way around this. I accept you could have people on the waiting list that might forego their "turn" for a fee on the quiet.
The restriction is to maintain quality control, i.e you don't end up with a rank for 10 with 200 trying to get on it, the answer to this would be then they have to cruise then, which creates more pollution and eats profits so not an option, add more ranks then? where? expand ranks maybe, but that isn't always possible due to road layout, buildings etc, and council seem to be land grabbing ranks right now for parking meters anyway.
Dead man's shoes? na, it's the same thing if someone want's to buy an existing business, you buy in so you get in, don't worry I used to think the same way many years ago when I first started out, you have to drive both sides to be able to see the full picture of the game in general, basically a HC was invented to serve the public OTR, then the PHC came along because it was needed to service jobs not on the beaten track, since then PH has forgotten it's role and gotten greedy and tries to work as a HC and a PHC, working along some folks ideas you could de-regulate and then you could go buy a double decker bus and rank up with it, I know it's different but it's still the same model that PH is trying to use on the HC trade, the best way is to leave things alone, the only improvements that are required is PH to be limited to the amount of work demand in the area, if you made them have a SUD you would find the recommendation would be to halve their fleets, and car and driver standard, i.e no more sweaty drivers who don't shave, and no more 6 year old heaps that give Keith Moon a run for his money, personally I would suggest that any car must be under 18 mths old at first license with no more than 50k on the clock and can stay on for a maximum of 4 years from first license, away with vein exposing shorts and shirts that give the punter a look at armpit hair, and don't mistake that for a uniform, any clothes are fine as long as they are clean and of the correct cut, so a polo shirt and jeans is still fine by me, as long as they are smart and in good clean condition, driver knowledge is another area that needs looking at in the way of a probie scheme, everyone has to learn somehow, if that person demonstrates they have learned after 3 mths then they get to carry on, if they still want to take the only way they know rather than the shortest then they aren't suitable at that time imo.
It's gone from the Police to the L Officer to the L Department regarding regulations, and each time it goes up a level it goes down one for the drivers, we had an ex cabbie LO some years ago, the guy was the best of the best, sadly passed away a few years ago, but he was able to understand the job from both sides, something a clerk can never achieve.
Hope that explains things a bit for you 2J's.