Taxi Driver Online

What i see is that for a great many people things haven't and probably won't change that greatly!

Many people are in the same job and earning similar money to what they were earning 2 years ago. Their expenses are somewhat similar to what they were a while back albeit more excessive in certain areas so therefore they have a similar level of disposable income to what they had 2 years ago. The mortgage rates are not running at a stupidly high level as in the early 90's and the prognosis is that they will fall quite dramatically in due course.

I'm still seeing people going out and clubbing, eating and drinking; perhaps not ordering the most expensive bottle of wine or dish on the menu but going out none the less. The shopping centres are full of people, perhaps doing more browsing than before but still venturing out. My work has reduced and i'm doing an extra hour or 2 a night but certainly not down 20%-30% as reported in certain media.

My view is that we just need to get our heads down and pull through it together, i tell all my customers that my industry is doing ok as i know that for many people they view us as a barometer of what is happening in the fiscal World, if in some small way that gives someone the confidence to go out and spend money they have and keep the wheels of commerce turning then i know i'm doing my bit.

I would urge all cabbies in all Cities to do the same, the media is full of doom and gloom; the press talk it up like there is no tomorrow, the Goverment too could do better than to sound the bells of economic gloom and to be honest i'm fed up of hearing about it! I'm sure that had there been a media black out things wouldn't have escalated to this point.

Lets inspire some confidence and do our bit to get things back on track.

i'm not an economist but make no apology if my views are somewhat simplistic

I may have put this somewhere else. If so, I apologise for repeating it but my figures are holding up nicely. I've just completed a week on the high side of average and had two record weeks within the last month or so.

I'm quite happy that I should maintain my targets through to Christmas. I may, however, be issuing a profits warning in the New Year!!

acabbie well said. 100% agree with you.

The posters from Edders down are I feel spot on, what we have is the classic case of people talking themselves into a recession mentality.

Fact - interest rates are still very low along with unemployment, I believe that it will only hit you Big Time if a large employer dismisses a large work force in your/my area. I also think that it is wise to remember that September,October and perhaps November are not great months anyway and as I see it things are ticking along quite normally - the new year will be down to our wonderful leaders but by then interest rates will be even lower and I am sure that they will come to some agreement with OPEC - So! despondency is not the order of the day - YET!

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

'Westfield' opens this week.

Anyone know where the rank access is?

PH only I'm afraid.

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IDFIMH

as i understand it there is a rank for about 40 cabs somewhere, not sure where though GBC.

Hopefully the centre will be well serviced with taxis and prevent the PH mob getting a foot hold in there.

Centre 'will bring traffic chaos'


Westfield is billed as third biggest shopping centre in the UK
A giant shopping centre will create traffic "gridlock" when it opens in west London this week, an MP and residents have said.

Westfield centre aims to bring 60,000 visitors per day to Shepherds Bush but it only has 4,500 parking spaces.

Labour MP Andrew Slaughter said: "It's grown massively without the additional infrastructure to support it."

But Hammersmith Council leader Stephen Greenhalgh said it was taking steps to improve road capacity and traffic flow.

Westfield is due to open on 30 October, containing about 265 shops, 50 restaurants and a multiplex cinema.

The £1.6bn development is billed as the third biggest shopping centre in the UK.

But people living in the largely residential area fear it will create major traffic problems.

Resident James While said: "If I leave the house in the morning I won't be able to park up until 3.30pm at night, such is the congestion caused just at the moment by contractors' vans."

He added: "How it will be once the centre is occupied, god only knows. It will be a disaster."

Mr Slaughter, the MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherds Bush, told BBC One's Politics Show: "The whole area is likely to be in gridlock by the end of this week."

But Mr Greenhalgh, leader of Conservative-run Hammersmith and Fulham Council, described the shopping centre as "a huge good news story".

"There's no doubt that something of this magnitude isn't going to come without pain but there is a huge economic benefit for the area and also social regeneration for local people," he said.


We are in strong negotiations with (Westfield) to ensure the local streets are not a car park for Westfield shoppers


Developer Westfield Group said the centre would create 7,000 jobs. Mr Greenhalgh said up to 1,000 of these would go to local residents.

A Westfield Group spokesman said: "We are working closely with local councils and training and skills agencies to ensure that as many local people as possible gain employment at the centre."

The developer has also contributed £170m to improve transport links in the area.

Mr Greenhalgh added that there was "no doubt" the council needed to improve the road capacity.

"We are trying to increase road capacity, improve traffic flow, look at traffic light phasing," he said.

"This is something that's going to happen over time."

He added: "We are in strong negotiations with (Westfield) to ensure the local streets are not a car park for Westfield shoppers."

Although the exra work it should generate is a good thing, i believe the traffic chaos in & around the area will be utter carnage

We already know how bad shepherds bush green, southern roundabout (all day), a40 west bound from the northern roundabout (after 1.00pm EVERY day ) is.

This could put alot of cab driver's from venturing into the vicinity or to rank up

Can't say I'll be heading there unless a job takes me that way.

According to BBC Radio London news (Monday 27th October,3pm); it's in Kensington High Street....

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Charlton's lost past http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsFKWGlrze0
London's future? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... rants.html

Well the Students were out in force last night so no shortage of money there, and today I had to go into the City centre and there seemed plenty of people in the shops - could it ( RECESSION) just pass us by

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Would be nice, but the more I hear from the so-called experts the more I'm starting to feel a tad iffy.

So folks look after every punter you have.

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IDFIMH

The recession is not going to pass us by. Neither is it media inspired. (Although the Media, don't feckin help that's for sure) This is the biggest economic feck-up since records began. It's such a fecking mess no one knows what's going to happen, but this is just the start. After Christmas, everything will spiral downwards, at such a rate of knots, you'll be lucky not to get a nose bleed.


If you think this is doom and gloom then more fool you. A lot can happen, that much I would agree, but "pass us by"? I don't think so somehow . . . .

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

I am just looking at it and thinking that this is so different to any other recession we have ever had, we have low interest rates along with low unemployment which is not the stuff that causes recessions.

As a consequence countries around the world are now pulling together because if the banking system has an Armageddon then theoretically no ones money will be worth anything, and neither will the wealth of leaders of the world.They cannot let that happen because they themselves will become worthless along with the rest of us - now that will just not do will it!

So my guess is that they will throw vulgar amounts of money into the system that we will never have heard of - the buzz word now being Zillions, So! watch the high street - Superman will come up with the answer

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.