captain cab wrote:
jasbar wrote:
No, the "crap" remark marks you as a mental pygmy, an intellectual dwarf.
The market isn't free, tru, but our political "masters" all allegedly adhere to the principles of the free market. At least in public they do. But we all know that politicians are liars.
There is no such thing as a "free" plate. Only the right of an individual to apply for a plate. In over 70% of LAs, that right is properly adhered to. It's only in LAs where councils and the trade exploit drivers and customers that rights are restricted. But then, you already know this.
"Sell it ... again"? Never having held a plate before, how could I sell it again? And if I did sell a plate, wouldn't I just be doing something the council and the trade actively encourages, and you agree with? So, what's your problem?
And anyway, don't I want the floodgates to open? Haven't I already said as much? Haven't I long argued that removing the restriction restores the rights of drivers and customers over the restriction of those rights by selfish trade greedos?
So, you're wrong again, I DO want the floodgates to open, tempered of course by the quality controls that invests in drivers, not owners willing to prostitute their financial well being to a bank to fund an illegal plate value that requires high tariffs, ripping off customers, to fund it.
As for me being a fraud. How so? I've been open all the way down the line about what I'm working towards. You on the other hand, claim some moral high ground that simply conceals your own naked greed and fear of losing your protection from the plate restriction.
I'm not the fraud, you are. And you're a despicable liar and a coward to boot.
Here's laughing at you kid
You are a complete fraud, need I refer your mind back to the ghost of xmas past when you were an advocate of regulation?
You are so much caught up in your quest for a plate you seem deluded as to what its actually like in the places that are deregulated.
And the crap remark still sums up your post
CC
Perhaps you could tell us all where any LA has deregulated? I can't think of a single one.
As for plate values affecting tariffs?
Do you deny that tariffs are set to reflect the cost of operation?
And do you deny that rentals reflect the owner's costs and the profit margin he seeks?
And do you deny that those owner costs include the costs borne by the owner - vehicle, finance, plate finance, servicing, repairs, rubber etc. - they are all his component costs?
So, how can the plate value not possibly be reflected in the ultimate tariff?
OK you still don't agree. Then let's dispense with the plate values by opening the market up, and reassess the tariff in light of the new competitive edge and let's all see where the tariff lies then.
The only reason that you don't see the effect of the plate value on the tariff is because you don't want to see it.
As for areas with lower plate values having higher tariffs, even a first year economics student would recognise that there is no single factor that affects price. Supply, demand, scarcity, quality, politics, control are just some of the factors affecting. Given time, I have no doubt I could come up with many more.
Setting tariffs is a complex algorithim. And one which is subject to political influence. Taxi trade's, like all other market sector, are in the business of pushing up the tariff to maximise profit. There's nothing wrong with that per se.
Council's are supposedly in the business of representing public interest, but here in Edinburgh we all know that they set our tariffs to suit their political agenda. Which is why they allowed a 15% increase in the tariff when they were launching their expanded night bus service. Obviously, they could not do so if taxi fares were so low that it was more cost effective to use a taxi rather than the shiny new £200,000 night bus. It would destroy their business model. So they used the price mechanism to control the taxi competition.
(Incidentally, they will do precisely the same to ensure that buses do not have any price competitive edge over the shiny new tram system.)
And the taxi trade fell for it. They took the "silver" and lost vast swathes of its market to night buses as a result.
Indeed, we all remember Jim Muldoon, of the Scottish Taxi federation, telling us that rather than put on more taxis the council should put on more buses.
Quality or what?
Our trade has given our work away. Sold us down the river. Just to protect the plate value.
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