Taxi Driver Online

Taxi drivers threaten to strike for a week

TAXI drivers are considering industrial action in response to expectations that Tynwald will delimit taxi numbers and open up the service Island-wide.

This month, Transport Minister David Anderson will seek Tynwald's support to remove schedule two from the Road Transport Act 2001, enabling the provisions of the act to become fully operational.

The act brought in all-Island licensing and moved any limitation on the number of ply-for-hire taxis. Ply-for-hire taxis get their trade from ranks or can be flagged down.

However, when the Roads Transport Act 2001 was passed it was recognised there ought to be a transition period prior to its provisions being introduced, so schedule two was brought in.

This schedule, in direct conflict with the act, required a limit on the number of ply-for-hire licences and applied a district/zoning system for these taxis. Tynwald voted for schedule two to remain in place for five years to April 2007, and also voted to extend that period again until 2008.

The Department of Transport says it is 'duty bound' to bring the matter back to Tynwald. But Douglas and East district taxi drivers Barry Murphy and William O'Neill argue its removal would be wrong and that scrapping schedule two will cause concern for taxi drivers over their continued ability to earn a living.

They said 'industrial action' would follow, which could involve a withdrawal of taxi services for up to a week.

There are 643 licensed taxi drivers and 343 taxis on the roads. Of that number of taxis, 116 are licensed to the Douglas and East region. Last week, there were 56 applications for ply-for-hire licences before the licensing body.

_________________
IDFIMH

Welcome news removing the limit, but interesting that their own survey of December 2006 stated their was no unmet demand & a follow up survey could wait until 2009

http://www.gov.im/lib/docs/highways//finalreport.pdf

_________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_around_the_world

Which does beg the question as to why they bothered spending the money on a survey. Would have been better giving it to the tourist board to advertise the Island.

_________________
IDFIMH

Delay as cabbies find their way to the Parliament.

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Cabbies- ... 4107069.jp

_________________
IDFIMH

The IoM saga continues.

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Taxi-dri ... 4885233.jp

_________________
IDFIMH

Why would it be welcome news

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Because drivers will then have a choice as to either drive HC or PH based on what's best for them, not on how much money they have to pay for a plate.

_________________
IDFIMH

Just got back from a weekend in IoM, and have never seen an unhappier bunch of taxi drivers in my life. I would not like to be driving a cab there. I thought that it was quiet in Edinburgh..... but IoM is in a completely different league.

I think it shows in your top post, nearly a 20% application within one week, there's gonna be problems, and the whole thing is never gonna benefit the existing cabbies.

Looks like this long running saga is coming to a conclusion.

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/politics/Manx ... 5457008.jp

The trade must be really concerned and the 8% return of consultation documents clearly confirm that.

_________________
IDFIMH

If the plans go ahead does that mean they will not have the two types of 'taxis' i.e HC and PH as well as delimiting

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

It would appear so.

_________________
IDFIMH

I think that would interesting to see how it all works. It may answer a few questions here regarding single tier taxis

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Looks like another step has been taken in the anti quota crusade.

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/politics/Taxi ... 5478190.jp

_________________
IDFIMH

I think it's right to do it this way it's better than delimiting and having a free for all. I particularly like the surity idea although it does seem a little steep and of course watching to see what happens in a single tier if it ever gets that far will be interesting as well

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!