Taxi Driver Online

Fears over cut-price taxi fares

TAXI drivers claim a company’s recession-busting cut-price fares are threatening their livelihoods. About 30 drivers who operate under the Value Cars banner met in Gloucester Park, Basildon, to raise concerns over the firm’s Fiver Fever promotion.

The deal, introduced in February to boost business, involves a £5 price cap on all fares within the Basildon town area. The private hire drivers, who are self-employed and pay the firm for meters and to get business via its radio system, supported the price cap when it was introduced.

They say at the time, they were told Value Cars would not take on any more new drivers, so existing drivers would guaranteed extra business from the Fiver Fever offer.

The protest meeting was called after they discovered the firm had taken on between six and ten new drivers. One of the unhappy cabbies, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “We held our meeting to let them know enough is enough.

“We can’t make a living any more. “We were prepared to take a hit to our takings, but we had an agreement and the firm has gone back on it. “The more drivers they take on, the less the rest of us make.” The company has since made a concession to angry drivers, raising its price cap to £7 for weekend journeys.

One of the protesters claimed the firm had turned off the meters of all drivers at the meeting, preventing them from picking up customers, as a punishment.

Mia Walker, 42, manager of Value Cars, said she turned off their meters – but only for half an hour. She explained: “They held this protest meeting at our peak time, which is lunchtime. “It made things as awkward for us as possible. That meant the rest of the drivers who didn’t go along had to work that much harder to cover them. “I left off their meters for a short period, to reward the other drivers with a little more business.”

Miss Walker added the company’s workload had increased by a quarter in the first month of the Fiver Fever promotion. She said: ”Unfortunately, some of our drivers are only prepared to work until they have reached their target takings for the day, then they switch off their meters, regardless of whether we need them to stay on.

“Our waiting times were going up, because we were getting busier, so we needed the extra drivers to cope.”

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IDFIMH

Is this the only firm in the country who's busiest time is lunchtime?

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IDFIMH

I'd like to know how the firm can turn the "meters" off.

Mine gets turned off every week until I pay my settle which is usually on a Friday

I don't think it's 'meters' as such I think it's the data heads they use to receive the work

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

how does that work then, have the radios got a coin slot?

typical base:slave relationship

they turn the radios off in protest, then the base teach em a lesson...

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

no, McDonalds are too

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

It's all controlled by computer they can do anything they want. Here if you vehicle fails it's m.o.t they have to notify the licence department who will then notify the office you work from and tell them to disable your data head unit until the vehicle has passed the m.o.t

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

so just another base taking over the lives of the guys paying good money to be enslaved...

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

I think what is so sad about this is that the drivers take a punt by lowering their fares, in the hope of gaining more work, thus money, yet this slag then takes on more cars.

And when the drivers get the hump she books them off the system.

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IDFIMH

That's the world of the lowlife private hire operators. They don't benefit from how much the fares are or aren't they only make more money by taking on more drivers. If they can create a busy system by lowering fares then they can justify taking on more drivers.

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

TBH if a firm can only gain more work by undercutting the rest of the trade, then that gives an indication they aren't all that.

What would be nice is to see those drivers leaving the slag and going elsewhere, but I doubt they will.

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IDFIMH

If it's anything like here the other firms are much the same. Sometimes it's better the devil you know

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