Taxi Driver Online

Taxi row will bring chaos to streets!

FURIOUS taxi drivers are getting ready to bring Inverness to a standstill next week after pleas to cap applications for licences have been ignored. Chaos will descend on the city during the evening rush hour next Friday, when around 100 taxi drivers will block the main streets in the city.

The streets where taxi drivers will line up their cabs have still not been confirmed, but it's understood Queensgate, Academy Street and Union Street are included. And prominent businesses – already hit by the Streetscape works in the city centre – are backing the drivers in their bid to put a cap on the number of taxi licences handed out by Highland Council.

Duncan Fraser, of Duncan Fraser and Son butchers on Queensgate, said: "They are the ones who know what business is out there to be got, they are the ones who are suffering. "It will disrupt the city, but there's been enough disruption with Streetscape anyway, and hopefully that's coming to an end now. "But I just hope that, if they take this action, something will get done."

The direct action comes after councillors refused to put an immediate freeze on licences. Inverness Taxi and Private Hire Association had wanted officials to stop adding to the 354 licensed city taxis because they insist full-time drivers can no longer make a living.

Many new drivers are working only a Friday and Saturday night – taking trade away from drivers who have been working in Inverness for years. The association believes a cap for a number of years would allow drivers to get through the current economic downturn. However, when council officials met last month to discuss the issue, they decided to leave the situation unchanged.

Now Vic Rawlins, chairman of the taxi association, is warning the rolling road block will clog the streets and cause disruption to the whole city. "We have no choice," he said. "We feel we have been forced into a corner by Highland Council because we have asked and asked again about the number of plates being handed out to folk. "It's absolutely killing our trade. Business is dire and it is hard to survive as a taxi driver the way things are."

Mr Rawlins, who has been a taxi driver for 10 years, claimed business was the worst it had ever been. "I've been a taxi driver for a long time," he said. "But things have never been this bad.

Taxi drivers (from left) Bill Cowan, Vic Rawlins, Colin Capp and Rob MacDonald are planning a road block in Inverness in a bid to halt the number of taxi licences. Alasdair Allen

"We really needed someone at the council to listen to what we are going through and take some action but no-one has. No action to cap the number of licences being given out has been taken. We feel this is the only way to get our point across."

Taxis are an essential part of clearing the streets of revellers and keeping them safe on Friday and Saturday nights after nightclubs and pubs close, according to Mr Rawlins.

He said: "We have a major role to play in the safety of the streets after pubs and clubs close. "We have the responsibility to take people, who have often been drinking large amounts of alcohol, off the streets and to their homes.

"We taxi drivers have been treated as a second-class service for years but what the officials need to realise is we have a vital role to play in keeping the streets safe and we have been asking for a bit of help to survive."

City centre butcher Mr Fraser fully sympathises with the taxi drivers. He said: "I can appreciate where they are coming from. The guys who have been doing the job for years are struggling now, they're having to work longer hours and worse shifts, which can't be good for their health.

"You can see it in the centre, it's chock-a-block. You would think it would make sense for the council to put a cap on the number of licences being handed out, if the guys who have been doing the job for years are recommending it."

Charles Leaky, from Leakey's Second Hand Bookshop on Church Street, was also in support of the direct action. He said: "I have certainly noticed myself that there are a lot of taxis on the roads and this latest move by the drivers confirms my suspicions.

"If it is getting too hard for the guys to make a living, the council should listen so I would thoroughly support what they're doing. If it takes direct action to make them listen, then they should do it."

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IDFIMH

Many new drivers are working only a Friday and Saturday night – taking trade away from drivers who have been working in Inverness for years. The association believes a cap for a number of years would allow drivers to get through the current economic downturn.

Read it and weep Mr Taylor! Would this not be the case in Edinburgh then i ask? You better beieve it would and the service to the public would suffer. Why can't you see that the service we provide at the minute is as good as it can be with quite a high percenmtage of cars dubble shifted,meaning a great service 24/7. You know it makes sense but doesn't fit with your revenge mission, so you'll find something to poo it no doubt.

354 cabs in Inversnecky
FFs I could not get one back to Fort George back in the 70s as there was not enough and when you could after a night out in the Eagle bar or the Murry then a bit of clubbing in the Cally or Douglas it only cost a fiver

Still clutching at straws?

Inverness is nothing like Edinburgh BTK

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Ye, your right we have don't have deregulation and long may that continue. It's plain to see that dereg would be bad for the trade but when has that ever been a priority of the greedy [edited by admin] who'll do anything to get a free plate and then sell it on. Have you actually had a read of the article? Weekend taxi drivers! That's what this trade will become if JT ever gets his way.

That's what you get when entry standards for drivers are low and saloon cars are allowed.
Every fekker and his dog can be a part time cabby.

I'm led to believe a plate from anywhere in the Highlands can work Inverness, as it all comes under The Highland Council. I don't think it is zoned either.

http://www.highland.gov.uk/
That's a huge area BTW. Large enough to contain Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, with everything in between.
Any limit would affect the whole of the Highlands, never mind the practicalities and costs of conducting an SUD survey on such a scale
A limit also won't take a single cab off the road or stop another driver getting a badge. It will force them to line someone elses pocket to make a living and require them to work more hours to pay them.

BTW a "greedy [edited by admin]" is someone who charges £50k for a council issued plate or someone who wants to stop others having their own taxi so that they can profit from renting them theirs.
A fool is someone who pays it and believes they are better off

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

You need to look at the big picture BTK.
You have a limit and it's been in place for years.
Almost every cab is double shifted and the majority of drivers have to pay rent. In many cases the plate owner rents out a shift to pay the high costs of buying in. Others rent cabs to 2 drivers, providing an income to a third party who does little to earn it and isn't really part of the trade.
Everyone's rent, fuel and other costs as well as all the drivers' take home pay, all have to come from the same pool of customers. This pool is only so big and you also have hundreds of PH cars and the council's own bus company drinking from this pool. These can't be restricted, only market forces control them. Two guys driving two cabs need similar amounts to two guys driving one cab. Difference is they can both drive when there is work and go home when it's quiet. They can directly compete with the competition and as a result the competition will decrease. PH numbers have already started to fall due to the current economic climate. Market forces in action. More cabs at peak periods will accelerate this and in the end you will all be better off.
Your limit prevents your trade competing fully and hands the advantage to your competetors.
Subsidised buses will be a harder nut to crack but even the council would find it hard to justify running a subsidised service which was hardly being used.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

We've waited for market forces to kick in and make us all better off for 7 years. Do you have any idea when we can expect this dream to become a reality

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

Yeah, when the weak bale out. If they're not baling out, then they're not weak and things aren't as bad as the picture you paint.

You surethis isn't just a whinge about the recession?

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Skull, "You are a police inspector, aren't you?"
Cab Inspector Smith, "Yes."
Skull, "So, are you going to tell Mr Taylor what his rights are?"
Smith, "And ... What rights?"

Chaos in Inverness?

Can there ever be such a thing?

Read the bit you highlighted again toots.
As a PH, a delimited hack trade will do nothing for you but give you less work and more competition.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

I live for less work and more competition

A delimited taxi trade here has not seen any decrease in drivers or taxis just a decrease in earnings and an increase in hours. It's also seen an increase in what you call 'taxi barons'. Whilst I'm aware that PH has never been limited the fact that HC were always limited kept them from the offices of the PH trade. As it is now they are part and parcel of the PH trade thus making it like one trade, which in my opinion is how it should be.

So to say a de-limited taxi trade will do nothing for me or to assume it'll have no effect is foolish at best

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

If there are too many hack drivers, then standards need to be looked at.
If there are too many PH drivers, thats unlucky as there are few standards.
If drivers choose to rent from a baron, that is their choice. Choice being the important thing missing in a restricted area. Maybe you could tell us why anyone would want a PH in an area where they could have the same vehicle as a hack, enjoying the best of both worlds? Unless they can't have the same vehicle, of course? or they can't get a hack badge?

I didn't say it would have no effect on you. Quite the opposite, in fact.

That adds up to lower earnings for PH doesn't it?.
Hacks working your PH office hasn't affected your earnings?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

The standards here for both PH and HC are high or as high as any other good council. No older than 3 years on 1st reg. Same knowledge test & Btec for new drivers. The vehicles are different cos the HC has to be a WAV but they get a longer life span than the PH. Having HC on the PH system does decrease earnings cos they take the 5+ seater work when 2 cars would have been the norm. It would be pointless going to the expense of being a HC at the moment. There isn't enough work and there aren't enough rank spaces so driving around in circles appears to be the only option.

Anyway all that aside there are those for de-reg for their own reasons and those against it for their reasons. I'm against it cos I've seen it not work. If there is to be de-reg then it should be across the board and there may as well just be one taxi trade not two. Before you say there is only one taxi trade from a customer point of view there is two and it's the customer we're all so concerned about

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