Taxi Driver Online

Ihave done this Hack job for a lot of years now

But for the life of me I cannot come up with or get a straight answer re GNER taxi ranks

I hack in York, I used to use the Stn years ago but things have gone silly now. as you all know the station has a GNER railway taxi rank, our byelaws state that we must proceed to a Council Approved taxi rank after we have dropped off our fare, after 1900hrs we are allowed to "cruise" the streets, if you want.

The GNER taxi rank is not an "approved " council taxi rank, but is a pay by permit system, 430 odd quid a year, pay your monies and you can go an sit there and sit on double yellows outside to feed in if the outside council rank is full. I will not pay the railway along with another 40 odd hacks. you have to wear the corect clothing and a tie, and be inspected by fellow taxi drivers [rank marshalls] on your appearance, [there has been a couple of face to face incidents already]if not up to scratch the driver can be escorted off the rank. My wife laughs at this, some of the marshalls themselves are like a bag of s**t when dressed up, I am not going down that road again I have done my time in the Forces, but this dress code is not the issue.

The council are removing the "council approved rank" in the middle of the road outside the Stn [you can sit on that rank but can't enter the station rank without permit]] and allowing GNER to have a feeder rank on the station car park to which you will have to use the permit system, is taxibank stiring up again or are they making way for putting in PH at some stage, I don't know.

OK, the permit holders can have the railway work, but on a Friday and Saturday thousands of pee heads wander off the street to the railway rank forming massive 2/3 hour queues going on into the very small hours of the night, these are the public not railway travellers

a third of the Hac fleet with no permits have to drive passed [thinking chuffing hell, ] to the next rank, surely I have paid the council a fee to be licenced and I can't pick up because they have gone to a "private rank", is there something wrong.

The rank is surveyed by the council when they do surveys.

does anyone know the LAW with regard to Railway taxi ranks, that are not approved taxi ranks, and can enlighten me.

Did you expect anything else from GNER??? They are a pile of [edited by admin], they have to make all this money to pay for their new Mallard Trains.

I would just ask the council to approve/adopt it.

With the landowners permission and council agreement you can have a rank anywhere.

Think you will find that the railways have very strong powers over their land which makes council useless.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Oh yeah I can see it now, GNER please give up the £16000+ per year and allow us to adopt the taxirank on your land, they're sure to do that now aren't they.



Why drive passed, stop where you can be seen by the people waiting and they will make their way over to you, after time they will start queuing where everyone can pick them up.
If there is nowhere available for you to stop then I would get out of my cab where I could, walk over to the rank and tell the punters they will get a taxi quicker if they went to another rank and tell them where that is, maybe better if there was a few of you ranked up. People are very much creatures of habit, these habits can be changed but you need to let people know the situation and not just complain between yourselves.

just pay for a permit you greedy swines,then you can pick up!

just thinking that myself. if theres a 2-3 hour queue of punters there every friday and saturday, then surely you would make you permit fee back within a month or so just on weekend nights. plus the bonus of being able to pick up from there when the trains come in.

The station can do what they like and charge what they like as it is private land. i dont agree with fees like this myself, but if the fares are there then it could be a worth while investment.

But the drivers pay that already, so why shouldn't the council adopt it?

Otherwise as the chap said, they are in breach of their license.

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IDFIMH

York station only has a very large queue on a fri and sat night because the customers have to queue up at other ranks for hours as well so walk to the station hoping to get one quicker which dosnt work because there isnt enough taxis operating either at the station or the other ranks at them times, the rest of the time the queue is non existent exept when a train comes in, all the hacks that have paid to use it are all ranked up the rest of the time, there is a big problem in york at peak times due to a lack of taxis, operators of taxis dont seem to want to work these busy times, which makes it very profitable for private hire vehicles.
As far as i am aware it could cost you upto £40k for a york hack plate which seems a lot of money for what work they get where as my private hire plate cost me a lot less and probably kept alot busier than than hacks are, i wouldnt pay to work on the station i get plenty of work from there customers ringing our firm to pick them up outside the station because they cant cope with the demand at busy times

by a very happy phv driver

just thinking that myself. if theres a 2-3 hour queue of punters there every friday and saturday, then surely you would make you permit fee back within a month or so just on weekend nights. plus the bonus of being able to pick up from there when the trains come in.

But there is a problem

The permits are restricted in number, only just over a hundred permits allowed by the Hac radio company running the show are issued. The contract you sign before you get the permit is horrendous, thought I read you can't have a beard, if you wear a cap it must be the whippet dog owner style flat cap only, black dress shoes, I only wear boots. At least 2 drivers have got doctors notes allowing them not to wear ties.

re that writer saying park outside till they come over, you jest of course, have you ever tried it, they just look over at you right stupid, they must say to themselves ah a taxi with light on, but I'll just stand here and wait in the rank where I am.

there is a big problem in york at peak times due to a lack of taxis, operators of taxis dont seem to want to work these busy times, which makes it very profitable for private hire vehicles.


by a very happy phv driver

I for one won't work the peak times, I'm a 10.00 o clock night come outer, stuff the traffic. I have lost count to the amount of customers who have got out as you are stuck in traffic and walked, it's quicker they say, why did they get in in the first place. I have also slung a few out for moaning a bucket full about being stuck in traffic and being told by the punter words to the effect of why don't you as a taxi driver find a short cut to avoid all this traffic. What when every street is choc o block

Not as simple as that railboy, permits are restricted, I'm going out now to see if I can drum up a few quid

I do think now the price is starting to moving up to around 45 grand, great if you can get one cheaper off someone who is a bit short and needs the readies, I bought mine years ago, forget without checking up but think it was 8 grand

The thing is Mr happy York phv driver [probably pass you most evenings, wot u drive??] think about it, how much you pay for radio subs, 80 or up to 100 pounds a week, and that goes up again next year when your PH boss turns the screws, so thats about 5200 quid per year, 50 grand + in 10 years ok, fully allowed against tax, you have to be maybe be out at a certain start time and finish at what your airtime finishes, then maybe a bit of free airtime.

not knocking you PH lads you do a good job, much appreciated, you bring em in we take em home. York council have said they will never de reg, even tho the rumours fly about that they could do it at anytime.

ok we seem to get the dregs and the scum of the jobs, but in York there really is no runners or bad payers.

just think what you can do with 5 grand, that is, after you have paid for your plate, and you can put most of that against tax, after you have paid for your plate you don't even have to come out to work unless you got a bill to pay, in my case.

you could easily knock that loan off in 5 years and have no one to pay out to except the usual licences and home bills, and you are your own boss think about it, not twisting your arm, but room for thought, there are hacks out there waiting to sell.

then when youv'e had enough sell

just think what you can do with 5 grand, that is, after you have paid for your plate,

sorry Mr Moderator, two copies went up on the forum, re my last, twas click of the button, maybe "meter happy" and wishful thinking

re what can you you do with 5 grand

well it amazes me, only the other day after talking with odd and sods on the ranks how many of the hacks have Villas abroad

THeres gotta be money in taxiing

keeps your finger on the meter button.

well to buy a plate i would have to get a loan which would cost me £630 a month over 96 months = £60000 repayment, which is 12 years subs money and no garantee york council wont de-limit, then i would lose out, i know when cambridge de-limited there plates went from £30k to £5k overnight, firm i work for is quite good fair enough i have a fixed start and finish time but saying that i can work as much free air as i want but i only work thursday to sunday nights, i drive a blue 406 estate