Taxi Driver Online

Brummie great idea but we cannot get the taxi trade in Dundee to stick together so a national protest would fail.

It made a point in Gateshead......and Stockton a while back.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Cabbies' go slow in licences protest
ANGRY cabbies across the region have taken part in protests demanding a cap on the amount of taxis on the roads.They held a series of slow drives around Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough and Gateshead at rush-hour yesterday morning to press their case.

They have also been asking for more rank space to be made available to them.More protests have been promised unless authorities act to reduce the number of licences being issued.The drivers say they are being forced out of business and have called for a survey into the demand and need for taxis.

Part of the problem, say some taxi drivers, is that there has been an influx of Eastern European, particularly Polish, drivers.

In Darlington, about 20 to 30 cabbies took part in a slow drive round the ring-road before congregating in Crown Street. Lucy Archer, chairwoman of Darlington Hackney carriage and Private Hire Association, said: "At the moment, there's something like over 200 hackney carriages and only seven ranks during the day time."What we're saying is they should stop issuing any more licences as there's not enough spaces.

We're not going to let this go, we did this last year and we got a bit of a result from that."Ms Archer said even without the large number of migrant workers the number of taxi drivers was a problem.She said: "Still, at the minute, there are taxi firms that go abroad and they do actually recruit a lot of drivers, and they tend to work for a wage."No offence against Polish drivers, but there's not enough work without going abroad."

A Darlington Borough Council spokesman said: "The market dictates the number of taxis that is required. If somebody comes to the council and says they want to earn a living as a taxi driver, the market will decide whether that living can be earned or not. "It is not for the council to determine the market - it is our role to licence, not to limit."

The Gateshead Hackney Drivers' Association claims there are only 38 rank spaces for 335 taxis and wants 100 parking spaces to be made into taxi bays. Stuart Hayes, of the Gateshead Hackney Drivers Association, called for a public survey.But Peter Wright, manager of environmental health and trading standards for Gateshead Council, said 85 per cent had not taken part in yesterday's protest.He said: "We have established mechanisms for consulting with the trade."

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

[A Darlington Borough Council spokesman said: "The market dictates the number of taxis that is required. If somebody comes to the council and says they want to earn a living as a taxi driver, the market will decide whether that living can be earned or not. "It is not for the council to determine the market - it is our role to licence, not to limit."

What a numpty sounds like someone from the support services up here.
The Bxstards

Go-slow highlights parking dispute
From the archive, first published Tuesday 17th Oct 2006.

TAXI drivers yesterday staged a protest against parking regulations by driving in convoy through a North-East town centre. The protest started in Darlington yesterday morning, as several taxis circled round Priestgate, Prebend Row, Tubwell Row and Crown Street, for more than an hour.

Their action caused delays and some congestion as the slow-moving convoy held up buses using the route. It is the second such protest cabbies have staged in the past year. The area has been congested since the start of the £8.47m Pedestrian Heart scheme, when buses were re-routed to use those roads.

The town's taxi drivers have had several disputes with Darlington Borough Council over the disruption caused by the pedestrianisation, and are angry that they face fines if they queue for fares beyond the limit of their ranks.

Yesterday Linda Linley, secretary of the Darlington Hackney and Private Hire Association, said the council had told them they must carry on driving until they found a space on a taxi rank. "We have been stopped from parking anywhere there isn't a rank, so are driving round in protest," she said.

Last night, a council spokesman told The Northern Echo that, by law, taxi drivers could not park outside ranks. "Taxi drivers cannot simply park up wherever they like - there have to be regulations in place, just as there are for all other motorists," he said."The borough of Darlington's bylaws state that hackney carriages can either pick up people flagging them down in the street, or operate from the nearest rank. It would be an offence to do otherwise."

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

They don't restrict hackney and PH driver's licenses, they don't restrict PH vehicle licenses, they don't restrict PH operator (bases) licenses, so why should hackney vehicles licenses be different?

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IDFIMH

They restrict rank spaces, make taxis drive around the towns and cities polluting the environment, poisioning children and melting polar ice-caps, thus increasing the amount of water in our oceans, thus putting lowland areas under risk on flooding, the additional water goes into our atmosphere creating climate change.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

If they cannot provide rank spaces for all the hackney licences they grant then they should limit

You have taken this to far

Well maybe they should restrict all the orther licences... Mr Brown....

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Usually only because the local trade are too lazy to organise new rank space.

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IDFIMH

Why are rank's overcrowded? it's because there's too many private hire. It's no good limiting one and then opening the floodgates for the cheaper option. Until the two are joined in restriction or derestriction then it's just a case of robbing peter to pay paul. Council's waffling about the market determing itself is a load of blx. We all know there is no market.

You forget, he's in Cumbria! I'd say he was spot on at the moment!