Taxi Driver Online

Taxi strike planned in Cardiff for Wales match weekend

Taxi drivers are to stage a weekend of strikes to coincide with Wales’ Euro qualifier against England in Cardiff as part of a dispute with the council over fares.

Cabbies in the capital are planning to take the industrial action between midnight and 4am on Saturday, March 26, and Sunday, March 27, to highlight their plight.

On the Saturday, Wales face England in a highly anticipated clash in front of 70,000 football fans in the national team’s first Millennium Stadium sell-out for five years.

The Cardiff Hackney Carriage Association is also planning a go-slow demonstration through the capital’s streets between 4.30pm and 6.30pm on Thursday, March 24, and Friday, March 25.

About 700 of the city’s 2,000 hail-and-ride black cab drivers are members of the association, meaning the strikes and demonstrations are likely to cause major disruption.

The action comes after Cardiff council’s public protection committee last month rejected a request from drivers to raise fares. Association chairman Mathab Khan said drivers’ livelihoods had been hit by the soaring cost of fuel and the VAT increase since the last fare rise in December 2008.

He said the proposed fare increase of 5.83% was “very reasonable” and revealed the association had taken legal advice about a judicial review in the High Court.

“We have to exercise our democratic right to inform the people of Cardiff about how badly we are treated by the council,” Mr Khan said. “We are one of the most important service providers in the city. When the trains and buses don’t run, or when people are paralytic, who takes them home? We do.”

Mr Khan said the cost of fuel had increased by about 30% over the past two years and that the fare hike would also help cover VAT and inflation rises.

Councillor Ed Bridges, the committee chairman, said: “We acknowledge that it’s a financially difficult time for drivers, but equally it’s a financially difficult time for the citizens of Cardiff.

“From our perspective we remain concerned that those people who are elderly or disabled, for whom taxis are a lifeline, may not be able to afford an increase in fares. “As always we are prepared to have a dialogue with the hackney association and we are disappointed that they are threatening to take this action.”

Mr Khan said drivers were also angry the rank at Cardiff Central was closed during the Six Nations home matches, as well as for next weekend’s football international. Mr Khan said drivers would lose further income when another rank at Guildhall Place is temporarily closed as part of the St Mary Street roadworks.

A council spokesman said, however, cabbies would still be able to enter and exit via Guildhall Place to pick up and drop off passengers. A meeting will today take place with senior council officers about the complaints, but the final decision on fares will be taken by the committee of councillors.

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IDFIMH

Don't think this councillor quite gets it, overheads have shot up!

Would this councillor tell Tesco and Asda not to put up there fuel as drivers are suffering? Would he f***.

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IDFIMH

We have fallen from 56 ish in the national tables to god knows where.

This one councillor is proving to be one proverbial pain in the ar$e.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

What are your fares at the moment, and why dont you all just go PH then you could run a much cheaper saloon or MPV, then you can charge what you want

Starts off @ £2.00 OR £3.00 after midnight, after 112 yards ticks over 20p and the same after that every 218 yards. The people carrier can only charge £1 for every person over 4 no matter what distance or what time of the morning. Theoretically a 5th/6th and 7th passenger could go home from a night out, over 10miles (one side of the City to the other) at 5.00 a.m and all it would cost them is £1 .

P.H is a non starter with most paying the companies £100 per week + your fuel just to give them money..............and you are no better off.

I pay "NO Rent" and work off the ranks, street flag downs, clubs ,pubs etc.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Anyone want to bet that some will observe this strike and many others will see it as a chance to "fill their boots"?

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

I did not reply straight away as I/we knew you were right and infact you could have put money on it. The problems are 1) the drivers, as they are never unified, and 2) the calling of a strike on a busy day is foolish, is and is never going to happen, and by not happening, weakens the association.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonl ... -28364434/

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Unfortunately, this tends to be the case pretty much anywhere a strike is organised.
In a trade full of individuals, many will put short term self interest before the long term interests of the whole trade.

Drive slow demos and the like, disrupting the city centre/ major roads at peak times will be better supported and have a greater affect.
Some will still work though, but if traffic isn't moving, neither are they

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

Oh no, they are clever barstewards down here.

Whenever the association have notified the police of a protest............they tell the association that they can only have 20 cars at the protest and that they will not allow them to disrupt the city.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Then don’t drive in convoy, split up. 700 taxi drivers driving and plying for hire will soon gridlock Cardiff and that is what you are all licensed to do; ply ‘For Hire’.

When we have a protest in Brum, we organise it as follows;

About an hour before the protest is due to start, participating drivers bring in their family members who ‘help’ with the protest. All family members wear a distinct piece of clothing in a pre-arranged colour and these ‘helpers’ are dropped off all over central Brum; it’s a good day out for them and loads of fun. There is one chosen colour for each protest / demonstration and every ‘helper’ wears a distinctive piece of clothing in that colour on that day.

When the protest starts the taxi drivers are driving and plying ‘For Hire’. And hey presto, there are flag-downs everywhere; hundreds every minute in central Brum, each passenger wearing a distinct piece of clothing in the chosen colour. The ‘helper’ passengers only travel a few hundred yards, are never charged and keep flagging down the next cab once they are dropped off. The last protest we had even involved a competition, with every ‘helper’ collecting tickets from the driver for every flag-down and the one that flagged down the most cabs received a small prize. It really was great fun and a good day out for everyone.

The combined effect of 700 to 1,000 cabs stopping for flag-downs and dropping off all over central Brum soon gridlocked the city centre. The gridlock took hours to clear!! And there is nothing that PC Plod can do when you are doing the job you are licensed to do; you’re plying ‘For Hire’!!!

Try it; GET ORGANISED!!!

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

I like your thinking, as they say "There is more than one way to skin a cat"

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

brummie, that was sheer class

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My heart is heavy, but my consience clear,
I voted Yes, without any fear.

There is indeed

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

The Cardiff trade has got their fare rise, but someone needs to sort the press out, as that increase ain't a hike.

http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk/20 ... uncillors/

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IDFIMH