Taxi Driver Online

SURVEY PROPOSED AFTER PLEAS FROM DRIVERS WHO HAVE BEEN HIT BY DOWNTURN IN TRADE
BY CALUM ROSS

Published: 24/03/2011

A cap on the number of taxis in Aberdeen could be brought back in amid pleas from drivers who are struggling with soaring costs.

Councillors have asked local authority officials to investigate proposals for a survey to be carried out on Aberdeen’s taxi trade. The move followed a request from drivers and could lead to the return of a limit on the number of taxis allowed to operate in the city – five years after a similar cap was scrapped.

Licensing committee members also called yesterday for a report to be produced on a proposed review of fare levels in Aberdeen, after city drivers called for a 5% rise.

Tom Wilson, a member of the council’s taxi and private hire consultation group, asked councillors to order the trade survey. “The taxi trade in Aberdeen, due to the recession, is in quite a bad state from the drivers’ point of view because the money is not there,” he said.

“Obviously the cap would not be forever. All we are asking for is fair play.”

A previous cap of 915 city licences was lifted by elected members in January 2006, amid hopes the measure would cut queues and ensure the local authority would not face legal action from drivers wanting to set up in Aberdeen.

Committee members Marie Boulton and Kirsty West indicated support for a taxi survey yesterday, but a detailed report will be discussed at the next meeting in June before any final decision is taken. Officials will also bring back proposals for the first review of taxi fares in Aberdeen for almost three years.

Tommy Campbell, regional organiser for the Unite trade union, led a delegation which called on councillors to support the proposed survey and fare rise at yesterday’s meeting.

He said afterwards: “The request for an increase is not unreasonable given that taxi drivers have not seen a fare increase for almost three years and given the high cost of fuel coupled with the effects of the recession on their earnings.

“Taxi drivers have commitments to meet along with other workers and it is only fair that they be awarded a minor fare increase in all these circumstances.”

Mr Campbell added: “Unite is also calling for a cap on the taxi trade as it’s clear that taxi drivers are having to work longer hours because of the downturn in trade coupled with more and more taxi licences being granted since the cap was removed by the council.”



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a unite rep has said that a survey is a done deal in Aberdeen

So how does putting a cap on help the situation?

Gonna take someone's licence off him? How do you select?

And if you're not going to do that, how are you gonna reduce numbers so that the work can be spread more thickly?

And if the cap brings a plate value, who';s gonna give it up?

You gonna do it Stationtone?

You guys are dafties.

You'd be better prying for the free market to force peoplke out of business because they can't make it. That's the only chance you've got of reducing numbers.

Cap the trade and the problem will persist. It's like turkeys voting for christmas.

So, Stationtone, tell us all how a cap will actually help?

You really are a pillock.

CC

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

I remember a United rep coming back from a meeting with the OFT some years ago, and telling everybody that would listen they had nothing to worry about... the first rule in
being a Association representative....... is to make sure you get your information from the horse's mouth....... and not from the rear end....

I hope the strategy being placed before the council is for continuous reviews with an agreement for managed growth....

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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!

How does it take someones license off them A cap is just that, it didn't say a reduction

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

It doesn't.
Not one cab would be taken off the road by a cap. In fact it will encourage people to hold on to plates if they think they will get a rental from them.

Average increase in plates since the cap was lifted 5 years ago is around 20 per year.
How much money is going to be wasted stopping 20 guys a year from running their own cab?
All of whom will no doubt either plate a PH, double shift a taxi or rent a plate from one of the guys who won't return it to the council.

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

I quite like the managed growth scenario myself, although there are a few loose ends that need to be sorted first

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

A pillock? Really?

So then bright boy. Answer the questions.

Neither you nor stationtone can answer the questions, so you don't.

You don't have answers. You know I am right.

Which is wy you resort to name calling.

Grow up CC. Debate the point. Answer the questions.



BTW The Dundee Report proves that the market works. Since de-restriction the number of taxis increased and fell back.

With restriction taxis will never reduce in number. The vested interests will hold onto their "investment". The price for that will be work being spread more thinly than the market would otherwise arrange.

Taxi owners greed means that it will be the workers, the drivers, who will pay the price.

But then CC, you don't care about anyone other than you and your egotistical illusion, do you?

Still no answers from stationtone and CC. Nor anyone else for that matter.

Guess I'll just have to write to the council and ask them then

Oh, and UNITE to ask them how fettering workers' rights to access to the tools of their trade, to work up a vested trade owners' interest, is compatible with their supposed defence of workers' rights.

And, I'll ask the same question of the TUC and the STUC.

And the courier.

Watch this space?

Gosh, this is such fun.



BTW You have to laugh at UNITE. That's some name when they're advocating division, discrimination against workers. Perhaps they should be reported under Trades Description laws

I don't think a 20 per annum increase is exactly meltdown in the local trade.
The system works, why change it?

Of course, courtesy of Unite, Aberdeen now have the Dundee report to chew over as well.
Who knows, perhaps the price of a cap here will also be 100% WAV?
That will certainly stop all the saloon plate hiring and cause numbers to drop.

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

How does trading WAV compliance sit with section 10 (3)?

This kind of horse trading has to be illegal.

The very existence of such a policy would guarantee a l;icence appeal would be won.

Councillors and the trade are playing fast and loose with the CGSA. They're assuming powers they just don't have.

As for UNITE? Backing a vested interest that denies workers their rights?

Trade unionism? R.I.P.

The trading, if you look at it doesn't really take place Jim.
The Dundee report puts forward two options in the recommendations, both of which are 100% WAV.
There is no saloon option in the report.
Councillors can bring in 100% WAV if they so choose and they do have the power to do so.
One option is with a limit and the other is without.
Unless councillors ignore their own report and go their own way, 100% WAV is a done deal, limit or no limit.

Even with a limit policy, it still has to be subject to 10(3) and therefore the results of a survey.

Seems to me that the Dundee trade have lost their saloons and gained at best a survey of demand, which may or may not lead to a limit.

Congrats to the DTA and Unite, your members must be well impressed.


I have to wonder how many Unite members expected this turn of events?
I think they may have all shot themselves in the foot.

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

The reason you probably haven't had a reply is, probably they are fed answering the same cr*p you keep posting on every thread.

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Watch out curiosity killed the cat

I'm no longer surprised at the stupidity of foilks on this forum.

Why don't you just read the post again and try to understand you thicko.

The first quality control to be a cabbie should be an intelligence test. Then ersepieces like over and out would never get a licence.