Taxi Driver Online

It seems that plans are afoot to raise the tariff, after around two years or so I do accept.

The council has failed in its statutory duty, failed to conduct the process properly.

In their haste to see the tariff increased, two companies, City and Central, are reputed to have banded together to use members' cash to fund an alleged expert, a professor of something I believe, to cobble together a document justifying a tariff hike. It seems that the imperative is to have this implemented in time for the Christmas rush. I guess so that the punters won't realise the tariff has been hiked.

Now, this is all very cosy. And of course, the big two are off on one, playing at being leaders again.

Except, no one seems to be asking any of us who are in their wake. We're supposed to just sit back and accept whatever scraps these bozos dish out.

Well don't we know that the companies will just hike their radio dues and their owners will hike their rentals and the drivers, once again, will substantially be no better off and the punters will be sickened.

Fraid not boys.

Seems the meeting is arranged for next week to discuss the matter with the council. My information is that this is an ad hoc meeting outwith normal council procedures, like the HCLCG for example.

So the only input will be from the companies and those tame interests who they agree can attend, presumably on the pretext that they will not rock the boat.

Well, let me say from the outset that any tariff hike which is not derived from proper council procedures, using proper independent analysis, to a recognised formula, and which is properly debated and considered by politicians, the HCLCG user interests and the trade in general is unacceptable. We need a fair rate for the job, not a hastily cobbled crock of sh*te from City and Central driven by their naked greed and desire to fill their own boots.

Now, don't we all remember how the last tariff hike, as I believe, was delayed because of a single complaint to the Traffic Commisioners?

Dearie me. Imagine the stushie when this cobbled together hike hits the streets bang in the middle of the quiet spell in the first quarter of next year?

City and central don't own this trade. Don't they realise this yet?

And the council has enough problems looming with regulatory bodies without falling for this one. For them its all building towards an inquiry into how they have managed licensing over recent years.

Now where did I put that yell directory ..... under T is it? .....

There are strict guidelines, or so I believe in the CGSA(1982) regarding tariff reviews and implementation. This includes posting a notice in the local paper for the interested parties to object. All you need do is wait for that to happen and get a few like minded to fire off a letter to the council.

You say it's been 2 years. Has there been a review done in that time? It should be completed within 18 months, from last increase. (even if no change is made to the tariff).

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

Yes you could be right. It just seems like two years, but it probably is 18 months, and that's the deadline the council is seeking to satisfy.

But what is being proposed is not a council procedure. It's a cobbled together deal that the council hopes that no one will object to.

problem is, it's one thing for the system to push aside an objected question the outcome of the process, it's quite another to push aside an objection to the process and procedures itself.

The council and the vested interests are digging a big hole for themselves here.

Once again the council is making it up as it goes along. And allowing an unrepresentative section of the trade to wield so much influence IS the problem that we've all suffered from in this trade for many years. It has to end.

And now!

As an aside, and I mention this because it proves how badly our trade is represented, and how the council has allowed it to be.

It is reported that that the Chairman of the private hire association has been denied access to the meeting, although other PH firms haven't, because his company operates oin a tariff below that set by the council.

Apparently the council have agreed to this demand by City and Central and have informed him that his invitation has been withdrawn.

Would any right minded individual be wrong in concluding that this council has been totally corrupted? They have allowed private companies to set up a process outwith normal council procedures, to be held in secret, set the agenda and decide who attends the meeting, so that the outcome can be a done deal, away from normal public scrutiny.

Wouldn't any same right minded individual be entitled to wonder what grace and favour is being given and received here? brown envelopes or other less traceable jollies?

Whatever is going on at our council, doesn't it seem inherently corrupt?

Shouldn't we be heading for a public inquiry here?

Hasn't the council now dug a hole for itself? Go ahead with a corrupt meeting with a chance of achieving its deadline set in law for tariff review? Or stop the meeting and miss the target.

What a mess.

Put the prices up, stagnate and you die, inflation doesn't wait for a taxi to be ready.

And the point of ripping another 10% from one hard pressed punter to lose two more to the buses or private hire is what precisely?

We're a customer dependent trade. What I'm interested in is more bums on seats. Discouraging them by ripping them off is not the answer.

Yes I'd like something to cover fuel costs, and that could be sold to the public who would understand.

But increasing our wages without increased productivity at a time when the rest of the public is suffering wage and pension cuts will do nothing for our reputation, which the vested interests have already fecked anyway. As far as I can see, making it worse is not a real option here.

You disagree with this?

And I'm also sufficiently long in the tooth to know that the radio companies want a significantly higher tariff so they can hike their radio dues. Which they get however poor trading conditions are.

It's the drivers who always suffer, who take the grief from the punters, who lose the cash.

The bigwigs in the companies dish out subsidies and contract discounts. But they aint paying for them. No similar discounts on their expense claims, eh?

It doesn't get any more difficult than that.

No, I don't disagree Jas, I just know that that 30p you think the punter so desperately needs more than you will be forgotten after a few weeks of walking in the rain or sitting next to a bus full of yobs, you can't afford to go cheap, you have to eventually have a massive rise then and that does cause problems.

I'll put this one to you, there are cabbies who think they are a retail store and a sale will increase business, these drivers are the ultimate in stooopid, you never have a taxi because they are going cheap, you get one because you need one at the time, a packet of cigs rose by 70p last budget, have people stopped smoking?

It's a fear category and a silly one to boot, if fuel goes up and if insurance goes up, which it has by large amounts your profit goes down, better it goes down having used less fuel than it goes down because your costs increased.


p.s, welcome to my world regarding the radio circuits, locally we are undercut by £1.50p per in town job by them, and they will go halfway across the world for 30p pm, you have to cut them loose and accept that you can't compete against them, oh and as for who is the real bad guy in all of this, try a radio rent, just radio not the car etc of £135 pw and a uniform @ £20 per item, this is what I've tried to get across before, it's not the trade in general, it's a few whip crackers that ruin it.

You dinnae' half change your mind, ( when it suits you).

Recession, increased competition, work goes down. Brainstorm, let's have a tariff hike and charge our few remaining customers more for the same service.

The press will eat you alive. You'll soon be sleeping in your taxi if you aren't already?

Your principle is correct, the reality isn't.

A cab ride isn't a CD, nor is it any other consumer item, it's like an ambulance, you call one when you need one, having a sale etc does one thing, reduces what you already had.

People know things are rising, they will grumble for a few days at the extra, but they will still get in, the only one you may lose is the round the corner lazy punter but he will be compensated for by the other fares, so you may not take anymore money but you will find you are £5 per day better off at the pump.

Devil's advocate tumshie.

Too subtle for you?

Well there you go. We can toss all the economic manuals out and just adhere to your model.

You truly are an arrogant f*ck. You've demonstrated what I've said all along.

The trade cares nothing about our customers, sees them just as a cash cow they can harvest cash from but wouldn't p*ss on them if they were on fire.

Your post should be publish in the press to let customers know what you think of them.

In fact, I think I'll send it to the News myself.

Watch this space you t*sser.

What surprises me is that you can't get it into your head that after years of ripping them off and treating them so badly we're losing work hand over fist to the increasing competition who are quite happy at how we conduct ourselves.

Haven't you noticed this?

Think, discretionary income when 40% of people in Scotland are heading into fuel poverty, then
consider how everyone is cutting back, trying to make ends meet. Taxis, for most people are a luxury they can no longer afford, and you think charging more is a good idea?

It sounds like to me. You are proposing to strangle the very goose that's keeping you alive.

Obviously Ayr is not similar to the great metropolis of Edinburgh.

However, we have the interesting situation here, it is that a fair proportion of the daytime Custom is from folk, on the Brew, that can't be arsed to walk less than a mile home!

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Don't dream it ~ Be it.