Taxi Driver Online

I really just cannot understand stuff like that.

For a start, you seem to be saying that I copied the post from elsewhere, whereas they WERE my OWN words.

The reason I posted it was because you were disputing my view that the 'correct' number of taxis was unquantifiable and that the surveys were unreformable.

I tried to put my views on this in a couple of paragraphs the other night, but as usual you totally ignored them.

So instead I thought I would try the extended version of my arguement, but since that had been on the site for months I thought it better just to paste it to remind you of its presence, since rehashing it would take hours and would clearly be a waste of time if the same thing existed in written form elsewhere.

Your primary reaction to this was to describe it as bullshit.

One minute your asking everyone if they can think of the holy grail of survey methods and a forumla for the correct number of taxis, then when someone tries to shed light on the methodology then you just seem to cry foul.

But clearly your stance is because my answer is not the kind of stuff that you want to hear, not because it's actually bullshit.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Again, you completely ignore the point I made about restricted numbers only benefitting the plate holders, and not the jockies. I said:

..if you limited the number of garages, would the mechanics be any better off? No, the garage owners will be better off, but as they will just try to maximise their profits they will continue to pay the mechanics the rate decided for mechanics by market forces.

By the same token, as I said in my manor jockies are most of the time earning below the minimum wage, but the owners are still moaning that 'we're all short of drivers' and suchlike - so clearly the owners would have no qualms about jockies earning even less, if it made the owners more money.

So why can't the owners get drivers - because they are earning buttons, but this is the wage decided by the market. If half of the jockies suddenly died in a mass suicide pact, then earnings would clearly rocket, but this would them make the job more attractive, and the new drivers would depress earnings back to the previous levels.

On the other hand if for whatever reason jockies suddenly started earning £2 an hour on a regular basis then clearly some would decided not to bother, and consequently earnings would increase again back to previous levels.

So why should limiting plate numbers make any difference to this? It may help the plate holders, but no one else as far as I can see.

So why did you ignore this:

Perhaps you didn't bother reading the post properly at all. Or disagree with the principle I was stating? In which case why didn't you say that?

Or did just deliberately ignore the point I was making?

But then you try to make out as if it's big bad TDO that's in the wrong and that I'm 'not interested in fairness for others, just yourself'.

On the contrary, the argument I was making was for fairness to all, and I think it's you that's making the contrary argument, ie not interested in fairness to others.

Similarly, in another thread your going on about how bad letting market forces determine numbers is, but again I recently said that numbers should be determined by setting reasonable standards, and letting market forces do the rest.

And I don't really thing that anyone on here thinks unfettered market forces should govern the trade, so if you make that argument then you're ignoring what other people are saying.

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Taxi Driver Online
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HE WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND STRATEGY LAW OR ANYTHING OF SUBSTANCE

he understands only crawling onto a rank, picking up work back to the front to him thats a taxi service.

then he has a brilliant idea if there were more ranks he would get to the front quicker.

then he will see a private hire, those are run by those [edited by admin] leeches who make him sit on rank longer

well some of us see it differently, so we have to be abused by him, no use being hurt, god most taxi drivers are like that!

then when the spills are collected and you get on more abuse, and that is from a leeder!

someone like him scratched my merc the other night whilst I was working,
if I get hold of his bike, there will be a scream.

No, it was you that was doing the ignoring, but trying to make it look as if it was me that was at fault.

There is someone bullshitting on here, but I don't think it's me.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

The problem I have with the compoarisons you use are that you are using "employee" against "jockey" when there are no simalarities betwen the 2.

If you limited the number of garages the mechanics wouldn't be better off because in their employment contract they would have agreed an hourly rate. I could also state that in any garage the number of mechanics a garage owner could employ is restricted to the size of his garage/garages.

You see this is where your argument makes no sense, if jockeys are on low income then they would struggle to obtain the finances to buy their own WAV. Plateholders who rent out vehicles don't all charge the rates you quote, in Gateshead you can rent a HC for £150 per week, that includes full maintainance, insurance, plate renewals, vehicle renewals and test fees. That figure has remained unchanged for the past 5 years.

The drivers who STILL jockey up here will always jockey, even following derestriction without quality standards.

You want the whole country to believe that what you say is true, and everything I say is a lie, a good basis for your "fairness" argument that mind innit. Then we have the Yorkshire Spoon bleating on about unmet demand for taxis in one breath, then advising new drivers not to work the ranks where there is no work, to sit outside churches and bingo halls.

Its because I question your motives that you need to discredit me at every turn, derestriction provides nothing, I'm yet to see an example of it working to the benefit of the consumer.

B. Lucky

Well lets try one of the best licensing authorities in the U.K

Gateshead, there there is a taxi available for anyone that needs one at any time, unfortunatly they are hardly ever where you need them rather like the police.

so you must phone private hire, but they are rather rapid response

if the trade could organise taxis in Gateshead private hire would be surplus to requirements.

unfortunatly they are disorganised but private hire is organised

as such if there was a survey they would conclude that whilst the ranks are full there is substansial, yes substansial latent demand.

my medical for Gateshead is wednesday, I am on my way!

And there we have it,

Are we to believe that a self employed HC driver should be expected to sit away from a rank when it is a requirement of their licence that they return to the closest available rank.

That aside, areas where there is a potential customer base and therefore a requirement for HC we find local PH operators reaching private agreements to provide that service.

The real sting in the tale though is when such operators call for greater HC numbers proclaiming unmet demand from the ranks, yet they don't allow HC on their circuit to work the ranks and therefore service the areas they are suggesting need more vehicles to service.

The real situation is that a company can charge drivers more for a HC than they can for a PH vehicle and therefore make more profit. The idea behind derestriction for them is to increase their financial stranglehold and force more drivers to work through their circuit.

As far as Yorkie coming to Gateshead, it could only be for a medical as he would soon discover, if he were to get a badge, that the firm he has been talking to does not fulfill the promises it makes to its drivers.

As a Gateshead driver though, he could attend a branch meeting where I'm sure he will get a good response from the lads up here, I will however do everything in my power to stop him from getting hurt.

B. Lucky

The point I was trying to make was that restricting numbers only helps those who control the means of working, ie garages or taxi respectively.

Your point about employee v casual employment is valid, but only in respect of their legal status, since whether they are paid hourly or on commission, ultimately the wages will still be decided by market forces, it's only the mechanism that's different.

If a mechanic earns £10 an hour, if garages said that they would just let any mechanic turn up and then pay them by the work they do, then if in Joe's garage there were so many mechanics that they were only taking £5 an hour commission then clearly many would go elsewhere, and earnings would go back up to around the £10 mark. By the same token, if Joe's mechanics were earning £15 an hour then other mechanics would arrive and thus wages would fall back down.

So the wages would work out the same whatever payment mechanism was operating.

And of course the wages of taxi drivers is ultimately determined by market forces as well, as I tried to outline on Saturday.

So are plate holders going to give jockies better terms because plates are limited? No, they'll just extract the excess profits in the form of inflated rentals - they're not running a charity, the just try to maximise their profits as would the garage owner if garages were limited.

Yes, a garage owner is restricted by the size of his garage, but that doesn't mean that there's not capacity to take on more work.

By the same token, an owner can't take on an unlimited number of jockies, although he could easily get four or five into the one car.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Of course they don't all charge the same rentals, and I've never claimed that.

If someone buys a plate for £40k in one area and £5k in another to stick on the same vehicle, then clearly the former will be demanding the higher rentals.

But the jockey is paying the excess rentals in either scenario, it's just a difference in size, but still wrong in principle.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

as usual a tissue of lies, one minute we say Gatehead is welcoming next we threat what a big boy you are?

are you suggesting for one minute I will be working from an office in Gateshead?

wrong!

the rest is wrong guessing but pal, you aint gonna tease it out of me!

Ok TDO, what about the people that want to rent.

People are not forced to rent.

I still don't get the garage analogy, if a garage employs mechanics it recruits enough mechanics according to their workload, when a garage gets busier it recruits more mechanics until there is no where for any more mechanics to work, then if they need more mechanics they either need to move premises or take on another place to house more mechanics. The garage propietor who tries to increase profits by getting rid of expensive mechanics for cheaper ones will soon be out of business with the more expensive mechanics retaining the trade.
My mate runs a double glazing company and a phrase he often uses is apt within this argument "a good window fitter can fit a bad window well, but a bad window fitter can't fit a good window well".

The fact of the matter here is that large operators and PH leeches already have a stranglehold on their drivers, derestriction will free very few from this stranglehold but will force HC drivers into it as well.

We have no age restriction at present, if one were to be introduced those who could afford to buy or finance a suitable vehicle would be able to charge more rental to those who couldn't, another reason why derestriction doesn't work.

Keep applauding those councils who are opening the door to those wealthy enough to leech of the hard work of others, some drivers may have to work PH in a restricted area but thats better than being forced to work for a leech innit.

B. Lucky

that last paragraph given your other postings is a hell of a contradiction isnt it?

you are very mixed up, once was the time you advocated that private hire and public hire should work together now you slam them

tell us since you ask a lot of questions, can I ask is there a Gateshead office that would allow you to work from it?

and if you are so good (and you claim to have managed private hire offices) why has the ability to set up such an enterprise always escaped you?

and finaly, as we see nothing of volvo man these days, did you get your extension finished?

I would suggest that every office in Gateshead would take me on if I so requested, mind there are some to whom I wouldn't apply. But I'm in no way special in that, business is business at the end of the day.



Good at what Yorkie, I have set up a business, its been trading a year, its in profit, we are currently developing new products.

I have no intention, nor have I ever had, of starting an office myself, judging by the way it has effected your sanity I made the correct choice.



Joining in again eh Yorkie, following the example of our "specialist solicitor", there is no contradiction. Two separate questions with two separate answers, god Yorkie if you can't keep up with the new blood your better off not getting yourself involved.



I'm mixed up, your senile.

I still advocate that HC and PH should work together, what you seem to be arguing for is PH becoming HC, indeed getting rid of PH and just licensing everyone HC.

I on the other hand recognise the work that the PH boys and girls do every day and give them the respect they deserve by considering them as equals, its only ignorant people like you who consider PH to be beneath them, or retarded people like Sussex who consider themselves to be of less value socially that their HC brothers.

So your coming to Gateshead are you, I bet you haven't got time to call in for a cuppa, shame that.

B. Lucky

]

, what you seem to be arguing for is PH becoming HC, indeed getting rid of PH and just licensing everyone HC.

come on now not seem, thats my position over many years and you know it!



So your coming to Gateshead are you, I bet you haven't got time to call in for a cuppa, shame that.



gawd you lot in the North East are brilliant at that , giving an invitation and declining for me in one sentance!


can you tell me if Deans have a prepaid coffee machine?

Okay Ive been following this thread for weeks.

One question has not been answered during these past few weeks.

It is an important question that deserves to be answered.


Is it oscars night tonight?


hehe

Captain cab

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