Taxi Driver Online

Your method creates cartels!!

And the way it works is this [and it's been happening in Brum quite rapidly for a decade or so].

Too many cabs, so owner/drivers cannot earn a living wage.

But the cabs still need maintenance, so off they go to a 'taxi garage'.

The work is done, but the cab needed more work than the owner expected and cost, let's say, £800 instead of £500 expected ny the owner.

The owner pays the 'taxi garage' the £500 which he has and the very nice 'taxi garage' owner puts the rest on the slate because he knows times are hard.

Now the owner is £300 in debt, pay off let's say £120 of the debt before his next service is due.

Now the service costs whatever, but again the owner is let's say £270 short of the bill and again the very nice 'taxi garage' owner puts it on the slate and the owner is now £450 in debt to the nice 'taxi garage' owner.

This scenario keeps reocurring until 18 month, perhaps two years down the line the cab proprietor now owes the very nice 'taxi garage' owner just short of £2,000 for repairs that he could not afford and did not have the full amount of the bill for.

Now the 'taxi garage' owner isn't so nice and with the cab only worth £4,000 tops, informs the cab proprietor that his garage business is having cash flow problems and needs the outstanding balance within the next 28 days or he will have to take him to the Small Claims Court to recover his debt.

But the very nice 'taxi garage' owner now offers the cab proprietor a way out of his predicament and proposes to buy his cab and plate for £2,500 in cash, write off the £1,870 of repair debt that has built up, for a cab and plate that is worth £4,000 at best. And he offers to rent the cab back out to the cab proprietor once he agrees to the sale.

And that’s all because cab proprietors cannot earn enough to pay for repairs, because of derestriction policies.

The build-up of plate portfolios by plate barons is directly attributed to derestriction.

In a restricted or sensibly controlled plate issue situation proprietor can earn enough to pay for the service of their vehicle and thereby escape the above scenario.

_________________
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.

Judging by your reply, I think I hit a very raw nerve there; a very raw nerve indeed!!

Sorry about that, but the truth does and will continue to hurt!!

Where have I said I want preferential treatment?

I want a sensible system, which is not rampant derestriction.

Neither is it total restriction for restriction's sake.

_________________
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.

Cartels.......these would be the PH cartels created when delimitation kicks in?

Or would these be the cartels that create a one tier system of pricing due to no competition between HC & PH?

CC

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

Yes, out of the pockets of excluded drivers.

And your very contrived example is again not dependent on any particular restriction scenario.

For a start, one minute you seem to be saying the scenario is unrestricted, the next minute the garage is buying the plate

Don't know what precisely you mean by cartels, but if you mean market domination then again that exists in both sectors irrespective of restricted HC numbers.

You mentioned cartels first; you're cartel mad you are

CC

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

Delusional as well as self-serving.

You make some good arguments - for example your analysis of he LC's proposal - but your earlier personal comment reveals the usual scenario whereby your view of everyone in the trade ultimately depends on their position on restricted numbers, and this personalisation is especially evident in your own posts, where it reveals it's ugly head every now and again.

Which is why it's pointless getting into extended discussions.



Well if you can't see it there's no point in explaining.

No, you said the trade's saturation point would be reached when "all the space on all the roads in the whole country were to be populated by HC and PH to total gridlock point", which clearly isn't the case, and won't be in the future.

As for you comparison with other business sectors which I ignored, this is basically too crude an analysis of the market to be instructive. I mean look at any of the types of outlets you mention and there's plenty of competition in your average high street or mall, and plenty of over-capacity except at perhaps the weekends or at Xmas.

But many are still very profitable, basically because they offer a service or goods that the public want at the prices offered.

Anyway, it's pointless getting into extended discussions with people on the internet, a mistake I made almost ten years ago, so little point in repeating it again.

Please do tell.

CC

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

TBH guys the only solution that I see is measured growth, and the extra plates should have a 3 year shelf life, so if in 3 years time after issue the work is slack the plate is withdrawn until such time as the work is available again, this gives the temp owner a window to operate in, i.e he buys a vehicle that will be paid off within 3 years, should he wish to get the plate back again if a SUD says it's required then he has first refusal on it should it be re-issued, like a contract plate I suppose.


All out de-regulation has murdered every mainline taxi city or town, the only place it can work is in one horse town land where there is no gain for a speculator to grow.


@ Dusty, you say you work Indy now, how are you going to survive if there are 4 times as many Indies out there with you?

If you own a plate now, why ever would you want more cars to compete with, or are you in a de-reg area that isn't worth investment from those that will swamp you out?

What do you mean?

In the grand scheme of things it's pointless unless you want a bit of a ruck now and again with people who you're never going to agree with.

I meant what happened 10 years ago?

CC

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

I started pointlessly posting and rucking with people on forums like TDO and its forerunners.

Wouldn't make a whole lot of difference to me either way, the circuits and other independents still take on as many drivers as will work for them, so what differnence does it make to me if they're in their own car or not?

In fact I'd rather they were earning for themselves rather than lining the pockets of the fleet owners, parasites, profiteers, cowboys etc.

It seems to me that those wanting a free market do a couple of things when deregulating;

Primarily, they bring in age policies on vehicles (emissions standards now.....for the greater good).

Secondly, on the whole they introduce WAV only policies for at least those getting new licenses (for the greater good).

It is deregulation but with more regulation, this distorts the free market idea (for the greater good).

Indeed, fares are quite rightly regulated (for the greater good), which again, distorts the free market idea of supply and demand.

Of course we have those out there that say, well if they cannot make a living when they enter the market, tough. It was their risk and their choice, that is the capitalist system of supply and demand.

There are of course arguments to the contrary.

Primarily, we are all aware a good number of people only leave the market when they get their cabs repossessed......during which time because of the lack of funds the cabs are not serviced and are poorly maintained.

Secondly, the economic effects upon the person lead to debt and all that entails.

I would even suggest many of the regulations brought into the private hire industry are certainly contrary to what parliament intended when it considered the 1976 act (but they've been brought in for the greater good).

CC

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