Doom wrote:
Hackney trade can't grow it's business model, the only growth that would be in out favour is more rank space, we aren't there to furnish the blue chips and local contracts those go to PH because they 1 undercut to a stupid uncompetitve rate and 2 will supposedly be at the door waiting for the customer in abstract locations that a Hack simply couldn't viably compete for, we are the convenience cab, you are the arrangement cab, see it's two different things in reality.
More rank space doesn't grow your business. It just gives you more places to sit around doing nothing.
The hack trade won't grow it's business base.
Not can't, just won't. That's because it is obsessed with protecting plate values, to the exclusion of anything else.
This hangs round their necks like an albatross and it stops them evolving to meet the competition.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”
― Charles Darwin
PH don't just do "blue chip" and contract work. They take all sorts of people to all kinds of places at all times of the day and night. Work which could and should be done by hacks.
It's not two different things, it's two sides of the same coin.
PH are the competition, like it or not, and if you don't compete with them, they will wipe the floor with you.
Now here's an original idea.
Put the value in the driver instead of the plate. Make sure only quality people get a badge.
Apply the same standards across both sides of the trade.
Forget the plate value, because when there is no work left, there won't be one.
Up here the only difference between a taxi driver and a PH driver is the vehicle he drives.
Both sit the same knowledge test, which is not easy - it takes the average native 6 months to pass it.
It must be a real bitch for anyone to pass if their first language isn't English.
No online tests allowed here. They have to sit the test in person in Aberdeen.
Now that's not going to be popular with most barons because, hack or PH, one cab or many, they all depend on a plentiful supply of cheap labour.
Now I know I'm going to regret this, I should just ignore the obvious bait.
I'm not the
arrangement cab BTW, I'm the owner/ driver of a Taxi (or hack as you call them). I do know I've told you that before.
But don't take my word for it. Skippy has met me, and so has toots. Ask them.
The rest of your post, including yet another flawed analagy, I am going to ignore.