wee eddie wrote:
Jasbar: Your argument that "de-Restricting" Taxis would have made this unfortunate incident impossible, is fallacious.
In all areas, both Restricted and de-Restricted, when the Clubs come out, there are insufficient vehicles available to service all the customers immediately.
Many Hacks and PHs sit unused on a Saturday night. Their owners too idle, or too rich, or just can't be arsed, to come out. Long may that situation last.
The only way that would possibly solve your example is for the Licensing Authorities to make a Term of a Taxi's Plate continuation, that it be available for business, on the streets, every Saturday Night.
I don't believe that, even you, would demand this condition of Ownership, as those of us that do Trade, late-nights & early-mornings at the weekend, would lose a very considerable part of our weekly income and make the whole business uneconomic for both Owners and Drivers.
I think you should learn to read, and take time to understand what you do read.
We've never said that de-restriction would solve all the problems of customers having access to a cab. But we've also said that the artificial restriction of cabs does not fit with a council's claim to be doing all it can to ensure public safety. They are making the situation worse than it need be.
I also believe that lifting the restriction on taxis would almost certainly mean that more drivers would be forced to work peak periods, because the work may well be less at other times. In short, lifting the cap would improve service levels at peak periods.
And then, perhaps the trade would be forced to address the problems associated with peak periods. Like why all pubs and clubs close at the same time. Like why we have to deal with drunks and druggies who abuse us. And why, when we are confronted with such bad behaviour, the natural bent of the authorities is to stiff the cabby in the front line.
The truth is that because the trade relishes the resrtiction, the council, the cops and the public all get to treat cabbies like the scum we are.
So, until things change, and de-restriction begins our emancipation, get used to be the serf you are.