Taxi Driver Online

Found this article in the Derby Evening Telegraph from about a year ago.

Has anyone seen either of these two systems in action??

I would like to share with your readers the details of the latest "Jobsworth" communication from the Taxi Licencing department.

I, along with every other licensed taxi operator, received a letter informing me of complaints made about the only way we taxi drivers have to relay rank information to each other.

The people who work in the colossal ivory tower (Council House) are moaning about drivers pipping their horns to advise of spaces to move to on the next rank. According to the council, the ranks on Derwent Bridge and Corporation Street, which have been there for many years, are not official feeder ranks for the main rank on Victoria Street.

This system has been implemented by the taxi trade itself to ensure the people of Derby requiring taxis from Victoria Street have a steady flow of cabs available during the day. All drivers adhere to the system set up and all work it in a fair, friendly, united manner, no matter which firm they work for.

The rank information can only be obtained with a two-way radio system.

Those who are working without radios do not have access to rank information.

Until the council can provide an efficient way of feeding the information to cabs, the present system is the most effective method of relaying rank information to the drivers.

I might add that Derby as a city is way behind the council in Cambridge. They have an automated electronic system that provides the necessary rank information to cabs waiting to access the main rank without providing a noise nuisance to nearby firms.

Apparently, because the licensing is self -financing, there are no funds available to set up such a system in Derby.

Do the drivers not already pay enough just to earn a living? To do this, ranks need to be provided to cope with the demand.

This present system is outdated and needs to be brought into the 21st century, (but not at the cost of the taxi drivers by way of increasing the taxi licensing fees).

Don't forget, we have to pay to paint our cabs yellow within the next five years, with no financial support from the council!

If the council is giving the present system the red card, would it be possible for them to purchase 2,000 whistles and possibly throw in a few thousand linesmen's flags so drivers can implement a new system?

The council has stated in the said letter that serious consideration will be given to removing the taxi ranks in Derwent Street and Corporation Street if the situation is not improved (even though there are not sufficient ranks in prime areas of the city to cope with demand).

This though, is a course of action it says it does not want to take! Do any of your readers have any ideas of a cheap way of resolving the problem?

Still a concerned operator

If a feeder rank is deemed not to be an official rank, then one wonders why the HC boys are parked up on it.

If the feeder rank is out of sight of the main rank, then surely it can't be classed as a feeder rank, can it?

What happens if a customer goes up to the first car, on the out of site feeder rank? Are they really going to give the customers directions to the main rank?

Or perhaps those customers will have to get a cab from the feeder rank, to the main rank.

Talk about making the job hard for yourself.

I took the letter to mean that the ranks in question were just normal ranks, and that perhaps the cars at the back went to the main ranks if there were spaces, because they had more chance of getting a fare more quickly.

But who knows, presumably they've got a system that they think helps, but the problem seems to be the amount of tooting.

Dusty

Perhaps all the tooting is aimed at those naughty PH chaps, who are picking up at the rank when empty.

Whilst you have a dozen or so HC chaps blissfully un-aware on the hidden feeder reading the Sun.

The Sun, surely nothing as high brow as that.

Alex