Taxi Driver Online

On a saturday night in particular but,not exlusively it's the opposite with us the first cab they ask quotes a ridiculously over the top price,the next cab does similar and then the decent driver goes for whats on the meter,which is what the first 1 should have done in the first place!. Over the years I've caught a few of my so called compatriots out who I thought were decent!.

So, I flag down a cab outside the pub last night and a shareholder of the Caunce St. lemmings pulls over. Turns out he's had a cracking weekend - "one of the best week before the bank holiday weekends I can recall" he tells me, and he hadn't switched his radio on at all.

Turns out a lot of the sympathetic regulars (Blackpool has many, most of whom tend to take regular journeys and pay a set amount to drivers who know them well) are asking drivers who explain their predicaments for their own phone numbers and are now bypassing ringing crusty cabs. Genius move that - create another competitor in your own alienated licensed cab drivers. Brilliant! Anybody would think the company is run by clowns who keep in their positions by having more proxies than could ever be out-voted

_________________
This space for rent.

How much are the punters paying the drivers? Is it the new reduced rate? A lower rate? Or a higher rate?

_________________
Grandad,

Bollox

you cant be serious

i had by far the beat fri and sat to date the town was quite busy sat.

did it have anything to do with price drop----who knows

I think that says "I had by far the best Friday and Saturday to date, the town was quite bust Saturday". If so, you probably did - from what I can gather very few of your licensed colleagues now answer the radio at peak times, so you should have done well from all the knock-backs alone. That will probably be one of the bonuses for the PH drivers.



I used to have many who gave somewhere between the old discounted rate and the old full rate, often a little more. I suspect many are just carrying on their old deal with their favourite drivers - Blackpool is full of ex taxi-drivers/family & friends of people in the trade who know how hard it can be at times, so you do get a good number of sympathetic passengers who don't just want the most cut-throat rate available.



Just had a quick read through some of your posts and that's a fairly intelligent statement compared to your usual tripe. Shame I'm retired, I did used to love destroying intellectual colossuses such as yourself on a quiet Monday afternoon on the ranks

_________________
This space for rent.

Retired yet you know all about what everyones taking ? Do tell me about my tripe wise one ?

so i presume these hackneys wont be bothering paying subs anymore as they dont need all the smaller fares,
we will see how many leave, i predict very few.

nighthawk serious question

the main reason people used blue instead of red was price-- correct?

given that blue wernt going to put prices up and

given red were losing customers by the truck load to blue

given customers shop by price.how would you get people back to red and for that matter just stop the rot if you wernt going to offer a competitive price.
i know of NOT ONE red shareholder who WANTED to drop the price

Read what I said again (the key phrase was "at peak times"). Most will stay for the work they get when the ranks are quiet, but there will definitely be a small number who go altogether - one owner took two cabs off in anticipation of the price drop and I've seen at least two c cabs with for sale signs in them.



Premier were very popular long before they dropped their prices, especially amongst younger people. A relative of mine who owns a car on there says their growth has stayed pretty much the same as it was before the price drop, only they've now taken a few small fares that would previously be bus passengers. Where they're actually making a killing is airport work apparently.



As I've said before, I reckoned when I was driving for every customer lost to other companies, we lost one to our drivers (including PH) who gave out their personal numbers to decent regular fares. That's only going to get worse.



All shoppers do not shop by price, otherwise Sainsburys wouldn't exist. Talking to the driver who picked me up on Saturday night he was having a better year this year than last by about 10% (before the price drop) and the figures he was talking about were a fair bit up on what I took at the same time last year. The market had settled down, we were seeing that last year. This was a reaction to a lot of PH drivers complaining about their last-year takings going down, many of whom were doing so many of their own jobs they were hardly ever available to answer the radio anyway.

What I would do is actually utilise that vastly expensive computer system c cabs have by setting a trigger that sends out a 20% discount card to any customers who have (genuinely) called a set number of cabs that year, say 20 cabs a year. That way you're not rewarding the twice a year passengers who get in and tell you they're your best customer, then go round the corner and demand a discount. No need to put dubious dual-tariff meters in, just a good offer for genuine regulars. Loyalty schemes like this work far better than price cuts - just ask Boots, Tesco, Sainsburys etc., or anybody who knows anything about marketing.



Contrary to what has been claimed by some. How did the price drop get voted in then I wonder? (borrows blackpool's )

_________________
This space for rent.

they voted it in coz they were sitting around in previously busy area s watching blues runaround picking people up.

it may be a disaster it may not .no one will really know for a year or so.

What happens if the other firm lower their prices further?

Do your firm follow suit?

_________________
IDFIMH

Theres a good chance that will be the next step,its allready become personell and the opposition is owned by the one man who just colle ts rents ! As for nighthawk and his "making a killing"on airport work.Blue cabs to Manchester airport 120/130 mile round trip,minimum of a hour and quater each way.How much ? Forty five quid ! If your a driver your on half of that,really are making a killing

A year or so ffs

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

i mean we will deffo know if it was worth it by then
the way it was going we dof been in trouble