Taxi Driver Online

It is the same test as any new driver has to take - its a bit of a bugger as it means you have to drive properly

Tbh it is not that bad - all it means is that you go with a qualified driving instructor for a few lessons to iron out the bad faults that we/I have acquired. As you say....not looking in mirrors i.e observation will get you a fail point.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Dont keep me in Suspenders..what will we be bidding against next?

I Just wonder if they are charging extortionate rents or settles like most do, and with the recession drivers are not earning enough to live on

Up until now, your charitable opposition has been relying on volunteer drivers. Always a problem finding enough public spirited mugs.
Now, with a little help from IDS and the DWP, they will be supplied with a free workforce and get subsidised for taking them on.

Also, with PH going national in E&W, how long before a big national PH company or two get in on the act?
If it's good enough for Tesco, Poundland et al.....

I'd say things are looking bleek

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

I'm slowly going off the idea of Local authority runs,I run an extra vehicle almost exclusively for contract work, I often lose work because I turn it away due to my school run commitments, yes, I'd lose some money but on the other hand I'd be running a vehicle less and also picking up some other work...it's negligible work really.

I just loathe the thought of giving it to the Charities Unitied Nationally Through Subsidies brigade...there's an acronym there somewhere but I'm to stupid to realise what it is..

What bugs me is why so many school runs are needed and paid for by the good old rate payer.Let the little b###teds get on a school bus , and learn to live in the real world.All this door to door travel is just teaching them to by sroungers of the state.

A couple of years ago I may have agreed with your point - however I now don't.

Consistent government policy has led to schools being closed across the country - some children have to travel many miles to get to school - due to local authority budgets forcing them to close schools that may be nearer - but have been closed.

In my area alone four secondary schools have closed during the past 15 / 20 years - children now need to either catch a bus or if they have learning difficulties get a taxi to school.

Making sure a child with learning disabilities or behavioural problems gets to school isn't teaching them to be scroungers - that in general comes from society.

Of course with the economy in the state its in - and with austerity measures crippling the worse off in our country - we are going to see things change for the worse.

Naturally the real thieves are still taking state hand-outs on a massive scale by way of government subsidy, yet we choose to blame the poor.

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

You clearly have no idea of the situation on school transport. Taxis are used where it is not possible of financially viable to sent a school bus. Most is for rural locations where there may be only 1 or 2 students. Are you suggesting that a 53 seat coach should be used for this? In some instances taxis are used to pick up several students from very rural locations and get them to the nearest school bus pick up point. Then there are the special needs students that couldn't use school buses because of their special needs. The law is clear that where a student lives a certain distance from the nearest available school, they are entitled to free transport to that school. Also don't forget that not all of this transport is free to the user, some parents that choose to send their children to a certain faith school have to make a financial contribution to the cost of the journey, for instance parents that choose to send their children to the nearest Catholic school to where I live have to contribute £240 per student towards the cost each year.

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Grandad,

I am fully awhere of the waste that happens. I was on holiday at my brothers in Norfolk 3 weeks ago, he helps out with a local taxi firm when short of drivers ,some get bullied on the school bus, so they put a taxi on for them door to door , the others get wind of this so they now have a chauffuer service, be cheaper to put a bod on the bus to control the bullies. but no there are 3 taxis taking pupils on the same route as a half empty bus. Learning difficulties used be called thick in my day and get on with it. But dont worry I will carry on working to pay for all these free loaders, but be warned when the reverlution comes they will be amoung the first to be put up against the wall.
Grandad you are only sticking up for it as you earn your wedge that way. Mr Loads of money.

The firm I work with, and thus many drivers I also work with, do very well out of school runs, but you make a good point.

Three things from my past workings that always make me laugh/cry.

1. Picking up from a Casino on the social services account.

2. Regularly taking a fit person on the hospital account, about half a mile to hospital to visit his sick child. My point on this is would he have not gone if he had to walk?

3. Taking a package from one hospital to another hospital on the hospital account. Nosey ba****d as I am I had a peep and the package was a tin of biscuits required for an office meeting.

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IDFIMH

I didn't say learning difficulties, I said special needs, such as Downs Syndrome or is that something that you put down to them being thick?

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Grandad,

I see a lot of money "wasted" on school taxis in my area of rural Kent but as others say, there's no way you could get a school bus within 2 miles of their houses. Like the kid we used to take, 8 miles from our base to the pick-up, then 14 miles to school. We've just been told the days he didn't go we don't get paid for, not even the 16 mile round trip to his house and back, so we backed the job!

There's such a shortage of cabs in this area we see them coming from Deal (35 miles), Dover, 23 miles, Tonbridge 35 miles...

If we get to the pick up and the student doesn't go, we get paid for the morning run but not the return. If we know that the student is not going on a particular day then we don't get paid at all for that day.

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Grandad,

My brother told me in Kings Lynn a taxi takes a mum from kings Lynn to Yarmouth to visit her kids in foster care 2-3 times a week waits 3 hours then brings her back. There is a bus from Kings Lynn to Yarmouth every 30 mins. But dont worry I will carry on working to pay .Bloody free loaders are breding quicker than rabbits

is it time op prove he can supply before contract awarded

oh and how you doing this sir?

i pay £5ph to immigrant and bin the rest myself

or i mug driver off with £8 job that cost £6 to complete

get these parasites out of our job this cab trade needs the LC to purge the criminals not make it easier for them