Taxi Driver Online

Why should they be out on a limb?

When councils de-limit it doesn't mean that only owners can drive. If anything non owner drivers could be better off because more owners will need, and more importantly value, their services.

What choices would you wish to offer drivers?

i) Buy your own plate for up to £50,000, or drive for someone else.

ii) Get issued a plate from a council for nothing, or drive for someone else.

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IDFIMH

the difference is noone buy a plate they buy the vehicle its attached too for an inflated price.
i got my plate for nothing. i could sell it but then that means renting another.
also it means selling it to someone when my mates are waiting to get a free one like me.
when did socalisum mean screwing your mates?

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I suppose that you could put it like that, but the point is that the Government would be removing an interference in the market.

It's like saying that if the oil-producing cartel OPEC was abolished then that would be interfering in the market, whch is basically back to front.

You seem to be using Mises' argument to justify non-interference in the market for plates, but the point of his argument is that there should have been no interference in the first place, ie the price of milk should never have been controlled because of the detrimental effects that result. By the same token, Mises would surely argue that the market in plates should never have been controlled because of the detrimental effects.

Thus you seem to be inadvertently using Mises to argue against yourself.

I suspect that the chances of Mises supporting restrictions on taxi licenses are about as likely as me winning Wimbledon.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

In what way?

Take Liverpool, for example. There's currently a shortage of drivers, so anyone getting a badge won't find themselves out on a limb in the way you describe.

If numbers were de-restricted then there would be an even greater shortage, so drivers would be even less out on a limb.

Your argument seems to be the opposite of the reality.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Perhaps you should have cited a more relevant article on the Mises site than the one about the milk. How about:

Miss Landers' case is absolutely typical. In The State Against Blacks, Walter Williams provides a lengthy catalogue of occupational licensure laws and other barriers whose effect is to place overwhelming obstacles in front of those who wish to enter an industry. The New York taxicab industry is the classic example. To operate a taxi in New York City, a potential driver needs a medallion from the city. Of course, in a free market such a medallion would cost precisely nothing. But in the market as rigged in favor of the taxi guild, these medallions cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is impossible to measure how many jobs are destroyed by this kind of behavior, or how much higher taxi fares are for hapless city residents. But again, this restrictionist policy is precisely the kind of antisocial behavior that the infrastructure and indeed the very logic of the guild encourage

I've never seen restricted numbers characterised as antisocial behaviour, but it's certainly an interesting angle

Thus I say slap an ASBO on the NTA, T&G etc

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Here's an even better one for you from the Mises site, Mr Sirius, it's called Taxi Socialism, which is rather ironic given your argument:

http://www.mises.org/story/361

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

The best paragraph is the last one, which is effectively saying the opposite to what you have been saying:

The taxicab industry is one industry that is essentially "socialized." Whatever the politicians and other advocates choose to call such a policy, it is still a step toward that disastrous state of affairs called Socialism.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

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I assume you are talking about plate premiums?

The strictly legal aspect was dealt with comprehensively in the Wirral case - the essense of the decision was that the premium did not constitute property that was protected under the Human Rights Act, since it was merely the result of the monopoly enjoyed by local taxi license holders courtesy of licesning authority policy. I doubt if there's any jurisdiction in the world that has decided that plate premuims represent property worthy of protection by the state in the event of a policy change.

From the moral viewpoint, the dominant thinking seems to be that anyone who loses out on buying a plate in a subsequenty derestricted market has effectively lost on a bet on future policy, and unfortunately speculators can't be saved from their own foolhardiness.

It's also interesting that there are never complaints about rising premiums, only falling ones, so it's always a bit hypocritical of plate holders to complain about loss of value.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

No, you could buy the property of an existing carrier in the US, thus to that extent it's no different from here.

It's also the case here that new licenses in restricted areas are often issued to existing carriers, but I think UK LA's generally take a more equitable approach.

What the writer meant in essence is that you can't just open up a taxi business, you have to buy an existing license, and new ones are only issued to existing license holders.

Another point to bear in mind is that I think that in many US jurisdictions the plates tend to be held by big carriers with many plates, whereas here plate holding tends to be more fragmented.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Err, just the usual like proper knowledge tests and a driving test and decent standards for vehicles.

ie exactly what is in place in many areas at the moment.

I don't want to get into arguments about what constitutes socialism or whether that's desirable, but what I'm talking about is effectively just industry best practice already, and hardly radical.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk