Taxi Driver Online

I can tell you for a fact its commercial premises on the ground floor with tenament blocks above.

Sandy Gilchrist Cycles occupying one of these units just along the road!

Thats great, thank you GB.

Regards

JD

Isn't it funny that the Jacobs Report fails to mention the increase in Ph and that you are blind to it also.


Could it be the council and the HCLLG set the criteria for the SUD and deliberately left it out the Ph.

Hardly a robust and comprehensive study?

It's just that simple, quality control and not restrictive practises that benefit the few with a vested interest.


What says you RealCabforce?

Can anyone actually define criteria for unmet demand and/or when it becomes 'significant'? Since the rise in PHC numbers was effectively the trigger for the survey, I fail to see how it could be ignored but I have yet to read the report.

If it's that simple, let's just give existing PHC 6 months to pass all the Telford modules and the topo, and then for every 3 PH plates that are returned, issue a taxi plate to the first person on the 'list,' and put a freeze on ph plates.
That will raise the standards to a common denominator and then we can produce a 'quality-controlled' service.

The Jacobs Report was initiated because of the increase of the Ph being indicative of a latent unmet demand as recognised in English Courts.

I have the draft copy and it states that there is “no unmet demand” there is also no mention of PHC in the report other than asking Ph drivers if the wanted to see a rise in the Edinburgh taxi fleet. Needless to say the Ph was of the same opinion as us that any increase in our numbers would directly effect them.

I have no problem with what you are proposing although all angles and proposals would have to be looked at.

Quality control should work without freezing numbers, it is the quality that dictates the level of the market and not an artificial number put in place to create a barrier to anyone.

My God, did I just agree with RealCabforce?

I think I am going to take the night off

See! You can be quite sensible when you want!

Private hire not villains of trade


RECENT letters from black taxi drivers/owners in Edinburgh all seem to be blaming the private hire drivers for their plight.

My partner has been a private hire driver for a couple of years now and, believe me, they work extremely hard and long hours to earn half the money that a black cab driver earns.

They too have to pay £700 to the council for their licence and it has to be renewed every year like a black cab driver.

It is not true that they are unregulated. They have to sit a medical and pass a strict police check.

Unlike some black cab drivers (not all), the company my husband works for insists that all drivers must wear a shirt and tie, he cannot wear jeans or trainers and must be courteous to passengers at all times. They frown upon them picking passengers up in the street and drivers will be reprimanded if it is found that they have.

It may be less expensive to buy a private car for use as a private hire car than it is to buy a black taxi, however they still have to be maintained and looked after to a high standard and are subject to inspections just the same as black taxi drivers.

It is true that black cab drivers have to take the knowledge test, but because of that they have the benefit that they can pick up fares in the street, have their own allocated taxi ranks and don't have to play dodge the traffic wardens.

They can drive along Princes Street and use the Greenways. This more than compensates for the fact that they have passed the test and paid the same licence fee - it allows them to earn more.

I know of many black cab drivers who started out in private hire before becoming a black cab driver. As soon as they have passed the knowledge test they seem to think that they own the right to be the only cab drivers capable of assisting the people of Edinburgh to get in and around the city.

There is a demand for private hire cars otherwise they would not be in existence. Everyone is entitled to earn a living and private hire drivers are only doing that. The people of Edinburgh are entitled to have a choice. Why should the black taxi drivers have no competition?

Mabel Robertson, Gilmerton Dykes, Edinburgh

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/lette ... 0813172535

Interesting letter from Mabel there,

"They frown upon them picking passengers up in the street and drivers will be reprimanded if it is found that they have"

Well they have broken the law by picking them up off the street, it's not something that should be frowned upon, it just should not happen, it's illegal and dangerous!


"Why should the black taxi drivers have no competition?"

Well Mabel we do have competition, lots of it, but is it a level playing field for the Hacks, of course not, pedicabs, no rules whatsoever, if the traffics congested just use the pavements or take them across the pedestrian crossings, buses? PH , strange idea of no competition.

F*** me that's some knowledge they do in London.

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IDFIMH

It's all about peaks and high peaks.

If you have X amount of peaks, it doesn't always follow SUD, but if you have X amount of peaks and the odd high peak, then that usually means SUD.

If the high peaks are during the day, then that nearly always means SUD.

However the DfT, and the Scottish Office may well follow, have decided that high peaks at night are as bad/good as high peaks during the day, in their draft proposals.

As for the definition of significant, well all I can say is that in a court case many moons ago in a nice place down south, both sides agreed (as did the judge) that an accurate definition of significant was 'that which is not in-significant'.

Which perhaps best sums up the sense of surveys.

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IDFIMH

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I don't really think the English surveys and court cases are any different from the Scottish ones in this regard, but I think the taxi monitor in Edinburgh is correct in this regard, but Jacobs have, unsurprisingly, taken the narrow view.



What a larff - that's about as useful as asking them if they want higher fuel prices.

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Taxi Driver Online
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