Taxi Driver Online

Les I’m respectful of your response/opinions, however on a parting note some food for thought for you to choose to accept or dis-regard as you see fit:

I personally do not think it’s right or professional for the Director of a large company to be engaging in ‘tit for tat’ comments about the industry, other companies etc. on social media.

You are as you say entitled to spend your time as you see fit but personally I think social media jousting is ill advised and there are seldom any winners and companies and individuals can easily and unintentionally end up on a ‘sticky wicket’.

With regards to your posts ‘not having any pops’, I quote:

'The real question should be why would an individual or an organisation go to these lengths to appeal against a service that they were willing to provide themselves.
It is not just a sad day for Central Radio Taxis but for the whole of the Edinburgh Taxi Trade. It could have quite easily been avoided with just a little common sense at the outset and a little less self interest from a handful of individuals.
Some people should do a little soul searching and a little less anonymous letter writing. I am not just talking about the CRT Committee members, although they are included.
Taxi driving and providing a taxi service is not the most difficult of professions but we do often go out of our way to make it hard for ourselves.
Will anyone from within the Taxi Trade sit back and look at the causes and failings behind this sad tale to try and prevent the same mistakes happening again in the future?
I doubt it.
There will be a good deal of table thumping, finger wagging and rank talk but how many will take the time and put in a bit effort to find out the full story and the actual cause of this sad story.
Before any CRT member or driver rushes in to look for blame elsewhere a good starting point would be to take time and read their own tender bid then consider the above analysis of hypocrisy'.


As above, you comment on it being a sad day for Central, suggest they did not apply common-sense, suggest soul searching within the Central Committee and advise Central members to read their tender bid.

Central Central Central throughout your post Les.

If you cannot see that this was aimed at Central then you should get someone neutral to read over your posts for feedback before you post them.

A blind man on the street could see/feel the ‘Central’ theme and dig(s) coming through in this post.

Was there really any need for this from a Director in the industry who professes to want to work with your counterparts in other large companies such as Central for the greater good of the taxi trade? Was it really helpful in embracing a good on-going working relationship with Central ?

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

On a final point I take your point re the ballot etc. but what is still massively confusing is how the vote ended up as a NO.

We are both agreed that the City members agreed to fund the study.

At the point of agreeing to the funding (at substantial cost) there could only have been 2 options post study:

a) The study concludes it’s a good idea and will be to my benefit and I should say yes to it.
b) The study concludes that a merger is a waste of time and I will be worse off and should say no to it.


After agreeing to fund the study surely the City members would have then known that they would have to decide yes or no depending on the outcome.

As we all know the outcome was a) as above, so how on earth did the City membership who had agreed to fund the study then decide that they preferred option b) ?

Why the hell did they ever agree to fund the study in the 1st place if they were never going to accept the recommendation and were always going to vote to maintain the status quo?

Les this makes no sense, absolutely no sense at all to me or anyone looking at this from the outside in.

If you are saying that there was NO COMMITTEE INFLUENCE, or that the proxy votes used by the committee were irrelevant to the overall vote then I have to believe you, but most people would struggle to understand what happened here or the logic applied by the City members to vote NO.

No conspiracy theories but it’s also telling that 5 of the 7 man City Committee who all supported the merger at the outset then voted against it despite it being a stick on recommendation from a professional body.

So let’s run this past you again:

We have a proposal, and a professional body (at substantial cost) have carried out an in-depth study and concluded that by accepting the proposal the members of both City and Central will be substantially better off.

You and I are agreed that the merger made great sense and that it would have been massively beneficial for all concerned, and you were as disappointed as the next man that it failed.


So on the face of it the vote looks like a total formality – YES, why would it not be?

WRONG

Central vote YES (approx. 98% in favour).

City vote NO by an overwhelming majority. Was it 95% against?

?????????????????????

NO THANKS I PREFER TO BE WORSE OFF, I was happy to spend a bucket load of cash on the study but I’m VOTING NO as I would hate to benefit from the savings, efficiencies and extra work.

Is that really how taxi drivers behave in Edinburgh? Is that really what the City owners wanted?

That’s for others to decide but I know what I think and I know how/who I think influenced the vote and it looks and feels like self interest at play as opposed to the greater good and wants and needs of the members.

Anyway I’ve said my tuppence-worth and as mentioned I am respectful of your views and thoughts despite us being on different wavelengths Les.

Just a pity that things are now so badly divided and no real light at the end of the tunnel in terms of the trade coming together to fight off the challenges of the APP companies etc.

Divide and conquer or be conquered???????????????????

We had the chance………………………………………

Regards

John Marr

I will take your advice on board and withdraw from this Forum although I do think it is ironic that you should criticise my participation on here given what has been happening a bit closer to home but I have said enough on the hypocrisy of it all.

All you know is bitterness. All you say comes from this bitterness.

Les,I agree with you and there are issues and challenges across the trade and mistakes have been made on many sides and to many times.

But dwelling on the past, point scoring and looking to get one over (be it subtly or explicitly) can't be the way forward and I don't just throw that accusation at you.

It's a big ask but it would be great if the big players could genuinely work together within agreed boundaries to start to build trust and look to work in common areas for the benefit of the membership.

It's a big ask and i know it's unlikely in the current climate but without it happening it feels like it will be 'dog eat dog' going forward with City and Central cutting each other's throats whilst the APPs, Private Hire etc circle the wagons and pick the black cab trade apart.

Guess that's one for you guys on the committee(s) to think about at an appropriate time but time does not feel like its on our side and the threats that are out there look and feel very real.

Les,I agree with you and there are issues and challenges across the trade and mistakes have been made on many sides and to many times.

But dwelling on the past, point scoring and looking to get one over (be it subtly or explicitly) can't be the way forward and I don't just throw that accusation at you.

It's a big ask but it would be great if the big players could genuinely work together within agreed boundaries to start to build trust and look to work in common areas for the benefit of the membership.

It's a big ask and i know it's unlikely in the current climate but without it happening it feels like it will be 'dog eat dog' going forward with City and Central cutting each other's throats whilst the APPs, Private Hire etc circle the wagons and pick the black cab trade apart.

Guess that's one for you guys on the committee(s) to think about at an appropriate time but time does not feel like its on our side and the threats that are out there look and feel very real.

I personally do not think it’s right or professional for the Director of a large company to be engaging in ‘tit for tat’ comments about the industry, other companies etc. on social media.

I would like to have one last parting post.

No one has worked harder than I have to try and bring the trade together and lift our standards in both our attitude to our customers and the way we present ourselves. (hold the bitterness gary).

It was Bill Purnell, the then Central Radio Taxis chairman, and myself who initiated the merger talks.
Bill and I also formed the Edinburgh Licensed Taxi Partnership in order that the whole trade could present ourselves as a united trade in our dealings with the City of Edinburgh Licensing and Regulatory Committee. Both sets of companies funded a PR group at a small cost to promote the whole Taxi Trade. In the short period of time that we managed to keep it going it was widely recognised as a good thing for our trade and we had several successes.
The challenge was always going to be in putting our commercial differences to one side and coming together to deal with trade issues.
Unfortunately this broke down when Bill left after being persecuted by a few individuals on the now disgraced Fastblacks forum.
Jon you may well disapprove if a "director of a multi million pound company" coming on and posting on "sites like this" but I have always held the belief that it is a bad idea for those who live in glass houses to throw stones and I think you should do a little bit of investigating who was behind the nastiness of the fastblack forum that made Bill decide that he had had enough. You could then perhaps direct your criticisms a little closer to home.

Some people like to endlessly believe in conspiracy theories but unfortunately for them in this case The Merger was voted against by the City Cabs members in an open and democratic vote. I voted for it in the belief that if enough "decent guys' came forward from both sets of companies and squeezed out the laggards from both companies then it would have been a success.
Unfortunately it wasn't to be and shortly after the merger talks broke down the CRT committee decided to go for a larger market share through a discounting policy. An Association can only generate income in three ways. Radio dues, discounting on the meter where the driver on the job wears the discount or increasing fleet size. Generally a mixture of all three are usually applied and a successful association will try and find a balance of all three.
The CRT made the decision to go for the Airport Rank alone,including forming their own Private Hire option, as we all had to, dropping out of Forward Travel Scotland with a view to growing their fleet on the back securing the contract. Through growing their numbers and generating additional radio dues this would go some way to meeting the new discount levels.


This thread started through the recent judgement being made regarding the objection and subsequent appeal against a Booking Office Licence being granted at Edinburgh Airport. My contribution was to ask just why anyone would want to object, and leave themselves open to the not insignificant costs should they fail, to a service that would have had to have been included in their own tender bid for the same contract. What justification would anyone have for objecting to someone providing a service that they themselves would have to to commit to through their own tender bid. It suggests that the only motivation was because their tender bid was not successful.

Perhaps, and just perhaps, it is this sort of mentality that our members wanted to steer clear of.

If you are serious about wanting to raise the "Phoenix from the Ashes" Jon, and I hope the next generation coming through will try, then I respectfully suggest you start up at Bankhead.

It won't be the figures that make it work it will be a mixture of the motivation and drive that those who are trying to change things bring to the table coupled with the desire by the trade to get of the discounting road we all find ourselves on.
Apps and App companies are here to stay, just how successful they will be remains to be seen but our trade needs a new way of thinking and that just may mean people like myself being prepared to come onto sites like this and be open and honest about what we know and ,of course, using your real name.