Taxi Driver Online

As I said in M&R, I think the Dublin 'mess' was overdone a bit, as with a lot of the pro-restrictions nonsense that was spouted at the time of the OFT, for example some saying derestriction would lead to less cabs during the day, the others at night.

As for Dublin:

It is perhaps worth saying a word or two more about Dublin, since the de-restriction there has figured highly in many of the arguments made here, particularly by the Scottish opponents of the OFT’s recommendations.


Scottish Taxi Federation:
We need look no further than Dublin, to see the catastrophic effect of de-regulation of quantity controls… has also resulted in seriously deteriorating standards and has done little to promote the desired service levels.
[…]
Since de-regulation there have been numerous reported cases of rapes and drug abuse in the taxi trade. This was unknown prior to de-regulation.

However, in a recent issue of the journal Economic Affairs, Dr Sean Barrett, a Dublin academic, said:

Around the second anniversary of taxi deregulation in November 2002 the licence holders made claims that criminals had entered the deregulated taxi sector and that vehicle standards had deteriorated. During 2002, 11 Dublin taxi licences were revoked by the Carriage Office on police recommendation. Separate data are not published for pre- and post-deregulation licence holder offences. The taxi licence revocation rate of 1.2 per 1,000 compares with a general crime rate of 58 per 1,000 in the Dublin Metropolitan Area. Two heavily publicised cases in late 2002 of incidents involving taxi drivers referred to the pre-deregulation period. The complaints were largely generated by the industry itself and reflect attempted regulatory recapture.
[…]
There has not been a reduction in either driver or vehicle standards.

We must assume that Dr Barrett is more familiar with the Dublin taxi trade than either the STF or Mr MacAskill. However, we should perhaps also take Dr Barrett’s claims with a pinch of salt – in his article he also claims that the decision of a new taxi regulator in Ireland to investigate the issuing of a license to Mr Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, was evidence that the country’s de-restriction decision might be reversed. However, Dr Barrett failed to mention that Mr O’Leary was not considering launching a new budget taxi service, but had obtained the license so that he could use Dublin’s bus lanes to cut through traffic congestion, which was clearly abusing this privilege.

Perhaps the truth is somewhere between the two extremes. Indeed, the Irish press reported drops in standards such as vehicle quality. However, any problems in this regard were perhaps belatedly recognised by the announcement of an Office of National Taxi Regulator in November 2002, responsible for (inter alia):

…standards for drivers, driving training, requirements for entry, a comprehensive local knowledge and other testing, promotion of disability awareness and an acceptable dress code for drivers;

…standards for taxi, [PH] and limousine vehicles, including an acceptable limit on the age of vehicles and the implementation of the proposed wheelchair accessible taxi policy;

…standards for customer service and for meeting the needs of people with disabilities.

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Taxi Driver Online
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