Taxi Driver Online

TAXI RANKS COULD SWELL IN LICENSING SHAKE-UP
JOHN ROBERTSON

09:00 - 05 January 2006
Hundreds more taxis could take to the streets of Aberdeen if plans to remove the limit on licences get the go-ahead.

A report to go before councillors next week recommends the limit on the number of taxis allowed to operate in the city be scrapped.

The recommendation comes amid fears the council could face legal action from taxi owners wanting to set up in the city.

With more than 200 applications on the waiting list, it could lead to a huge increase in the number of cabs. This is good news for the travelling public but taxi representatives warn it could spell disaster for existing licence-holders.

Crawford Langley, the council's director of legal and corporate services, says in the report that the present cap of 915 taxi licences must end.

The report will go before the licensing committee on Monday, when councillors will also be considering an application to allow rickshaws on the city's streets.

It says: "It is the director's view that, although the removal of the limit may be initially resented by some of the taxi trade, they have to appreciate that court cases and changes in approach by the Office of Fair Trading and Government departments have made the continuation of the present policy untenable."

The report says the committee can refuse an application over any declared limit only if it can demonstrate there is no significant demand from the public to be met.

An application has been received that, if approved, would take it above the present limit.

If refused, evidence would be needed from consultants that there is no unmet demand for taxis, otherwise the council will face a legal challenge.

It is estimated that it would cost £7,065 to carry out an initial survey to judge demand. In the future, the council would have to pay £6,000 each for as many as five surveys a year.

The report lists the reasons why the present limit on the number of Aberdeen taxi licences must be removed.

It says the Office of Fair Trading and the Department for Transport's views are based on the needs of the travelling public, not the interests of existing licence holders.

Only a minority of councils still have limits on taxi numbers. In England and Wales only 99 out of 343 authorities limit the number of taxi licences.

Most councils in Scotland do not have limits, although the majority in the central belt do.

Officials say the council would enforce the maintenance of vehicle standards and take appropriate action taken against operators who flout the rules.

But didn't the T&G KO OFT?

Well done.

Well one can only wonder where they got such accurate up-to-date info as that.

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IDFIMH

Interesting that the DFT's views have been taken into account - maybe they realise that the Executive is clueless.

Incidentally, there's a big report on the council's website which goes into great detail about plate hiring and the like, and also has lots of interesting appendixes.

I think this was the report that was reported on in the summer regarding the hiring of plates.

There's no sign of the latest report, but lots of interesting reading in any case.

http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/acc_data ... rivate.asp

That's one mad SUD survey on there.

They have a limit of 915 taxis. The survey says they need a further 33 to meet demand, but as they only had 873 taxis licensed at the time, the new new number of taxis is less than the council's limit.

Only in the mad mad world of SUD surveys could licensing more taxis mean having less of them.

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IDFIMH

Aren't SUD surveys just an excuse for council bureaucracies to retain control?

I still can't grasp the concept that councils think they can manage markets better than economists, who at least acknowledge that they can't.

Another concept difficult to grasp is that when I step onto the street from my palatial suburban haven, I know I have little or no chance of hailing on the street. But, I also know that that taxis will be banked up on ranks all round the city centre. Don't we suffer from the donut effect where the taxi trade has surrendered suburban business to local PH shops?

Couldn't we win this back with a bit of thought?

And for gutless councillors to hide behind.

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IDFIMH

Are you mad! Do you seriously think the added expense of a catering license is the answer - on top of everything else?

OUT OF THE QUESTION!!!












Sorry. Just realised what you meant.

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The higher the fewer.

Hmm...by 'donut effect' I think he meant the councillors

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

Seriously though, they discussed that effect when the House of Commons Trans Comm discussed the OFT report.

The prevailing view seemed to be that since Manchester city centre was served by black cabs, and the housing estates served by PH, if taxi numbers were derestricted then the estates would have no provision at all. I prefer jasbar's view - the taxis have effectively cherry picked the best areas and left the suburbs to the PH.

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

I understand. Jasbars pointing out that the suburbs, which is where the return journeys for the HC's are, is already served by the PH firms.

Come to think of it jasbar, is there any reason why there arent any HC bases in the suburbs? I mean is there a legal reason for this or something like that?

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The higher the fewer.

No reason, except for the natural reaction of taxi drivers to return to the ranks in the city centre, which experience shows are little more than talking shops, where cabbies wax lyrical, vent their anger, get it all off their chests, then leave the state of their taxi trade to the vested interest few "representatives" who take advantage of trade apathy and shape it in their own narrow interest.

Wheras in the workers struggles of the late 18th and early 19th century the dispossess were prepared to "take up cudgels" to improve their lot, the 21st century taxi trade equivalent is to spout hot air, avoid any effort, then spout more hot air because things are getting worse.

Wait a minute .... I seem to remember having a cudgel somewhere .... the attic perhaps .... ?

Yep you're right there - it wasn't called the Industrial Revolution for nothing, that's for sure!

And I think we are in the middle a period of rapid change again here - probably as traumatic for the taxi trade as it was almost exactly one hundred years ago when the three new technologies of the motor car, the telephone and radio all hit the scene.

That would equate to something like the PC, the internet and mobile phones today perhaps? Or maybe GPS as well.

Incorporating such a massive and rapid change in technology into the trade is not going to be easy and certainly should not be rushed, as mistakes due to early adopting can be expensive. Better to follow a couple of years behind the cutting edge stuff, I think.

Certainly for me the key to dealing with the frustrations that I felt within the industry was to understand some of the problems associated with adopting this new technology.

The rate of change is very important, that's for sure and so is the need for drivers to be informed and knowledgeable about their trade on a much wider scale than just their own neck of the woods.

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The higher the fewer.

Unfortunately, the trade in Edinburgh can't see past the over inflated £40K plate premium. And, this is blinding it to all reason.

So much so, two individuals are being vilified for "bringing about" de-restriction.. It is all the fault of two people. Do you know of two people, from the common masses, who could possibly be powerful enough to achieve this? Of course, nothing to do with legislation and working practices being established by our political masters, and not necessarily from these shores?


In the fog of such irrationality, the whole technology gig is being ignored. It rogresses on at an increasing pace, while the trade is up to its derriere in alligators.

But, just as alarmingly, as well as the pace of technological change, is the devasting effect of the huge pool of labour which is predicted to migrate from eastern europe.

Put this with the already available techonology, and we could see, and I predict we will, unlimited private hire, driven by people with limited English language skills, using GPS technology, aided and abetted by flexible and unlimited PH licence availability, wiping out the work of our 19th century style, restriced practice hackney taxi trade.

We're under threat of being eaten alive, and all the Edinburgh trade can do is blame two unimportant messengers.

Still, I guess it's easier for no brainers to shoot the messengers than try to understand the "unpopular" message they're bringing.

As opposed to three of the lads behind TDO being accused, by the thick, for being behind 70% of English and Welsh councils de-limiting.

The truth is that councils are sussing out the vested interests, who go by the name of the T&G and NTA. And more and more drivers are seeing that the world doesn't end when a council de-limits.

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IDFIMH

Hardly surprising though given the compelling circumstances!

If I put myself in the position of an owner driver, who having invested such a considerable amount, in good faith, in their business and who then finds the value of that investment several years down the line under threat, then I can quite easily understand how they might feel.

And the fact that the trade in general is quite happy to have the goal posts moved without a corresponding compensation package being organised first means that those drivers have little option but to defend their position as best they can.

Whilst I fully agree that de-restriction is the proper way forward, I can also understand the feelings of abandonment felt by these owner drivers.

It is also clear to me that the split that this has caused is seriously weakening the coherance of the trade as a whole, which in turn further lays it open to the various exploitations that it has always been vulnerable to.

That's my humble opinion - how accurate it is I do not know but that's how it appears to me.

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The higher the fewer.