Taxi Driver Online

Desperate Scots taxi drivers demand to know when they will receive £1500 payment

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/poli ... d-24215893

The SNP made a promise during the election campaign and drivers want to know when the money will reach them.

Desperate taxi drivers have demanded the Scottish Government speed up the £1500 payments they were promised during the election.

Cabbies blasted the lack of financial support and said it was affecting their mental health.

Glasgow driver Michael Smith said: “I am absolutely done. My dignity is on the floor.”

The Scottish Government pointed the Record to Cabinet Secretary Finance Secretary Kate Forbes' tweet last week:

“During the election, we pledged further support to taxi drivers. Establishing the scheme has been one of my primary priorities since the new Gov was established last week. I am meeting with Unite reps early next week, before setting out the details of support by mid-week.”

Earnings for Scotland’s 37,000 taxi drivers and private licenses fell through the floor as a result of the pandemic.

SNP Ministers earlier this year announced a £1,500 grant for drivers to assist with fixed costs, but the industry believed the cash was not nearly enough and the Unite trade union have campaigned for greater payments.

The SNP announced during the Holyrood election campaign that a re-elected Nationalist Government would provide a second £1,500 payment within 100 days.

However, drivers are desperate to know when exactly they will receive the cash as they are in financial difficulty right now.

Richard Todd, a driver from Edinburgh, said: “I’m struggling to make ends meet with the huge reduction in available work due to the pandemic.

“We have many fixed costs which are ever increasing such as vehicle purchase and finance costs, fuel, insurance, road tax, garage repairs and servicing as well as council licensing fees which incredibly have gone up recently.

“Taxi owners and operators need immediate access to the same business grants that other small businesses have already received, our physical and mental health is being affected by the stress of the Scottish Government not helping us. We need help now.”

Smith, a driver for over 20 years, said he had relied on his sister to help with rent, energy bills and food.

He has also taken a £2,000 loan from his brother for a gearbox to keep him in business.

“Without that support network I’d be homeless and living on benefits - a long term burden on the state, and that’s not how I ever perceived I’d be, having worked hard throughout my life. I cannot beg or borrow any more to keep me or my business going,” he said.

He said his “mental and financial state” could not fall “any lower”, adding:

“Our plight cannot be exaggerated - we have survived longer than expected, many have gone on to other jobs, many retired, lots still barely struggling along, but all to great cost due to short-term neglect by politicians.

“There are 38,000 livelihoods on the line and they are turning a blind eye.”

Danny Tebb, a black cab driver from Edinburgh, said: “The Taxi trade was promised further financial help during the election and we ask that that promise is honoured in order that we can survive the next few very challenging months.”

Chris Elder, a driver from Dundee, said: “We are the forgotten transport industry. We have had to put ourself in danger of catching covid due to having to try and earn some money to keep our businesses afloat and feed our families. I am very disappointed the Scottish government has ignored our cries for help.”

Labour MSP Monica Lennon said: “Scotland’s taxi operators and drivers are the forgotten trade and they are at a cliff edge, mentally and financially.

“SNP ministers must stop mucking them around, and immediately provide a date for delivering on the pre-election cash promise.

“The Scottish Government has ignored the desperate pleas from Scotland’s taxi trade throughout the pandemic, and it’s pushing many taxi operators and drivers into a dark place.

“With lives and livelihoods at risk, Kate Forbes needs to stop stalling and get this lifeline support to Scotland’s taxi operators and drivers without further delay.”

I would imagine the £1,500 mentioned in the article above would be straightforward enough. It should just be a repitition of the £1,500 paid previously to eligible *badgeholders*.

I'm guessing the sticking point will be the grants of "up to £10k" that the SNP promised to others (but isn't mentioned above), which most seem to think is due to plateholders, but whether that's what the SNP intended isn't clear, and that's probably what they're still trying to thrash out, hence the delay

(Of course, that was discussed at some length in an earlier thread, but it got slightly sidetracked.)

Politicians actually coming good on an election promise that'll be the day !

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Bit of a head of steam building up over this - as well as the article above, yesterday's Daily Record had this leader column (the Record is roughly the equivalent of Scotland's Mirror):



MSP Monica Lennon (one of Scottish Labour's big guns) is also making a fair bit of noise about it.

Also this below on Good Morning Scotland (up here a bit like our Today programme on Radio 4) which was a tad more interesting than I thought it would be, although some of the dialogue was difficult enough for me to make out, never mind our friends down south of the border (earpieces helped a bit). It features Monica Lennon and a driver called Colin Dodds.

First surprise is that Dodds is introduced as an Uber driver in Edinburgh (sure I knew his name from the HC trade, but maybe not, although maybe he's switched sides).

Second surprise is that Dodds is also a PHV fleet owner, who says he's rented cars out in Glasgow *and* Edinburgh

Unsurprisingly, his case is very much from a fleet owner's perspective. Of course, this is where the first £1.5k grant for *badgeholders* didn't help them much, assuming they even had a badge.

And he trips himself up a bit in that regard, correcting himself a one point (after 1.13.50, although 99.9% of listeners wouldn't notice) and also refers to owner-drivers (after 1.14.20) when I think he meant fleet owners

Monica Lennon also states that a £10k grant for operators has been costed, but since an operator here is a plateholder then somehow I can't quite see £10k per plate happening, although obviously I wouldn't be objecting if it did.

Most confusing bit is from around 1.17.20, when Dodds starts using the word 'hackney', which is fine on here because it helps clarify precisely what we mean, but it's not a word that's used in official Scotland jargon, so just further confuses things.

And he's all over the place, saying the definition of taxi operator has changed, or something like that , and then has a dig at Unite because they only represent smaller fleets of maybe four HCs maximum, unlike the PH fleet owners and what he calls the *taxi* companies (to further confuse matters) of up to 200 cars And just before that, he started to say 'drivers' when he obviously didn't mean 'drivers', so quickly changed course.

Which is a bit like the kind of confusion often pointed out on here in terms of press reports etc, but it all maybe just underlines why the whole thing seems a bit messy and how the SNP's pledge seemed 'back-of-the-envelope' at the time.

Anyway, it starts at about 1.12.20, and lasts around 10 minutes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000wjmy

...on the other hand, I doubt if all of this will make a whole lot of difference. Haven't seen much to suggest that Kate Forbes wouldn't honour her pre-election promise, and I suspect the devil is in the detail of working out how precisely the operator/plateholder grants will work, and that's what's being thrashed out just now.

(The new £1.5k to badgeholders should be straightforward enough - some of the local authorities who topped up the last £1.5k with a discretionary grant just simply sent the extra cash to all those who had been given the £1.5k.)

Think it's great that the lads up there are getting £1,500 at some time.

But will be interested to see who the SNP deal with the operators (firms) and the operators (drivers) issue.

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IDFIMH