Taxi Driver Online

Nothing particularly new here, but it kind of brings together a couple of different topics that have been going for months now


Glasgow taxi crisis sparks 'unheard' of scenes of people walking miles and 6am queues at ranks

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glas ... d-23608564

The Glasgow taxi union warned that the current situation means that there will be "a serious issue for public safety" once things picks up even more in the summer months.

Glasgow's taxi trade union has said that the current taxi crisis has created "unheard of" scenes in the city.

A major lack of hackney cabs in the city means that Glaswegians are now being forced to 'walk miles' to get home from the city centre, while queues are still being reported at city taxi ranks at 5am or 6am at weekends.

It comes at a time when Glaswegians are up in arms about the lack of taxi cabs on the streets as Glasgow's nighttime economy bounces back from the pandemic.

Yesterday, Glasgow Live revealed that "around 50" cabs were forced off the road last weekend due to an ongoing LPG fuel shortage, causing a further dip in the number of hackneys operating on the city streets. Meanwhile last month taxi bosses slammed the sight of people still queueing for taxis outside the OVO Hydro hours after a concert "on a quiet night".

Steven Grant, Secretary of Unite Glasgow Cab section, told Glasgow Live: "I worked the whole weekend and there were people walking from the city. I picked up a lady just at Broomhill after walking from Queen Street and she was pretty upset. The hire straight after that was another woman, not so much upset but she had walked from Central. I picked her up at Partick Station and she was going to Jordanhill.

"There's just no cabs. We can't get cabs. People walking miles and also queues at the ranks at five and six in the morning - that's unheard of. We were clearing the city by about four o'clock in normal times."

He believes that the current 'crisis' is going to get worse as the summer months approach and increasing numbers of tourists descend on the city - and has labeled the situation "a serious issue for public safety".

He added: "It's not sustainable for the city. I wouldn't say that we are fully recovered anyway, we are still at a point where things are picking up and once the summer comes - the big Hampden gigs and everything ramping up for people visiting the city again - this is a serious issue for public safety. There's no doubt about it.

"I've never had that in 13 years of doing this, having people get in to the cab visibly upset because they couldn't get home and they are having to walk it. I would be very unhappy with my sister or my daughter walking those distances at night. Even for a male to be doing it isn't great.

"A couple of weeks ago one of our members challenged the police at Central Station on Gordon Street for putting people out of the taxi queue into private hire vehicles and their response was that they had to clear the city, it was six in the morning. Again that's a huge issue, the vehicles aren't insured to take those passengers without bookings. That's how desperate the police are at the moment to try and solve some of these issues, that they would be willing to do that. It's really, really messy.

"And it's exacerbated because the bus service is dire at the moment. They are short of drivers and they don't have a night service so it really is the perfect storm for people trying to get home."

He believes the only solution is for Glasgow City Council to delay the imposition of the Low Emissions Zone (LEZ) to allow taxi cab owners sufficient time to make the shift to electric vehicles rather than have their cabs retro-fitted with LPG engines.

The union has previously warned that 1,000 taxis - out of a fleet of 1,420 - could disappear from the streets when Phase 2 of Glasgow's LEZ comes into force in June of 2023 due to being non-compliant with the emission standards that all petrol and diesel vehicles entering the city centre need to meet next year.

He said: "We need the council to be proactive, to recognise the issues, but they are just determined to push on with the LEZ. They should be incentivising people to stay. That will be a mixture of increasing the funding for changing the vehicles but also delaying it so they have a choice, so that more guys can shift to electric rather than retrofitting their vehicles. There's a lot of idealism at the minute and not a lot of pragmatism.

"And it's exacerbated because the bus service is dire at the moment. They are short of drivers and they don't have a night service so it really is the perfect storm for people trying to get home.

"What they should be doing right now is incentivising these guys to stay within the trade and continue with their business. The socio-economic issues are far outweighing the air pollution issues to be quite honest. We are going to lose a lot of these guys, they are just turning their backs on it - there's options for them now. You see the buses can't get anyone, there's lots of professional driving jobs out that they might want to do and they will because they are not going to sink themselves into debt."

Surely that's a cause for celebration.

_________________
IDFIMH

Taxi driver warns low emission zone is 'end of trade as we know it'

https://news.stv.tv/west-central/glasgo ... we-know-it

A Glasgow Taxi driver has warned the city’s Low Emission Zone is the end of his trade “as we know it”.

The new scheme means many older vehicles which do not meet the minimum emissions standards are banned from the city centre from Tuesday – although there is a year-long grace period before it will be enforced.

In Glasgow, the Low emission zone (LEZ) is already in place for buses and penalty charges will be handed out from June 1, 2023, with an extended grace period for local residents to June 1, 2024.

“We are in total agreement [on] low emission zones,” taxi driver and Unite union representative Calum Anderson told STV News.

“We have put forward pragmatic solutions to the council and it’s falling on deaf ears.

“In Glasgow, [it] basically means the end of the taxi trade as we know it.”

Taxi drivers are looking for a temporary exemption to allow them time to bring their vehicles into compliance.

“The transition would be an awful lot smoother and, basically, they would get to where they’re wanting to go, which is net zero by 2030,” Mr Anderson said.

“They would get there an awful lot quicker by just allowing a little bit more time.”

LEZs have begun in four cities around Scotland in a bid to protect public health and improve air quality.

With the shape and scopes of each city’s LEZ now agreed, local grace periods are in place, with enforcement due to begin on different dates.

In Edinburgh and Aberdeen, enforcement will begin on June 1, 2024.

In Dundee, enforcement begins on May 30, 2024.

Vehicles that do not meet the emission standards set for a LEZ will not be able to drive within the zone.

A penalty charge of £60 will be payable by the registered keeper of a vehicle when a non-compliant vehicle enters the LEZ, which will be halved to £30 if paid early.

Petrol cars and vans will need to have engines at the Euro 4 standard, which generally applies to vehicles registered after 2006.

Diesel-powered cars and vans will need to be at the Euro 6 standard, mainly applying to vehicles registered after 2015.

A number of vehicles are exempt from LEZ requirements, including emergency service vehicles and any vehicle driven by a blue badge holder.

It is hoped that the introduction of LEZs will encourage people to think about leaving the car at home and to consider public transport or active travel.

A spokeswoman for Glasgow City Council said: “Although we’ve made good progress in recent years to improve Glasgow’s air quality, some of our city centre streets continue to have stubbornly high levels of harmful air pollution which is why restricting access to the most polluting vehicles from next year is vital to protect public health.

“Practical, targeted assistance from the Scottish Government to help prepare those most affected by the introduction of LEZs in Scotland has included funding for households, micro-businesses, and a separate retrofit fund including support for taxi drivers, with funding available again this financial year.

“There has been extensive engagement since Glasgow’s LEZ was first proposed to ensure that the taxi trade in particularly is fully aware of the financial aid available to become compliant. Further, and to reflect the impact of the pandemic on the uptake of the retrofitting scheme, the council will develop a discretionary mechanism to ensure that operators who can appropriately evidence that proactive steps are being taken to achieve compliance within the timescales of the current funding round will not face penalty charges for a time limited period to allow the necessary upgrades to be undertaken.”

_________________
IDFIMH

Overkill environmental protection regulations are going F-cuk the UK economy many years before environmental changes ever do.

we have been pronounced by the OECD as the weakest economy in Europe and have been in recession since March I wonder why

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