Taxi Driver Online

How did they manage that, I thought hack drivers gobs werew powered by duracell

Yep it's a real battle zone here, basically between the Hacks and the council. In a nutshell, the hacks are miffed of that the council is allowing a private hire firm planning permission to open satelite offices adjacent to the towns ranks. For some background on this read http://p212.ezboard.com/fwarringtonsspeakfreelyfrm7.showMessageRange?topicID=60.topic&start=21&stop=40 a local warrington forum.

Bill

God! I go fora quick Cruise around the Med for a week and miss all the fun!

There's more than enough work in the town for everyone, but i think the way the hac drivers are represented is hindering their cause. If they were represented on the Town Center Management Committe and sat down and discussed the future of the town in a sensible manner they'd get any concerns accross to the people who make the decisions at the first proposal, instead of finding out after decisions have been made.
But the attitude of some, not all the drivers, just get's peoples back up.

Take the comments made here
http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/vie ... php?t=3061

Blatent taunting of PH drivers wont work. So what happens? they block the feeder rank off outside the PH Office and try to entice fares outside and into they're cars. But The PH Company have 1/2 a dozen or so Hac's on the system so if they block the rank (legally as they're Hac's) it all kicks off again.
As was said above, the public didnt have much confidence in them to start with, now with this feeble effort of a go slow it's even less.
A good start would be to get their own house in order and stop the overcharging on weekend nights, then approach people and talk like adults instead of shouting and screaming and build some much needed bridges.
There's some good lads driving Hac's and their suffering because of a handfull of rip off merchants (and we all know who they are) ruining it for everyone.

A small example, Hac's apply for a rank outside an existing PH office on a side street, they quote that it "will cover the enterance to a Bar". This bar has 2 enterances the other (much busier) enterance has a 4 car rank right outside that is NEVER USED, So what chance do they have of getting another 30yds around the corner?
They notice customers walking 100yds past the main rank to a PH office around the corner, so they approach a Police Officer and ask him to stop them walking past?? How Pathetic!

I am A warrington Hackney Driver. I took part in the Protest.

Now, first of all, the protest was NOT in any way aimed at the PH element in town. It was aimed at solely the coucil. While drivers were protesting, we still had a few drivers on each station actively phoning private hire companies to pass on the work to them.

The problem here is, everybody thinks we are demanding ranks, booting of private hire out of the town centre etc etc.... The truth is, We haven't even asked for new ranks, admittedly there is concern over the number of ranks in the town but that is not it at all. Among the reasons were the fact that the council seems heavily biased towards the PH trade in Warrington, In liverpool or manchester private hire offices are similar in number to what crown/abba have in town, the difference is in places like in liverpool, these offices are spread over a MUCH wider area, wheras in warrington, they are close as a few hundred yards.

When the coucil does vehicle spot checks, the location they choose for the pullover point is the MR. Smiths rank which is directly on route to Bank quay station, the majority of drivers coming along this route are hacs, not ph cos they are to busy doing jobs on the sattelite areas of town. So they majority of vehicles spot checked are hacs.

We are All willing to play by the rules of the council provided they are 1. Fair and 2. Apply to ALL aspects of the trade.

The police are no help, on a friday and saturday night they actively ignore the fact that joe public dumps his car bang in the middle of the town centre rank, meaning we have t go round the, causing further obstruction by our cars and ppl struggling to get around us. For example, same scenario, approx 01.30 am car parks on the rank about halfway down outside the godfather tske away. i ask a police officeer to move the car on before they get out, the officer has a word with driver, driver goes in to get food, i ask officer why driver didnt move, officer says, oh they only gonna be 5 mins just getting some food. GO FIGURE!?!

also during the day when stations are (and none of the hacs deny this) Staions are over ranked, There are ranks in town center that should be moving IF we could get to them, but we cant cos blue badge holders and joe public think that a yellow painted box with the word taxi on it means "FREE CAR PARK FOR AS LONG AS YOU LIKE" so we cant get on em to use em.

Admittedly the case of the 3 car rank outside of the Crown office was left unused for the better part of 2 years, OUR FAULT ENTIRELY. But we were told by the coucil, "USE IT OR LOSE IT" when faced with that choice we followed the only option available, reclaim the rank. As for enticing customer from the office, absolute BULL, we are using that rank as a feeder so drivers generally arent on there long enough to bother turning off their engines, never mind get out and tout for business.

As I said before people, we are not trying to run any PH DRIVERS out of the town centre, but the PH company owners are trying to run US out of town. Right now MR Bailey is building/refurbing another office as we speak, directly opposite Crown office less than 10 YARDS AWAY, and already has a retainer on a bulding for another office directly on our biggest rank in the town centre. And Licensing is giving him the approval for all this.

As For over charging, Admittedly a very small minority of cabs on both HC and PH are guilty of this, and measures are being taken by HACKNEY DRIVERS themselves to stamp this out on OUR ranks. Personally I would love to see MR BArnes our licensing officer sat on wilderspool causeway pulling over all the HC that are driving towards town with passengers who still have their topsigns lit up (meaning the meter is not being used)

Adding to that, licensing is putting up our yearly plate fees, adding another MOT test to make 3 A YEAR but on the flip side having to be literally crow barred into showing their full accounts by the courts. I dont know wether you guys realise this but our plate fees are what funds the licensing. Taxi Licensing receives ZERO FUNDING from any government body, plate owners foot the bill entirely! These guys should be working FOR us not AGAINST us. We (The hacs) accept whole heartedly the need for regulation and spot checks and vehicle tests, but selective enforcement of the rules and regulations as and when it suits the agenda of the licensing comittee is totally unacceptable. the PH side of things dont realise this because Mr Bailey of ABBA and CROWN SEEMS to get away with everything he wants so he no reason to complain.

I'm sorry if the protest was inconvenient to anyone (which it obviously was) but at the moment even our chosen representatives are actively refused meetings, hence the walk in protest at the full coouncil meeting, 60 drivers turned up there to voice their concerns and were shepherded out of the main meeting into a side room to discuss it with coucillor Ritchards, Which only got us a reply letter containing more bulls**t and flannel. We were protesting to be heard by the council in an equal environment where all concerns can be brought up for discussion, in previous meetings, when the council didnt like what they were hearing from us, the stood up and walked out and ended the meeting, does that sound right to you guys? we try to voice our concerns, the licensing bods dont like it and walk out. end of meeting.

As i said before, this protest was not about Demands, or more ranks, or getting PH out of the town centre. It was about being listened to fairly. Nothing more, nothing less.

Roll on the new euro directives,


we can all go and become economic refuges in Lithunania and come back as lithuanian taxi drivers totally outside the authority of LA's



Kevin
http://www.monmouthtaxis.co.uk

Well i for one would support you in most of what you say 100%. As for the parking on the ranks i agree it's terribe, they do seem to think it means free parking!
Out biggest trouble is that we only have 1 traffic warden, and the police think it's beneath them to issue tickets.
Cant a meeting be organised with the Police to get some action taken? I'm sure if you approached the traffic inspector he'd have to do something about it, if not, take it further.

I believe that avenue has been explored before to no avail, we truly are at our wits end. We have shown what we can do to the town when we want to, believe me its no fun for us HC to protest, we all lost money that day, but the losses are small when compared to losing the trade all together.

As for the police, They dont even know the difference between HC and PH. As some of your PH bods will know they were stopping PH during the protest and asking them if they were taking part in the protest, even though the police were informed of the protest ( admittedly not what form it would take ) and that it was HACKNEYS only protesting, they still hadnt the nouse to find out what HaCKNEY actually meant.

Again, my apologies to scores of people caught up in the mire as it were but we are really left with no choice. We dont like doing this form of protest but we had to show the coucil AND the public that we ARE going to be heard.

Can't your manor take over parking enforcement, then you will have 100s of them.

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IDFIMH

As Bill said, isn't this to do with the rather quirky business strategy of the PH firms in Warrington, a think that the council really have no say in.

After all, if HC numbers are restricted then isn't this indicating favouritism towards HC?



I suspect this may be just due to laziness - it's easier to pick out HCs?




Same everywhere I think. Perhaps you could try contacting a more senior office because it's almost certain they dont' have a clue what happens on the ground, and the same can be said for councillors.

And I thought that even blue badge holders couldn't park on taxi ranks?



In my manor if the roof sign's on it usually means the driver is discounting rather than overcharging - is there any discounting in Warrington?


.

I think that when you get to the stage of a go-slow or blockade then it may end up having negative rather than positive consequences.

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

Yes it has had some negative consequences, but not just for HC drivers, the coucil feeling it too from the list of complaints it recieved about us. as I said in my post we are at our wits end. Lemme ask u. If councillors stood up and walked out on a meeting with YOUR chosen representatives, because they didnt like what they were hearing, what would the reaction be in your manor?

Also the amount of rank space in the town centre is limited, not enough for the amount of HC plates that are working in the town, add to that around 40% of them are parked on by joe public, add to that the fact the are releasing 15 plates a year for the next 5 years (also the fact there has been less than 6 months between the first set of new plates being issued in OCTOBER '05 and the next 15 plates that have already been issued. Why release more plates on an already over ranked town where drivers are forced to wait in ranks 3 times the size allocated. Bank quay station is an 8 car rank and regularly 22+ cars are forced to rank on there because all the other ranks are taken up by joe public.

We realise that this may have done us no favours in the eyes of the public, but this is the same public that will repeatedly disappointed by PH firms overbooking and constantly running late on jobs, we are there on the rank, all willing to work, and all being sh*t on from a great height by the council.

And your right blue badge holders arent allowed to park on ranks, for that matter neither are police (obviously unless emergency situation prevails, taxi drivers arent stupid)

the point I am making is that we have tried every avenue available to us, now we have to resort to this, We dont like it, we dont want to do it, but we damn well will if things dont change, thats the message we were sending to the council, I hope for their sakes they heard.

Farenheit911

How does joe public, sat in front of his telly ringing for a cab to town, know that your sat on a rank 5 miles away waiting for a job?

unless you have a radio fitted from a PH company

i get what ur saying geoff, but the amount of punters that ring from the station when they get outside the door and wait anything up to half an hour (less if its cold) before giving up and getting a HC anyway, we have had a lot of "bad press" due to a minority of drivers who flaunt the rules, I refer to my ealier post in regard of sorting that out amongst ourselves. Cabbies are Cabbies PH or HC, we all need to get this thing with the council sorted, problem is PH drivers dont erally have that much to complain about. Their offices are granted planning permission regardless of where they are situated and a whole lot of other things to boot. I am desperately trying not to sound bitter, but i drove for phil bailey for 18 months and driven a hackney for just over a year. I've seen both sides of the coin, and one side of it seems to shine brighter than the other.

in the past week i have watched on three diffrent times hack driver with no "hire light " fitted to the roof park on a rank and go shopping or pay bills etc. the min time for one that i know was 1 3/4 hours so i wanted to use the rank as a custemer or driver how could i. at the same time i had a old lady ask me at townhill where should get a cab near by as she couldnt walk far. as she could not walk i let her use my phone to book a p/h , the hacks have work on the rest off the ranks in town but there not bothered because they was the train work. not fair to fares and not fair to drivers who want to work that rank i.e. townhill if they cant park because plate? or ? is useing it as private parking to go shopping

ps can remind all hack driver is illegal to sound your horn night for no good reason apart from trying to bully the p/h car in front of him who is picking up legally at there office with a booked customer (we share the road like or not to earn the same living)

Wot, you mean you didn't realise that taxi ranks were put there so that some could treat it as their own personal parking space?

Best one was probably the one from Croydon who said that he had to go to the bank because it was dangerous to carry so much money about. So why was he carrying so much money about in the first place then

Or perhaps he was making so much money in a shift that he felt the need to go to the bank half-way through.

I know drivers should take care with the money they have in the car, but surely that's taking it a bit far



Wot, haven't you read the exemption in the Highway Code for arrogant taxi drivers who think they own the road

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

Gosh, I must be a REALLY arrogant TAXI driver. I KNOW I own the road>