Taxi Driver Online

But would a mags court say it was so un-reasonable for a PH driver to have a high level of street knowledge?

If I was a magistrate, then I personally would say it was reasonable.

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IDFIMH

Nothing to do with as in the case of Magull taxis you discounting fares . in and out of Magull, that they went under . Don’t get me wrong I don’t blame Delta . For their success. You just like taxi owners in Liverpool, have taken advantage and exploited the massive, population of venerable unemployed , people in Liverpool. Renting one of your cars is not cheap, do tell how much for one of your cars.? Now about your 3,000,000 pound call centre in BOOTLE STRAND . A certain Mr Jones says customers, will never be able to walk into, your office and book a car . I have heard that you have plans ,to just that. It seems the hackney taxi trade in Sefton dont care how they get shafted as long as , they have, quantity controls . STREETCARS

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Nothing to do with as in the case of Magull taxis you discounting fares . in and out of Magull, that they went under .

Where on earth did you hear that? Delta have never discounted fares in and out of Maghull, Maghull residents have always paid exactly the same mileage rates as those charged to residents everywhere else. If you're refering to Blueline Taxis (next to the train station) going under, they're still there! Too busy to cope at the weekend and not enough work during the week, same as ever . If you're refering to Red Lion (a co-operative based in Aintree that mostly worked in Maghull), they sold their phone numbers to Delta 2 years ago and all their drivers immediately followed. They still mostly work in maghull just with Delta door signs now.



These days I'd guess about 400 delta drivers rent their cars from independent fleet owners out there that have no connection with Delta whatsoever, some of them one-man-bands, others owning over 100 Liverpool, Knowsley and Sefton plated cars. Prices typically range from £140/wk - £200/wk.

Starting at £140/wk you can rent a car belonging to another driver, pretty old, high mileage, no V.A.T. and no spare car if it's off the road. In the middle £160/wk will get you one of Delta's own cars. This includes VAT (about £24/wk), insurance (roughly £45/£50 for 'any driver any car' cover), private hire plate, road tax, maintenance, repairs, recovery and 24/hour access to pool cars in the event of a breakdown. So Delta Garages get about £90/wk to buy and maintain diesel mondeos typically between 3 and 8 years old (the newest cars going to their most reliable drivers). If you've got between £180 and £200/wk to dish out you can get your hands on a variety of brand new fully comp vehicles, of various makes and models, some of which are plated for 5, 6 or 7 passengers.

It's hard to believe but Delta's garage management maintain they don't actually make any profit on their car rentals, they're set at 'break-even' rates just to provide a means for Delta Control Centre to make money on the radio hire. It kind of makes sense though. Years ago when there were no other fleet operators prepared to invest in the business, Delta Garages provided over 150 cars, to draw in drivers from other private hire firms not providing cars so Delta Control Centre could increase their radio hire revenue and cover all the new work generated by advertising. Nowadays there are co-operatives, entrepeneurs, garages and even other taxi firms investing in hire cars for Delta drivers, and Delta blacklist their drivers for them if they fall behind on their payments. Delta Garages have run their fleet down to about 60 cars now. Delta drivers looking for a hire car are referred to the independent fleet owners first, with Delta garages picking up the slack whenever there's a shortfall.



I heard that rumour too, probably created by paranoid hackney drivers who are so immersed in their own way of doing business they think everyone else works the same way. I'm not sure who Mr Jones is but all of Delta's staff have been told categorically that customers will be barred from the Bootle site, which suits me just fine. I've seen the physical and verbal abuse SRC continually put up with having taken over JUBILEE TAXIS, a front-door-firm in South Rd, Waterloo. No, dealing with customers over the phone is quite enough for me. Face to face? No thanks! There are over 300,000 passengers a week already booking Delta cars over the phone. Why would you want them hiking over to your beautiful call centre discarding empty beer bottles and chip wrappers on your beautifully landscaped secure car park.

I'm told the drivers won't be welcome either. They can get a MDT (Mobile Data Terminal) fitted, they can get their training and they can fill in their direct debit forms. After that they've no need to come back. Account work will be typed in to the MDT at the end of each credit journey. Any that's over and above the drivers rental charges will be wired straight into his bank account. The licensing division will be given secure access to Delta's database so they can update the drivers' badge and vehicle licences without having to take the piece of paper up to the office. A number of insurance brokers have offered to do the same with drivers insurance too. That way they can stop a driver's cover immediately if he bounces a cheque or cancels a direct debit.

Everything I've heard and seen about the design of the new place looks to be geared towards the 100 office workers (call takers, supervisors, marketing teams, admin staff and engineers). Very little seems to cater for drivers and the only thing customers will get is a bloody big sign saying 'Private Property - NO ENTRY'.

Think about it, if Delta really wanted to 'steal' the Strand Cab's walk-up work I'm sure the boss would just buy a shop front at the front of the Cab Rank and pay for a helpful little man in a yellow Delta jacket to load the bags and prams for all the passengers so the drivers wouldn't even have to get out of their car. Now there's an idea.... !!!

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Don't knock it, 'til you try it....

DELTA STAFF .I have not got a clue what happened to Magull taxis, All I know they used to exist. and your firm discounted fares in to Magull . I know I have been in your call centre, while you were doing it . Ask Garry if he’s still there. Its nice to know that your call centre, which is, situated right next to Seftons only real rank is not going to have walk-in fares. Well nice for Sefton hackney drivers . I suppose you will not be having a twenty-foot sigh, with your Phone number on it either. 924 7373 Come on be honest, you may as well open that shop, get a couple of lads and load them into your cars. All that aside, every one has a sneaking admiration for Deltas succes, it’s not your fault the council and the sefton hackney trade fall over. There are not many firms, that employ over a thousand workers, even if it’s not directly. Did you get government grants for the building of this wonderful 3,000,000 pound call centre of yours? . Your cars do not seem as expensive,as i have been led to think .Regards streetcars.

Far be it for me to defend an operator, but that's not a bad price. Provided of course the drivers can earn good money.

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IDFIMH

That's all very curious, I can't for the life of me think who you mean... Maghull Taxis? I vaguely remember a firm called Northway? Could it be them you were thinking of? I've never heard of Maghull Taxis. I'm told that Seaforth Radio Cars called themselves Seaforth cars in Seaforth, Litherland Cars in Litherland, and Waterloo Cars in Waterloo, did they ever advertise in Maghull as Maghull Cars? As regards Delta's fares, the drivers have one rate card for PEAK times and one rate card for OFF-PEAK times. That's used for all areas, no specials given anywhere at any time that I'm aware of. I've asked Gary and he insists the fares have never been modified as a special for Maghull customers. I do remember a different Delta / Blueline tiz over fares though...

Back in the early 1990s Maghull's Blueline started distributing advertising cards around Aintree and Netherton stating Blueline were 'cheaper than any other taxi firm operating in your area'. Delta management immediately complained to Blueline management that that wasn't true as we were far cheaper. Blueline said 'Aha, but technically speaking you're not taxis, you are Private Hire so the cards are technically speaking correct.' That old chestnut! Delta still thought it was misleading and 'not quite cricket' and demanded an immediate withdrawal of the cards. I'm told Blueline responded with an 'or else what?' attitude before hanging up the phone. They then continued to distribute the cards through to Thornton and eventually Crosby. In response Delta printed a leaflet entitled 'A CLARIFICATION FROM DELTA' quite simply showing a copy of Blueline's Ratecard next to Delta's Ratecard complete with a little 'how much you save by using Delta' column. Delta's fares on this leaflet were just the standard fares applied to all customers. Sure, they were cheaper than Blueline's fares but they always were, it wasn't introduced as a special discount to target the opposition, the impression you appear to be under.

I remember also Blueline getting the hump in the late 1990s over Delta introducing a PAYBACK on all their Maghull & Lydiate pickups. This was done automatically through the computer so that any driver who ran out to Maghull, or hung around in Maghull to cover the new customers, wherever he dropped off he jumped the queue and got top priority on the next booking. Blueline thought it was an unfair trick. I reckon it was a stroke of genius. It got over the chicken and egg problem. Customers didn't ring us if we had no drivers waiting in the area, and drivers wouldn't wait in the area if there were no customers ringing for cars. The PAYBACK provided more cover, and the Maghull work built up from 100 jobs a week to over 2000 jobs a week. They don't use the payback in Maghull any more because it's not necessary. The work and the cars are now established.

Blueline's biggest downfall was not Delta anyway. They continued to increase their fares, their radio rent and their car rent and eventually push came to shove and a hundred drivers walked out on them, set up their own co-operative called RED LION (a parody on Blue Line) and Blueline never quite recovered from that.

It was a noble idea, and the co-operative ran well for many years, but too many chiefs and not enough indians won't last forever. There comes a point that you must lean on your drivers to pay reasonable rentals or you can't cover your overheads. Eventually they went bust and didn't want to eat humble pie at Blueline so they sold their phone numbers to Delta and struck a deal to to give all their drivers a couple of months free radio rental.

Regards

DeltaStaff

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Don't knock it, 'til you try it....

Confused from Sussex.

If the driver who has just dropped was put on top of the list, then surely when the next lad dropped the first lad would be put back to second, when the next lad dropped then back to third etc etc.

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IDFIMH

Perhaps some one has his wires crossed, me . Perhaps these rumours are just spread to explain away your meteoric rise, to what could well be, one of the best if and biggest PH firms in Europe. Liverpool’s sort sightedness over the last twenty years, with its own PH being kept under foot , with its more rigorous street knowledge test, etc. Must have helped you no end, in developing this massive company you now have become . Perhaps your firm should thank Liverpool licensing committee, for all its sterling work, it’s done over the years. To make a lovely little gap for your firm to jump into. I see you even have contracts with Liverpool council . I think you should do them for nothing, just as thank you, to Liverpool fleet owners and council. for all the help they have been to you, in helping you to recruit and keep drivers .That is I suppose a bit simplistic. I am sure there must have been a lot of hard work along the way. KEEP IT UP I USE YOUR FIRM MYSELF Regards streetcars.

Whenever a booking is dispatched, a GPS ring is broadcast with the customer at the centre, the radius of the ring being the maximum distance you are prepared to drag a vehicle. So if a ring is broadcast from your house, a mile radius, then every available car within a mile of your house is considered for the job. The winner is the driver with the most available time, i.e. the car that has been empty for the longest. That's not the car that has been in the circle longest, as long as he is in the circle when the job is dispatched, then any empty time he has built up previously is used to bid for the job.

If a driver who has been empty for 2 minutes is in the dispatch ring when the customer's booking is dispatched, and no other car has been empty longer than 2 minutes then the job is his.

The payback gives the driver a 150 minute head start, the second he indicates the fare has left his vehicle. Other drivers may have been empty for 20 minutes but they don't beat his 150. If driver 'A' gets a payback and ten minutes later driver 'B' gets a payback, then by now driver 'A' is on 160 minutes (150 plus the 10 he has waited without a job) so 'A' wins. The driver who has been on a payback for the longest gets the next job unless...

If a driver has been on a no-show or a cancellation, then he gets 200 minutes. So... let's say Sainsburys book 5 cars. The first job may be awarded to a driver with 206 minutes (he had a no-show 6 minutes ago), with the second job going to a driver with 202 minutes (he was on a no-show 2 minutes ago), then 156 minutes (payback 6 minutes ago), then 150 minutes (just dropped off a payback), then 12 minutes (dropped of a standard fare 12 minutes ago), with the last job being awarded to a driver with only 2 minutes (dropped off a standard fare 2 minutes ago).

It's a really smart way to award jobs. I used to hate it years ago when I dropped off way out in Southport and wasn't quick enough on the microphone so another driver got the only job heading back in. To add insult to injury whilst I'm bimbling back down the by-pass towards home, this other driver, now fully loaded, flies past me in his Cavalier SRI and unloads his fares and pulls onto the queue before I get there, so I have to queue up behind him. Nowadays if a driver takes 20 minutes to drive back in, he has 20 minutes on his MDT to bid for work. Somebody else who has come back in mobile has no minutes, because that doesn't start until he's actually empty. Works fantastic, everyone's a winner!


Regards

DeltaStaff

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Don't knock it, 'til you try it....

Very kind words, sir. Glad to be of service! There is a lot of hard work being put in; even your man who set the firm up in 1968, who must be in his late 60s now, he's still in the office bright and breezy before 8am almost every day. And there's plenty of other team players who get a rush out of the success story too, myself included. When 5 additional supervisor positions were created a couple of months ago there was no shortage of applicants. The five picked were young and old, male and female and one wasn't even a Delta driver, he applied straight from Blueline's office. I really like the diversity of my colleagues; they like what they do and they're bloody good at it! There's a feeling the firm is going places and you can't help but be swept along with it. I'm quite excited about what we are hearing about the next generation of equipment under development, the management have implied nothing short of a renaissance in taxi dispatch over the next couple of years, with VOICE OVER IP allowing staff to work from home and mobile phone developments which will enable a mobile phone to place bookings by forwarding it's GPS so customers don't even need to know where they are. It's all very exciting, expecially when you're on the side that's embracing the brave new world, not shying away from it. Every time I see the dejected face of a miserable, worn out cab driver, pulling their clapped out F reg hack onto the back of a huge rank at the Strand, so far from the front of the queue they are sh*t on by the pigeons from the railway bridge above, it's no wonder there's resentment.

PS. I do hope we haven't let you down on too many wild wet and windy nights!

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Don't knock it, 'til you try it....

Do Delta have a policy on drivers who take work from the street without the Job being booked and without the knowledge of the operator? Or does this not happen at Delta cars?

Regards

JD

I wish you well, but surely under existing regulations that can't really happen.

Yes your vehicles might work a bit further out from time to time, but to really grow you will have to start buying firms further out, and have booking offices further out.

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IDFIMH

Oh yes, yes indeed. The majority of time our lads are on a no-show it's because another driver has taken the fare, and if we catch one of our own doing it then there are immediate consequences:- A 24 hr off-air suspension and a full refund of the fare to the bogeyed driver. Even if one of our drivers is sent to Lime St for Jane going to Crosby but they 'mistakenly' take Ian going to Formby instead, they are dealt with the same way. In most cases the other driver is too embarassed to take the money so it ends up in our Alder Hey appeal box but not always! If the offending driver makes a habit of it we take the radio off them. Most lads who've paid their mortgage, housekeeping and school fees for years by working at Delta don't want to risk that so they tow the line. We have taken criticism for being harsh and draconian in these cases (usually from the offending driver) but you can't mess about when it comes to piracy, it buggers up our operation even more than the cabs. Also, if drivers get used to earning their money by moonlighting, how could Delta justify the £75/wk they earn for dispatching radio jobs?

In the case of Liverpool Council vs McKenna, a test case Liverpool threw at one of our drivers following pressure from Liverpool Hackney Trade associations, we put our top lawyers on his defence and backed him to the hilt because of the specific circumstances. The driver in question had previously spent many years working on the Hackneys (just like his father before him) but had migrated to the private hire side. After working a number of PH circuits he eventually settled at Delta, and eventually became a well respected, fully qualified supervisor. One night when working the road he dropped off in the city centre and waited for a radio job (which he knew wouldn't be long as town is our second busiest area on Merseyside, as any fully qualified supervisor would obviously know). Because of the high profile place he had dropped his previous fare, he was continually approached by a number of street fares trying their hand. He kept turning them away and eventually drove away to a quieter side street. If he moved too far away from the city centre his GPS position would disqualify him from city centre work, so he sensibly chose somewhere low profile but still close to the work and that was when he was approached by a Liverpool Licensing officer.

The officer said if he didn't have a job already he would have to head back to Sefton. Our driver refused. The officer complained to the driver that Liverpool's licensing department didn't get any licence fee revenue from Sefton drivers so he should head back to where he paid his fees. Again he refused. Mr McKenna, who was probably more clued up than the officer himself was fully aware that Sefton, Liverpool and Knowsley officers regularly carry out joint operations throughout Merseyside. Ironically, in his capacity as a qualified Delta supervisor, Mr McKenna would on accasion have acted as a key witness HELPING neighbouring licencing authorities in their fight against piracy. So let's say the driver knew a thing or too, which is why he dug his heels in and refused to move to his 'own area'. Astonishingly, Liverpool used tax payers money to use THIS as their test case, oh dear!

The judge was of the opinion that none of Mr McKenna's actions were in keeping with somebody trying to illegaly ply for hire. He accepted it was Mr McKenna's intention to wait for a radio job and not try and encourage a flag. He believed the driver was experienced enough to fully understand the difference between a HC and a PH licence as he had previously used the correct licence in the past when he wanted to ply for street hire.

Costs were awarded against the council and we all went back to work. We continue to assist the Liverpool authorities in securing succesful prosecutions against genuine piracy, which still happens from time to time, but we refuse to be bullied by balloon-head officers who don't know their a*se from their elbow.

Regards,

DeltaStaff

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Don't knock it, 'til you try it....

Why? All you need is one call centre based in the area that licenses the drivers and cars. Our Sefton based call centre sends Sefton Licensed drivers in Sefton Licensed cars to pick up pre-booked passengers in Manchester and drop them off in London. For practical purposes the base has traditionally been close to the work area so drivers are handy to call in but it doesn't have to be. Lost property goes to the police station and depot fees can be paid online. A driver could work all year round for a base 50 miles away that he never sets foot in. Why would you have another base? That's just wasted overheads which have to be covered by overpriced radio rental.

We may well have over 1,000 drivers, but that still only constutes about 6% of HC and PH drivers licensed by Sefton, Liverpool, Knowsley and the Wirral. So theoretically 10,000 Delta drivers would represent only a 60% share of the market place, and that's JUST for Merseyside. What about West Lancs, St Helens, they're not far away, we pick up passengers there every day.

Way back when Adam was a lad, and Delta had 20 cars and they took another 2 drivers on there was uproar 'YOU MUST THINK THERE'S NO LIMIT TO THE WORK HERE BOSS, BEHAVE YOURSELF.' With nearly 1100 registered drivers Delta knocked back thousands of calls last Saturday. Why? Liverpool were playing footy on the telly in the afternoon, and the lads who'd made their money in the week either went to the game, or sunk a few tinnies in front of their sky box. I wouldn't begrudge any scouser watching the footy, but from 20 to over 1,000 drivers, the job is still the same, too many logged on at 11am Tuesday and not enough out at the weekend...

Regards

Delta Staff

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Don't knock it, 'til you try it....

Well if you mean by expansion the occasional job in Manchester, then you are quite right in that your Sefton office would suffice. But if you mean by expansion 100s of jobs daily way outside your local office, then you will need non-Sefton vehicles and a non-Sefton office.

Unless of course you want to open one in Scotland.

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IDFIMH