Taxi Driver Online

If the technology were to be applied to taxi ranks as well, using cctv, then that would provide remote monitoring right accross the board.

That certainly sounds much more legally watertight and less expensive in the long run, than employing people making visual observations.

If it were in the form of a constant data stream, regularly sampled, that would get round the problem of having to set up a specific S.U.D. at a (well publicised) specific time - with all its inherant problems.

You could then. in effect, conduct as many surveys as you wanted to,
whenever you wanted to, with 100% accuracy.

With all that antipodean technology already in use in Edinburgh (I think Tait know a thing or two about bureau's as well) it shouldn't be too long before something better appears.

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The higher the fewer.

It's a long time ago and a lot of those people are probably too old to be driving taxis now, I should think!

So who were these people then, if I may ask. Were they genuine taxi drivers or were they more of the speculator type, or maybe a mixture of the two?

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The higher the fewer.

A mixture of both!

The whole thing was contrived back in the days when the Internet was in its infancy.

On one hand and for all intensive purposes a place on the list amounts to a 50K cheque and on the other guys can’t get a plate without paying 50K?

An interesting little dilemma don’t you think?

Solve the problem, how do you deal with this without a storm of protest and possible legal challenge?

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

The first thing is to understand the problem and I'm still having trouble getting my head round it to be honest.

January 1998 was when it seemed to take a very illogical change of direction. Before then, it was a basically sound system with one plate for one licensed driver and a waiting list. Then it went completely haywire - and very complicated indeed.

Wouldn't an updating and tightening up of the original system been better than trying to bolt on a completely new system. It didn't have sufficient continuity with the old one, to be practical, for a start off.

A simple condition like, if you are a plate holder you have to also be a regular driver of the vehicle or you must sell the plate, would ensure that the plate holder was actively engaged in the trade.

And a condition like, the plate has to be sold to someone on the waiting list (by sealed bid from the top x number of names on the list), would ensure that a change in circumstance would mean that the money went to the dependants, and the plate would go back into the trade, in a fair manner........

........would have been easier to bring in, than that awfully dodgy sounding, incorporation bit.

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The higher the fewer.

I'm sorry I haven't responded sooner to this post and if I can take this opportunity to say to those people that sent me private messages I haven't forgot about them also.

In respect of waiting lists in Scotland the high court has ruled that there is no provision in law for a waiting list to take precedent over an application for an operators license that is already in situ. In other words a council cannot elevate a person on a waiting list above an applicant who has applied for a license and is waiting a response under the civic Government Scotland act for determination. If the council did try and elevate someone from the waiting list above your application "after" you had applied for a license then that would be unlawful.

On the other hand, a Scottish council issuing licenses may use the waiting list as part of any criteria they decide for issuing such licenses. So if you know the council is going to issue licenses you should apply formally for a license, which should have the effect of stopping anyone obtaining a license before your application has been dealt with.

Within six months the council will have to give you a refusal or grant you the license. If they try to issue licenses while your application has not been processed then you can get an injunction stopping them from issuing licenses until it has.

The case which determinded the unlawful elevation of waiting lists, was of course Dundee.

Regards

JD

This part sounds like it could be worked on to sort the problem out. Maybe if CEC started a new list with an absolutely watertight set of rules attached and offered transfer rights to those on the old list, with acceptance of the new rules as a condition of acceptance......

.... then set the list up in two columns, one for new applicants and the other for those who transferred from the closed list.

Then issue licences in pairs - one from the old and one from the new.

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The higher the fewer.

Funding for a fairly large project like re-vamping SUD could be divided amongst all the LA's who would benefit from it - with the credit going to Edinburgh for initiating it and the ongoing benefit going to all of them. I would imagine it would still be a significant sum for each of them - but still at least two orders of magnitude less than it would be for just one of them to attempt it alone.

Once it's set up the annual running costs would conceivably be within the reach of each individual LA.

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The higher the fewer.

Remember these guy on the Interested Parties List (IPL) have been on it for 15 years. Some have already been shuffled to the back of the list through changes in criteria.

Now the wee problem is how do you allocate plates if it’s not acceptable to people who are not on the list (keep in mind plates are trading for 50K)? If I apply for instance my application should be considered equally and sequentially along with all other applications? Now by doing nothing the problem just gets worse with the plates increasing in value all the time.

The C.E.C has failed to mentioned any of this to those on the list expecting a big pay-day?

If I was them I would be pretty pi**ed off to say the least. What was the point in all that waiting?

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

Funding of LA's to carry out the Statutory functions handed down to them by Parliament are funded as a charge set against the Consolidated Fund - so where would the LA's get any additional funding they needed to carry any further Statutory duty, such as another SUD?.

Regards,
Jeff

The interesting parties list can only form part of any criteria, the assumption being that those on the list have shown an interest in obtaining a license and anyone not on the list had not shown an interest. Therefore the council could rightly take into account only those people on the interested parties list because the council may assume rightly or wrongly that no one else was interested?

The criteria for issuing licenses in a restricted area is down to the council and if part of that criteria is only choosing people from an interested parties list then that is what they will do. This can be challenged of course but why put yourself in that predicament? It is far better to beat them at their own game by applying directly for a license once you know or feel they are preparing to issue licenses or they are in a vulnerable position where they couldn't defend an issue of licenses. Alternately you can put your name on the list, or advise every person in Edinburgh to put their name on the list, in which case the list would probably be scrapped.

The way things are going in Edinburgh at the moment it would be advisable to plan your strategy now to cover all eventualities.

I have already said that if the high court hands down a judgement which is adversely critical of the actions taken by CEC and they further make a point of criticising the gravity of their manipulation of the law, then the council might be left with only one option. You must remember that the judgement of the court in the coming cases could reopen the door for all the cases that have gone before? It all depends what is said and what is implied. That’s why we have the Pink ladies fiasco.

The rats are already leaving the sinking ship as we can see by the exit of Mr Rhidian Davies. A nice guy but I think the ignominy of him losing these appeals in the Sheriffs court when he and a top QC had the free reign to convince the court that they were right and the applicants were wrong, was without doubt a devastating experience for him.

I think he realises CEC doesn't stand a cat in hells chance of getting a result in the high court and I also believe he thinks the court will no doubt heavily criticise the CEC legal team which he is a part for dragging out these appeals and trying to bankrupt people in the process.

All in all it doesn't matter what CEC do, by the time the court has read my new submission I think they will decide the fate of Edinburgh council for them.

Regards

JD

Presumably the minimum of one SUD every three years is part of that statutory duty. If the current method of carrying out such surveys were to be proven flawed in concept, would not the onus then lie with central government to provide one which wasn't?

Thus saving LA's the cost of funding the pilot project.

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The higher the fewer.

Surely some of those people on the closed list are exactly similar to some of the people wanting plates today. They are simply an older generation of taxi drivers. So why shouldn't they be looked after along with today's drivers, on an equal basis? They have after all been waiting a very long time.

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The higher the fewer.

The crux of which would be a SUD whose results were beyond dispute.

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The higher the fewer.

You see Skull, I can fully understand why you need to deter newbies from entering the game at this late stage. They will be just fuelling the problem and are quite likely to get their fingers burnt, as the speculators quietly exit this bubble to rejoin the ranks of drivers, or leave the trade.

I can also fully understand why you denigrate those present plate holders who have exploited the loophole of incorporation to acquire their plates and, as Sussex has pointed out, have thus jumped the queue.

But the people remaining on the closed list, to my way of thinking, must have a lot in common with your way of thinking. They are there out of principle, surely. The priciple being that plates should be distributed in an orderly fashion, at nominal value and that they should not be allowed to accrue any market value.

Could you please, therefore, explain why these people should also be castigated along with the others, because I cann't quite grasp that bit of the equation just at the moment.

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The higher the fewer.

Sorry I forgot to mention it's war in Edinburgh Onzon, a dirty war at that.

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"