Taxi Driver Online

A sound article from 1993.
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he Independent (London)

October 28, 1993, Thursday

HEADLINE: Leading Article: Cabs overtaken by the need for change.

ANYONE who has called a minicab in London and been confronted by a villainous-looking driver in a decrepit car will have felt that this is no way to run a taxi system in the nation's capital. Yet the same feeling overtakes anyone who tries to persuade the driver of a licensed black cab in the same city to go somewhere that does not, at that moment, take his fancy.

The fact is that London's taxi system is absurd and needs to be changed. There are about 17,500 very tightly regulated licensed taxis in London and 40,000-60,000 totally unregulated minicabs. The vagueness of the second figure testifies to the ignorance that surrounds this increasingly important element in the public transport system. There are, for instance, no statistics to back up anecdotal evidence that travelling in minicabs is riskier than travelling in licensed taxis.

The Department of Transport yesterday produced a consultative paper on the regulation of taxis throughout England and Wales. It is right to look at the subject as a whole. London's absurdities are extreme, but there are questions to be asked about taxis and private hire cars everywhere. Is it right that the two types of service should be treated differently when they are tending to overlap? How detailed should regulation be? Should it specify fares, types of vehicle and accessibility for wheelchairs or confine itself mainly to safety and the qualifications of drivers?

It is important that consumers should speak loudly on these questions so as not to be drowned out by suppliers. For far too long, London's taxi drivers tried to block the spread of minicabs, although they themselves were manifestly not meeting the needs of the public. Some local councils around the country are also being too restrictive. It is, for instance, probably unnecessary for every taxi to be able to carry a wheelchair as long as sufficient incentives are provided to meet the demand.

The broad aim should be the lightest possible regulation consistent with fairness and public safety. London's minicabs should certainly be licensed for safety reasons. The ''knowledge'' required of taxi drivers could be relaxed if more of them carried maps and eventually moved over to electronic navigation. Whether a two-tier system of some sort should be preserved should be largely for customers to decide.
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In the authors opinion.





Sounds like one of Dustys articles? Was it?

When the article was written I didn't even know the difference between a taxi and a minicab. And the phrase 'private hire' was largely unknown to me

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

And that was the year after I left the smoke. Haven't been back since.

Unless you count the M25

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Taxi Driver Online
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