Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:25 pm
Posts: 37494
Location: Wayneistan
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It’s actually nice to see the Internet getting a mention in these magazines, as you will be aware there are a number of websites who purport to represent the taxi trade. Please note I state ‘purport’, because although there may well be a number of individuals whose heart is out there to help people, it also follows there are others who are out there to destroy peoples livelihoods and simply don’t give a toss who they stand on to achieve their goal. What typifies the problem is that they are faceless. They claim drivers are not represented and that bodies such as the NTA, T&G etc only represent taxi proprietors, they also claim that regulated areas lead to inflated rentals.
Okay, now in Carlisle we have a number of drivers who are in the TOA, so the comments made in one magazine are absolutely false about the NTA just representing owners because the NTA is made up of member associations, the member association directs policy, just as in Carlisle TOA where it is the members who direct policy.
There are some people who cite ‘inflated rentals’ being a result of regulation, again they are, as ever, completely wrong, and it’s nothing more than propaganda. Try hiring a similar vehicle from ‘enterprise car rental’ and tell them your going to use it for a taxi, and then compare the look of disbelief on their faces (and price) with what you’re paying for your current vehicle. The use of the term ‘inflated’ is purely and simply put in there to create the impression you’re being ripped off, purely because of the plate on the back of the vehicle, moreover it is designed to influence those who know little about the trade such as licensing officers, the OFT and Government.
For example, if I wanted to hire a mini MPV or similar for one week, it would cost me £249. Now how does the cost of a taxi in you’re area compare? In mine it is actually cheaper to hire a taxi for one week, with radio, than a non-wheelchair accessible vehicle from a car rental business.
I have read of people actually complaining because they pay £250 per week rental for a cab, only to acknowledge they earn £1300 during the course of the week. As I commented to the guy who mentioned this, if the owner was a complete and utter bar-steward this particular driver would be on a percentage split of the takings just like in the old days.
Taxi driver online website claim that drivers are hoodwinked into thinking regulation of numbers is a good thing, possibly because they are hell-bent into hoodwinking the same people that deregulation is a better thing. Where they fall down is that they don’t actually know what is good and what is bad. I tend to believe drivers are more intelligent than either this particular website or the National Bodies give them credit for, to think otherwise is to look down your nose at people. Indeed, I have found far more intelligent non-plate holding drivers than owners.
Another favourite term of the deregulators of the www, taxi driver online, is ‘cartel’. Now unless they think it’s an agreement between hostile states (which obviously they don’t), they would consider this to be an ‘industrial combination for the purpose of regulating prices, output etc’. Again we all know we don’t regulate prices, it’s left to the local authority whose remit includes taxi fares. So the obvious use of this term is to again influence those people such as the OFT, licensing department and government. Cartel, my backside.
One final phrase, just to make all you proprietors in regulated areas really upset is ‘taxi barons’. A baron is a peer of the lowest possible rank, this will obviously not sit too well with certain people who perhaps believe they deserve a higher peerage. Obviously, this makes the driver a mere serf (that’s serf not smurf, they’re two completely different things, ones down trodden, the others a blue midget, although I’m not quite sure what to call those downtrodden blue midgets). Naturally, the terms and phrases used are purely used to provoke people into thinking taxi proprietors in regulated areas are complete and utter bar-stewards, which may be true in your neck of the woods, but was certainly never true with my family.
Don’t be fooled here, well, you are being fooled, fooled into thinking these people are helping, at least one of these websites wants the total deregulation of taxis in the UK, which is fine, unless of course you’ve just invested in a persons business, and when you consider these people are operating in a highly secret manner, completely nameless and of course completely un-elected.
That’s right, for all their shouting, comments and emails, they act on they’re own volition and what they want is right, and what everybody else may want doesn’t even get considered.
It’s not even as if the solution they want (deregulation) works, at a recent joint trade group in Carlisle (which is both associations) every single person in the room said there were too many taxis. It wasn’t a matter of the plate attaining a value; it was a matter of earnings. One person cited earning £16 for 5 hours work. Now the friendly, helpful solution of one of these websites is to call this guy a waste of space and tell him to leave the trade and leave it to someone who knows what they’re doing. Which is very nice from an anonymous position, but say that to someone’s face, you’d have the crap beaten out of you, and to be honest, you’d deserve it.
It could be said that what these people are actually doing is the equivalent of letting your dog have a poo on your neighbour’s front lawn. Next time you write a letter to your local authority, sign it Secret Squirrel or Henry the serial killer and see how far you get. So in this regard you’ll very probably thinking, ‘Wayne’s having a rant nobody will take these people seriously’. I regretfully point out that people do seem to be taking these people seriously.
As already stated, some people aint as educated to the way’s of the trade such as you and I, there’s some people out there all to willing to listen to any advice into making their lives allegedly easier.
Alleged plate values may not be of concern to you, but they may be of interest to a licensing officer who wants deregulation or a councillor who believes permits should not attain a value, so a list of plate values in regulated areas could well be the ammunition required to start the deregulation process.
If you go down the road thinking ‘we’ve had a survey we’re okay’, you’re wrong, because there are people out there prepared to take the time and effort to destroy the survey. Making the survey company out to be incompetent fools in the process, if enough survey companies are shown to be fools will they’re evidence be secure in the future? It’s merely a question of asking loaded questions. I mean, I couldn’t tell you where I was at yesterday, never mind if I answered a questionnaire 5 years ago! When you consider it only maybe takes a couple of people to say they can’t remember or they didn’t answer a questionnaire, it throws the whole thing open.
Before you point out they cant destroy us from an anonymous position, well, they don’t need too, because there will be someone in your area who will want a license and who will be prepared to put they’re head above the parapet and come forward. Simply apply for a license, wait to be refused, then magistrates or crown court and point out the council policy is based on a flawed survey, you’ll be granted a license. How do the trade combat this? Regular surveys I’m afraid is the only solution, based on a policy of continual revue.
I dont think this helped our freindship any 
CC
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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin
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