JD wrote:
Owners know the value of their plate and in general its a concensus of the whole Taxi trade as to the current market value. Unless they are desperate, owners are are not going to sell their plate at a price dictated by anyone but themselves. Where plates or anything else for that matter are restricted, then it is nearly always a sellers market, hadn't you realised that?
Regards
JD
JD I have been involved in this trade for 16 years and to date I have never known a concensus to be taken to dictate plate prices.
The balance between what one can expect to get and what someone is willing to pay is what decides what value
anything has ............ If for example Ford were to decide that they thought the new Mondeo was worth £50,000 for the base model how many do you think they would sell. If by contrast they decided that it was worth £500 they would not be able to keep up with the demand from purchasers.
The taxi plate situation is absolutely exactly the same.
Large values are always associated with cost of a plate, but I have already said that a person could go and buy a brand new Mondeo and a Gateshead Plate for more that £5000 less than the cost of the TX4.
So the issue is not always one of cost but one of opportunity and availability.
Mr Jasbar talks about the difference between a triple shifed car and three drivers driving their own vehicles ................. and claims they will benefit. How on earth can that be the case when they will all want to work when its busy and be at home when its quiet.
This was illustrated to me recently when a mate went to a PH operator and was told there were no radio's available for him and he would have to wait until someone left in order to get one. This is the first time I have heard this for years now, probably since most offices are what we call "open", where drivers can come and go as they please. The crunch here is that the office in question is "shifted" and drivers are told by the operator when to come in and when to go home, something which has continued with the support of the drivers.
I am also interested how these people would expect to make a living if, or indeed when,the WTD is introduced possibly later this year.
All I'm saying, I suppose is, that there are some possible eventualities that should be properly considered. It could well be that YOU need to rent out your vehicle in order to make it viable to keep it ............ I'm sure you would be fair with any rental IF you had to ................. but the fact remains that some may not have a choice.
Still if it doesn't effect you then you won't consider my observations as fair.
B. Lucky
