Sussex Man wrote:
Andy wrote:
I do not know about Mansfield, but London and Canterbury would be pleased to issue you a badge and a plate if you could take the time and trouble to fulfill the entry requirements...but therin lies the problem methinks, if its not handed out on a plate or snatched then some amongst us cannot be bothered can we?
For the record, where I work it's the same criteria to become a HC driver, as a PH driver. So that's that myth out of the window.
However I'm interested to find out what you mean by handed a plate, or snatched.
I can work out the handed a plate bit, that's what happens in your manor, Nigel's manor, and in London.
But snatched.
Clearly you support it there, because you have benefited by not having to pay tens of thousands, but you don't want others to be afforded the same opportunity.
As I said, do as I say, not as I do.

It has worked out quite well in Canterbury...eventually...after buying my plate in the early nineties (yes, I do do as I say!) our council deregulated a few months later. So yes, I had to cough up, and lost the ruddy lot. Hackney plates went from around 50 to over 100 almost overnight. exacerbated by the recession it was not a pretty sight.
The trade reverted to opportunism, Johny come lately drivers and the weekend Jockeys out for beer & holiday money. There was no commitment to the trade. Vehicle standards were the first to show the lack of funds in the trade. Thankfully this was recognised by local council with trade consultation, initially forced through via Wednesbury agreement but today a far more gentlemanly approach via our trade forum of mutual consultation. We are still "those taxi drivers" but progress is being made without the need to shout and stamp our feet in tantrum anymore. Although it has been a slow process we now find ourselves in a situation of regulation by quality rather than by quantity. Driver entry standards have been enhanced and COF made more stringent. All of this was the ideal example to rubbish the OFT report, showing that a controlled trade, whether by quantity or quality, it delivers a better service to our paymasters, the traveling public.
Andy