Taxi Driver Online

No . You put illegally earned money through a legit business and "clean" it. You even pay tax. As much as you can get away with! Maybe things are different in Hastings (though I dont believe it).

Sus,you are being deliberately obtuse. Nobody is saying that giving discounts is criminal. I think you know the point I am making.
By the way ,you have not even tried to answer most of the main points i have made tonight. I`ll come back on tomorrow night to answer your well thought out and reasoned replies.

Roselyn

I accept that this trade has been seen as a money laundering opportunity for low lifes. I understand that Glasgow has seen a fare degree of this.

However that is the exception and not the rule. We shouldn't tar a whole industry because of a few instances in my mind.

Like lets be honest youare more likely to be raped by a Premiership footballer than a cab driver. Perhaps we should jail all of them. (sorry couldn't resist the jibe despite its bad taste).

The too many compared with too few argument is difficult. My own belief is that if we can go through a period of too many taxis then the service levels will improve and demand will go up again. Similarly if too few taxis are available then because of poor service the demand decreases.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Roselyn

If drug cartels are in your private hire trade, they have a toe hold in the taxi trade as well believe me!

Lets get to basics as Sussex is too full of himself to see the gaping holes in your arguments.

Who provides the ranks in edingburgh? Joe public and fred citizen, why then shouldnt those people have a taxi license if they qualify for it?

Morally there is no justification in limiting by numbers, and anyone here under limits can hold a license including rapists, drug dealers, and perverts, merely those kind of riff raff cannot hold a driving license.

Its the same in many towns and I bet a pound to a penny edingburge too!

What you are asking for is a cartell, why not say so? after all the tv people have them, and so do dentists, dont hide behind fancy arguments like drug fealing, cos they are just the boys who can afford restricted licenses.

Can you just see it now? hire my taxi for a hundred quid a week, we dont wish to know how much you earn and then do as you say launder the money! easy peasy.

There are some bloody brash people about now who have used your arguments that frankly do not hold water, pin them down they say (particularly in Brighton) well OFT can do as they like beccause my value is in the co-operative agency!

We can not go on forever racketeering, just because a rules was once made to protect Local Authorities, who did not have enough stables to put the horses that pulled the hackney carriages, when they were left outside pubs whilst the drivers got drunk!

we have big enough police pounds now the limit by numder argument has gone.

And the biggest laugh of all? some weird taxi driver thinking that historicaly it was all done to protect earnings!

now and historically no one but no one could give a fig about our earnings, no one could give a fig about punters getting home either, that is until the fighting starts on the streets, then whos fault is it? ours for not having enough taxis>

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IDFIMH

just leave it be it's not going to happen you lot must be right sad to go on about it all day every day get a life.

When you say you lot, then that must mean you as well.

It's like the person who writes to the paper, moaning about people who write to papers.

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IDFIMH

Hmm...this site just produced a 70-page document demonstrating the nonsense of the arguments of Mr MacAskill and the others in the Edinburgh taxi plate cartel.

Then you come on spouting the same nonsense as Mr MacAskill, ignore the document and claim that the site throws up more questions than reasoned answers - you could perhaps say that about the Scottish Executive's response to the OFT, but not this site.

You are correct about the need for tough regulation, but to link criminality in the trade to de-restriction of numbers is just scaremongering a la Mr MacAskill.

[

See that's why Edinburgh has the 'too many taxis, not enough drivers' situation, if new drivers have no other option than to drive someone else's taxi.

Sussex
Your argument elludes me here, surly with delimitation, and others here note - not deregulation, if you have a badge - you have your own car. Now I don't, obviously know what the situation is elsewhere, but to pay my overheads and earn a wage I have to work 60+ hours a week and if there were no 'Journymen' drivers about, which there are few of here, no one could afford a WAV, because my 60+ hours are to pay for an £11000 mpv not a £30000 cab.

Where can I get a copy of this 70 page document which this site has produced?

All areas in Britain are different,and have their various if,s and but,s and what is good for one area,may be bad for the other.#

We must have operators and drivers,as with PH and HC.
We cannot say this area requires this and so other areas should have the same.

I think that to give the best service,all drivers should be vetted,health
checked and legitimate.

This has been done in places in Scotland,so the police can keep a finger on the pulse.

All vehicles given a annual check and all licenses renewed every year.
After the vehicle is 5 years old,two checks per year.This will entail MOT,plus who owns vehicle,and will ensure that vehicles are roadworthy.

Lets be strict and keep the cowboys out and the people that really want to be a cabby,whether ph or hc can be one.

If you de-regulate,it will be a free for all,and I know by myself,that it would be really tough.

There will be flaws,but I think working together and talking sensibly,we can all come through this and start earning a proper wage.
But to do this the trade has to be strict.

Sorry forgot to post nom-de-plume,Friend of GUNGADIN

Friend of Gungadin

I don't think anyone would would disagree with the basic requirements you state. Some might call for Knowledge tests, but I feel that they are really only relevant in larger cities.

Nobody on here has called for deregulation. In fact the OFT report restates the need for quality controls.

What some of us wish to see is de-limitation. The practice of maintaining a fixed numbers of hacks plates, which change hands for large amounts of money (officially and unofficially).

How often do we have to state this.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Please stop perpetuating the myths bandied about by the scaremongering vested intrests,in which way are the checking procedures diffrent from the checks carried out on hackney drivers,please explain? if a phc driver was a rapist driving phc he is still a rapist driving a hackney carriage and vice versa, passing a knowledge test and driving a black cab does not turn you into a saint.
Lets also debunk the myth of the "dont use one kind of vehicle or you will be raped" crap, you quote one case that I cannot comment on because I dont know about it, but you mention that she was raped in his cab!!
please explain about the "dodgy elements" amongst them, what are you doing to report these dodgy elements to the police.
Kenny MacAskill made the accusation that owning and running your own cab would turn journeymen into rapists,perverts,drug runners and general criminals.so the trade in all the de-limited areas must be saturated with crime then!!
Here's something to mull over from his party's web site

Scotland has so much potential. We all want our economy to thrive, our public services to be there when we need them and for our children to grow up safe, secure and well educated. But, believe it or not, the Scottish Parliament doesn’t have the powers to deliver many of these things. So we, the people of Scotland, cannot create the kind of country we all want to live in. It’s not that we can’t manage it, we just need to be given the powers and the opportunity.

We just need to release our potential.

The last line is perhaps the biggest joke "release our potential" how can we do that with the kind of nonsense he spouted?

Would it be possible to stop using the word de-regulation as to many people on here seem to be confusing it with de-limiting the numbers, it's getting boring!!!!!!