Taxi Driver Online

This is not a racist rant(although to many it will sound like one), it's just how I am feeling at the moment. I wish to offend no one, and if I do, I apologise in advance.

As many of you know, I am a controller and driver for a firm in london. We have 50 drivers, 4 white english, 40 turkish and 6 pakistani/bengali.

Over the last couple of weeks I have had major problems with customers caused by the drivers bad spoken/understanding of english.
Most of our drivers are on data, there are however a few on radio only because we are thinking of buying a new system and have no data units for them. A few examples of the problems;

1, I gave a driver on radio a job, really easy to find(so I thought!), I told him exactly where the pick up was, go down bloggs rd from the office, first left, first left again, big tall block on left. 20 minutes later the customer is on the phone asking where his cab is, I call the driver, he says he is outside the block. 10 minutes later the customer calls again and says the cab is not there, I call the driver again, and eventually work out he is about a mile away. It took about 10 calls on the radio to understand him and where he was. In the end I had to send another car, and that driver had his ear chewed all the way to the station!, customer also called me back and had a go at me.

2, A driver picked a job up going to Herne Hill. There are two basic ways to go from my area and the driver went the way he normally goes, but because it was not the way the girl is normally taken, she asked him which way he was going. Because his english is so bad, the girl could not understand him and got on the phone to me, she put the driver on the phone and I could not understand a word he was saying. The girl phoned back and said that she was scared because she did not know where she was and I could hear the driver swearing and shouting at her. About 5 minutes later she phoned back crying, the driver threw her out in peckham(not a nice area at 1am), she was left stranded on the street. When the driver got back he tried to explain what had happenend, but I could not understand a word!. Basically, because his english is so bad, he could not explain to the girl that he knew where he was going and that the fare would be the same. I told my boss and he just told the driver not to do it again!. That could have been anybodys wife/sister, diabolical!!!!.

3, when a driver picks up a base job, he is suppossed to come into the base and shout out the name and destination, this is what happenend this weekend, a girl called lucy is in the base and the driver shouts out "lucky", a guy called nigel is in the base and the driver shouts out "nigger", a guy called james is in the base and the driver shouts out "jane". It's a f*cking disgrace.

The turkish drivers are the worst, I keep telling them to speak english and practice, but they don't give a sh*t. If a girl on her own gets in thier car I worry about her saftey, the turks are perverts and a girl on her own who has had a drink is fair game to them. I have had loads of complaints from women about the turkish drivers learing at them and trying to chat them up. The boss does nothing, as long as they walk in a pay thier rent, he don't care. They overcharge constantly, and as the controller the customer complains to me.

I was hopeing to do this job until I finish the london knowledge, but I really don't know if I can take anymore.

Am I asking to much to be understood in my own country?.

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stressed controller!!!

I'm off for the next four days, so I won't be able to reply, I have got to make a decision on what I am going to do.

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stressed controller!!!

Theres so much there, i've just picked myself up of the floor after wetting myself.

Sorry Rambo, I do feel for you, but trust me all of the above will be to your advantage when you pass the knowledge, the work load out there at the moment is well up on last year according to my books, keep at the Knowledge and reap the rewards.

I'm not sure about Herne Hill via Peckham though?

Thats South innit?

I know Andy from Avanti cars in Blackfen is always looking for quality staff, I think i'm correct in asuming you live in the South East of town?

Its a decent company with drivers who you can speak to in English.

it can be frustrating but it beqs the question why more British men arent taxi-ing???

could it be that they view the job as deragotory?

i dont know gentlemen, if we wanted Brain Surgeons we would be charging £10 per mile.

Wages, working hours and being work shy lasy gits.

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IDFIMH

Your first two answers are spot on: It's earnings versus working hours that are way out of sync.

In fact they are so out of sync that in many cases, a reasonable number of hours will now only produce a third world wage.

Which would explain why there is such a rapid turnover of first world workers, with more leaving the trade than joining and with the average age of those remaining, rising.

The answer to the question of hourly earnings however, is already in place and has been widely adopted by the trade already. It is of course IT in the form of data dispatch systems.

With these data systems, the economies of scale can be exploited (which is the fundamental underlying economic principle upon which the trade operates). The economic efficiency of a firm rises as its number of vehicles rises.

By upsizing, the amount a firm needs to charge each driver in order to cover its overheads decreases, as does the average distance between each current outstanding job on the screen. Both these factors significantly increase a drivers earnings without increasing fares - the first by decreasing drivers costs (and thus the number of hours needed to break even) and the second by increasing the paying miles driven.

So much for the theory behind the need to upsize firms. The practicalities involved however, are significant and so the rate at which taxi and PH firms will increase their fleets is likely to be slow at first, but with a steadily growing momentum as new solutions to the upsizing problems are discovered.

As this happens, the improved prospects created will hopefully attract a much wider range of people to the trade, rather than only the very limited segment of the population that it attracts at the present time.

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The higher the fewer.

I have a lot of sympathy with Rambos predicament,unfortunately because this industry has never been organised,this scenario is inevitable.The Taxi or PH industry has never been able to extract itself from the inhouse,dog eat dog policy.The exploitation and abuse so greedily promolgated by the likes of MrT the Captain and other eejits must be confronted.Worker abuse is a religion in these industries nationwide,because of a lack of licensing in London it bcame intollerable withlicencingitwill change but it will be a slow process.On the Private Hire Board are reps from all sections of the London trade,and of course there are substantial differencies between us on some issues,unlike elswhere it would seem we can meet and conduct our meetings in a civilised manner.What is being increasingly understood is tha when we agree and decide to perform we take some stopping!!Rambo i wish you luck both with the job and the knowledge Terry GMB
ORGANISE EDUCATE AGITATE!!!!!!!!!!!!

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The views expressed by this contributor do not neccesarily reflect the policys of The GMB Nationally or of the GMB London Region.

I'm interested to hear an explanation as to how you believe either MrT or CC have manipulated situations for their own personal benefit.

It is more likely the case that you are jealous of their standing within the trade and are envious of what they have achieved for the people they represent.

With regard standards of drivers ..................... we are in the review process to raise the standards of drivers in Gateshead to ensure the situation gets better and not worse.

We need to consider ourselves to be professional, because currently we are seen to be what we believe ourselves to be.

B. Lucky

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"Here's a simple solution. If you don't want to pay more for a premium service then wait in the queue, problem solved".
Skull on TDO

TF pi$$ed on his chips.

The London Taxi trade is nearly 100% British thank you.

He does'nt supply proof, more a case of make it up as you go along, and don't worry about being offensive.


'Professional' Drivers Rep? Nope, Minicab rep.

wtf?

any other company and he would of been off.

I'd be kind of interested to hear that one myself





Balls, you have no sympathy, you've spent weeks slagging off this guy for having the audacity to disagree with you.



Errm exploitation and abuse? go on then tell me were I have been greedy and tell me where I have exploited anyone.



You are an absolute crank or the worst possible order.

The lack of licensing has led to worker abuse? ffs

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Why arn't there more british men taxi-ing?.

In london it's simple, they cannot earn the money(phv).
The foriegn drivers lead a completly different lifestyle to the english drivers. They don't go to the cinema/pub/bars/nightclubs, they don't buy new clothes or eat out, they don't buy the lastest dvd player or stereo. They are here just to work and send as much money back home as they can. This means that they will work for less than a british man.
I will give you an example;
A company are looking for a taxi company to do thier account work, the account is £10,000 per month.
Taxi firm A quote £9000.
Taxi firm B quote £8000.
Taxi firm C quote £7000.
Guess who gets the account?, and its the driver who gets paid less.

I should be going onto days after christmas, a change is as good as a rest?.

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stressed controller!!!

So the drivers are to blame for accepting a wage cut????????????
Organisine educate agitate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

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The views expressed by this contributor do not neccesarily reflect the policys of The GMB Nationally or of the GMB London Region.