taxeman wrote:
There is a positive way to look at it.
All the circuits I have worked on have had drivers that shouldn't of been on there, rude, dodgy ect.
If the big boys came into town it would force the current companies and their drivers to run their businesses in a professional manner. The firms that understood that customer service was the single most important thing to their business, as apposed to the amount of drivers they could take on, would succeed.
For the driver that goes about their work in a proffestional manner, no matter what the knowledge test, will be much values asset.
There could be an element of that, but on the other hand look at the London minicab trade.
Indeed, to an extent the approach suggested by the LC will encourage a wide disparity in service quality, because basically they want bog standard PH regulation and to let the market do the rest.
So basically you'll get the cheap and cheerful (to put it as nicely as possible) at one end of the market, but the Addison Lee-style service at the other end charging higher prices, which to an extent largely exists already, especially in the bigger cities.
Equally, in smaller local market there's likely to be less variation in service because the market isn't big enough to support enough diversity in supply.
Having said all that, whatever the quality of service offered to the end user I'm not sure if it will be of much help to drivers.