Taxi Driver Online

Id tend to Disagree...I think they tend to solve their transport issues by using Volunteer groups..then when theyre stuck for voluntary drivers they come to call on hacks or PH. I reckon its very seldom that the wheelchair disabled take a spur of the moment journey as the nature of their disabilty will have given them the mind set to plan journeys well in advance.

But then again...I might be wrong.

I disagree with you saying "that the average wheelchair user uses cabs a lot more than the average non wheelchair user". the figures do not back up your point.For starters there are more people who use taxis that are not disabled than people who are disabled


At the recent DFT work shops a 7o% saloon and 30% wav was the prefered % by Disabled and elderly groups. SATA

I would suggest that people need to look at what has happened over the last six months, and remember that taxiing...... whether it be hackney or private hire is a business.... and business people pay people to lobby for what they want...... I wonder who can put the jigsaw together.....

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Their is no one and never will be....thats why we're always Sh*t on from a great Height!!!!

Governments are always manipulate by big business.... who are the biggest private hire companies..... and what would it have cost them..... if their fleets have to be wheelchair accessible.... how many drivers would they have lost...... and why have they been holding meetings in London over the last six months....

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

I doubt their lobbying would have influenced any decision...the decision to make PH exempt was just a rare moment of political commonsense simply because any discrimination dissapeared due to the fact that the correct type of vehicle could be pre-booked/arranged to fit the clients individual needs as compared to the client being possibly turned away by the wrong type of vehicle being available at a rank when its needed.

Im sure there must have been a few large Taxi Operators meeting with government in exactly the same way...so how come taxis are not Exempt by the same process of big business lobbyists applying pressure to goverment.

I think the fact is that the government does whatever it bloody well wants regardless of what ever "we" the down at heel electorate wants...

I have a WAV, I like driving my WAV.

I do a fair bit of wheelchair work, I'm not a saint, I charge for this work.

I have a couple of problems.

1. If I have to have a low MPG WAV (which is also more expensive to buy) and I work from the same tariff, is it fair that a saloon driver with higher MPG in effect "clears" more before tax than I?

2. The wheelchair bound actually have a higher chance of vehicle ownership due to "Mobility" than other demographic groups and so actually use Taxi services less than Government think.

You can't have a seperate (Higher) Tariff for WAV - all the able bodied would simply use the Saloon cars.

You could have reduced price (Subsidised- like the busses) fuel for WAV only and much reduced Licence Fees (Vehicle and Driver) subsidised by higher fees for Saloon Taxi's and Private Hire in an effort to strike a balance.

The easiest answer for Central and Local Government is 100% WAV fleets. The best answer no doubt is mixed fleets but how do you get them in place without upsetting someone?

(Puts head down below parapet and starts looking for more ammunition!)

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Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

I agree that governments are manipulated by big business but how many large private hire companies are there in reality? As with the smaller of the large private hire companies they would no doubt do as ours has and have both HC and PH on their systems? Would it not also be the manufacturers of WAV's that may have had some influence in the lobbying?

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Be Interesting to have someone much cleverer than I to check out whether any of these WAV manufacturers or their related industries have any MPs on their boards or as Advisors, or have MPs on boards of other third party companies involved in WAV manufacturing.....it so often transpires that certain greedy MPs take a more vested interest in an invested business which they have their sticky little fingers in...Maybe i'm just being Cynical though!!

I am not suggesting-that anybody has done anything wrong.... I am saying that they have presented their arguments better... and I'm quite sure that that also goes for the wheelchair accessible vehicle manufacturers....

ie.. imagine you have 2000 saloon vehicles on a private hire fleet that does not allow Hackney's... and you wanted to keep it that way... how would you make your drivers purchase wheelchair accessible vehicles....

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Why would you want to, the loss of work would be negligible...There'd be no need..the real benefit by not making PH Wav Compliant would surely be that of the Wav owning Hackney operators who afterwards will have a virtual monopoly on all the nations wheelchair users...cant be bad can it ???

I wasn't suggesting that anybody had done anything wrong either. I was merely suggesting that it was possible the manufacturers of said vehicles could have well had an input too. With regard to the ph operators it would not be upto to them to persuade drivers to buy WAVs if it became a requirement of law they should have them. The ph operator would still have a sizeable number of drivers on their books because they would adjust to the climate and have hc's on their system if they had to. It would make no difference to them where the money from settle came from so long as it came in. It would come in because there is not enough work on the street, nor are there enough rank spaces available for said vehicles. Anyway that is not a concern as such because ph were taken out of the equation. They may however have concerns if councils were forced to provide mixed fleets on a % basis and only time will tell if that happens and drivers are brave enough to tackle their authorities about it

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Why would a big private hire company want Hackney's on its radio system??.... what they want is to be able to give out a job to a driver, and then know that the driver deals with the customer quickly.... they do not want the driver to call back in and say.... can you cover this job as I have a flag.... the two biggest private hire companies in Sefton operate a policy of no Hackney's.... and the companies have grown because of it.....

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

I think you're looking at it from the driver's point of view... which is quite correct... I think I am guilty of looking at it from the point of view of whether or not it is good legislation.... I think placing the burden entirely on the Hackney Trade and not placing any legislation regarding the private hire sector... is extremely one sided... and let's face it the majority of disabled telephone for their vehicles... I would have thought that the very least the Government's should have done was to make it a condition of the private hire operators Licence.... that they have a facility to provide a wheelchair accessible vehicle if requested.. that could simply mean contracting out to another firm....

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Its a hypothetical view so no point in dwelling on it...PH are exempt for whatever reasons and like it or loathe it I cannot see that ruling changing for quite some time to come..

That all said...If I dont have a WAV and my customer requires one then Id do my best to pass them on to someone who does...