Taxi Driver Online

Deary me ... Why don't you live on you knees

I just know this has to be a wind up but I will ask anyway.

How do you know you will make more money?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

So if the 'kipper season' is the time of the year when London cabbies can only put kippers on the table instead of steak, what's the equivalent in Dundee?

The sardine season?

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Caledonian Cabbie

You only have to look at the long term implications of de-restriction around the world to see how much it affects the driver in the very long term.

Ask yourself why are drivers paying so much settle in New York now, why medallions are worth $750K or more, why New York no longer have a de-restriction policy, why drivers in Korea & Ireland are committing suicide, because they can't earn enough money?

New York was once de-restricted, but as drivers increasingly could not pay their way, they sold their cabs & medallions to fleet owners, 'taxi barons' to you.

And once the ‘taxi barons’ have these massive fleets, they are the ones to set the settle price & the drivers have to pay it. The ‘taxi barons’ now have a strangle-hold on almost the WHOLE trade.

De-restrict anywhere you want & the owner driver will eventually be unable to make enough money to up-keep his cab, pay the monkey & feed his family, unless the fares are increased, which again makes the taxi trade less competitive, so less work all round.

When the owner driver can no longer make owner-driving a cab pay, is he going to hand his plate back to the council? Of course he won't; he will sell it, to make a profit & probably to a 'plate baron'. So the 'plate barons' become stronger, which is exactly the opposite of what you want.

Korea is the same & in Ireland fleet owners are growing in number. If the owner driver is to remain viable, then a sensible, controlled growth policy has to be adopted, otherwise the ‘plate barons’ WILL take over the trade nationally for the reasons I have already stated.

It's a vicious circle & it is governed by the golden rule of economics; supply & demand. Increase the fares & less people will demand. Increase the supply of cabs & there will be less demand for taxis PER CAB.

Unfortunately, the EGT do not understand the golden rule of economics, or if they do then they must be of the opinion that rules of economics do not apply in the taxi trade, but then that would not surprise me.

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
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if you think siting up at ninewells hospitol fir an hour at ey time between jobs is good then derestriction is fir you but its nae fun fir me the quicker a cap comes the beter.

Ah, so the high settle and medallions values in NY are doing the drivers a favour




So derestriction is bad, restriction is bad, make your mind up FFS

And there are plenty owner-drivers in NY, so your last comment is nonsense for a start.

And what about Reggie's proposal for a NY system here? Are you saying it would be different here because of the history.

Garbage - anyone can buy a plate in either location, and there are fleets everywhere because many drivers can't/won't finance a plate.




So how would this driver make a profit in a derestricted market

Why would a fleet owner want to buy a vehicle from a driver if he can buy all he wants on the open market?

Possibly because the driver wants a quick sale or something like that?



So the New York trade was restricted and what did you say happened?




You mean place a monopoly on cab ownership and they'll be able to shaft plateless drivers.



If you did you would understand that it's poor quality controls that cause low wages. Controlling access to vehicle just adds another dimension.

The 'benefit' of the extra work accrues to the plateholder. The extra work disappears from the drivers pocket in the form of inflated rentals.

The fact is there'll always be fleet owners in the trade, even London drivers earning several times what some of us do fleet owners, but on the other hand there are thousands of owner drivers earning a fraction of what the London cabbies do but run their own car.

Your analysis is a tad contrived and contradictory.

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Caledonian Cabbie

I don't believe it is; it's right on the button!!

Read the history, FFS!!!

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

Caledonian Cabbie in Edinburgh's licenced black cab market there is no fleets holding mass amounts of plate's, de-restriction would lead to fleets such as ECPH holding mass amounts of plate's, this leads too fleets holding all the aces as far as they have the work drivers can take it or leave it, we are already seeing this in Edinburgh's PH trade, 30% discount take it or feck off.

The system is under pressure just now and maybe our system needs tightening to stop the threat of mass plate holding, Brummie Cabbie is correct, the worst case scenario is de-restriction

The New York System is proven to work best, in Edinburgh the NY system is already here but for a few tweaks here and there, the NY system in Edinburgh would protect OUR trade for the INDIVIDUAL, it would protect co-operative company's such as City and Central Taxi's from the real profiteers who would i gaurantee flood in to Edinburgh in the guise of fleet plate holding company's.

Out of all the options the NY system benefits drivers and owners keeping the progression within our trade a fair game to play for all

My view is based on what is best for EDINBURGH

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Alway's been about Tightening the Grip!

Fleets or not it's currently the plateholders who hold all the aces. A free market would allow drivers to, er, control their own destiny. I couldnae see ECPH putting on a lot of cars because there would be a lot of spare capacity in the existing fleet as drivers got their own taxi.

Your argument doesn't make sense - if drivers are allowed to run a car without the plate premium then how would this help ECPH?

If they did put a few HCs on then this would just take drivers from the existing fleet, so what's the big deal?

A driver renting is a driver renting, what does it really matter who he's renting from? If a fleet owner offers him a better deal than an individual owner then what's the big deal?




Worse case for you

I really can't see the connection between fleets and restriction or otherwise. Most Liverpool plates are controlled by multi-owners. And didn't a chap in Cardiff have at least one hundred before the plug was pulled? Wonder how much he has now? How much does the chap in Glasgow have? Doesn't one person control half the plates in Perth?




So where are all the drivers coming from to support all these extra fleets?

The point with the NY system is that medallion values are so high that an ordinary mush can't afford to finance one, so the big business entities with financial muscle are given more control.

As I said if you set the Edinburgh system in stone in a NY-style system then this would inflate plate values and thus they'd become increasingly unaffordable to ordinary drivers, thus your proposal would boost fleets, not stop them.

I mean, you'll only get a loan for a plate based on the equity in a house, so if they got to NY levels then the ordinary Joe would be unable to raise the finance, hence more fleet ownership.



Best for REGGIE, you mean

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Caledonian Cabbie

Which history?

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Caledonian Cabbie

New York cabs; there were loads of independent owner drivers in the 1913-19s.

"By the teens, there were half a dozen large fleets, and thousands of independent owner/drivers."

But they had de-restriction and they couldn't make it pay.

Read the 1900 paragraph on this link;

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/taxidreams/history/index.html

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

1937



Aye, and how does paying inflated rentals help that?

Indeed, the immigration issue is one cause of the low wages, and controlling vehicle numbers won't change that - the benefit disappears in the form of higher rentals.




You must have missed that bit

Might have read of part 2 later on

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Caledonian Cabbie

1979-80

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Caledonian Cabbie

Hope you're reading this Reggie, and hope you brought/bring this to the attention of Mr Salmond

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Caledonian Cabbie

It benefits cabbies because they will be aware that taxi numbers will not increase and therefore their earnings shouldnt get any lower.

It benefits the customers by way of annex c of the OFT report of November 2003.

The facts proven that taxis in regulated areas were more efficient to the customer in every investigation the OFT made.....than that of a deregulated area.

CC

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