Taxi Driver Online

Its simple....Clamp down hard on PH that hack....rip there licenses right off them there and then if caught redhanded and Really throw the book at them or until the successfully appeal and win.

the need for single Tier goes away then as PH wont be confused for a HC as Only a HC will ever Have a TAXI sign and then run a Nationwide advertising campaign to Say " If it Dont say Taxi dont Jump In" to educate the Public

PH would then need no Identification Externally, so that it could not be Mistaken for a taxi and couldent hack.....as it is Pre-booked the Driver and Client would meet at an Agreed pre arranged meeting Place. the Only ID needed then would be for the Driver to Wear a Nationally Recognisable PH badge with Photo and Hollographic Photo as further proof.

The Drivers of HCs being Hailed or Chosen off a rank, would need to have a Basic knowledge type test as their fair could ask to go anywhere and an indepth Knowledge is a pre-requisite to that.

On the Other hand a PH driver doesnt need an encylopedic Knowledge as He Knows In advance where he is going and can Plan a route Either in his Head or by Map or By sat nav..so he needs less Knowledge of any Given area.


Also PH Operators Can Ascertain in Advance what type of DDA Vehicle is best Suited to any given Clients needs and arrange where Possible an MPV, Saloon, WAV or whatever..if they Dont have such a Vehicle themselves they can forward the run to Someone that has the Vehicle to suit the needs of the Client.

HCs on the other hand do not have the same Luxury of advanced Warning as PH s Do so need to be WAV and Bums First. so Why not Grant Licences in 4 Catagories. EG: Cat 1: Taxi (Traditional)---- Cat 2: TAXI (mpv) ----Cat 3:Taxi (Saloon) and Cat 3:Taxi (Wav) and so if you have a Fleet of Vehicles as Part of your License Agreement You would be granted Licenses so that you would need to take all types into your fleet....Say for any 3 Vehicles of any Combination of Class 1,2 or 3 Vehicles you would need by law your Fourth Vehicle to be Cat 4: Taxi(Wav). and every 4th Vehicle throughout your fleet.

If you dont have more than 3 Vehicles the choice of Catagorys you owned would be of your own Choosing as an Operator. this also makes it Fairer by way of the more solvent Large fleet owner to take responsibilty commensurate to its Size.

Then any WAV requiring client can pick any suitable Vehicle from any given rank...and by the Law of averages at least one Taxi in any sizable rank will be AaWAV or MPV or Saloon Or Traditional cab.

That would be a Private hire company. Don't move the goal posts. We are talking about a hackney carriage taxi driver. Get real.



It doesn't matter if they are employees or self employed their job description is still that of taxi driver or private hire driver.



You conveniently missed out the word taxi drivers, or probably in this case, private hire drivers.



I really don't believe you are for real or why I even bother correcting this nonsense.

If you put the whisky bottle down for a few minutes and look what you have written you might notice that everyone you have described drives a licensed vehicle so therefore they must hold a hackney carriage taxi drivers license or private hire drivers license. So what's their job description?



A faackin lunatic because if I can drive a hackney at weekends there is no reason why I can't drive it seven days a week so therefore I would be defrauding her majesty's Government. Just like Seftons Lord Mayor.

If you write anymore of this nonsense I shall definitely not respond.

Regards

JD

_________________
Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

I totally agree. But it’s not going to happen. We’ve had 32 years now (since LG (MP) Act 1976) of what the enforcement officers should do, but can’t or won’t. In a city like Birmingham we would probably need an extra 100 enforcement officers to make it work, with the majority of them being on nights. London would probably need 2,000 or so. Who’s going to pay for these EOs. In Birmingham an extra 100 EOs would mean salaries of about £2-2.5 million, which would mean fees would have to rise sharply to cover their cost, probably by £200 per licence.



In Birmingham the council have an annual campaign just before Christmas like you suggested, but it makes not a scrap of difference. Because when Joe de Publique has been out on the lash, he/she don’t care what they get in; all they want is to get home or to wherever & they are paying the money, so to them they don’t care who their money goes to as long as they get where they want to. PH know that & they take advantage of the situation at most times.

From the public safety viewpoint, especially young girls on their own, many councils have recognised that PH should be readily recognisable. I personally don’t agree with PH having signage, but I can see where the council are coming from.

I do like the idea of national recognition though, for drivers & vehicles. Then it would be the same in every borough, city, town, village or hamlet & the public would very quickly absorb that.



I think all drivers should be required to attain the highest standards for entry, without exception. As somebody said to me this week, “If you have low entry standards, you have a low, poor trade.” And that doesn’t just apply to HC & PH, but everything else in life. Contrast the London cabbie with his ‘knowledge’ to a Birmingham PH driver; and I’m not talking about the jobs they do, but the type of person they are & their relative intelligence. Enhance standards all round & the trade (HC & PH) will improve immeasurably.



I like the basic concept of your idea, but to make it work the choice of non-WAV purpose-built vehicles would have to be drastically restricted to just a few types of vehicle nationally. It is no coincidence that when you go abroad to Spain or Tenerife for instance, the majority of taxis are Merc saloons; quality for the passenger.

To create a level plying field for the expense that WAV owners have to suffer, the other licensed vehicle in a mixed fleet should be in a similar price range. For instance medium to large Merc saloons & quality large MPVs, Chrysler Voyager for instance. By trying to create a level playing field in cost of vehicle, a mixed fleet would then have quality vehicles all round which would be better for Joe de Publique, & again enhance quality in the ‘trade’. And by creating a more level playing field on cost of vehicle the WAV owner would not be disadvantaged as much.

Also, with the much higher costs & quality of vehicles, fares all round would probably be more harmonised, because the PH driver driving an eight year old Toyota Avensis, bought from the auctions for £325 ‘innit moite’, would no longer be & his previous fare scale of thrupence farthing a mile would be unsustainable.

Those are my thoughts; just waiting for the avalanche of contradictory views now.

I’ve got broad shoulders though.

_________________
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.

You write a lot of logic Mr Brummie and you have the ability to see what others choose not to see. You also seem to be a realist.

I somehow doubt the avalanche will be that heavy.

Regards

JD

_________________
Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

That would be a Private hire company. Don't move the goal posts. We are talking about a hackney carriage taxi driver. Get real.



so you contend that there are no hackney companies that employ hackney drivers

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

so you contend that if a owner driver were to become ill.... and then receive benefits he would not be allowed to work even 16 hours a week.... and obviously he would pick the best hours...


And don't make promises you know you have no intention of keeping

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

Not in London it would'nt.

Our Minicabs have trouble finding Harrods, never mind a road off another road (''you know the one, near Tesco, I think'') in Leyton.

That's just the one's that can communicate in English.

Brummie Cabbie I like the basic concept of your idea, but to make it work the choice of non-WAV purpose-built vehicles would have to be drastically restricted to just a few types of vehicle nationally. It is no coincidence that when you go abroad to Spain or Tenerife for instance, the majority of taxis are Merc saloons; quality for the passenger.

To create a level plying field for the expense that WAV owners have to suffer, the other licensed vehicle in a mixed fleet should be in a similar price range. For instance medium to large Merc saloons & quality large MPVs, Chrysler Voyager for instance. By trying to create a level playing field in cost of vehicle, a mixed fleet would then have quality vehicles all round which would be better for Joe de Publique, & again enhance quality in the ‘trade’. And by creating a more level playing field on cost of vehicle the WAV owner would not be disadvantaged as much.

Also, with the much higher costs & quality of vehicles, fares all round would probably be more harmonised, because the PH driver driving an eight year old Toyota Avensis, bought from the auctions for £325 ‘innit moite’, would no longer be & his previous fare scale of thrupence farthing a mile would be unsustainable.

Those are my thoughts; just waiting for the avalanche of contradictory views now


Im not sure Foreign taxis Have Mercs on Comfort and Luxury grounds...I reckon Its more reliabilty Grounds..also cars in warm dry Climates Can last 3 times longer due to the drier air and Less road salting ( a curiously british thing).

You dont Need to Pay Mercedes prices for Comfort these days, I run A Citroen C5 Saloon which is Extremely comfortable and Half the Price of the equivelant Mercedes. Same Goes for the 8 Passenger Seat Peugeot Tepee which has the Comfort of a Mercedes Vito and more Space than a Voyager..both of which are a lot more Expensive, So price isnt the Issue and there is no need to spend more just for the sake of it.


Nothing wrong in a Toyota Avensis..as long as its under say 7 years of age and is safe a Comfortable,

As for WAVs...well it may be that 1 in 10 would be an adequate Ratio in a fleet. but IMO the government should give some Concessions on the More Expensive Vehicles. Either by Reducing Tax on them, or Giving Free Road for the working life of the Vehicle, or a Subsidy/grant to buy a WAV From new in the First place. or maybe a Mix of all three Ideas.

Buses get Concessions and subsidies to help with less than Viable journeys....I cant see why the Government should Duck its responsibilty on this matter.... its not fair if they dictate what we can use if they dont put their hands in their pocket to help. Taxis and PH (im PH) are in the front line in assisting people with all forms of Disabilty, We often give a high level of Customer approaching that of the ambulances PTA driver..maybe even a better service. yet Funds are made available to charity wheels type Orginisations to assist them yet no funds Percilates its way to us...only thing that Pecilates to us in abundance is the regulations.


another but less palatable way to Cover the extra cost of Wavs is to Charge A special Higher tarriff to Disabled clients, the Client if Genuinely disabled could have part of the Fare reimbursed by the government.

This Higher Tarrif in no way should discriminate Disabled from anyone else but should be looked on as the The standard...its just a tool to allow the Goverment to contibute to the extra cost of a regulatory enforced specially adapted Vehicle....Everything has to be paid for in this world....after say 3 months the Disabled clients could send all their Receipts back to the DWP or whoever and be able to claim back say 30% of all the DDA rated fares they paid for through their TAXI/PH useage..As a spin off it would encourage more Disabled to use Taxis and Ph as presently do.

I would imagine in areas where PH do the same knowledge as HC most HC drivers wouldn't support a single tier.

However I would imagine the London cab trade would love a single tier of licensing as long as everyone had to pass the existing knowledge.

_________________
IDFIMH

To ensure the correct customer gets into the correct licensed PH and not an un-licensed taxi.

_________________
IDFIMH

If we took your plying analogy a tad further it would mean licensed taxis wouldn't be able to go outside of their areas as they have the word taxi on their vehicles.

_________________
IDFIMH

I think you have to appeciate the system that is used by our firm. Our areas are divided into zones that are rarely more than 1/2 mile. The job would be given to the nearest available car, which is most likely going to be within a 2 mile radius of the job. As I said there are plenty of HC working our PH system now so what difference would it make if we could all do EXACTLY the same thing without the restriction of having to be pre-booked. We could all work both systems and that surely has to be better for the customer who would prefer to flag a saloon down rather than a HC that not everybody can get into.

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

The purpose of the roof top sign would be so that people would know that we were TAXI's as oposed to regular family saloons or Pizza delivery guys. That is of course if a single tier was introduced and not just HC could be flagged from the road.

If a single tier was introduced there would be no need to spot the difference between PH or HC because at the end of the day we will both be the same 'TAXIS' that can be booked or hailed. So the skulll & cross bone flag won't need to flying unless of the 'Taxi' was out of it's licenced zone.

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

I managed to get the correct customer into my vehicle for many many years with absolutely no signs at all.....

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

now let me see... rubbish

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