Taxi Driver Online

The world dosn't revolve around London

Thank you Guest, you have proved that MacAskill did not say that private hire drivers were rapists and criminals!
He did , however , point out that in unregulated London sex offenders use the cab system to rape! There is no question about this ! It is a fact!

He also pointed out that the private hire system in Glasgow is run by criminals! This is also a fact! The names are all there ! McGraw , Thomson and ALL the rest have been involved in the private hire trade ! Because it does not happen in Sleepy Hollow , Sussex does not mean it does not happen elsewhere!
In Edinburgh we have managed to keep it out thanks to a "hands on " Council and long may it continue!
Raise your eyes above your own narrow horizons , Sussex. I hope you do get your plate but please remember that there are other issues involved here ! The so called "free market" should be consigned to the dustbin of ancient history along with Milton Friedman and Margaret Thatcher! This is the 21st century. The representatives of the people should be pro active!

Here Here

Tom Thumb , read the Sapphire site re London cabs . I can`t believe you are unaware of it! In London rape and de-regulated cabs go hand in hand. That is not in doubt!
I don`t doubt all you guys who set up this site are honest but in setting up your own structures to get what you want you will let others in who are not so honest. It is happening NOW outside Hastings!
This is not a "market economy" business. Like Tanning Studios and Saunas it is tainted by crime. If it hasn`t reached Sussex yet then I`m glad ,but believe me boys, it`s in the post!

Roslyn, I love you, will you marry me? I can whisk you away from all this crime and give you a better life.

Thankfully not, but I don't think it's that wrong to compare one capital city to another.

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IDFIMH

When you have 40,000+ un-licensed drivers, then you will get some scum. But they are in the process of having a fully licensed PH trade to compliment the fully licensed taxi trade.

But you are the only one talking about de-regulating the taxi trade, no-one else on here is.

I'm talking about ending the numbers restrictions, not standards. There maybe a case for improving standards in your area, but I bet many of the 'too many cabs, not enough drivers' folk, don't want that.

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IDFIMH

I suppose you disregard buses in your analysis? Overall, Less than 40% of bus operating costs are funded through the faresbox.

And railways too. Hmmmm. Again overall, farebox funding is lower than you might think.

As far as I am aware, the only form of transport that does not receive a large proportion of government funding and subsidy, is the Taxi/PH business.

However, set against that comment is, for example road spending.

Eg: 1994 (a record I think) 32 billion road revenue funding from government, against 11 billion recoverable from taxation.

The taxi and private hire industry had substansial hidden subsidy, when we clean up our act we will get proper subsidy.

fiddles on tax, social security are massive.

plans are about to be unveiled that will stop this, at the same time we will be on equal footing to buses on commercial routes.

oh fair Roselyn

As I have stated before you found this little love nest of a website.

The blame for sex attackers etc being able to drive around London is to be put solely at the feet of the Hackney Carriage drivers in the city.

If they hadn't campaign so hard for so many years that part of the trade would have been licenced in 76 along with the rest of the country.

It was the hacks who lobbied long, hard and expensively to ensure the sex offenders could still drive in London. Nobody else. The PH operators were campaigning to be licensed.

If it wasn't for Diana Lamplugh the trade would still be unlicensed today.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Tom,
Sorry mate a rapist is a rapist whether he is licensed or not. In Manchester we adopted the Act and if you follow your logic we have not had any sexual attacks since then. Surprisingly we have.
I think it is breathtaking to put the blame for sexual deviants at the door of an honourable trade.
The problen with your hypothesis is that we assume that we have a two tier system, when in fact we have three. Hackney, P.H and thirdly the parasites that live beyond legislation. Even if we had only a single tier legally do you honestly think that the parasites would not still be there as a second tier. Tom your letters usually are reasoned but in this case I think you have besmirched a raft of men ( and women) doing a decent and honest job.
If I have misunderstood your letter I apologise in advance.
Ged

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taxi driver @manchester airport

Sorry Ged

I am making a bit of a political point.

Every profession from footballer to politician has rapists in their number.

The London black cab trade have spent many years fighting to stop their competition, the Private Hire industry, from being given the legitimacy of licensing. Because of this it allowed the scum to float around our industry.

The black cab trade would then make as much capital of each incident as possible. They should have been hiding their face in shame because without them many of those scumbags wouldn't have been allowed to get in such a position.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

What you mean you launched into attack mode without reading any of the reports!!! oh and I think that it was you who mentioned that "I shudder to think what the situation will be like if such drivers and such companies are allowed to operate with external plates,illegally picking up drunk teenagers from the side of the road." but you both make the same mistake of confusing dereg with the de-limit of numbers " Furthermore, some of the new intake are not the sort you want. In Dublin it led to a marked increase in rapes and sexual assaults. In Edinburgh at present these problems are thankfully rare" please explain the "some of the new intake" part of it, who will be the new intake then?
Why do you bother writing such rubbish as this then roselyn "The so called "free market" should be consigned to the dustbin of ancient history along with Milton Friedman and Margaret Thatcher! This is the 21st century. The representatives of the people should be pro active" so no free markets then, as long as it's only you that can have your wee piece of the closed market.
what should replace the free market then, go on tell me and give me a laugh, the marxist model perhaps, The representitives of the people should be pro active, pro active in what for gods sake, helping you to keep your wee piece of the "so called free market".
If you really want to single shift your cab,whats stopping you, and does the poor sod who pays you for the use of it know you hold them in such high regard, you see the thing is roselyn if the plate values were not so high you could have your dream and work your own cab in a fully regulated area for half the cost.
finally and most arrogantly of all you say the people on this site have no idea about "the black cab business" how do you know, is there anything you dont know come to that, for one so knowledgable your arguments are muddled and contradictory.

Well this thread has certainly succeeded in making a simple issue complicated.

Taxis tend to be more regulated than PH, therefore less scum, but not no scum.

PH tend to be less regulated than taxis, therefore more scum, but not all scum.

The unlicensed third tier is clearly unregulated, thus more scum still, indeed many would argue someone in the third tier is ipso facto scum.

But the mish mash of standards throughout the country means (for example) that PH driver regulation in one area can be more stringent than taxi regulation in another, meaning (for example) more tax fraud in the latter area.

The salient point is that all this has sweet FA to do with restricting taxi numbers - if London minicabs had been restricted to 10,000 (say) but otherwise unregulated then it wouldn't have made any difference to the scum element.

As regards the crooks in the Scottish PH trade, an important point here is the lack of licensing of despatch offices - in England you need a license to set up a PH office, whereas any crook can set up an office in Scotland - thus to that extent it is like the London minicab trade pre-licensing. The Scottish Executive are due to license PH offices in the future.

As for the Milton Friedman analogy, why is it that journeymen in Edinburgh are subject to his liberal economic thinking, whereas plate holders occupy a position more akin to feudal lords?

Cos as white plate holders we friggin ARE God, stupid.

Verily I say unto thee cast off thine green or yellow or other prettly coloured Pee Head plates and see the light. Become a Hackney plate holder and thee shall enter the kingdom of wealth.

(What? Cant get one? Too far down the Special People List? Can't afford a WAV? Can't afford an Unmet Demand Survey all of your own? Can't afford a bung for HF?) - Then join the T&G.

Cant see that that will help?

Well, only course for you is to support the OFT then.