Taxi Driver Online

City centre gridlocked in taxi protest

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/03/19/city-centre-gridlocked-in-taxi-protest-91466-23187499/

PROTESTING taxi drivers have today jammed the centre of Cardiff in a protest about conditions for drivers in the city.

Up to 300 cars were involved in a go-slow campaign through the middle of the city centre this afternoon.

They are complaining to Cardiff Council about a lack of taxi ranks and an increase in the number of people being given licences.

For full story, see tomorrow's Echo.

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

Did they have the protest in a long tunnel then?

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IDFIMH

Taxi protest causes rush hour chaos

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/cardiff-news/2009/03/20/taxi-protest-causes-rush-hour-chaos-91466-23189801/


MORE than 300 disgruntled taxi drivers jammed city-centre rush-hour traffic in a protest over working conditions.

They are furious about the lack of ranks in the middle of the city and the number of new cab licenses being issued by Cardiff council.

Cabbies are also unhappy with the one-way system in St Mary Street and a proposal to include another test for drivers.

A convoy of hundreds of taxis left Museum Place shortly after 4pm yesterday going towards Cardiff Castle and down Westgate Street.

It crawled to the bottom end of St Mary Street before going down to Callaghan Square in the Bay and back up through the city centre.

Hundreds of motorists got caught up in the slow-moving line of taxis, whose drivers continuously sounded their horns throughout the hour-long parade.

Mathab Khan, chair of the Hackney Carriage Association, said: “The council is ignoring drivers’ needs.

“There are too many taxis. We physically do not have room for any more taxis in a city where there are already more than 900.

“We want to show Cardiff council and its people that we are a forgotten group, a forgotten public service provider, who are not getting help.”

Driver Avril Mumford said: “More and more taxi driver licences are being issued but there are no spaces for the cars.

“The rank we have on St Mary Street is facing the wrong way.

“If we want to get elderly or disabled passengers into the cars they have to go out into the middle of the street with buses flying past.”

Mr Khan said 22 drivers had been given parking tickets in the past few weeks because they had been forced to wait on double yellow lines.

He added: “Now Cardiff’s licensing department has decided to include another test for our trade, a course that would cost £300 – which we cannot afford.

“We already pay more than we can afford. We are all united in our trade and want to make sure everybody knows it.”

A number of drivers tried to enter a Cardiff council meeting at City Hall shortly after the end of the protest.

Coun Ed Bridges, head of the council’s licensing committee, met the organisers of the protest outside the chamber and was presented with a letter outlining their complaints.

He said the issue would go before the council in May and he encouraged drivers to attend the meeting and make their problems known.

Rashed Mohammed, a taxi driver in Cardiff for 15 years, said: “When I started it was very good for drivers but it’s becoming hard to make anything now.

“Sometimes we make less than £30 in a day.

“New drivers are being given licences with no knowledge of the area. I had one ask me for directions to the road where he would have picked his licence up from.”

Driver Robin Cullen added: “It’s got to the stage where we are struggling to make a living. It can’t go on like this.”

A similar protest due to take place today has been cancelled.

TAXI drivers are protesting about a number of issues affecting their livelihood in the city centre.

According the Hackney Carriage Drivers’ Association they are concerned about the number of new taxi licences being issued by Cardiff council.

They are also unhappy about the lack of taxi ranks in the city centre and say drivers are being given parking tickets for waiting on double yellow lines when there are no spaces available.

Drivers also want the council to reverse the one-way system recently introduced to St Mary Street, claiming the taxi rank is on the wrong side of the road.

It means elderly and disabled passengers have to enter cabs from the middle of the road and not from the pavement. Many drivers say they are being forced to refuse disabled customers for health and safety reasons.

At present there are between 800 and 900 black cab drivers working in the city.

They pay £60 every six months for their licensing badge and £200 for the plates for the back of the car.

Drivers who rent or hire their car from a company can pay anything up to £200 a month.

A spokeswoman for Cardiff council last night said: “Cardiff council and South Wales Police are in constant dialogue with the Cardiff Hackney Association over these issues and they will be progressed to resolution on a planned and programmed basis.”

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

That was what I was on about the other day Sussex, I thought it was around 900 cabs in Cardiff but wasn't sure, but I know it's not been happy rank over there for quite a while.

It's a perfect example of extremes tbh, when a city needs some extra cabs there shouldn't be a problem issuing a number of new plates after a survey, but to just open right up is just dangerous to all, once overloaded resentment surfaces between drivers and etiquette goes out the window along with pride in the car (some never had any I know) only solution I can think of is that all plates issued since deregulation in swamped towns and cities (I think Mansfield is another one iirc) will have to be revoked after a fair time period to allow those who've bought cars to clear the finance on them, and have a lottery to decide which of them should be allowed to stay to bring numbers to a proper service level, those with proven complaint's against them should not be allowed in the lottery.

One thing I've never understood is how the general public will stand outside a nightclub for an hour to get in, then queue for another 30 mins for a drink, and not say a word, yet they come outside and if there's no magic carpet waiting for the very moment they want one they complain, same thing with the money, 4 quid for a drink 7 quid to get in Bargain!! but 8 quid between 4 of them to get home safe is just outrageous in their minds, funny old world.


Just to be clear so we don't end up back where we were 4 days ago, this is all discussion I've written, not a poke finger and blame aimed at you.

The problem isn't delimitation, it is delimiting with poor or non existant standards.

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

I have no problem with you or anyone else poking a finger.

I don't know what the situation in Cardiff is, and if it's grim then I take no pleasure out of that.

However, delimitation in Cardiff came about due to one person having 50+ plates and then deciding he wanted a few more via a managed growth plate issue.

Therefore I did take pleasure over Cardiff's change of policy.

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IDFIMH

TBH....the guy did sh*t himself when the LA deregulated

CC

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

I think delimiting is a problem even with high standards. IMO managed growth with high standards is a better choice

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

If that's true I can see why it was done, but that's penalised many for the sake of one, and this multi car ownedship has to stop, the rules always were the plate holder could own one plate and I think he was required to drive it for 30 hours per week.

This is my main fear Sussex, it's going on on PH and there is one individual locally who would just love to land 100 hack plates just like that without any thought to the effect it would have.

Seems cheap



How can a driver get a parking ticket if he's in the vehicle?

CC

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

I don't believe a driver was forced to wait on yellow lines. They took a risk and it cost them. If there is no room on the ranks they need to deal with that issue and in the meantime wait else where

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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 not do away with ranks, are they needed in the 21st century, i don't think so

Inaccurate reporting I am afraid - An E7 without a data base is usually somewhere between £170 to £200 per week depending on the age of the vehicle. An E7 with data is approx £255 per week and Sharan drivers for whatever reason pay in excess of £280 per week .



I would imagine the drivers who got booked were queuing at Cardiff General Train station, they would have been on double yellows and because there is a problem there they would have probably blocked them in and booked the lot.



You are right but unfortunately the council have issued plate after plate with the attitude that the drivers themselves will regulate the numbers.

What they fail to grasp is that once a driver takes on a financial commitment i.e a new vehicle then he is stuck there whether he wants out or not. The drivers then end up working all sorts of silly hours (a safety issue) just to stay above water.



Excellent points.



The problems are two fold, the council have doubled the hacks in three years from 450 to over 900. A high percentage of hacks do not run with an office, so the City center being awash with double yellows and also vehicles trying to make a living.

The second point is that we never had many ranks anyway but what we did have totaled something like 48 spaces throughout the city (900) cabs. The council are also doing a massive build ( new shopping center etc) unfortunately they have done away with a number of ranks to accommodate the work going on - so we have drivers parking every where because there is nowhere else.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

I suppose you're right if you're a PH car.