Taxi Driver Online

Kelso taxi drivers hope rank will curb congestion



By Mark Entwistle
KELSO taxi drivers have complained over difficulties in getting into the town square on Saturdays due to the large number of taxis already present.
The problem was raised at Kelso Community Council's monthly meeting last week.
Councillors heard that on the previous Saturday there had been no fewer than 27 taxis parked in the town's main square, the majority from other Borders towns, such as Jed

Only four of the taxis belonged to Kelso firms and the question was posed as to whether a town the size of Kelso needed so many taxis to be available.
"It is like that most weekends," commented Councillor John King, a
local taxi operator. "But if you have a licence for the zone that includes Jedburgh, then that zone includes Kelso as well and that means a Jedburgh-based firm can operate anywhere in that particular zone," he told fellow community councillors.
However, Councillor King explained that his firm often did not try and come into the square in Kelso on Saturdays as a result of the large number of taxis already present.
"It's some situation when a Kelso taxi firm can't get into the town centre for taxis from other towns," he added.
However, it is hoped that a new taxi rank for the square will help alleviate the congestion.
Work is to start soon on marking the rank out following a consultation by Scottish Borders Council (SBC). It is believed the rank will be marked out on a stretch of The Square between the properties numbered 43 and 49.
Scottish Borders Councillor Tom Weatherston said he was concerned that a lot of the drivers from other Borders towns would not know the Kelso area.
"But the rules governing the operation of taxis are very firm and an operator can be punished if they do something wrong.
"If you take the total number of taxis over the whole of this zone, it is not ridiculously high," he said.
And it looks like the current four seperate trading zones for taxis in the Borders are set to continue, with SBC due to consider today a recommendation from its officials to maintain the status quo.
Councillors will discuss the recommendation, drawn up after a decision in December to review taxi
zoning policy. The reason behind the review was that thezones were a product of the four district councils which no longer exist.
Back in December, councillors agreed there should be no change to the present zones but that a report on zoning policy be presented at a future meeting.
Therefore, the views of the local taxi trade and the council's community safety, business improvement and passenger transport teams were all sought.
Local authority chiefs also contacted Highland Council which had changed to a single taxi zone in 1998.
Although the subsequent survey of all 121 licensed taxi operators in the Borders only received a 21 per cent response, a majority were opposed to any change to the present system.
Those operators against any change
have cited possible traffic congestion
and lack of rank space in principal
towns, in particular Galashiels, loss of service to the public through lack of local knowledge and disruption to the trade provision as reasons for their opposition to any change.
There was also no evidence from SBC's community safety team, business improvement unit and passenger transport team to suggest a change would be beneficial.
Highland Council did alter the status of its zones from eight district-based areas to a single zone but factors that played a role in that decision – including access to a local airport – are not present here in the Borders.

Half the trouble is weekend hobby taxi drivers..the other half is Bigger companies that do predominantly school runs that hardly pays..so to get their driver to earn a crust and make a wee profit they send them out 2 nights a week...Friday and Sat.

Meanwhile the small privateer fulltimer gets shafted at what should be his golden time and is left with bugger all during the week..not even School work as he just cant compete with ludicrous low tendering from bigger firms.

No large radio networks out in the sticks either...its every man or woman for themselves.


Its a vicious circle played out weekly in every town in Britain i guess...

In a nutshell Bro.........

Before licencing was introduced, if you did not come from a town you did not work it, it was an unwritten rule that everyone abides by for donkeys years, then we where licenced and zoned and in some case double plated and the feck up began

Do SBC allow plates to be put in the rear windows of Cauxhall Insignia Hackney Carriages?

CC

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

Nahhh...Not in the back window of any Hack or Ph or anything else for that matter....yet a lot still do it...sometimes its lying flat ..thats if its there at all..

Odd..cos the SBC sent out enough letters warning operators about it.

Very odd, must be my eyesight.....stuck to the rear window with bluetack.

I'm quite surprised about the bluetack, afterall, a young child could try to eat that stuff

A Grey Coxhaull Insignia, nearly new from memory, I think the plate said zone 2 on it.

CC

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

Yes they do CC and your corect with your discription, we even have 1 280C hack running without a top box with only a for hire light in the bottom left of the windscreen, all because it has a glass roof, there is a roof bar slot on the outer edges though to take a sign

If they do then its news to me...twice ive received a standard letter from the LA stating that Plates should be correctly attached to the outside of a vehicle and not placed inside windscreens front or back...This was letter was doing the round after some suspicions to plates being moved from one vehicle to another for convenience...That could be a load of bull but thats what the story was...however the Letter was genuine.

Unwritten rules aren't worth the paper that they aren't written on, to paraphrase Sam Goldwyn.

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Former taxi driver