Taxi Driver Online

Yes Wharfy, and Sir Christopher Bellamy QC no doubt goes touting in the West End of London on Saturday night

I think Wirral was a test case to try out the 'deprivation of property' provisions in the human rights convention, after all they'd exhausted every other avenue.

Who knows what Mr Royden was told by his union and the lawyers, but there have certainly been bullish articles in Taxi Talk etc about what they had been told by lawyers, and then other articles later saying that they felt let down by the lawyers.

No doubt the lawyers will never tell them that they WILL win the case, but how the union or whoever interprets what they say, we don't know.

Dusty

[quote="Wharfie
That argument Dusty, is bloody difficult to follow, surely you cannot have partial de-limitation.

Wharfie[/quote]

The number of saloons has never been de-limited Wharfy, you can have a plate but it has to be a WAV one, that's why the saloon plates still have a value, because of lower running costs.

Call it what you want, but it's certainly not a full de-limitation in the sense that Andy meant it.

Dusty

Well at least you admit that selling the plate would be exploitation, try telling that to the T&G, they fought a court case over this!!!

Dusty

Well the case law may not be that clear, but I think the need for regular independent surveys is, if your LA hasn't done them and it's challenged then they're in the poo.

Dusty

So the plateholder can still sit on his backside and have up to half a dozen drivers in his car. They might well have a stranglehold over the trade for 50 years or so without driving. I've certainly known people that have gotten a free plate but have nothing to do with the trade, except for the money they make from it.

And is the number of plates set in stone or what??

Dusty

So are you saying that London drivers and vehicles are less safe because the don't have plate limits Mick. I doubt it - I wonder why that is.

I fail to see how giving all PH ply for hire rights would increase the average waiting times overall. For example, many people phone for a PH because hacks are unavailable, so if they were available then they wouldn't bother.

Dusty

What do you mean you don't expect a response Mick??

You've had plenty of responses, and you still haven't substantiated your allegations of un-truths (ie lies) in the article.

We're waiting.

Dusty

Sorry Dusty mate I think your wrong.

People walk into P/H offices because there is a queue at the rank, they may well phone a P/H operator but are you seriously telling me that between 7 and 9 pm and 11pm and 3am on a Saturday night P/H offices aren't fully booked.

Answer me this question please,

Its Saturday night and you get a job from your office to pick up Quentin Farquar from outside the Ballet Shoe and Rugby Ball on the High Street at 23:15, Quentin is a regular to and from work every day and twice a month to the hairdressers but on a Saturday Night he only goes around the corner cause he's scared of the dark. Its been busy and your last fare go's a bit further than you thought so when you pull onto the High Street your 5 minutes late for Quentin, the rank outside Stavros's kebab house
is absolutely heaving, you pull up outside the Ballet Shoe and Rugby Ball and someone approaches you and offers you £20 up front to do a £10 fare.

WHAT DO YOU DO ?

You pick up Quentin. He's your bread and butter.

_________________
There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

Well a sensible taxi office would not give the PH or HC vehicle the customer's destination. Thus the driver will pick up your regular because he know no different.

Also if the regular is only going around the corner, so what? If it's mobbed out, all the quicker he will be back to pick up someone else.

Back to the sensible office, if the operator remembers you did them a favour, they might well return you one back.

As the 26 years wait has been doubted, I asked a colleague in B&H for further details.

He said that of the 19 new plates being issued,
one lad has been waiting 26 years
one lad 22 years
one lad 21 years
one lad 20 years
one lad 19 years
one lad 18 years
four lads 17 years
five lads 16 years
six lads 15 years.

Now the smart amongst us will see that adds up to 20, thus one of the lads who has waited 15 years will miss out.

I'm not sure what's worse, the lad waiting 26 years for an offer, or the lads waiting 15 years with nothing.

It is a fact as its quoted in the judgement that the report to committee said that there was an item about human rights, to launch a test case from a taxicab was indeed brave or stupid!

Wharfie

Mick

I agree that if both sectors are busy then it wouldn't make a lot of difference, but a one-tier trade would have other benefits, for example:

- would enable hailing and plying throughout the town in question, without a tiny proportion of HCs pleasing themselves where they work.

- would mean a level playing field for drivers.

- would stop the kind of bickering evident on this site and more generally.

- would eradicate public confusion.

If all PH in Gateshead become HCs, you'd probably find that most of them end up doing mostly pre-booked work and only a small amount of them would actually do only street work.

Dusty

but the lad who has waited 26 years had nothing after 15!
in all this planned expansion would just one more plate make that much difference?

cos the lad that loses out could appeal, then the whole lot may be thrown to the wolves!

Wharfie

If we all went Hackney and all played the same rules if someone said 5 years later "lets go back to the two tier system" all hell would break loose ond Mick would lead the protest!

however it aint gonna happen, 5 years from now most of our industry could be wiped out with newr forms of cheaper and more accesible transport, life is moving on, this trade isnt.

Wharfie