Taxi Driver Online

Yes, a fundamental problem is that the methodology looks at the taxi market in isolation and assumes that growth in demand will be reflected in SUD and thus taxi supply will be increased to meet it.

But it ignores the fact that growth can be catered for in a different market, namely PH.

The survey concludes that there is no evidence of SUD, but the increase in demand has shifted on to the PH market, so to that extent there won't be SUD in the taxi market.

_________________
Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

If you can't actually point to where the figures have been taken out of context and spun, then on the contrary, it seems to be you that's doing the spinning.

Let's keep it simple:

Jacobs claims that there are 31,000 rank jobs a week, and there are 1,260 taxis.

Thus 25 rank jobs per taxi per week.

Doesn't ring true, does it?

Assuming that each taxi is worked 100 hours a week, that means one rank job every 4 hours.

And if it's then assumed that the rest of the taxis work comes from either hails or phones, it hardly says much for the survey being a good measure of demand for taxis.

_________________
Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

These surveys are nonsense, as I said a couple of years ago in M&R.

http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/reality.htm

_________________
Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Having today made some enquiries I have been able to glean the following information with regard to the Edinburgh hotels consulted by Jacobs. I am concerned that a survey which is supposed to measure Broad public demand found it necessary to only consult with eight hotels out of possible 100 plus. These amounts to some 8% of the total number of Hotels situated in the immediate licensing area of Edinburgh. Only Jacobs can answer the question as to why they didn't consult with other Hotels but I have formed the opinion that they "may" have been told not to?

I spoke to all eight hotels in the Jacobs report and everyone implied that they expected preferencial treatment for their residents from the Taxi Radio companies. Meaning they expect some priority over other customers.

Jacobs solicited comments from eight hotels out of a possible 100+ which is the number I have been given by Edinburgh tourist board. For the purpose of calculation I'm going to set the total number of hotels in Edinburgh at 100 until someone proves the Tourist board figures wrong. This would then give us a figure of those hotels solicited by Jacobs of 8%.

Of the 8% in question seven hotels use a direct line to a Hackney carriage radio firm, only one had a direct line to a Private hire firm.

If the Edinburgh Tourist board figures of 100+ hotels is correct and I have no reason to believe they are not then a massive 92% of Hotels in the Edinburgh area were not consulted. The question must be asked why it was that only eight hotels were consulted?

Why did Jacobs restrict their enquiries to just eight of the top hotels of which seven just happen to have a direct line to a Hackney carriage radio firm? Do all the other Hotels in Edinburgh not count because they don't happen to have a direct line to a Taxi company?

Of the seven Hotels that have a direct line to a Hackney carriage radio company six were satisfied with the service while one was dissatisfied with the service. I was informed only this morning that Hotel residents at the Thistle Hotel were kept waiting up to 45 minutes for a Taxi, which left many residents being late for their appointments.

The Carlton uses a Private Hire company but I suspect there may also be a Taxi rank outside or close by, perhaps someone can clarify that?

Jacobs wrote in their report.

Each of the major hotels in the Edinburgh area was contacted and asked about their experience of the taxi service. Every hotel was reasonably satisfied with the taxi service in Edinburgh.

While six of the seven hotels that use Hackney carriages services were indeed happy with the Taxi service, there is certainly one that isn't. Perhaps the member of staff Jacobs interviewed had a different opinion to the one I interviewed today. That would account for the difference of opinion, however in order to find out what the member of staff did say to Jacobs I hope to speak to him tomorrow.

George intercontinental hotel. Direct line to Hackney carriage Radio Company Satisfied with service.

McDonald Roxburgh Hotel. Direct line to Hackney carriage Radio Company Satisfied with service.

Sheraton Grand Hotel. Direct line to Hackney Carriage Radio Company. Satisfied with service.

Thistle Edinburgh. Direct line to Comcabs Hackney Radio Company. Not satisfied with service. For instance this morning the Hotel guests had to wait for up to 45 minutes for a Taxi between the hours of 8 and 9.

Holiday Inn Edinburgh North. Direct line to Hackney Carriage Radio Company.

The Carlton. Contract Provider Festival Cars Private hire. Satisfied with service.

Radisson Edinburgh. Contract Provider Central Taxis Hackney. Satisfied with service.

The Glass house. Direct line to Hackney carriage Radio Company Satisfied with service.

But why would they have to , or indeed be expected to speak to every hotel in Edinburgh, is that not just a representitive sample, they also consulted with some supermarkets, should they have spoke to every shopkeeper in Edinburgh?

No one is suggesting they speak to every hotel in Edinburgh but to ignore 92% of hotels is hardly measuring demand.

Regards

JD

Well Here are 40 they didn't consult. I would be interest to know how many of these Hotels have a direct line to a Taxi company and how many have a direct line to a private hire company?

1. Albany Hotel
2. Apex International Hotel
3. Balmoral, The
4. Best Western Braid Hills Hotel
5. Best Western Bruntsfield Hotel
6. Best Western Edinburgh Capital Hotel
7. Best Western Edinburgh City
8. Best Western Kings Manor Hotel
9. Bonham, The
10. Caledonian Hilton
11. Channings
12. Chester Residence, The
13. Christopher North Hotel
14. Clarendon Hotel
15. Dalhousie Castle & Spa
16. Dunstane House Hotel
17. Edinburgh Marriott Hotel
18. Greens Hotel
19. Hilton Edinburgh Airport
20. Holiday Inn Edinburgh
21. Hotel Ibis
22. Howard, The
23. InterContinental The George
24. Jurys Inn Edinburgh
25. Learmonth Ramada Jarvis
26. Macdonald Holyrood
27. Malmaison
28. Marriott Dalmahoy & Country Club
29. Norton House Hotel
30. Novotel Edinburgh Centre
31. Number 10 Hotel Apartments, The
32. Old Waverley Hotel, The
33. Parliament House Hotel
34. Point, The
35. Quality Hotel Edinburgh Airport
36. Royal Garden Apartments
37. Royal Mile Residence
38. Royal Terrace Hotel, The
39. Scotsman, The
40. Travel Inn City Centre Metro

It would appear that a considerable amout of the 40 hotels I posted have a direct line or freephone number to a local Taxi or private hire office. In the main it would appear Taxi offices have the lions share of work that comes out of these hotels. A pattern is now emerging that might suggest that the Taxi trade has a very high percentage of at least 90% of these Hotels signed up as first preference users.

Considering all the other elements attached to Radio work the Jacobs figure suggesting only 8% of work comes from Radio companies is now brought into question?

Regards

JD

These figures of Jacobs get more confusing the deaper I probe. Today I phoned Comcabs Edinburgh run by a Mr Glasgow. I was informed by an operative there that they have about 300 Radios and clear 15,000 jobs a week. Considering there are three main Radio companies in Edinburgh and com cabs is the smallest of the three then just how many jobs are the other two clearing each week?

Jacobs said Edinburgh has 31,000 ranks hires per week which equates to 32%. Comcabs clear 15,000 jobs per week, thats another 15.4% street hails consist of 60% that distorts the figure to 107.4%. Something wrong somewhere because if the other two Radio firms each had 15,000 jobs per week then we would end up with a total of around 138.4%. I think Jacobs better go back to the Drawing board.

Taking the information from com cabs I'm going to suggest that the other two firms Central and City cabs clear at least the same amount of jobs per week. In that case the I'm going to suggest that these three Radio companies clear a minimum 45,000 jobs per week. This gives us 14,000 more hires the Jacobs figures for rank hires.

Jacobs rank hires = 31,000 = 32%
Hires from the three main radio companies = 45,000 = 46.4%

Jacobs suggests street hails amount for 60% of hires but when you add 60% to 78.4% it just doesn't add up to 100%

Regards

JD

Yes, as I said last week the figure for phone work seemed low given that the report said that the radio circuits are very active.

I suspect the problem is something to do with the question they asked and where - they asked people in the city centre what their normal method of hire was. Thus someone could use one phoned taxi to every two rank/hailed, thus this would suggest that one third of hires were phoned if that person was representative of taxi users generally, but to that extent a survey would answer the question 100% rank/hailed and 0% radio.

Indeed, the report does allude to that to some extent when it mentions the suburbs and says that phone work might be higher for people travelling from there.

Anyway, a lot better method of ascertaining the proportion of work coming from each method of hire would have been to ask the trade what proportion they do regarding each method, or the public should have been asked how often they use each method rather than their normal method, since the resultant figures clearly tell us little about what the trade does in terms of hires by each method.

_________________
Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

I was informed that Com Cab have 300 radios on hire, I'm not going to be too specific about that information so I'm going to leave a margin of error just in case the operative got it slightly wrong? Never the less 300 radios covering 15,000 jobs a week works out at 50 jobs per radio, per week.

Jacobs has told us in their report that 8% which equates to 7,750 jobs comes from "all Radio work" If any of you guys from Edinburgh actually believe this then I would like to see your reasons why?

If jacobs was right it would mean each of the three big Radio firms would clear 2,583 jobs per week or 369 jobs per 24 hour day or 15.3 jobs per hour.

I do not believe that our Edinburgh colleagues can actually sit there and not believe the Jacobs statistics are flawed. If you guys want to live in a world of self denial then so be it. I know one thing for sure, I certainly wouldn't want you as my trade representitive if you can't face up to reality.

Regards

JD

According to Jacobs the average mileage per cab is 141 miles per day = 51.465 miles per year.

A Calculation of 30 mpg at 4.00 per gallon gives us a total of,

£18.80 per day

£6,862 per year.
.................................................................................

The problem Jacobs and every other market research company have is that they are trying to specifically prove no unmet demand at Taxi ranks.

This latest Jacobs report has conclusively proved that the least popular way of hiring a cab in Edinburgh is by way of cab rank. Yet how could they get their figures so miserably wrong? I don't know how large Edinburgh is in terms of Square miles but it would appear these Taxi ranks fit into an area no larger than four square miles, What about the rest of the Edinburgh public don't they count in this survey?

You would have at least thought they would have contacted every Hackney Radio Company and ask them how many Radios they rent out each week and how many jobs they clear in a week? That's a starting point.

The following objectives were set for this Study:

Measure demand and latent demand from the public (including wheelchair and Identify if there is any significant unmet demand in Edinburgh as a whole.

Consider any other local areas of concern, particularly the airport; Review stance provision and recommend changes;

Determine public perception of the taxi service in Edinburgh; and Propose viable, practical ways by which taxis can best be integrated into the other disabled users);

Identify any local unmet demand issues within parts of the City; public transport infrastructure of the City. A number of specific requests were made of the Study (numbers refer to those given in the Clients’ Brief):

1. A systematic and robust set of stance demand observations;

2. Investigation of public opinion regarding availability of taxis, reasons for lack of use of them, and estimation of latent demand;

3. Consideration of the adequacy of the taxi service provided to disabled passengers;

4. Telephone or face to face stakeholder consultation;

5. Assessment of the level of service, including other transport modes, provided to consumers in Edinburgh; and

6. Comparison with other cities in Scotland and the UK.

The only reference to latent demand that I can see in this report is what I have posted above. Perhaps I missed it but I'm open to offers.

Regards

JD

I amended the figure of £34.61 because it was calculated as km and not miles. Under miles it is adjusted to £56 per 2.7 persons per day. Jacobs used km in their fare comparison. I converted the km to miles but forgot to make the adjustment for the fare chart figures. So the 2.7 persons have just had an instant increase of 23.39 pounds.

One thing I was able to calculate was the charge per mile over 8 km which is 4.96 miles this works out at 2.13 per mile = total 10.57. I will get an Edinburgh fare chart and see exactly how they apply these rates.

Regards

JD

So JD you think the report is biased and fixed? I think you might have bitten off more than you can chew on this one.........