Taxi Driver Online

so WHY do some LA's insist PH have rooflights?

its not TAXI they need to look up, its PRIVATE (as in hire)

Surely hacks would prefer PH be totally 100% not confusable with them?..



"I know, lets reduce the chance of [edited by admin] public or non-english speaking persons approaching a PRIVATE HIRE vehicle, lets slap door signs on em and a rooflight"

yer, great idea!

_________________
Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

The public already think that private hire are taxi's - in all of my years as a driver (both hackney and private hire), people have tried to flag me down regardless of having a light or not. They see a company name, recognise it as a local taxi firm and try to stop it. It makes no difference to them if you are in the wrong town either - our town is small (about 6 miles diameter) as a consquence we spend a lot of time in neighbouring towns (both less than 5 miles away in either dircetion). The public don't care, as others have said, what is on the car, whether it says taxi or private hire - it doesn't mean the driver has to stop. Just because some idiot is waving like mad from the side of the road the private hire driver doesn't have to stop and pick them up. If they wanted to keep their license they ought to leave well alone.

We're not asking for the law controlling who picks up what/who/where to be changed. It's just a word in a little bit of advertising - cards, stickers, posters, whatever. It doesn't need to be on a vehicle. Though its daft if you put it in your web address, you can stick www.fredstaxi.com on your private hire car......

_________________
WWW.CWMBRANCARS.CO.UK

[quote="MR T"]Purpose-built Hackney's come with the word taxi in the roof light as standard..... the danger of wrongly educating the public that private hire are taxis is that it leaves the public believing that they can flag down a private hire vehicle in the street. which then means private hire drivers are committing an offence, councils especially have a duty of care to make sure this does not happen.....[/quote]

i don't see why you think this - people try and fail to flag me down - as a female PH driver i don't fancy picking up any tom, dick or harry off the side of the road....

_________________
WWW.CWMBRANCARS.CO.UK

With all due respect that is you and your choice (quite rightly too) not to pick up flaggers but not all ph drivers are so well behaved

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

understood toots, but whether the driver decides to commit an offence, (and whether he/she is unfortunate enough to be caught doing it) or the driver does not wish to risk their licence, is a matter for the individual to decide.

it would seem the public have already decided that a vehicle used for hire + reward - whether private hire or hackney - is a TAXI

www.comparethetaxi.blogspot.com

you can see what Yell and other people think a TAXI is, especially our local authority, that list TAXI numbers - and then underneath "private hire and taxi numbers"

_________________
WWW.CWMBRANCARS.CO.UK

Are you ashamed of being private hire..... why do you need to use the word taxi

_________________
Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Far from ashamed, I have spent many years answering somewhere in excess of 2.5 million phone calls asking for a taxi. Some asked for a bus. Some a limo. Some a minibus. The odd couple for a Chinese, fags or other stuff for directions or deliveries, but never, ever for a private hire vehicle, despite every company being the private hire logo or showing the same on their cards.

_________________
WWW.CWMBRANCARS.CO.UK

It's a fools logic that dictates that you must stick a Taxi style roof sign on a vehicle to stop it looking like a Taxi..but then again its LO's that decide such and the only thing that LO's have in common with Logic is the first two Letters of their Acronym.

Answering the phone... in a Private Hire Office.... now let's see.. yep.. I used to do that.... it went something like.... Ring Ring... ring ring.... Hello Taxi's....

_________________
Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Many moons ago I worked for GLOBE TAXI's in Newport, South Wales.

That's where i first came across the name TAXI in a PRIVATE HIRE company. The badges we all had dual hackney+private hire drivers badges, costing £20 per year, which was expensive compared to the next town of only £8.

That £8 town is now charging £97.

What an increase in the last 20 years. 12 times the price. Its a shame we don't get paid 12 times wages or fares!

But, alas, I digress - the fact is they answered the phone "hello taxi's" or "globe taxi's" but I cannot recall any hackney's there at all - in fact, if there had been a hackney in the firm, another bye-law of the town was 1 hackney = every car has meter fitted, and we didn't have them, so no hackneys in the company but still TAXI's 22 years ago.........and more..

_________________
WWW.CWMBRANCARS.CO.UK

20 years.... you have only just started.... I can give you another 33 on top...... we have a company here that when they answer the phone, they say, hello Seaforth radio car's, they do very well......ps.. my first licence was two shillings and sixpence a year....

_________________
Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

ha ha, its 24 years this year that I've been doing this job one way or the other.

radio's are a distant memory......thank god.....mind you, i liked the job better then, i think the driver's did too, with the friendly banter on the radio.

trouble with this job is the paranoia - "he's got a bigger one than me" - in more ways than one seems to be the thing on most (male) taxi driver's minds........

the pda's have not solved this issue, but at least the little sms messages can't "shout" at you (well, not until the end of the shift, anyway)

still TAXI'S though............

_________________
WWW.CWMBRANCARS.CO.UK

Nice company, nice people and nice drivers

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

any totty drivers?

_________________
Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

I'm sure that MrT can remember the days when we stood on the Bonnet and waved 'Red & Yellow' Flags to each other!

_________________
Don't dream it ~ Be it.