Taxi Driver Online

The journey has to go on

IF YOU see an empty Lucketts taxi heading your way and you signal to hail it, the taxi will drive on. It has to: that is the law.

If you are leaving one of the clubs in the Watford precinct at night and order a taxi from Lucketts, the chances are they will not be able to pick you up exactly by the bar or restaurant. That is out of bounds and it is a sore point with local taxi drivers.

They contend that they pay the same fees to the council as Hackney carriage drivers, undergo the same stringent tests and checks, the medicals and the form-filling but they do not have the same access.

Licensed private hire vehicles, as the Lucketts taxis are referred to in officialese, cannot provide a door-to-door service to certain parts of central Watford. The punter cannot always be set down at the shop, pub or restaurant of his choice.

A Punters Petition in support of the local drivers states: "We do not want to be ushered or herded to pick-up points, or be treated like cattle, or to be told to come to the top of the town, where we can join a free-for-all and have to fight for the vehicle that we have previously ordered."

Calling for the restrictions on Watford private hire drivers to be lifted immediately, the petition has the tacit sympathy of the police who would like to see the town cleared quickly of late night revellers after the clubs close.

But the likes of Lucketts drivers cannot park up and make themselves available for punters. They have to be booked, whereas Hackney carriages can be hailed, can loiter and have organised stands, such as at Watford Junction.

"The feeling is," says Vic Morgan, Lucketts controller, "that our drivers pay the same for their plates, their license and undergo the same tests as Hackney carriage drivers. But they are not allowed in the same areas."

Of course Hackney carriage plates may cost the same modest amount as those taxi drivers obtain from the council but the Hackney plates have been known to change hands, Vic tells me, for anything up to £30,000 by the Junction stand.

I wonder how the 'Punter's Petition' for more cabs will go along side the gov statement;
'Thus, the Government considers that, unless a specific case can be made, it is not in the interests of consumers for market entry to be refused to those who meet the application criteria'.

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IDFIMH

The key word is specific unlike your usual generalisation.

What happens in some areas doesn't happen in all and to suggest that all areas should adopt the same policies even though locally things can be so different is at best short sighted.

When we call for access to areas, bus lanes being the most recent, both HC and PH are included, we are BOTH part of an integrated Public Transport System.

B. Lucky

Isn't this article fairly old Sussex? I can recall reading this some time ago.

By the way, for those who are interested, the Watford Station court case has been adjourned for trial in the first week of August or September, I forget which. Obviuosly the drivers accused of plying for hire have pleaded not guilty.

Best Wishes.

JD

I think it's about 2 year old.

But whoever put it up must have thought it relevant to today's situation.

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IDFIMH

Well I thought I was the last one to generalise on this issue. I think quotas are s***, where ever they are.

But I still wait with bated breath for the first council to come up with a reason as to why less cabs are best.

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IDFIMH

Its not a case of less cabs or more cabs but the right ammount of cabs SM.

We don't need to start right at the beginning but what we need to do is ensure that those people entering the trade, normally with the ink not dry on a 5 year finance deal (in sone cases secured against their home), have some sort of income after meeting payments.

The government have stated that anyone who meets the criteria should be licensed, no-one is suggesting any other. What we are saying, and what you fail to recognise is the fact that when it comes to vehicle criteria the council could abolish quotas but could set criteria that would exclude more people and increase financial burdens on those who consider this trade as their profession. With a ever decreasing number of specialist vehicle builders we could see costs of vehicles which meet the criteria rise still further, excluding still more people.

The more people this excludes the fewer cabs we have, the more demand is unmet, the more we play into the hands of the bus companies or and far worse than anything else right into the hands of the Leeches you so despise.

The staus quo may be unfair to some, but its fairer to more people than the possibilities some councils may choose to adopt.

B. Lucky

But who should decide that right amount?

Those in the trade s*** scared of fair competition. Councils who couldn't run a bath. Unions that have lost half their membership in the last 15 years. Operators that wish to keep PH PH, so they haven't a choice. Owner drivers that need others to pay their bills.

Or the market that we work in, cos if there is no custom, then only the buffoons will stay in it.

Look if people are thick enough to enter a trade, and pay large sums without considering future returns, then more fool them.

If a builder buys a brand new van for £20,000, yet doesn't have any work, do you think other builders should bail him out?

I think there are more specialist vehicle makers than ever. However if the T&G had their way, then there would only be one.

The bus companies have enough finance to buy as many plates as they wish, no matter how much the premium. So they could have done that already.

What they don't have though is enough licensed drivers to drive them. So as I have said many times, it doesn't matter a jot the number of taxis, it's the number of drivers that matters.

It is fairer to the leeches, the queue-jumpers and those that take any notice of the scare-mongers.

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IDFIMH

An unmet demand survey.



There are now only 2, they are LTI and Allied Vehicles. The rest are vehicle convertors and their vehicles are not European Whole Bodied M1 specification.



The bus companies are obligated by the DDA to provide buses that are WAV's. Our bus company The Go-ahead group have already started buying WAV taxis.



So what your saying here SM is that by having a limited number of vehicles allows the leeches to make more money. I would suggest that having more vehicles out of the financial limits of the working man would provide them more oppertunities, just look at New York, how many owner drivers are there in New York SM.

B. Lucky

What one of those things that some councils adhere too, and others don't.

One of those things that ignore customer's views?

One of those things that has a formula such as ISUD=APDxEDxP1xHP, when HP=1 if no peaking and 0.5 if peaking is present?

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IDFIMH

Be that as it may, but there are a dozen or so other convertors in the trade.

Are they safe? Well they must be selling to someone, and they must be getting them licensed by someone.

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IDFIMH

From memory I think the price to rent a taxi in your manor is quite reasonable. Do you really think that price would be so fair if someone could buy up the lot?

As for New York, the reason for such a few owner/drivers is that they are restricted. Companies buy up the plates, and then rent them out for very high prices to drivers who have no other choice but to pay up.

If New York was de-limited, then all the drivers could share the spoils. Isn't that what unions used to support?

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IDFIMH

Could you afford a brand new TXII or E7 ?

How many people in your area could afford a brand new TXII or E7 ?

How many people, who couldn't afford one would rent one ?

It seems to me you can afford more than one and are looking to becoming a leech yourself.

B. Lucky

Yes.

I've no idea.

If they can't afford one, then they will have to rent or buy a PH saloon. I can't afford a Rolls Royce, but don't expect others to buy me one. I didn't write nor inact the DDA. It's here and that's that.

I don't think so.

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IDFIMH

back to the leech scenario again.

I fully accept that a company like Medigen, nothing to do with trade, just seeing an opening to carve open a niche for themselves.

My biggest gripe with Medigen is the way they go about their business either it is corrupt or shambolic. Those of you who saw the money programme may reach a similar conclusion to me.

But I reckon our former trade colleague from the north believes that an operator who invests money in a vehicle and offers finance schemes to self employed drivers is a leech. This I dispute, in an open market any driver is more than capable of finding and financing his own vehicle.

Why would they hire them from operators if it was such a bad deal?

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry