Taxi Driver Online

Hello all members. I found this message forum by doing a search on google and im happy with the results. It is a lively and interesting forum. Now i have an issue i would like to discuss and i hope all members who view this posting give me a genuine opinion please. I am an asain lad of 30 years who lives in glasgow. I recently (about 7 months) ago started to work for a private hire company who is regarded as the biggest in scotland and who is named after scotlands second city after edinburgh, I do not want to be too specific so please accept my apologies if you have not yet figured who im on about. There are lots of rumours circulating within the wider asain communities of glasgow that ethnic minority citizens of glasgow, who decide to drive for this firm are allocated specific plots within the city of glasgow, BASED ON THE colour of their skin !!!
Yes its quite disgusting isnt it ??? If you are caucasian, then you are allocated an east end call sign from alpha to delta , echo and so on,,but kilo call signs are kept for asain drivers. Now if we were solely talking about the letters of the alphabet here then it wouldnt be such a big deal, but kilo call signs are restricted by way of the job despatch system, meaning that if any kilo driver wanted to work the city centre late at night, which quite frankly is where you will get any business at all through the week days at that time, then although you may be plotted number one for the next job,,as soon as another ``east end call sign`` plots onto the same area, he automatically gets the job, and you are left sitting for hours on first position. The east end of glasgow is a very very busy area indeed for this company,,,drivers come and go on a daily basis,, but whenever an ethnic minority individual asks to be given an east end call sign so he has a half decent chance to make a living,,he is always refused on the excuse that their arent any available. The rule of thumb for this company is if you want to drive for us,,and your brown or black,,then you are allocated a kilo call sign,,and if you are white, no problems,,welcome to our club !!!!
I live practically in the east end, yet i was given a kilo call sign,,which is known as a southside call sign,,because more asians live here than in the east end,,i was given this even though i live 13 miles away from the southside, and the east end is 3 miles away from me,,lol. For months i have heard rumours regarding the unfairplay and racism within this company,,and i am sick to the bone with it. I, like many of my friends have been born and bred in glasgow all my days,,why should i have to be treated any differently to my white skinned colluegues. I explained this problem to one of my hires one particular night,,and this lady was so shocked at this policy that she subsequently went on to cancel her credit account with this company. It is utterly heartbreaking to see the ``eastenders`` go from one job to the next and we are sitting killing flies in our dead little plots,,allocated to us through no choice of our own,,,please advise as to what can be done about this, we have a so called commitee at our hq,,but these are the guys who make the policies,,who then am i meant to turn to to express my grief,,there are lads in the past i beleive who have taken this step and were told to hand in their radios if they dont like it,,and all this in 2004,,
P.S.,,we still pay the same costs for the radio as all the east end drivers,,despite being ``done `` out of jobs,,

Sorry to hear about that mate, racisim should be kicked out the back door NOW. If I were you I'd leave, these firms do not deserve to be running.

thanx for your reply , funny thing is i was going to buy a new octavia to run as a taxi,,under these conditions ill more likely have it reposessed within a month,,lol,,

Alas too many members of the taxi/PH trade are racist, and far too many of our customers follow suit.

As for your problem I would give the CRE a ring.

_________________
IDFIMH

I know very little about Scotland least of all Glasgow but surely there is more than one Private hire company in Glasgow, why did you choose to work for this particular company? Did you not do any research before you made your decision to join this company?

Perhaps you could discuss you're grievance with the manager of the firm On the other hand on reading your post perhaps a representative from the firm may wish to respond to your allegations on here.

In the interest of common justice would it not be satisfactory to have at our disposal both sides of the argument? Perhaps you are omitting something that is pertinent to the way this firm operates. I think it is sometimes very difficult to form an opinion when there is only one side of the argument to go on. I'm sure you would feel the same way.

There have on occasions in this forum and others like it been allegations levelled at certain individuals and issues and when these allegations have been thoroughly investigated they have been proven to be utterly false.

One of the largest companies in Glasgow is "Glasgow private hire ltd" they serve three areas of the City with separate phone numbers. City East, City/City-West and City-South perhaps this is the firm you are describing?

If I worked for a company that practised discrimination in the way you imply then I wouldn't hesitate in finding myself another P/H Company.

Why don't you and the other drivers you mention who feel discriminated against start your own P/H Company?

Best wishes

JD

there are 3 big firms in glasgow,,rumour has it that two of these companies have policies specifically directed at ethnic minoriy drivers. But until i experienced this discrimination myself,,i took it with a pinch of salt and regarded it as just that,,rumour. I am the first person from my own ethnic background to admit that there are certain indivuduals from the asain community that shouldnt be allowed to work as private hire drivers, specifically for their own safety and also the rep of the companies invloved. However well meaning and courteous they may be,,some individuals have very very poor english,,and also no sense of direction,quite literally. To be a driver does require some street / area knowledge, and some honestly dont. This can infuriate hires to the point of verbal / racist abuse. Although not condoned in any way,,i can see the other point of view also from the hires perspective. But why tarnish us all with the same brush, i dont have poor english, i speak very well and can converse with the best. I dont know every street in glasgow but i know 90 percent of them, yet we all suffer the same discrimination. I personally have never had any hassles with hires and i work the late night shifts. I go out of my way to promote the company when doing my shifts etc, its just a pity that the frim invloved dont think the same of ``us``.as i said i am sure the firm i am referring to know who they are, please come on here and debate these allegations, because if nothing else comes of this,,then there will be a very bitter taste indeed for years to come about glasgows so called public service providers !!!

Without you naming the firm to whom your alleged allegations are directed how do you expect them to respond? You have no fear of reprisal because your anonymity on here is assured, so why are you so reluctant to name the firm?

I sympathise with your predicament if in indeed what you say is accurate but some like me may question the integrity of an individual who makes sweeping allegations without first naming the guilty party.

By not naming the guilty party you are denying the accused the basic right of reply.

Perhaps it should be noted that Equality is not the single domain of ethnic minorities by accusing this firm of wrong doing in the way you did suggests you yourself may have your own interpretation of the word Equality?

To come on here and make unfounded allegations to which you offer no evidence does your cause no good whatsoever. There will of course be those on here who will take what you say at face value without even considering the implications of your allegations.

However, there will be others who will have the patience to read and judge your allegations with a little more consideration.

Best wishes

JD

Hi
I think that you are ill informed of how the system works. The company you are talking about is Glasgow Private Hire Ltd and yes they do have specific callsigns:

A - E - Cars that work the East end of Glasgow 774 3000
F - Company cars (can be any of the main three numbers)
K - Cars that work out of the Southside office (649 3333)
L - Cars that work the Westend of Glasgow (222 2222)

The reason that a lot of the Kilo drivers are ethnic minority is the fact that the office is located near the largest Asian communities in Glasgow and the drivers come from that part of the City.

There has already been one company in the past in Glasgow that was taken to court for not taking on Asian drivers and they were convicted of this.

I would suggest that if you have an issue regarding your acqusations that you take it to the drivers committee of Glasgow Private Hire or the Manger or even the MD of the company.

If you dont get any joy then you should take it further and report the company if you believe that the company is in breach of the race discrimination act.

Anyway, good luck and at the end of the day if you dont like at that company you can always try:

A-Cars/Croft
Southside Radio Group
Hampden Cars
Domino
Star Cars
Cross Cars
Pacific Cars
On-Line
Barras Private Hire
Albany

There are more so YOU do have a choice.

regards
RadioMan

Thank you for this informative post Radioman. It sheds a little more light on how the system up there in Glasgow actually works.

Best wishes

JD

I think that goes some way to answering as to why you get bypassed.

gph is indeed the company being spoken about. This is not the voice or gripe of one person, many people past and present have had this problem,. JD, this is not the sour grapes story of some uneducated fool, i know exactly what im saying here and maybe the reason i am saying it is because the so called commitee is not as approachable as one may like to think. Also there are those that have made direct complaints , to no avail. The city centre is not the east end of glasgow,, neither is it the south, west etc. ITs the centre of the city, so why are ALL cars not allowed to fair play in jobs allocation, at the moment there are a handful of cars that enjoy the lucrative charing cross area weekdays, again fact. Also these are mainly east end cars or company cars,,but no southsiders, unless ofcourse theres no one to do the jobs,,then maybe we get a piece of the action,,doesnt sound fair to me. After all it is us aswell who help clear the jobs in the city at weekends when need is the greatest, but at weekdays we dont get a sniff. Finally, there are ,,as i had mentioned before, asian drivers living in the east end, some well out of glasgow altogether, why do they automatically get `k` call signs,,that is my point,,do they think all asains live in the southside,,,,how many drivers with a-e callsigns are asian,, many points to answer no doubt. Thank you all.

The more I read about this, the more it sounds iffy.

If you want to take issue with it, then the CRE are the people to do so. You must have a local office near you, so I would drop them a line asking for a confidential meeting.

_________________
IDFIMH

yeh cheers mate,,,that step has been taken.

The problem we have here in Glasgow is the private hire companies are run by 'hard men' & if you step out of line you could be making trouble for yourself

Maybe the driver having problems should sit the Glasgow knowledge text & get a shift on a taxi (even though he will never get a plate of his own due to the number restrictions)

All the best

The CRE will investigate the companies proceedures, so really the complainant should stay anon. Unless of course he/she opens their mouths too much.

If, as has been stated, asians drivers are only allowed to book on areas with high % of ethnic customers, then that seems very wrong.