Taxi Driver Online

http://www.chelmsfordbc.gov.uk/democrac ... eb2005.pdf

the list says quality control, but the minutes here says the applications have been refused.

regards

Captain cab

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

my mistake!

deregulated on 1st February pending discussions with the police and siting of taxi ranks.

and this review

http://www.chelmsfordbc.gov.uk/democrac ... 70205a.pdf

Captain cab

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Cor, poor old JD was just about to give us all chapter and verse.

That was close.

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IDFIMH

hehe, yeah, glad I apologised when I did

The funny thing is I'm here going through the council agendas and minutes of the meetings pertaining to chelmsford, and i cannot find a reference to SCATA.

personally it looks like chelsform were issuing a set number of licenses per year, and for some reason decided to delimit, even though a survey took place a couple of years ago.

Now if SCATA had bothered explaining all this, instead of going on about a load of bollox, they may have actually got somewhere!

Captain cab

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Reading through what i've seen of it so far, it appears that the LA has been leading the TOA on during the previous few months, I think the deregulation would have taken place regardless of what anyone said.

A preconcieved solution, with lipservice being made the the TOA.

Captain cab

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I think the council realised that any decision to stay restricted would have been challenged by the big boys. Thus they decided that to de-limit would make life a lot easier, and save the council loads of money.

As for the folly of the local trade taking any advice from SCATA, well they got what they deserved.

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IDFIMH

You are right Cap, it was a forgone conclusion from a very early stage but it was a council decision, so in theory we can only assume that is what they wanted.

Scata are signed up members to the "councils know best" syndrome, so they can't really complain when a council decides to change its policy.

Regards

JD

thanks sussex and JD,

although, I dont think it makes the LA right, on that we must agree to differ.

regards

Captain cab

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I have only just found this forum.and this thead being of interest to me as I work chelmsford,since the delimit the trade has gone t-ts up,cabs that become for sale are most being taken up by the "taliban",and the new plates as well, and most seem to be working from 20/24 hour day ! [what about 4.30pm-7.30am for a shift ?]it is putting the customer at risk,in addition to not knowing their way around the town and local area,you see them tapping into the Tom-Tom as they pull away from the rank !,As for the ranks it is a joke 40+ new taxis but no where to rank up even the entrance road to the rank has now been double yellow lined you fight for a space with cars being parked up while they are waiting for people to come of the train they are parked on the double yellows but they are never moved on!,
Chelmsford council has a lot to answer for as for the Taxi licence office it is a rule unto its self.
The council have now decided that we all have to have NVQ in road transport this is over a 12 period,the only upside of this is that we are not having to pay from somewhere funding has been found,future courses are circa £1800.00.

Apologise for the lenght of my first post but I got it of my chest as they say

Be Lucky drivers

I would have thought the harder it is to gain a driver's license the better it is for punters and drivers.

Having drivers pass the DSA taxi test should mean less idiots driving cabs. Having drivers take a stiffer knowledge should mean punters getting from a to b cheaper and quicker.

At least some of the time.

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IDFIMH

I think you have to appreciate that a councils priorities vary from place to place. One authority might consider removing the limit on taxi numbers in order to give the public a better service another authority might do the same only to add the ingredient of driver quality control. A council can do a Dublin or a Liverpool and regret it for the rest of its life or it can plan deregulation on the basis of quality control. I might add that Dublin came about through the courts but it was the failure of system of not having in place quality controls that brought about the free for all.

The level of control is still within the remit of the council because they have the power to raise the bar as high or as low as they wish. If you want to set the bar at the lowest level then you remove quantity controls without having in place any stringent quality controls whatsoever. If you want to have really high quality driver controls then you set the standard accordingly. London is considered to have the hardest knowledge test in the United Kingdom and no one would argue with that and those who take the test will no doubt tell you that they are the cream of the crop.

It is up to those who represent the local trade to impress on councillors the need for driver quality controls regardless of whether they remove numbers or not. The problem you have in restricted areas is that in 99% of cases those who represent the taxi trade are owners including multiple owners and in most cases they have a conflict of interest because it is not to their advantage to restrict driver access to the trade by way of quality controls because they would have no one to drive their vehicles. The evidence for this is in the publicised cries for more drivers from those owners in Liverpool and other areas.

Therefore the problem you now have in Chelmsford might not have come about if your local taxi organisation had had the foresight to impress on the council the need for a quality driver entry system.

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

The irony is that derestriction can actually lead to calls for quality control to be watered down because owners who are used to having their cars double-shifted find it more difficult.

It looks like Chelmsford got the cart before the horse, but of course councils know best.

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

I failed my first locality test and past it second time around,which was about 20 years ago

But i still get new drivers asking me where is a well named road which is just around the corner from where they are which is part of the test.

It makes you wonder

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=z07K29Fc15U

The council are to blame for not being tight enough on the "knowledge test",the Local taxi assoc have requested a higher level entry..as stated before "the council knows best".the Taxi licence office is a rule unto its self here.
I have heard drivers asking the very basics before now ie golf club,resturant pub locations ,as we all know these are the basis of the trade,as i stated before we have a new influxof drivers [mainly asian] who cannot move of the rank without tapping into thier Tom -Tom first it has put the whole quality down.