I can't help feeling that if carpenters had had as much difficulty in getting their hands on saws and hammers as taxi drivers have in getting their hands on taxis, which they need to do their job, then Christ may just not have been crucified.
You know, this isn't rocket science. We've been told since Thatcher's blog that the free market is all. Labour even got elected mimicking this wisdom.
Yet, it seems in our trade alone we're exempt somehow!
This whole argument isn't about the needs of the market, the drivers and the customers, it's only about keeping vested interests in the loop.
In Edinburgh, ITS handle plate transfer transactions for both buyer and seller, but the two never meet until the deal's done, if they can even be bothered. ITS (Cab-ti-vate) are therefore making the market. Manipulating the market. Doesn't this breach every anti-competition rule? Yet, government refrains from intervening and stopping it.
A taxi driver hanging around at taxi ranks on a busy saturday nite without a saddle to sit in is as much good to those needing a ride home as a chocolate fireguard.
I wonder how many such potential customers, while walking home and reducing taxi trade revenue, actually say they are glad they have to do so, because their forced march helps to keep plate prices high and current "owners" in the manner which they certainly don't deserve.
Licensed taxis are just a tool of the trade. They are not a pension. If you want a pension, go buy a proper one and let the rest of us meet our customer's needs.