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Why should the Jacobs report need its case argued. There has been nothing factual in any case against it. JD takes figures out of context others take quotes and twist them to suit themselves.
Until you and your wee gang accept that you are the only minority placing any significance on plate values, you are the only minority demanding free and extra plates and you are the minority out of step with common sense then there is little point in debate. Just read Skull's and Ali T's posts - are they making debatable points or just throwing insults?
Is there anything factual in it? Isn't it constructed with all the aplomb of a postman pat tale?
Now let me see. Council has information. Council gives information to Jacob. Jacob gives information back to council. Council pays Jacob £28000. Yeah, that's cool?
No mention of the airport. No mention of the increasing demand being soaked up by private hire - which just happened to "trigger" the report in the first place.
Kinda seems to me like the council just wanted some blurb to justify not issuing more licences. Why?
Couldn't be anything to do with various councillors having their fingers in the private hire pie could it? Keep taxi numbers down, pals make more cash? Councillors make more cash?
Couldn't be anything to do with ensuring plate scarcity, making sure that plate values keep rising so that rentals can rise with them?
Couldn't be so that drivers are kept at the bottom of the pile, forced to pay more, work longer and harder can it? ( an almost certainly doomed concept when the working time directive hits the trade)
Or is it just self denial? The move is away from quantity to quality controls, which just happens to be the norm for every other commercial enterprise. Why do the self interested merchants believe it should be any different in the taxi trade? And, why do they think councils can manage the taxi market better than market forces can, particularly when anything councils do dip their fingers in is usually a disaster. Edinburgh's council is led by a lab technician. He knows how to manage the taxi market?
There can be no doubt the forces for change will prevail, its's just those trying to preserve ludicrous plate values are still sleeping, the coffee still to be smelled.
This isn't about free and extra plates. It's about a radical restructuring of the trade. It's about competing on a level playing field with competitors. It's about providing a better service to customers. It's about embracing change, new technology and being in the position to respond to that change when it inevitably comes. Its about receiving just reward for honest endeavour.
Just because someone foolishly paid out £45K to buy a job, to buy the exploitation rights on a driver(s), so what? Their call. Their mistake. They're wrong.
It's a coming. It's a gonna happen. No doubt about it.
