From The Evening Standard:
Hundreds of black cabs today blocked streets in central London in protest at a minicab scheme which they say is taking their trade.
Drivers gathered in Trafalgar Square and The Mall and drove through Parliament Square shouting slogans against the Westminster council operation which allows* the West1 car service to use a bus stop as a minicab rank in the evening.
"Taking their trade"? Dude, WTF? Is not their trade by birthright or something, is it? Sure, minicab drivers ought to be vetted for motoring or violent offences, but apart from that, the more minicab and taxi drivers there are, the better it is for, er, the paying customer, to whom "the trade" actually belongs. Are these gits not familiar with the expression "taking your trade elsewhere"?
This is pure unbridled protectionism at its worst.
* I wonder whether the Council charges West1 for this privilege - until and unless all restrictions on mini-cabbing are lifted, any restriction on supply creates windfall profits for the incumbents, for which they ought to pay. The price could easily be set by auction.
Reeds tottering in the wind
3 hours ago
13 comments:
I'm not sure what the point of a 'rank' is, since I thought minicabs were unable to pick up people on the street, unlike black cabs?
Or did they change the law on that too...
I don't understand the finer detail either. Suffice to say, in some parts of England there is no such artifical distinction between 'taxi' and 'minicab', and it works just fine.
A couple of years ago, the local authority of the area I was living in announced plans to increase the number of taxi licences in the area.
The existing taxi drivers objected and in the local press, one complained that the new drivers would get the licences from the council for the standard fee of £300, when he'd had to pay £24,000 to buy a licence from another driver a year earlier.
It's an area which either needs opening up to unrestricted competition or subjecting to Georgist tax reform.
Does the black cab system offer more protection to the public in any way (http://www.londonblackcabs.co.uk/About.html)? Rather than a potentially seedier alternative?
PL, that's what I was hinting at in the last paragraph...
I was all for this deregulated approach until getting into a private car that was plying for hire in sarf London one Saturday night.The bloke who did n't speak very good English seemed to be going a long way round ,so, since he did n't have a meter,we said we 'd only pay him so much for the journey to keep things within bounds. It turned out he was genuinely lost and we had to give him directions every step of the way.I can't imagine and don't care how he got back.
Black cab drivers have to do the knowledge, which is a bit (small bit) like an apprenticeship.This demands some respect: I have met some solicitors with less knowledge-though they may have forgotten a lot (possibly).
Only black cabs can pick up off the street,but this means you are likely to get someone who knows London .
DBC, if people are prepared to pay more for a black cab because of better service, that's fine, that's the free market in action!
Plus, we once got in a black cab in Central London and asked to be taken to The Gherkin. The twat took us to The Glass Testicle instead.
Black cabbies have always been like this. They have even had an MP in their pocket for years.
Before minicabs were licenced, black cabbies complained it was unfair competition because they weren't licenced. When minicab licencing was being introduced following pressure from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust ... black cabbies complained that it was unfair that minicabs would be licenced.
They want it all.
"When minicab licencing was being introduced following pressure from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust..."
? What have minicabs got to do with Suzy Lamplugh?
Would they have been better off requesting that serial killers be licensed instead?
@juliaM
I'm not sure what the point of a 'rank' is, since I thought minicabs were unable to pick up people on the street, unlike black cabs?
Or did they change the law on that too...
In my town the minicabs have various parking places or waiting areas around the town and when you phone for a cab it is dispatched from the nearest point. Perhaps these waiting areas are "ranks", although you cannot go to such a spot and hire the minicab there.
It saves money/fuel (in theory) and therefore, a la al gore, is helping to save the planet (or some such bollox).
More and more Local Authorities are combining the roles of Taxi and Private Hire (London = minicabs ) because the distinction is archaic and simply reinforces the monopolistic position of Back Cab license holders.
Taxis require two licences, one for the driver ( the knowledge, medical, CRB check etc. ) and another for the vehicle.
He 'owns' the latter and may sell it to whoever he chooses. Because the supply of Hackney Taxi licenses is limited by the Local authority ( in the case of London the Home Office or the Met Police ) these vehicle licenses have aquired a market value as distinct from the cost or charge from the issuing authority.
That is why Paul Locketts chap paid £24,000 for his yet another driver paid only £300 ( ie the annual council charge which the black cab owner will also pay ).
Hackney ( black cab ) drivers complain when additional Hackney licenses are issued because it devalues their own ( you used to be able to get a mortgage on the strength of owning one ) and they complain even more when taxiing is deregulated because it renders their property worthless.
Private Hire ( minicabs ) licenses do not have a market value because they are issued to whoever wants one, providing they meet the licensing criteria and it is up to Local Authority to decide the level of 'knowledge' required of a Private Hire driver.
Hope that helps.
Cannot see the need for any further deregulation with London taxis.Deregulation only appears to lower costs when it induces over capacity: more vehicles than there are customers.And there are serious problems with too many drivers short of work.
There must be some way of working out the optimum number of licensed taxis ( knowledge,CRB check etc ) posibly by monitoring the grey market in vehicle licences expertly described above. If they are going for five figure sums, sounds like the authorities should issue a few more on the dilution principle.
If you ever watch an interview from the UN building in New York, you can see ,in the background, a huge number of yellow cabs going by: far more than black cabs in London.How do they all make a living?
"And there are serious problems with too many drivers short of work."
Perhaps if they didn't charge gbp20 for a five-mile, 20-minute journey, they wouldn't be so short of work.
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