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Chaos on the Ranks (Pat Kenny Radio Show)

Roy September 2nd, 2010

Paddy O’ Gorman interviewed some drivers on the Grafton and Gresham ranks and did a fair job of highlighting the frustration, pent up aggression and racial tension (just about) bubbling under the surface there.

Well worth the ten minutes it takes to listen:

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Campaign to Close the Corporate Transfer Loophole

Roy August 31st, 2010

The new rule limiting existing plates to one more transfer of ownership and making new plates non transferable has been widely welcomed by taxi drivers, because if it’s done honestly it could reduce the fleet over an extended period …… as existing  drivers retire, leave the business or die.
However, the Commission for Taxi Regulation are not behaving honestly, the new rule only effects individual plate owners and not those held by the corporate sector,  plates registered to companies can continue to be transfered ad infinitum, simply by changing the names of the company directors.
This is unjust and unfair, as those individuals who can least afford it see their asset reduce in value as a direct result of this new rule, whilst those plates in corporate ownership will not be affected by it.
The Commission for Taxi Regulation are aware of this anomaly and admitted to me in a meeting I had with them that it is unfair, but they suggested that they can do nothing about it. This is untrue, the loophole could easily be closed if the Commission had a mind to do so, the thing is ….. they have a long term aim to make the majority of the fleet corporate owned (They say it would be easier to govern)
However they should not be allowed achieve this aim in such an unfair and unjust manner

Please help to Close the Corporate Transfer Loophole NOW!

Simply fill in your name, plate number and email details in the form below and then press Submit, the message in the box (change it if you want to) will be sent to the Commission,  Minister Dempsey and also both the Fine Gael and Labour transport spokespeople.

Form Object

Console Charity Walk

Roy August 31st, 2010

Sad to think that this is so relative to the Taxi business:

Taxi Driving an industry under attack (Guest Post)

Roy August 30th, 2010

I received the following E-mail recently, the sender asked would I post it here….happy to oblige:

The Simon and Garfunkel song,   “Keep your customer satisfied“, sums up the present plight of the Irish professional Taxi driver.

Every where I go,  I get slandered,  Libeled,  I get called names you never heard in the Bible…….Just trying to keep my customer satisfied…… satisfied

The endless conversations we have with customers who tell us they got a driver who;

  • didn’t know where he was going
  • overcharged them
  • or that they had to wait for hours once to get a taxi.

Then you get the customer who remarks on the fact that there are too many taxis whilst others are downright bigots .

The reality for the taxi industry is that the government deregulated the industry in the same way as they did with the Banks and  passed off the running and monitoring of the industry to a regulator.

Like the banks the regulating of the taxi industry has been an abject failure, only  the availability of taxi vehicles has improved,  the quality of service and pretty much every other aspect of the business has not.
A change in government policy with reference to the spouses of persons with work visas has led to an influx of overseas drivers into the industry., unfortunately proper training schemes were not put in place to guarantee that a reasonable standard of communication and geographical knowledge were achieved to help these drivers do their job to an acceptable customer standard. It is also unfair on the overseas drivers as their lack of proper  training often brings them into conflict with their passengers.

The present policy of actively encouraging migrant workers into the taxi industry by means of the Back to work enterprise allowance and other welfare allowances is having a detrimental effect on the indigenous driver,  displacing longterm owner drivers with less qualified people. In the present economic situation where will the displaced drivers find alternative employment?
The commission for taxi regulation at present run a reactive monitoring and enforcement policy resulting in them trying to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted, there is no successfull industry anywhere in the world that has adopted a reactive business plan, it is  essential in any line of business is to be proactive, to see the problems before they happen and put in place policies to prevent damage to your business.
So the next time you take a taxi remember the driver is doing his best under the rules,  regulations and standards imposed on him by the commission for taxi regulation. If you are not satisfied by the service you receive, why not contact the regulator @  1890 60 60 90?

Remember it is your taxi service the drivers are only here to provide it .

Padhraig Hurley

Irish Taxi Council ….. Survey.

Roy August 27th, 2010

Have you filled it in yet?
They’re trying to gather information about the problems facing our drivers on a daily basis.
Can’t do any harm to fill it in, can it?

Irish Taxi Council survey

Who T F is Jason Derulo?

Roy August 26th, 2010

Manager of the Dandelion came around to the Green and asked me to head around to the club to pick up an important guest, I obliged, although I hate these jobs,  they make you look like you are snatching only meters from the rank and they always get messy…… folk take an age to come out.

Sure enough I was sat there for a while as I assumed the long goodbyes were being dealt out inside the venue but eventually lots of young Irish girls arrived out along with two black American lads. The girls were screaming “Jason!” , “Jason!”, two of the girls were escorted to the car along with the two lads and I was made aware that the younger of the two was Jason Derulo the greatest thing since anything ….everrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Just looked him up on Google and sure enough it was this guy:

Listened to one of his songs on Youtube and actually recognised it! He’s the bloke who sings like a girl and raps with a DEEEEEEEEEEEP voice ….kinda weird but good ???

Manager threw me a twenty for the trip around to the Morrison ….. sweet!

Another one to add to the list of “Famous people” and this one might actually impress the younger crowd!

New Roofsign area ID

Roy August 24th, 2010

Special thanks goes to Jack for this information:

New Roof Sign with area ID will be available from November @ €15 each.

Driver will need a separate sign for each area for which they hold a licence.

The Commission for Taxi Regulation will issue the new IDs directly to drivers.

Hopefully we’ll all have them ready to go for the  Christmas season

The Luggage Capacity/Shoulder Room Rules

Roy August 23rd, 2010

All the recent hype and upset among the Taxi driving fraternity (I wish) has been about the nine year rule and about how many wonderful cars this will remove from the fleet. However coming up very quickly behind it are the luggage capacity/shoulder room rules, these rules will take from the fleet, cars that are younger than the nine years, (many I have seen are 2008 registered) which will all have passed the rigorous new suitability test and so will be clean and presentable vehicles.
Why aren’t the rep bodies fighting the case for these guys? Maybe a three passenger licence could be issued which would solve the problem……….
Here are two cars which I remember being heavily advertised in Taxi magazines and have seen cruising around the city with yellow roof signs on, both of which are no longer deemed acceptable.

Nissan Tilda:
tilda

Toyota Corolla:

corolla

Fully Inclusive Service? Time for a reality check

Roy August 19th, 2010

Vinny Kearns seems to be back on the Taxi case again, lately I have been CC’d a number of e-mails from him, including this one which was sent to the CTR and the media:

Hi all,
we have played around with our “Social Corporate Responsibility” and responded with the correct sound bites to create the perception that we genuinely want to create a socially inclusive taxi service. The taxi industry has been blamed for the lack on progress in this regard when the truth is that the responsibility lies with the Government and if the right incentives and subvention is introduced we will be in a position to deliver. This topic has not received enough public debate and I would appreciate it if the representative bodies would bring this to the attention of the media. The government will not remove VRT and VAT from the purchase of W.A.T.s and there is no plans to subsidise travel for those needing the services.,

Regards,

Vinny

He also included an article about the situation in NSW this is a clip from that article:

The Government in New South Wales have come up with this novel idea:

Incentive payment for wheelchair accessible taxi drivers

The NSW Government is undertaking a twelve month trial of an incentive payment to wheelchair taxi drivers when they carry passengers in wheelchairs.

Since 1 December 2007, drivers of Wheelchair Accessible Taxis (WATs) have been able to claim $7.70 plus GST for each wheelchair passenger carried. The trial is funded from the Taxi Advisory Committee account at no cost to passengers.

This payment is only for the driver of the WAT and is designed to improve reliability and response times for passengers, and to support WAT drivers in achieving these improvements. The NSW Government is committed to improving wheelchair accessible taxi services and supporting WAT drivers in achieving these improvements.

Any chance our lot might take a leaf from that book?

Leaving Cert Night

Roy August 19th, 2010

Lots of these on display last night:

Traditionally a bonus night for Taxi drivers and sure enough there were thousands of extra young revelers in the city last night, I seriously think I need to go to confession today after being forced to look at all the semi naked young girls parading about the place!
However there were some amount of Taxis in the city too, many of whom didn’t seem to know their way around! I spotted one making a right off Mercer street and heading the wrong way down a very busy Cuffe Street, there were a few who indicated that they were about to make similar maneuvers but thankfully a warning beep alerted them to their mistakes, many didn’t seem to know how the ranks operated.
Did the CTR issue a lot of new plates yesterday? As this seem to be the only explanation for it, for as we are aware “the fleet is extremely compliant with the regulations”

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