Taxi Driver

Danny Fisher

By Geraldine Gittens


Wednesday October 29 2008

There are too many taxi drivers in Dublin, many of whom do not know their way around, a Dublin city transport committee has heard.

Since the introduction of deregulation, there are now more taxis than the city can cope with, the transportation and traffic strategic policy committee heard.

Cllr Deirdre Heney (Fianna Fail) said the amount of taxis in operation in the city is worrying, especially since taxi plates continue to be issued, even though they've reached saturation point.

"There seems to be a difficulty with the amount of taxi plates now being issued. I don't know how we can curtail the number of plates," she said.

Cllr Heney added that the huge number of taxis is contributing to the traffic jams around the city.

"There are too many taxis. Even from an environmental point of view, all the taxi ranks are full.

"Taxi men are getting hassled by the gardai and quite rightly so because they're blocking the way because there's nowhere else to park, and they're wasting petrol."

Cllr Heney added that it's hard for taxi drivers to make ends meet now there are so many taxis in operation.

"It seems the guy who is driving a taxi as a full time job has his work cut out for him if he wants to make a decent wage, because anyone can buy a plate.

"There's a lot of angst out there," she added.

Cllr McCartan (Fine Gael) says: "Ireland now has 98 people per taxi, whereas in London it's 300 and in Copenhagen it's 280. There are too many taxis."

He said a problem exists "if you look at how easy it is to get a taxi plate with "one stop taxi shops".

He added that it's worrying that some taxi drivers don't know the whereabouts of their fare's destination, and he said it's not acceptable that drivers are relying on technology to guide them around the city.

aggrieved

"There's a definite query about the sat nav systems. It's not satisfactory to me that someone should drive a taxi and not know their way around."

"Now if people are seeking a taxi driver job, it wouldn't be feasible," he said referring to the number of taxis on the streets.

Cllr Dermot Lacey (Labour) said: "Those who argued against deregulation were right.

"Some taxi drivers don't know the city," he agreed.

"A lot of taxi drivers feel very aggrieved when they are moved on by the guards."

- Geraldine Gittens

Danny Fisher

juvenal wrote: »

• A standard colour and model of vehicle should be assigned to taxis, just like NYC (yellow Ford), and London (black cab). At present, almost any car can be used as a taxi, from a fifteen year-old Toyota Corolla to a brand new Mercedes. To an outsider, the idea of a taxi being essentially a private car with a magnetic yellow lamp on the roof is a joke, and this enables the cowboys with their fake meters and licences to operate.
  
  

• No extra charge for radio/telephone/airport bookings. I am GUARANTEEING you revenue and a job, and you want to charge me extra for the privilege? If I was a taxi driver, and when I left the house at the beginning of an 8-hour shift, and I knew I was booked for 12 jobs (12 x 30mins = 6hrs) that night, is that better than roaming the streets wondering where the next fare is coming from? Of course it is. Why penalise the customer for pre-booking the car; as it's definite business, which means definite income, which means definite salary;

• 
  In 2005, New York introduced incentives to replace its current yellow cabs with electric hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape Hybrid[16] then in May 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, proposed a five-year plan to switch New York City's taxicabs to more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles as part of an agenda for New York City to reduce greenhouse gas emission
• London Taxis.
• 
  
  1. Telephone Booking
  
  
• 
  
• There is an additional charge of up to £2 if the taxi is booked by telephone
  2. Heathrow extra
  For journeys that start from Heathrow Airport ranks and finish within Greater London there is an additional charge of £1
  

iPlop

yeah iv'e no sympathy ,their still nowhere to be seen on saturday nights in the city so I dunno what F**kin ques he's on about

Stay_in_Kampuchea

It is very hard for them to cut a buck. But for godsake....everyone is finding it hard, me included. The days of the huge wages are gone. They should accept it. I have.

iPlop

Totally agree.I have been told do not expect a pay rise for YEARS and the bonus at christmas is GONE for the forseeable future

Manic Moran

Danny Fisher wrote: »

[*]A standard colour and model of vehicle should be assigned to taxis, just like NYC (yellow Ford), and London (black cab). At present, almost any car can be used as a taxi, from a fifteen year-old Toyota Corolla to a brand new Mercedes. To an outsider, the idea of a taxi being essentially a private car with a magnetic yellow lamp on the roof is a joke, and this enables the cowboys with their fake meters and licences to operate.

I'm going to disagree on a couple of notes. Standard colour kindof makes sense, but even in the US that standard yellow is not exactly standard. Hop around San Francisco, you'll see yellow, multicoloured, black, you name it. Yet there's little doubt when you're looking at one that it's a taxi.
Standard model makes less sense. The Crown Vic (and the Police Interceptor variant) is the dominant taxi in the US not because of any mandate, but because it's pretty much the only vehicle for the job, just like the Crown Vic (and PI) is the dominant police car in the US. Back ten years ago when the Chevrolet Caprice was still being built, you'd see both police fleets and taxi fleets split between the Chevvies and Fords. Now that the Charger and Impala are seeing common police service, you're also starting to see them in taxi fleets, particularly since a lot of taxis are former police cars, down to the spotlights and pushbars. Ultimately it's down to the owners to figure out for themselves which model best suits their needs on the basis of size, reliability and affordability. Some cabbies around these parts are using Prius for the fuel economy, but it's not proving overly popular due to the very small size, lack of grunt, and maintenance/repair costs, so they're pretty infrequent.

[*]No extra charge for radio/telephone/airport bookings. I am GUARANTEEING you revenue and a job, and you want to charge me extra for the privilege?

You're also guaranteeing for the driver that he's not going to be taking a fare for as long as it takes him to get to where you are, and while he waits for you to come out. I think there's a bit of give and take here.

NTM

SimpleSam06

phasers wrote: »

Also, yer man that knows a driver that makes a grand, how does he do that? I'll pass the tips onto my dad.

Just off the top of my head, he could buy a nice new luxury car, don the paddy cap and tweed and do corporate runs for businesses that want a little extra. It would take a few years to build it up, but eventually he'd be sitting pretty.

Or he could get someone to set him up with a tourist website and do day tours for families of tourists that want to see the city.

Or he could talk to the management in his company and get them to take on a professional marketing company to build the brand and image of the company throughout its market catchment, take it to an area where lone migrant drivers can't compete. They aren't cheap, but its not the cost, its how much you make from it. Depending on some self-styled part time driver "marketer" to run adverts in the paper every week won't cut it.

These are all real examples of taxi drivers I know who sat down and thought about how best to come through deregulation, and all are very successful as we speak.

Work smarter, not harder.

meathstevie

Septic Leper wrote: »

yeah iv'e no sympathy ,their still nowhere to be seen on saturday nights in the city so I dunno what F**kin ques he's on about

Must have been a while since you were in town :rolleyes:

arybvtcw0eolkf

meathstevie wrote: »

Must have been a while since you were in town :rolleyes:

LOL, I was thinking the same thing.

I've never seen a city with so many empty taxi's everywhere.

OPENROAD

Mairt wrote: »

LOL, I was thinking the same thing.

I've never seen a city with so many empty taxi's everywhere.

Have you been to London?

arybvtcw0eolkf

OPENROAD wrote: »

Have you been to London?

Yes, and Dublin has more taxi's than London.

base controller

Jools Poker wrote: »

hi there,

can anyone tell me the difference between an spsv licence and a psv licence

thanks

the difference is simple a public service vehicle licence(psv) allows the holder to drive any public service vehicle eg. buses trams taxi,where as the small public service vehicle licence (spsv) holder is only licenced to carry up to 8 passengers

Spook_ie

Danny Fisher wrote: »

juvenal wrote: »

No extra charge for radio/telephone/airport bookings. I am GUARANTEEING you revenue and a job, and you want to charge me extra for the privilege? If I was a taxi driver, and when I left the house at the beginning of an 8-hour shift, and I knew I was booked for 12 jobs (12 x 30mins = 6hrs) that night, is that better than roaming the streets wondering where the next fare is coming from? Of course it is. Why penalise the customer for pre-booking the car; as it's definite business, which means definite income, which means definite salary;

And just what does this guarantee of yours consist of, the number of times I go to pre booked fares to find that people have either...

booked two ( or more taxi firms, to take the first that arrives )
changed their minds
hailed down a taxi that happened to be dropping off near them, then forgotten ( more like "not bothered" ) to cancel the ordered taxi
Decided that they aren't going to be ready for half an hour and "we'll order you again later".....

Maybe you should have an account system and when you order a taxi and fail ( for whatever reason ) to honour the order be charged €20 for wasting time and effort...:)

daveharnett

Spook_ie wrote: »

Maybe you should have an account system and when you order a taxi and fail ( for whatever reason ) to honour the order be charged €20 for wasting time and effort...:)

Quite right. With a few large companies, it wouldn't be hard to organise a blacklisting system based on phone numbers.

I'm not entirely without sympathy for the taxi divers. The 'bad old days' weren't their fault, it was the fault of a failure by the regulator to combat the driver's lobby. I wouldn't blame anybody for defending their personal mint.

Now, they are finding it tougher, as they should now that the market is more competitive. I do think that raising the expected standards would throw the better operators a lifeline though. Minimum standard for driving, geographical knowledge, ability to speak english, and vehicle quality seem to be non existent.

Now that taxis are so readily available, using taxis would be a viable alternative to private car ownership in the city, IF the fares were cheaper. Drivers are being short sighted with their constant calls to raise prices. A business can't generate more sales by charging more!

arybvtcw0eolkf

daveharnett wrote: »

Now that taxis are so readily available, using taxis would be a viable alternative to private car ownership in the city, IF the fares were cheaper. Drivers are being short sighted with their constant calls to raise prices. A business can't generate more sales by charging more!

Didn't a majority of driver's oppose this latest increase in fares?.

Tbh, I don't think taxi's are overly expensive. But I do think people make them an expensive thing to use..

For instance, going out with four mates, we take a taxi into O'Connell St and it costs €20. Grand a fiver each, and if you wanna throw in a tip too, but its a fiver each.

But then Jack the lad in the front seat insists on paying the whole fare, gets out of the taxi and whines about the price!.

frank d sociopa

my got wat a nasty bunsh of iggorant peeple yiz all is
dat ken fellah iz onny a peddle an kranker nows him frum yars ago
but tell us dis how manny of yiz heer is gonna be on de choppin blok dis yar?
yiz mite end up drivin a taxi yerselfs
an den ye mite haz a diffrent view o de biznizz
walk a mile an all dat
mite de yiz sum gud meetin reel peeple dat will tell yiz dat ye talk ****e

frank d sociopath

BroomBurner

frank d sociopa wrote: »

my got wat a nasty bunsh of iggorant peeple yiz all is
dat ken fellah iz onny a peddle an kranker nows him frum yars ago
but tell us dis how manny of yiz heer is gonna be on de choppin blok dis yar?
yiz mite end up drivin a taxi yerselfs
an den ye mite haz a diffrent view o de biznizz
walk a mile an all dat
mite de yiz sum gud meetin reel peeple dat will tell yiz dat ye talk ****e

frank d sociopath

Will Self? Is that you?

The_B_Man

Frank is my new hero! check his other posts!

nice1franko

frank d sociopa wrote: »

my got wat a nasty bunsh of iggorant peeple yiz all is
dat ken fellah iz onny a peddle an kranker nows him frum yars ago
but tell us dis how manny of yiz heer is gonna be on de choppin blok dis yar?
yiz mite end up drivin a taxi yerselfs
an den ye mite haz a diffrent view o de biznizz
walk a mile an all dat
mite de yiz sum gud meetin reel peeple dat will tell yiz dat ye talk ****e

frank d sociopath

lmao

shove it up your hole frank!

mikemac

daveharnett wrote: »

Drivers are being short sighted with their constant calls to raise prices. A business can't generate more sales by charging more!

I realise this has been answered already but it's worth saying that most drivers didn't want a fare increase, they wanted a cap.

The majority weren't calling or demanding an increase. But they got it anyway

jaffa20

Taxi fares are ridiculous. I was charged 18.25euro* for a taxi between Sandyford and Cabinteely at 7 am to get to work one morning. There was no traffic on the route they took and i nearly fainted at the cost of a 10min journey.

I got a taxi back that evening and it cost 10euro. Such a difference and i was stuck in traffic more on the way back.

*They let me off with paying 18euro so woopeee!!!

paulgreene

go in paris, that's a nightmare, in dublin it's so well working, thx to the deregulation!

bruce wayne

you were done

Estimated Fare using meter at 07:00

Distance: 1.71 km. | Duration: 4 min.

first kilometer 4.45 €
1.71 km. x 1.35 € per km (tariff A) 2.32 €
waiting in traffic (~1 min.) 0.89 €
Total 7.66 €

http://www.worldtaximeter.com/dublin/

Fiend-Foe

frank d sociopa wrote: »

my got wat a nasty bunsh of iggorant peeple yiz all is
dat ken fellah iz onny a peddle an kranker nows him frum yars ago
but tell us dis how manny of yiz heer is gonna be on de choppin blok dis yar?
yiz mite end up drivin a taxi yerselfs
an den ye mite haz a diffrent view o de biznizz
walk a mile an all dat
mite de yiz sum gud meetin reel peeple dat will tell yiz dat ye talk ****e

frank d sociopath

Hear Hear...

This man has said it all. Or did he? I dunno.

Anybody speak munnah??

LolaDub

frank d sociopa wrote: »

my got wat a nasty bunsh of iggorant peeple yiz all is
dat ken fellah iz onny a peddle an kranker nows him frum yars ago
but tell us dis how manny of yiz heer is gonna be on de choppin blok dis yar?
yiz mite end up drivin a taxi yerselfs
an den ye mite haz a diffrent view o de biznizz
walk a mile an all dat
mite de yiz sum gud meetin reel peeple dat will tell yiz dat ye talk ****e

frank d sociopath

In english please?

flyton5

im going to give my honest opinion of taxi drivers here(while generalising i must ad) f**k taxi drivers, f**k them in their stupid f**king assholes.....they are the most ignorant racist people i have ever come across....u see them driving around with their 100% Irish stickers on the back windows of the cars, talking ****e about how "foreigners" have ruined the country and generally having an opinion on everything.....and then they expect people to feel sorry for them....i dont feel sorry for them....get another job.....drive ur taxi off a cliff....make sure ur in it

Spook_ie

Strange I always thought that everyone had opinions about everything..:cool:

frank d sociopa

hey moderaters
wil ye giv dat fly5 ting a infrakshun, watever dat is koz its rasitst agin me an hez insitein hatered o a mineraty socio ekonomik grupe,
an genneralizin agin a hard wurkin vital part o tranzport 21
an an sumtin else
oh yea we is cheeper dan a hed dokter an we wud probley tell ye de same ting
as him wit all hiz diplomerz an stuff on de wallz o hiz offoze

frank d sociopath

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

nice1franko

frank d sociopa wrote: »

hey moderaters
wil ye giv dat fly5 ting a infrakshun, watever dat is koz its rasitst agin me an hez insitein hatered o a mineraty socio ekonomik grupe,
an genneralizin agin a hard wurkin vital part o tranzport 21
an an sumtin else
oh yea we is cheeper dan a hed dokter an we wud probley tell ye de same ting
as him wit all hiz diplomerz an stuff on de wallz o hiz offoze

frank d sociopath

he's gas... all we need now is pighead and this thread could be gold.

PIGHEAD!!! ...... say something funny

arybvtcw0eolkf

flyton5 wrote: »

im going to give my honest opinion of taxi drivers here(while generalising i must ad) f**k taxi drivers, f**k them in their stupid f**king assholes.....they are the most ignorant racist people i have ever come across....u see them driving around with their 100% Irish stickers on the back windows of the cars, talking ****e about how "foreigners" have ruined the country and generally having an opinion on everything.....and then they expect people to feel sorry for them....i dont feel sorry for them....get another job.....drive ur taxi off a cliff....make sure ur in it

Damn right Racists, I couldn't agree more..

Imagine if you will, my horror a few weeks ago while I was driving through Drumcondra when what do I see coming from the direction of Croke Park - AT LEAST FIFTY THOUSEND racist fvckers, they were easily identifable from their racists garb - IRELAND jerseys EVERYWHERE - some wore HATS and SCARFS (in obvious gangsta colours - green, white & orange), while others blew racist tunes through tribal instruments like Bodhrans (some kind of war like Celtic drum) and other's SCREAMED racist chants (in a frezy too)... Something or other about "ALL BLACKS"..

I was loike - Marto, GTFO of here my ol' mucker..