Cockney Rebel
Do we really need a turning circle?
April was a funny month for me but nonetheless entertaining. First off I must congratulate John Mason for his article ‘answering’ my questions in the April issue of taxi talk regarding certain questions written by me and published in previous issues. I have heard from up and down the country what a breath of fresh air Mr Mason is and I nearly fully agree and reserve my judgement. I can’t say he’s better than the last one because that would be an insult to him as the last one like Mary Dowdye has learnt nothing. I still would like an answer though when
circle will be quashed and like many other drivers cannot plan ahead on what vehicle we can buy for the future. I don’t want a cab where the viability puts me at a disadvantage against private hire. After all, private hire are always
Hackney trade but don’t want to put anything into the pot such as the knowledge but think a sat nav is preferable to the customer. Why can’t we have a vehicle where the purchase price is not astronomical to buy and repair when you are
per cent more to the gallon? The turning circle is a restraint of trade and we could have plenty of other options in the market place that private hire currently enjoy.
I read an article from John Griffen some time ago and in it he said: ‘If we, the taxi trade, do not get our act together then private hire will take over’. In my opinion they already have. We have collectively over the years shot ourselves in the foot at every opportunity and we still carry on with the same old nonsense from the so called reps of this trade. Just think of all the organisations that have reputedly represented ‘our’ interests, or should I say ‘theirs’ and see where it’s got us. Private Hire have one maybe two people talking for approximately quadruple the amount of drivers than in our trade and they
their tunes. Is it the fault of taxi drivers that we have vehicles with dreadful emissions? We have two choices but private hire can have any vehicle they want. What choice have we really got?
Fifteen year rule.
There are too many anomalies in this ruling
old cab miraculously has an electric or Hybrid engine replaced in the engine bay, would
aware when the ruling on the suicide doors on
were hoping to get rid of thousands of cabs at a stroke. When that didn’t happen they thought of another wheeze to make the same cabs
down on nasty smoke in the atmosphere. The
40
and contraptions in the hope of deterring the
were quite frankly not tested or thought through properly, which probably accounts for most of all the different changes and regulations that go
what will happen if a driver decides he doesn’t want to go down the route of buying a new cab
the Euro 5 or whatever it is when they are due to be taken off the road. Although, if I had my way they would be off the road and an option of Hybrid must be offered to the trade in the next
use it. I don’t believe for one minute they can blame the taxi driver for the vehicles we must
help wondering if private hire might have a hand in it all by making sure the vehicle we use is not viable in terms of purchase price, emission quality, vehicle quality and the so called iconic status which plays into the private hire hands with pricing that we cannot compete with, or so they would have everyone believe. Once
meetings with sixty odd different organisations none of which pay or drive a cab, then we might hear something. My business is on hold until someone decides whether we are keeping the turning circle or not.
Cross dressers or escorts, cash, that’ll do nicely sir.
Now we come to the entertaining bit. Eight drivers sitting having dinner when one says:
can’t name the guy but I can assure you he’s very well known (but not necessarily well liked) and most of you would have come across him, (sorry wrong word) you will be able to put two and two together without me mentioning names because I don’t know if it’s come to court yet. This is how the story goes: This well known geezer was allegedly in the back of his taxi having a bit of humpty dumpty with a lady of the night. The police catch the dirty little bastard and want to know what is occurring. Turns out spookily enough that the lady with our short knowledge friend (you work that out) is actually a transvestite and not a lady at all. One of the chaps at the table nearly choked on his tea and had a heart attack. Since then I thought I would ask around and the version I got was that he was actually caught by his wife after she looked at his lap top and found he had been entertaining the hospitality of escorts. I don’t care because I much preferred the original version. So let’s hope this little shit gets his comeuppance through the trade if it’s true and I have it on good authority that it is. I remember
when I spoke to him before Christmas and he
he meant tarts. I wondered why at the time his head was looking at me but his eyes were swivelling back and forth as if he was a puppet on strings. I do hope he hasn’t been using the computers, and he did have access to them, of
the acquaintances of women/men of such ill repute. While we’re at it, oh no he was at it; maybe we could bring him up on a charge under their rules considering he used to be in judgement on certain committees regarding other drivers. You couldn’t make it up. I wonder
another well known organisation. He’s got lots of little jobs which we in the end pay him for and you might see him one night sitting on a rank near you. Possibly dressed as a tart the dirty little git!
Safety information for wheelchair users.
who must have approved the sticker for wheelchair users to read regarding how they are supposed to be secured in the back of a taxi. This new sticker will go inside the passenger compartment in the off side quarter light window, which is opposite the sticker where the taxi information sticker should go. We are having these stickers over the next twelve months and after this period they will become a mandatory
press us into buying taxis that are not up to the job at times, but we are compelled to have stickers in front of the eye line of non disabled passengers who might like to see the sights
then the sticker won’t be in the wheel chair user’s eye line because they should apparently be facing backwards against the partition. Of course, I shouldn’t go along the lines that when you are hailed by a humongous wheelchair and equally larger user that we cannot physically get the bloody things into the taxi facing in any direction anyway. The other thing that comes
how to get wheelchairs into the cab? They didn’t. Are the wheelchair users insured in case of injury to the driver? I wouldn’t think so. Shouldn’t we be wearing a high viz jacket when manoeuvring wheelchairs in the dark on our busy streets? Legally we should. I think you
to take wheelchairs under those circumstances but we do so out of the kindness of our hearts.
we are busy putting useless non nonsensical stickers on every window? Of course not. And
No they
don’t. Always remember to do your ‘risk assessment’ before loading a wheelchair passenger into your cab!
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