REFLECTIONS OF AN
IS THE WORKER STATUS QUESTION DAMAGING OUR INDUSTRY?
Article by Dr Michael S. Galvin Mobility Services Limited
mobilityserviceslimited.com
How did that work out?
Not so long ago when someone wanted to start work as a private hire driver or an existing driver wanted to swap the company that they worked with they would be taken into the office and told: “We need you to come out looking clean and smart, you need to keep your car clean, be nice to the customers and COVER EVERY JOB WE SEND YOU!” Some companies went a little further and had dress codes and rules about when drivers worked. The company agreed the deal (e.g. £100 per week every Monday morning) and the driver started work.
If the driver decided that the work, he/she was getting was not worth £100 a week they moved company. If they didn’t like the rules, the controllers, the customers/accounts or the system, they moved companies. If a driver started picking and choosing jobs, he/she might get one or at the most two warnings and then they were gone. If a driver wanted a day off, he/she took it. If they wanted to go on holiday they went. This system worked pretty well and importantly provided a good and reliable service to customers. Operator, driver and customer all knew how their interface worked, and all got what they wanted out of the arrangement.
The operator, if they acted fairly, grew a successful and ultimately valuable business, the driver enjoyed the flexibility he/she wanted and the customer got a cab by and large when and where they wanted it. A virtuous trilogy.
The curse of unintended consequences
The old maxim of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ has never been more fitting than the approach that has
6
been taken to the private hire industry. Suddenly Matthew Taylor (author of the Good Work report) et al see the business models like the one operated by the private hire industry as exploitative and unfair. As a former driver and as someone who ran what was at the time the largest taxi company in Europe, I humbly disagree. Whilst I absolutely condemn modern day slavery, people trafficking and exploitation, the link with the private hire industry is not even tentative, it is a different world. Politicians, think tanks and trade unions (forget the courts and tribunals they are there to implement the law) have barked up the wrong tree in bringing worker status as an issue to this industry. I think I can say with considerable confidence that if you bunch all of those groups together, I have spoken to more drivers than all of them. I have not sat in an ivory tower thinking about how I can design a new utopia based on theoretical deduction and biases.
In fairness to the three groups above, I don’t suppose any of them set out to damage anything but instead probably had good intentions to help and assist drivers, to right an apparent wrong and make the world a better place. Well, we all know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Unintended consequences have a habit of raising their ugly heads when decisions are rushed and where simple solutions are applied to complex problems. Like many people who set themselves up as experts, who can see the big picture, who can think out of the box when the wheels come off, they are long gone and scrambling to get on the next band wagon.
What the drivers say
Of all the drivers with whom I have spoken, their main concern has been that they can earn enough money today. They want work available when they are available. When I have explored issues for my clients about whether drivers want pensions or holiday pay vs higher pay now, the response has
FEBRUARY 2025 PHTM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
