Irish Taxi Forum
Public Area => Taxi Talk => Topic started by: Punter on January 17, 2021, 04:11:14 pm
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https://www.ft.com/content/dc2a5492-5e7c-4bfa-bd52-c390fb2fab8e---16/01/21 (https://www.ft.com/content/dc2a5492-5e7c-4bfa-bd52-c390fb2fab8e---16/01/21)
London’s black cabs join forces to offer help in Covid jab rollout
Taxi drivers say they would ferry elderly and vulnerable to inoculation centres at a fixed rate if booked en masse
hilip Georgiadis in London JANUARY 16 2021
London’s black cabs join forces to offer help in Covid jab rollout-----Financial Times
16/01/21
London’s “army of black cabs” has urged the government to use it to help roll out the UK’s coronavirus vaccination programme while supporting an industry devastated by the pandemic.
The Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, which represents the capital’s taxi drivers, has offered to drive elderly and vulnerable patients to and from medical centres to help the government reach its target of offering the vaccine to 15m people by mid-February.
In a letter to vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi seen by the Financial Times, the association said drivers “desperately struggling to make ends meet” could be contracted en masse at a fixed rate.
“It is a complete no-brainer. We have an army of elderly, vulnerable and less mobile people that need to be taken in, this is the final leg of the struggle,” the LTDA’s general secretary, Steve McNamara, told the FT.
The letter referenced Conservative MP Charles Walker advocating in the House of Commons for “the army of black cab drivers eager and waiting to help”.
I can’t even begin to describe it to you; dead is underplaying it. The city is bereft, it is desolate. It is like tumbleweed
The industry first pushed to be used to support the NHS last spring, but was not taken up on its offer, other than ad hoc arrangements with some doctors’ surgeries and NHS trusts.
Taxis might have been built for social distancing, Mr McNamara insisted: they had plenty of space, a partition between driver and passenger along with easily sterilised interiors designed to cope with the excesses of “Friday night drunks”.
Free Now, a ride hailing app for black cabs and minicabs that operates in nine cities in the UK, has also written to ministers to offer logistical help and push for drivers to be given priority access to the vaccines.
The lobbying comes as cab drivers struggle in a city that has been gutted of potential passengers.
Those that are still working swap horror stories at cab ranks: the unfortunate colleague who queued for 18 hours for an airport run at Heathrow, or the driver who waited at St Pancras station for four hours for an £8 journey.
The number of people travelling in London has fallen sharply during lockdowns, with shops closed, offices deserted and pubs and restaurants shuttered. Illustrating the decline in people moving about the city, London Underground ridership has fallen this month to about 15 per cent of its pre-pandemic level.
People wait to receive their Covid-19 vaccine at Robertson House in Stevenage. © Joe Giddens/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The number of active black cab licences has fallen by more than a fifth since the end of June, according to TfL figures, cited by the LTDA, from more than 18,000 to just over 14,300.
But, Mr McNamara said, the vast majority of the remaining drivers were not working, and those still on the roads were only able to pull in around a fifth of their normal income.
One who hopes to make it out of the crisis is Howard Taylor, who followed his father into the trade and has been driving his cab for 33 years.
“I can’t even begin to describe it to you; dead is underplaying it. The city is bereft, it is desolate. It is like tumbleweed,” the 60-year-old said.
Although he plans to return, Mr Taylor said he found it too disheartening to drive the empty streets at the moment.
“I have tried, I can’t,” he said.
Drivers are eligible for government support for the self-employed, but many lease their vehicles and are struggling to keep up with repayments, or have had to sell them at a significant loss.
Some have given up and switched to other jobs such as driving delivery vans for supermarkets or even heavy goods lorries across Europe.
Dale Forwood began driving deliveries for Asda during the first lockdown in March, but still drives her cab two days a week. “It has been really quiet, so this delivery job over the past 10 months has really saved me,” she said.
She said many of her new colleagues were also black cab drivers, eager to take whatever work they could.
Facing stiff competition from digital private hire companies such as Uber before the pandemic, London’s black cabs became a symbol of the fight against the disruptive power of technology as much as an icon of the city.
But, despite the arrival of myriad competitors, drivers said that before the pandemic, their business had been recovering and attracting new passengers thanks to the rollout of card payments and new electric vehicles.
© Jason Alden/Bloomberg
“We had seen a massive return of our customer base, we saw a much younger demographic of people hailing a cab in the street,” Mr McNamara said.
Now, drivers are back to wondering where their next fare will come from — and like many other industries are left hoping for more help from the government.
“We could help roll out this vaccine and I really want the government to use us,” Ms Forwood said.
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Why the fuck would you wait 18 hours for a fare?
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Been waiting since last March for a fare....terrible it is Joe!!
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I only discussed this very issue with the Rodent during the week .I also asked if WAV licensed drivers were instructed to be available to do this job and they refused could their License's be canceled as they are supposed to be available under their license terms to transport mobility impaired Passengers .
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The NTA are all working at home hiding from the pandemic like most of the country.I doubt they'll be enforcing any rules for another year or two.
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In Nov I asked NTA for details of last three meetings of the Taxi Advisory Committee--they replied after 10 days that this was under remit on Minister, so I asked the Minister who replied this week and said this Committee was accountable to NTA !!
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In Nov I asked NTA for details of last three meetings of the Taxi Advisory Committee--they replied after 10 days that this was under remit on Minister, so I asked the Minister who replied this week and said this Committee was accountable to NTA !!
Contact money launderers and ask who they have fronting for them?
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One who hopes to make it out of the crisis is Howard Taylor, who followed his father into the trade and has been driving his cab for 33 years.
“I can’t even begin to describe it to you; dead is underplaying it. The city is bereft, it is desolate. It is like tumbleweed,” the 60-year-old said.
Although he plans to return, Mr Taylor said he found it too disheartening to drive the empty streets at the moment.
“I have tried, I can’t,” he said.
That about sums it up fer me.
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The bloke who spent 18 hours in Heathrow waitin for a fare .....wont be seen him on who "wants to be a millionaire" now will we ....
Dopey cnut
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Are the 'Keshies' still working in DAP ?
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Don't know but I believe flights are down 90% so probably not.
(11 Dec 2020) Dublin Airport Christmas Passenger Numbers Down By 88% (https://www.dublinairport.com/latest-news/2020/12/11/dublin-airport-christmas-passenger-numbers-down-by-88)
Cork doesn't look much better: https://www.dublinlive.ie/lifestyle/travel/dublin-airport-covid-ryanair-aerlingus-19651681 (https://www.dublinlive.ie/lifestyle/travel/dublin-airport-covid-ryanair-aerlingus-19651681)
Cork Airport had just under 9,000 passengers in December, meaning they had fewer than 300 passengers per day.
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On the plus side I believe civil servants based at DAP have vastly improved productivity.
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Anyone got a working phone number for Free Now, or even an email that will achive a response? Any enquiries from "feedback" or "help" on the app have not yielded a response. The only email addresses which I have are "automated and do not reply"
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On the plus side I believe civil servants based at DAP have vastly improved productivity.
The staff in ATC are actually paid to look out the window all day! 8)
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Anyone got a working phone number for Free Now, or even an email that will achive a response? Any enquiries from "feedback" or "help" on the app have not yielded a response. The only email addresses which I have are "automated and do not reply"
(01) 485 4642
You're welcome!
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The strongly worded email from Bob didn't work...and now for a stongly worded phonecall.
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Wrong fucking thread.
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Thanks, when I press the option for my query, I am referrred to the email sent to me regarding same. No email received. Phone disconnects. Selected several other options, phone rings on an on, but no voicemail. Dey don't want to speak to de peepil what pay dem.
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I got through on Jan 5. They couldn't change my payment details to a fully SEPA compliant German bank. A strongly worded email will be sent in due course.
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Eventually answered, when I selected option 7, after a long ring time (new driver applications). Got an apology from the staffer.
Had a non payer, app automatically advised to enter a fare of €3.80 minimum fare even though it was 3am. I did so, and sent an explanatory "help" message. I was suspended without explanation, until midnight, when I switched on the app at 8pm the next shift. Staffer said that apparently €5.80 is the minmum fare entry now, and I would not have been auto suspended if I had entered that amount, He couldn't explain the app advising and accepting €3.80.
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Presumably the €3.80 dates back to when mytaxi forced drivers to give discounts of up to 33%.
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So you were suspended for under charging,dem Germans take no shite.
Inanyways Bob.....i thought you were an independent woman?
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So you were suspended for under charging,dem Germans take no shite.
Inanyways Bob.....i thought you were an independent woman?
Unfortunatley my bills would not be met by street fares, and FN's current monopoly status allows them, unilaterally, to do as they please.
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To be fair, they're investing heavily in electric taxis having budgeted to make at least 10,000 of their drivers buy electric vehicles by this time next year and they hope to launch electric scooters and point to point car rental schemes in the near future. The planet is in safe hands.