Irish Taxi Forum
Public Area => Taxi Talk => Topic started by: john m on January 28, 2021, 12:22:08 am
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Jim Waldren NHPTA.
I spoke with Richard boyd Barrett today before he spoke in the Dail he is still fighting our corner
Here's what he said
When the legislation relating to the CRSS was passed by the Houses, I argued as forcefully as I could that it was unfair on people who did not have a premises, whose premises might be, for example, their taxi or van or whose livelihoods involved overheads in terms of loans or rents on premises that are not public-facing, such as musicians, people who work in the arts and many others who operate small businesses. Those businesses and their employees have been devastated, most of them, particularly regarding taxi drivers, musicians and many others, far more than the 25% threshold which allows businesses with a public-facing premises to get the CRSS. One only has to go out onto the streets to see the situation for taxi drivers at the moment. Their ability to earn an income is down 70% or 80%. They have car repayments, insurance costs and other ongoing overheads, yet they are excluded. There is no justice to this. It is completely unfair. They need help.
The vast majority of taxi drivers have also been excluded from the €1,000 restart grant because people have to sign off the PUP in order get that grant. A person cannot sign off the PUP at the moment with any hope of earning even a fraction of what he or she would normally earn for the obvious reason that people are not on the street because of Covid restrictions, and rightly so. Why are taxi drivers being excluded? They still have to carry the costs to which I refer. The position is similar for people in music and the arts, and it is completely unfair. It is precisely some of those who have been worst hit who are not included. In the case of musicians and artists, they have been shut down completely since the beginning of the pandemic, yet many of them are excluded from these schemes. It is not fair.
I support Deputy Doherty's amendment. These points were put to the Minister forcefully when the legislation was pushed through and I do not know why he is ignoring them. Also in the context of taxi drivers, the electric vehicle grant is very limited in terms of who it is available to. A car has to reach its ten-year expiry date in order for the owner to access this grant, which means that the vast majority of taxi drivers will also be excluded from that grant. At every level, taxi drivers are being denied supports because their cars are their premises and their means of business, even though they have been more adversely affected than many of those who are availing of scheme and who are rightly getting paid. I do not see why the Minister would not extend it to taxi drivers or to musicians, people in event-related areas, the arts and so on. I appeal to him to do so.
Some of the support given out to bigger businesses and the willingness of the Government to give this support contrasts sharply with the way it treats PAYE workers, who will now receive tax bills even though the wage subsidy scheme limited the amount by which employers could top up workers' pay to the net amount. The limit the Minister imposed in respect of the wage subsidy scheme means that people have taken a pay cut and that they are going to be taxed subsequently on it. That is completely unfair.
Finally, I will say a word on the wealth that dare not speak its name. Oxfam published a report earlier this week which shows that Ireland's billionaires have increased their wealth by €3.3 billion during the pandemic. Rather than exclude people who really need support from schemes, could we not impose a little bit of tax on the billionaires who have done well out of Covid in order to assist some of the workers and sectors which have been absolutely hammered by the public health restrictions?
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Is this CORRECT (Also in the context of taxi drivers, the electric vehicle grant is very limited in terms of who it is available to. A car has to reach its ten-year expiry date in order for the owner to access this grant, which means that the vast majority of taxi drivers will also be excluded from that grant. ) This is Boyd Barrett at his best is he saying a 14 year old car does not count ?one member on here was selling a 6 year old car as he bought an EV .
IF what Boyd Barrett is saying is correct why would taxi reps want that changed ?If any taxi driver can get the Grant then exactly what I said would happen will happen .Free Now will go into partnership with drivers you supply the licence and they fund your purchase of the vehicle they put it in your name so you and by association they get the state aid to build their fleets and sell their Parent companies cars .
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I'm not sure if he's wholly correct John....the "new" 20k grant towards an electric vehicle was only to those(me) whose car was out of time,i think the other 10k (sliding scale) grant is still available to drivers who opt to change.
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Hal why are Taxi reps looking to make this grant available to ALL taxi drivers .If it is AVAILABLE TO ALL then Free Now will invite ALL taxi drivers to be their PARTNER you supply the Saloon Licence they help you to finance a new EV by agreeing to finance one of their own Brand of vehicle .You get the government grant deducted from the price leaving the outstanding owing to Free Now or Daimler Bank .Then Free Now have you Pot Committed to cover their Work to fund your Loan .Then they can increase freight impose dress code drop you if you do not cover a % of jobs offered during your shift .Do none of these Reps ever think things through or are they well aware of what they are asking for ?
Remember the WAV option was originally meant to be A1 vehicles but Reps complained and we got Cripmobiles of a lower standard and look how that worked out .
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I honestly don't know John....at a time when earnings have hit the floor...i did speak to the Nissan sales rep but he hadn't heard anything about the new scheme,the 20k grant was a scrappage deal aswell,so no extra for your out of time car.
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The last NTA newsletter was dated Nov 2020,they mentioned the new Escrappage scheme but said further details will be forthcoming over the coming weeks...which is now months.... and that the existing grant is still available!
Maybe MFH has more info that he doesn't want to share!! lol
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The last NTA newsletter was dated Nov 2020,they mentioned the new Escrappage scheme but said further details will be forthcoming over the coming weeks...which is now months.... and that the existing grant is still available!
Maybe MFH has more info that he doesn't want to share!! lol
Where's our 4% pay rise? if it's not on our meter, perhaps add it to our PUP. 8)
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Stay away from those ev cars until they are proven for years of hard work and hundreds of thousands of kilometres, the Nissan leafs are a disaster, they have a range of 200 new and at 120,000 km they are down to half that plus take into account that you can't fill them to 100% and recharge them near zero or 10 km of it all the time. Stay with euro emissions 6 diesels, petrols or hybrids but preferably diesel hybrids those petrol hybrids with 1.8 and 2.5 litre engines are hard on juice. The neighbour had a Toyota auris hybrid 1.8, were out the sticks, he was getting around 400 miles or less to a tank, the wife has a 1.6 diesel Picasso get nearly 900 miles to a tank.
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Probably good advice, C5. There's 67 Leaves on the fleet so far making it the 30th most popular car among taximen/taxi drivers*.
Hybrids are probably better on fuel than diesels around the city but diesels are definitely more economical on the open road. Toyotas own figures for the Prius concur with that fact. For me the potential saving from a Hybrid is pretty insignificant and not enough to justify a second electric "engine", a high maintenance petrol engine, an equally needy "gearbox", fiercely expensive batteries and a host of technology I don't understand.
However, it seems inevitable that we will see a huge increase in EV taxis this year given that Free Now has stated it's intention to encourage at least 10,000 drivers who work for that firm to switch by this time next year.
Fair play to Richard Boyd Barrett. He has raised issues relevant to our trade since the start of the pandemic. I hope taxi drivers will remember his support at election time. AFAIK, SPBP contest seats in every constituency. Obviously, An Taoiseach's cuts to puppy dole after the last protest is a serious issue right now so hopefully Waldron and Co have learnt from that experience. We know An Taoiseach doesn't care how many lives are lost when it comes to dishing out "punishment".
*source: http://intaxi.org/database/model.php (http://intaxi.org/database/model.php)
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Well those 10,000 taxi drivers will be in a spot of bother in around 5 years time plus, spending 1000s replacing batteries after they spent the first few gloating about how cheap evs are to run. Where as can sell my diesel to someone who want a will taken care of 11 year old 1.6 diesel as a cheap runabout that will still do 900 miles to a tank. Trouble is coming for the second hand market.
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You do know that different cars have different capacity tanks?
Diesels are slightly better on the motorways but the hybrid will easily get 55mpg in town.
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Yesterday's tech now, I guess.
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is an electric taxi still subject to the 10 year rule.
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Yes DMG.
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Do you get a grant for replacing the batteries in a few years?
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Nah Rc it would be nice though.Keep it for 4/5 years then dump it to get another.
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What would it cost after all the grants? Apologies if that's been posted already, I haven't been paying attention 'cos I'm not in the market for a car ATM.
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If the NTA bring in the 20k grant you should be able to get the smaller battery leaf for maybe 12k after grants and the bigger battery one for about 19/20 after grants.
Still expensive but the fuel savings of maybe 2/3 per year kinda cover most of the outlay.
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Depends on which grant,the 20k grant is classed as an E Scrappage scheme but there's very little...actually..no info on it,
The 62kw Leaf comes in at a hefty 35-36k,
The 10k (sliding scale) grant is still available.
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@ Rodent .What do you think of Reps efforts to make sure every Saloon License holder should be afforded the opportunity to PARTNER up with Free Now in the Purchase of an EV .This is possibly where Free Now intend to utilize their investment by offering credit to drivers to purchase one of their parent companies Battery Operated Cars .Good to see A socialist trying to influence the Minister to make it easier to have drivers exploited by unscrupulous car and taxi ride sellers .The last time Mr Boyd Barrett spoke on our behalf the Minister For Social Welfare reduced our earning capacity from as much as you could earn and claim PUP as long as your income was SIGNIFICANTLY impacted with the definition of Significant being as little as 15% to a mere 960 per two month timeframe .Socialists all about the Workers .
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To be fair, you weren't actually allowed to earn a whole lot and claim puppy dole before the €480/month came in. You were, however, allowed to work. The real significance of the €480/month was the commensurate cuts in puppy dole rates. An Taoiseach was probably confused as to why the self-appointed drivers' representatives called for subsidies to get men back working because there was no work. However, An Taoiseach's response, whether vexatious or not, was undoubtedly irresponsible as it has resulted in hundreds of deaths.
Bring back Dr. Leo. Dr. Leo was great so he was...
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If the NTA bring in the 20k grant you should be able to get the smaller battery leaf for maybe 12k after grants and the bigger battery one for about 19/20 after grants.
Still expensive but the fuel savings of maybe 2/3 per year kinda cover most of the outlay.
In "normal" - who know's what the new normal will be - circumstances fuel savings would probably be enough to justify €20k for a 4.5 year motor. Obviously, in the current climate most of us aren't using any fuel at all! I'd be thinking €3k/year for the car and c.€1.5k/year fuel savings, bearing in mind that electricity isn't free.
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@mercenary for hire, the 2018 auris hybrid has a 50 litre tank and the 2008 c4 Picasso has a 55 litre tank. With a nearly 500 mile difference in range, both car mostly doing between 50 and 60 mph, ya don't see many hybrids or ev out the country, and the one that do are back in diesels for their next car. A lot of people outside the city's got taken in by Toyota claiming that hybrids are more efficient than diesels and having those people on the ads say I only fill every 6 week or so. The ad got banned.
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The only motorway my car sees is the M50 occasionaly.I drove down to Porlaise on a job a few years ago and it got a consistent 55mpg.It used to get 52/55mpg around town regularly.Not bad for an old car.
You'd need to do a proper experiment with fellas in white coats and calculators and test tubes to compare both cars under similar conditions.
Diesel is (or was) cheaper by the liter and it does burn more efficiently so that itself would scew the results.
If the 12volt on a hybrid needs replacing that can ruin the mileage.The car will run with a bogey 12v but just less efficiently.Most drivers just put a score in and try to convince themselves that they made the right choice.Hard to be sure really.
I've never had so much in me bank account since I parked me car and cancelled the insurance.Driving is an expensive hobby.Hybrid or diesel or electric.If I was minister for transport I'd replace the taxi fleet with rickshaws and wheelbarrows.
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Merch you up Early waiting for Tokyo to Open .See Game is back in play .Will the Big Players take on Big Blue or Tesla
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I bought back a small amount (1300)Nokia shares.Probably sold off early yesterday but things looked dodgy as fuk.Dunno about Tokyo Erm.This is me...
https://youtu.be/3MtywBLGSs0
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I bought back a small amount (1300)Nokia shares.Probably sold off early yesterday but things looked dodgy as fuk.Dunno about Tokyo Erm.This is me...
https://youtu.be/3MtywBLGSs0 (https://youtu.be/3MtywBLGSs0)
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/live-updates-gamestop-amc-trading-frenzy-wall-street (https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/live-updates-gamestop-amc-trading-frenzy-wall-street)
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I bought back a small amount (1300)Nokia shares.Probably sold off early yesterday but things looked dodgy as fuk.Dunno about Tokyo Erm.This is me...
https://youtu.be/3MtywBLGSs0 (https://youtu.be/3MtywBLGSs0)
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/live-updates-gamestop-amc-trading-frenzy-wall-street (https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/live-updates-gamestop-amc-trading-frenzy-wall-street)
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0129/1193795-restrictions-hit-small-investors-behind-gamestop-surge/ (https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0129/1193795-restrictions-hit-small-investors-behind-gamestop-surge/)
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https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/20/man-lost-127-million-worth-of-bitcoins-and-city-wont-let-him-look.html (https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/20/man-lost-127-million-worth-of-bitcoins-and-city-wont-let-him-look.html)
How the fuk can a hard drive be worth 120 millions?
Madness....snake oil an ponzi