Well 20 years after the intransigence of the taxi industry unions,(most vociferous the Fed) led to deregulation been imposed, where the offer from the Fed was acceptance of 100/200 new Licenses that they would control as they did with their "open draws previously" where the State wanted Christy Humphreys 1000 members to get sorted and get him off their back--hence the free for all we have now !
Back then I was a Hack happily getting along --the Public loved us as we where not like those horrible Taxi Drivers--comparing like with like earnings were far better with regulation a lot lighter--
Taxi rental was lucrative then also--with many column inches of ads in the Press every Thursday --90 quid for days and 110 for nights --at times the owner would work week about but they were hungry fuckers-(so current IQ levels appear to be heredity )-Black Cabs operating out of where City does now ,Co-op and NRC were big operators but the biggest was probably Metro--99% Hacks--then Pony arrived in 95 so joined up with them --only bought a Plate to get access to Bus Lanes--subsequently took a drop in earnings !
Since then year on year ,more and more regulations the only thing that remained constant was the small mindedness of the the active participants in the industry --
Tomorrow Leo will announce loads of good news,this will be for various reasons,(a) Go out with major PR coup for himself/party in case there is an election--similar to the Shinners abstaining in that vote yesterday,the new party of Law and Order !(b) Leaving Michael and FF little to announce (c)Rescue the World of Business --supports for everyone ,Tax and Rates relief,Grants for this and that to help them restart ,all aspects of Public Transport will get extra subvention bar Taxis !
We all hear of the Merc taxis in Germany ,where the industry is ruled by cast iron regulation --thats why No Medical Discount in Fatherland--you must charge the metered fare --two strikes and your out--or the Canaries where the cars are pristine as the Tourist Police put cars of the road for 7 days in a blink for any slightest infringement of regs!
Why did this happen, strong Governments with decent input for industry--here we might have had the former at stages we NEVER had the latter !
Lucky for me none of my kids will go into this business as they are all settled in better professions but there are plenty on here that will depend on it for many years to come and if no one gets out there and gets vocal with sensible coherent input (study Germany or Spain)they needn't worry about driver-less cars as the opposition they will be extinct long before then--
Its been a great game for me for over 25 years ,its frustrating and an embarrassment to see how its treated by both Regulators /Participants !
