A Good News Day

[mercenary for hire]

I'd say very few lads are going to be keeping their old taxi on the drive.Most are already sold on or in the scrapyard having availed of the grant.

There might be a few "lucky" lads who couldn't get the grant and went renting but I'd say they'd be like hens teeth out there.Someone told me the other day their pal was paying 450 a week for a rental.I didnt even earn that last week.Nuts.

[Rat Catcher]

If they availed of the grant or otherwise replaced their cars they wouldn't be on that list as their plates would be attached to their (once) new cars.

[Rat Catcher]

Amazing how few immigrants are being forced off the road. When I do the list of new drivers every month the vast majority are immigrants... men being forced off the road are predominately white and Irish by accident of birth... one for the conspiracy theorists?

[mercenary for hire]

They're getting old RC like meself.I was 32 when I started nearly 16 years ago and I thought some of the lads were getting on back then.A good few I knew have retired or even passed on since and the ones that are left look ready to retire.If I was getting to pension age I wouldn't really want the bullshit associated with working for the apps and card paymets and the higher costs of staying on the road.

No point for many in getting 270 a week pensions if it's all gone on the vehicle.

The immigrants are young and hungry.Even the Nigerians that were in the business when I started are hard to find.Maybe they got better opportunities or just had enough of it.

[Rat Catcher]

Indeed. I could well do without buying a new car at this stage of my life given that my current one is in perfect working order. I'd be happy enough if they lifted the current temporary moratorium on the issue of saloon hackney plates with no age restrictions to be honest.

I should qualify the above list to note that some may have been renewed after they were last scanned by our bots last month. That number is probably quite small but will become apparent at the end of this month as our bots only scan each plate once per month. I'll try to remember to revisit it early next month to get an even more accurate picture.

[watty]

Drivers are getting older and the business is getting more 'professional' (i.e. red tape) and it might not suit some.  I've seen comments on here about someone paying 6 yrs back tax in one go, licences used to be a fiver, and you could run a €1,000 banger as a taxi.  Now it's a paperwork, tax clearance certs, VAT returns for some, newish cars and the business might disappear in a decade or two with robotaxis.

And we're dying out...  ~40% of us were over the age of 58 in 2023.  TBH, I'm surprised they haven't opened the saloon licences to get new blood into the industry.

[Octavia1]

Indeed. I could well do without buying a new car at this stage of my life given that my current one is in perfect working order. I'd be happy enough if they lifted the current temporary moratorium on the issue of saloon hackney plates with no age restrictions to be honest.

I should qualify the above list to note that some may have been renewed after they were last scanned by our bots last month. That number is probably quite small but will become apparent at the end of this month as our bots only scan each plate once per month. I'll try to remember to revisit it early next month to get an even more accurate picture.

Jus buy the dip rat .... Trump creating fear in the markets and the Trump family buying the bollix out of crypto ....wat does that tell ya ? Seriously?
The plebs are shoitin ther knickers an sellin an the trumps an elon are buyin ...an big money buyin the fuk out of it ...the lower it goes .. the more ya buy ... Elon probly buyin the fuk out o tesla ... 

[Rat Catcher]

I've reprogrammed our bots to scan all the 2015 plates again (ahead of their regular monthly workload) to catch the ones that have been updated since they were last scanned sometime last month.

Assuming I've done it right - it's years since I've looked at that code - we might have more accurate data and, perhaps, some interesting info in terms of what those who have renewed or reactivated relevant plates in that timeframe have done. Our bots are pretty lazy bastards so it'll take them a few hours to scan the 743 odd scheduled. I have to work this evening and the weekend so it might be Mon/Tue before I can analyse the (hopefully!) updated data.

Watch this space!

[Rat Catcher]

You can actually track the bots progress on that page I created for Ken...

http://intaxi.org/database/car-2015.php

...and note the count decreasing as renewed plates are excluded from that report. The ones appended with the number 1 have been rescanned with those numbered greater than 1 on the bots active worksheet. Those numbered 0 have been renewed with the 2015 car.

... although it might renumber them all again when it's finished ... in fact, it probably will!

[Rat Catcher]

Work was a waste of time this evening. I did get a couple of messages from Uber suggesting there was high demand at DAP. I might have to bite the bullet and reluctantly spend a tenner on one of them poxy permits.

Back on topic, the bots had a far more productive shift than me, getting through the full list... leaving 679 (from 745) relevant plates. I'll analyse the ones from those originally identified as having expiry dates prior to April fools day that have been renewed recently in due course and see what, if any, trends are evident.

[Rat Catcher]

From a quick look at that data ( http://intaxi.org/database/car-2015.php ) we can note a few things.

The 679 includes (not necessarily by design but nonetheless useful) 25 15 reg cars that now expire in 2026 so the age extension has already saved the livelihoods of 25 men.

That leaves 66 that have changed their cars in the last month. It could be interesting to analyse those in due course.

Probably most interesting so far is the length of licence issued to those who were eventually allowed to keep their cars and their livelihoods. The many, many, many, many, many, many, many previous age extensions imposed 6 monthly LRAs on vehicles over 10 years of age. It seems that our friend who takes a pint in a certain public house in the autonomous State of Kerry got himself and all the other men who were in a similar predicament an exemption from that provision with licences seemingly being renewed for the full 12 months.

[Panel]

Precedent set for operators’ cars that were in the fleet before the covid 19 pandemic started and did not receive an age limit extension (myself included)

My wanked out French panel van was 1st licensed c.July 2018, I did not get a age extension despite the car been sat up for the best part of 2 years while that mean nasty Dr Leo kept my customers hostage in their gaffs.

An extension for 2 years seems fair for such licenses who’ve already not received such an extension.

[Jack Meoff]

Could you find how many electric taxis were registered so far this year ?

[Rat Catcher]

Only by identifying every EV by make/model. While I can list every make/model from http://intaxi.org/database/make.php it'd probably need someone with better knowledge of which ones are EV than me to compile such a list.

However, I think NTA have budgeted €12.5M for EV grant aid in 2025. At an average grant of €18,000 that would equate to a maximum of 694 for the full year. The top 3 EV models are MG5, ID4 and BYD in that order as far as I can ascertain. Interestingly there are now 10 EV TXs (London black cabs) on the fleet... there must be some money to be made driving a cab if lads can afford them!

[watty]

Tesla is close behind BYD at 210 BYD v. 197 Teslas.