February 10, 2007
Bus lanes, minicabs and all that
A few weeks ago our little friends held a bit of a PR party at Conway hall preceded by a half-hearted drive-in to highlight their grievances. The various speakers including the MP Simon Hughes, moaned on and on about minicabs not being able to pick up and set down on red routes and, more worryingly, their demands to be given access to bus lanes. nothing new here, then, except that one of the speakers gave the impression that ‘Black Cabs’ (that’s us) and bus drivers didn’t have a problem with minicabs using bus lanes. Now quite where he got that idea is a bit of a mystery because the LTDA and everyone else I have spoken to are dead against the idea. Incidentally, the bus drivers and bus companies all think the whole idea is bonkers and are making their views well known; something about forgetting any central area bus timetables because the buses will be running so slow as to make them totally useless.
So who gave the minicab industry the idea that 40,000 minicabs gaining access to bus lanes is anything but lunacy? To be honest, up until yesterday I thought they had just made the whole thing up, but having spoken to one of my spies, I have learnt that there may be a grain of truth in their claims.
It would seem that as some of the taxi radio circuits get more and more involved with minicab companies, either by owning them outright or by taking bookings on their behalf, some of the personalities involved have formed personal friendships with some of the big players in the private hire business.
In fact, my spies tell me that they are often to be seen wining and dining with our competitors in what some would perceive as collaborating, and it was at one of these dinners that it was mooted that taxi drivers wouldn’t mind minicabs in bus lanes, which is where the idea came from.
The lure of big profits from exploiting the cheap labour used by the private hire industry has influenced the thinking of many in the radio taxi business to such an extent that something that at one time was totally unthinkable (such as minicabs in bus lanes) should be considered if it helps boost jobs covered and profits made. Of course the comment could have been misinterpreted or just incorrectly reported, but if it’s true and is indicative of how some in our business are thinking, then the time might have come when they seriously have to consider where their loyalties lie. They can’t have it both ways: they are either with us or against us, and either way is fine just as long as they let us know where they stand.
Filed under London Taxi News by admin
Comments on Bus lanes, minicabs and all that »
you are all just drivers picking up and transporting folks around to make a living. The segregation you are instigating is just like racism. You seem to forget that you are all simply drivers doing a job.
london Taxi's are the best and the most expensive in the world and certainly do not accomodate everyone. So mini cabs have their niche also and the campaigns against them are ridiculous as it also attacks the surburbian population who never see a black taxi plying for hire in their areas.
So by all means promote black taxi's as the number 1 but dont make urselves look bad with these terrible childish attacks on innocent folks that have no baring on the black taxi trade.
If the trade sucks work to improve it without destroying things which are of no consequence. Try adapting, most other trades have to and black taxi's are again, just drivers trying to make a living. nothing special really in the scheme of things.