[Article] Meter clocks €233,000 for dropped taxi sticker system

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/9621569?view=Eircomnet

Meter clocks €233,000 for dropped taxi sticker system
From:ireland.com
Wednesday, 3rd January, 2007

A compulsory taxi customer information system introduced at a cost of more than €200,000 has been scrapped by taxi regulator Ger Deering just three months after its launch, writes Olivia Kelly.

Window stickers detailing the new national fare, vehicle licence information, contact details for the regulator and customer rights and responsibilities were launched by Mr Deering last September and were made a compulsory feature of all taxis from October 16th.

The stickers cost €11.68 per vehicle and were sent to more than 20,000 taxi and hackney owners at a total cost of about €233,000.

The cost was borne by the Commission for Taxi Regulation, funded by vehicle licence fees paid by drivers.

The commission received a number of complaints from drivers that the stickers were affecting the mechanism of electric windows and were being peeled off by passengers. The Braille information on the stickers was also inaccurate as it failed to indicate to the reader that they were dealing with numbers and not letters.

The stickers had the potential to create a robbery risk at drivers' homes, according to National Taxi Drivers' Union president Tommy Gorman. "A lot of drivers would have taken down their roof sign at night, because a taxi outside the door gives an indication that there might be money inside - but with the stickers you couldn't do that."

Any future information system would have to give the driver the option of removing it from view when the vehicle was not in service, he said.

Mr Deering has conceded that the stickers caused problems and has decided to discontinue their use.

A new in-vehicle information system will be introduced as part of vehicle standards regulations currently the subject of public consultation. The new regulations are to be implemented from the beginning of next year.

In the meantime, every driver is being sent a temporary passenger information card to replace the stickers. These cards contain no Braille information and have been sent to drivers at a cost of less than €1 each.

Danno

€11.68 per sticker... wow! Some company had a great end-of-year target buster.

AlekSmart

Hey Danno.....Don`t laff.....Taxi`s today......Tomorrow.....The World !

More freakin muppetry a là the S Brennan school of wavin ur arms about and gettin ur pictcher in de paper.

It would serve Mr Deering and his oh so important Public far better if he would drop along to the Mad Taxi Rank on O Connell St in Dublin and watch the dangerous carry on there which is resultant from poor design and even worse construction.

Not to mention the absolute insanity of his recent press statements advising intending passengers at a Taxi Rank that they can graze the queue of Cabs until they find one that smells/looks nice.

If that kind of stupid nonsense is practiced at O Connell St there will most definitely be further chaos as Cabs are plucked at random from the line and then have to do the push-pull bit in order to try and get out of the line.....

Did this Deering lad get a Degree in something or just a "Good" Leavin Cert..??? :rolleyes:

Ham'nd'egger

AlekSmart wrote:

Hey Danno.....Don`t laff.....Taxi`s today......Tomorrow.....The World !

More freakin muppetry a là the S Brennan school of wavin ur arms about and gettin ur pictcher in de paper.

It would serve Mr Deering and his oh so important Public far better if he would drop along to the Mad Taxi Rank on O Connell St in Dublin and watch the dangerous carry on there which is resultant from poor design and even worse construction.

Not to mention the absolute insanity of his recent press statements advising intending passengers at a Taxi Rank that they can graze the queue of Cabs until they find one that smells/looks nice.

If that kind of stupid nonsense is practiced at O Connell St there will most definitely be further chaos as Cabs are plucked at random from the line and then have to do the push-pull bit in order to try and get out of the line.....

Did this Deering lad get a Degree in something or just a "Good" Leavin Cert..??? :rolleyes:

Alex, Mr Deering is quickly finding out that his way is most certainly not the highway. With the abysmal rank on O'Connell Street, he will no doubts wash his hands of it and refer you to the DCC, much as he referred drivers to Dublin Airport when the permits went up to an initial €600, claiming it was not his issue to solve.

I just wonder when he will deal with the issue of many country drivers losing fares and income since the National Fare Structure, the anomaly of a single plate numbering system that actually has zero bearing on where a driver can pick up, the prospective issue of obliging all taxis to work with a radio base to name but a few issues.