O'Connell Street Taxi rank racism?

elwood76

Have heard a rumour a few times and just wondering if anyone knows if its true or not. Do the taxi drivers on O'Connell streets main rank stop black drivers from using the rank? If this is true, how is this allowed to happen in this day and age? Any info would be great.

mcgarry098

a taxi man in galway said the blacks and whites hate each other and wont let each other use the same ranks so i assume its the same in dublin!

Hootanany

Yeah Ditto they wont let them on coloured peoples unofficial ranks as well.

Cookie_Monster

that rank exemplifies everything that is wrong with the taxi industry in Ireland in one convenient to watch place. From atrocious road manners and useage, to ****ty cars, to racism and general ****wittery, to abuse of customers, smoking in a workplace and on and on.

Cionád

Worst rank in Dublin imo, I don't use it anymore.

They also often block the right turn onto Cathal Brugha St. as they wait for space to become available at the end of the rank.

Losty Dublin

At the risk of this getting into the usual venomous rant against taxi drivers but here goes by observation.....

When I was a taxi driver, I had plenty of people choose to get into my car on the basis that I was not a coloured/black driver, both young and old and of both sexes. On that basis, that means that passengers are racist as well.

2/3 of the population don't smoke. I can only assume that at least 2/3 of taxi drivers don't smoke in their cars either That said, I see lots of van, tuuch and commerical drivers smoking in their vehicles yet with very few threads on here condemning them for same. Or their bad driving. Or their racism, illegal parking, tax dodging etc

I was abused a good few times by passengers for reasons like not letting people bring in bottles of beer or curries into my car, for not doing u turns on busy streets, being given bad directions by them (I don't know where Orlas house is on her name alone or by there being a Spar beside it) or for not letting 8 into my 4 seater car :rolleyes:

In short, all manner of taxi trade woes happen in other trades as well so some perspective would be nice, if unlikely

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

that rank exemplifies everything that is wrong with the taxi industry in Ireland in one convenient to watch place. From atrocious road manners and useage, to ****ty cars, to racism and general ****wittery, to abuse of customers, smoking in a workplace and on and on.

TommyTippee

Please don't use the term "coloured". You're not Bernard Manning.

frag420

Losty Dublin wrote: »

2/3 of the population don't smoke. I can only assume that at least 2/3 of taxi drivers don't smoke in their cars either That said, I see lots of van, tuuch and commerical drivers smoking in their vehicles yet with very few threads on here condemning them for same

Did not realise that van and commercial drivers were carrying paying members of the public???

helimachoptor

frag420 wrote: »

Did not realise that van and commercial drivers were carrying paying members of the public???

They are work places so they arent allowed smoke.

Hootanany

TommyTippee wrote: »

Please don't use the term "coloured". You're not Bernard Manning.

Well some are brown not all black.

Eircom_Sucks

well i wouldnt get into a taxi if it was a foreign national driving

because everytime i got a cab home at 3am from any driver it was always more expensive with a foreign driver , co-incidence ??? also the fact you always hear stories of the cars being tampered with to try make the meters faster

now i know theres loads of useless c*nt irish drivers too , but id rather an irish man robbed me than a foreign lad

call me what you want as i don't give 2 hoots

elwood76

ahh my thread seems to be taken over by a touch of bile from all sides. Lads, I only asked one question. Is the rumour true or not. Lets all relax our kacks. If it is true and also that the Galway taxi union will not let black people into their union then that is a disgrace and someone needs to do something about it. Surely none of this could hold up in court?

phasers

elwood76 wrote: »

ahh my thread seems to be taken over by a touch of bile from all sides. Lads, I only asked one question. Is the rumour true or not. Lets all relax our kacks. If it is true and also that the Galway taxi union will not let black people into their union then that is a disgrace and someone needs to do something about it. Surely none of this could hold up in court?

But could it really be proven?

The O'Connell St. rank is a disgrace, it's one of those ranks that suffer from the issue of taxi driver 'cliques'. They won't let many Irish drivers use it either, if you look it's always the same old faces over and over.

TommyTippee

Hootanany wrote: »

Well some are brown not all black.

Don't be so ignorant

TommyTippee

Eircom_Sucks wrote: »

id rather an irish man robbed me than a foreign lad

christ almighty

coylemj

TommyTippee wrote: »

Please don't use the term "coloured". You're not Bernard Manning.

And you're not a mod.

Losty Dublin

elwood76 wrote: »

ahh my thread seems to be taken over by a touch of bile from all sides. Lads, I only asked one question. Is the rumour true or not. Lets all relax our kacks. If it is true and also that the Galway taxi union will not let black people into their union then that is a disgrace and someone needs to do something about it. Surely none of this could hold up in court?

Taxi threads always end up like this on Boards.ie, get used to it

Dare I say it but a good deal of the ignorant posts and grief on taxi threads shows comes from non driver posters who refuse to take drivers posts into account or who come up with very lop sided opinions. Yes, it is a trade with a lot of gougers and chancers and it harbours a lot of urban myths but most of them don't come from witin. Okay, it's a trade that's fecked for a lot of reasons (Though not the only one, mind) but it ain't all the fault of the drivers nor it is fair to blame them for it all or for actions of a few bogeys in the trade.

And to address your point, yes there is unofficial vetting of who uses what ranks, yes it's illegal and yes it's unaddressed by the powers that be. The story about the Galway union has come up in the media before; a quick Google should confirm same.

-Chris-

elwood76 wrote: »

I only asked one question. Is the rumour true or not...

... If it is true and also that the Galway taxi union will not let black people into their union then that is a disgrace and someone needs to do something about it. Surely none of this could hold up in court?

This is the ONLY topic of this thread, the next person with an anti-Taxi driver or even vaguely racist comment gets banned for a week.

pappyodaniel

Losty Dublin wrote: »

At the risk of this getting into the usual venomous rant against taxi drivers but here goes by observation.....

When I was a taxi driver, ......
....
....

Hi Losty, I'm well aware of the problems facing taxi drivers at the moment. May I ask you why you left the industry, was it because of the abuse, boredom, low earnings or was it something else?

elwood76

-Chris- wrote: »

This is the ONLY topic of this thread, the next person with an anti-Taxi driver or even vaguely racist comment gets banned for a week.

well said

Saruman

I remember another thread like this a few years back, or maybe it was something on the radio but it was about people skipping over taxis driven parked at the rank that are driven by visibly non Irish drivers.

The general consensus was that they expected the Irish driver will know how to get where they are going better than an immigrant driver. Also Irish drivers tended to have better quality cars. Would you rather a drive in a newish Merc or a 15+ year old Toyota Carina?

Run_to_da_hills

I think that this thread should be locked before it goes pear shaped.

Losty Dublin

pappyodaniel wrote: »

Hi Losty, I'm well aware of the problems facing taxi drivers at the moment. May I ask you why you left the industry, was it because of the abuse, boredom, low earnings or was it something else?

I left for a few reasons and I'm more than happy to shed a bit of light on it all, if it helps people grasp a bit of the reality of what it was like.

Mainly, it was because my income had gone down big time from mid 2008 onwards. Some evenings I'd have gone 3+ hours without a fare in the car, formerly decent nights like a Friday or Saturday (Where you'd pull maybe 50%+ of your earnings) saw huge drops in patrongage due partly to less venues opening and partly recessionary drops in trade. Even Christmas parties have virtually vanished so good December's can't be expected either. And all this was going on while fuel bills went up by about 30+%, insurance was creeping up and the impending 9 year renewal rule for cabs and the associated costs fitting out the car loomed in the horizon so I let my licence lapse as I looked out for alternative work. An honest figure of how badly it tailed off in terms of income is hard but personally speaking, I forewent feeding my savings and my pension and I was still down over half my annual income compared to 2006/7/8.

I was also suspect about the short term future of the trade; I knew that there was no direction from the powers that be as to how it went forward plus I was bored fed up and pretty dejected about it all so I said bye bye to it. The trade wasn't going anywhere bar down the flute but I was lucky enough as I had a way out and nobody else to think about. I have no wife or kids or mortgage to worry about or feed but many others are less lucky and had no option but to keep going, even knowing well that the hopes are not great for now.

oisindoyle

elwood76 wrote: »

ahh my thread seems to be taken over by a touch of bile from all sides. Lads, I only asked one question. Is the rumour true or not. Lets all relax our kacks. If it is true and also that the Galway taxi union will not let black people into their union then that is a disgrace and someone needs to do something about it. Surely none of this could hold up in court?

Rumours are exactly that,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Rumours!

mikemac

Used that rank before

I didn't know where the first car was.
I just went to the first lad southbound who passed me to some guy puffing his chest like an army general who pointed me to another car.

But it wasn't a car at the end, it was one behind that.

I was confused
But got to where I wanted to go in the end

homerjay2005

id be pretty sure, while there may be a small element of racism, the real problem here would be the local drivers have issues with the 1000's of extra taxis that are in the city and not locally driven.

i think its safe to say, they wouldnt be too fond of lads from kildare, meath, louth etc etc coming in to take "their trade" also. the african taxi drivers are an easy target cos of their looks, but i dont think they get treated any differently from other or irish outsiders. taxi driving is a very bitchy business but there are also some dodgy drivers there, and alot of them are non irish. that of course is my opinion, not fact.

AlekSmart

Whats possibly of greater importannce in the scheme of things is why that rank is actually there at all.

It is for certain a major issue in regards to traffic flow and road safety generally and in addition it is inferior to the original rank which preceded it,given that it had a shelter.

What appears to have happened is that Dublin City Council adopted a Local Area Plan for the O Connell St refurbishment which relocated this "facility" to Parnell Square East.

This was the intended plan up until the Taxi Industry found a new champion in the form of Junior Minister for Transport,Ivor Callelly.

Mr Callelly it seems sought a review of DCC's plans relating to Taxi Rank space and voila !...the Taxi Rank reappears,superimposed like a carbuncle atop DCC's somewhat differently intended original Boulevard proposal.

It remains a rather obvious living memory of an era when this sort of carry-on was still regarded as "a-bit-of-an-oul-stroke" on the part of the Taxi Industry and one up to them etc etc...

In todays Ireland it now just sit's there festering as an all too obvious example of the type of Politics which Mr Callelly and his fellow travellers and supporters were able to practice with impunity.

The Galway Taxi "Racism" story is fast becoming a hoary old chesnut and has been covered elsewhere on this forum.

It's quite comprehensively done-to-death here.....

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056108833

One of the salient points to remember is the Report itself appears to have been compiled in a somewhat less than scientific manner,however the full report is here....

http://www.nuigalway.ie/human_rights/documents/galway_taxi_industry_report__riding_along_with_racism.pdf

col.in.Cr

Eircom_Sucks:

call me what you want as i don't give 2 hoots


Your an arsehole

milehip1

Saruman wrote: »

I remember another thread like this a few years back, or maybe it was something on the radio but it was about people skipping over taxis driven parked at the rank that are driven by visibly non Irish drivers.

The general consensus was that they expected the Irish driver will know how to get where they are going better than an immigrant driver. Also Irish drivers tended to have better quality cars. Would you rather a drive in a newish Merc or a 15+ year old Toyota Carina?

Rather a 15yr old Merc than a newish Carina!

Jane Eyre

Eircom_Sucks wrote: »

well i wouldnt get into a taxi if it was a foreign national driving

because everytime i got a cab home at 3am from any driver it was always more expensive with a foreign driver , co-incidence ??? also the fact you always hear stories of the cars being tampered with to try make the meters faster

now i know theres loads of useless c*nt irish drivers too , but id rather an irish man robbed me than a foreign lad

call me what you want as i don't give 2 hoots

I'm way too polite to call you what you are. So, I'll settle for IGNORANT.

Losty Dublin

Jane Eyre wrote: »

I'm way too polite to call you what you are. So, I'll settle for IGNORANT.

While I disliked his tone as well, his sentiments are shared by many a passenger that I carried over the years so his opinion are not at all rare.

DublinWriter

TommyTippee wrote: »

Please don't use the term "coloured". You're not Bernard Manning.

I think differently-Irish is the P.C. term-de-jour.

2qk4u

The rank on O'Connell st has always been like that, there has always been a click weather it was just locals v other drivers and now its just a sign of the times that it seems to be irish v non irish drivers. There are black drivers using that rank as well as drivers from all over the world its just a case of who couldnt care less about the click.
The click is not racist its multi cultural. It affects anyone they dont like the look of or that they think they can intimidate.
On another note, Im driving a Taxi for 9 years and I have been the victim of racial abuse on a number of occasions and all were from Nigerian drivers. Ive had my car kicked by a Nigerian driver on Baggot st who told me "**** off no Irish here" , I was only dropping a passenger off.

n97 mini

Is preferring to give business to one of my own now considered racist!?

Killer Wench

I know someone who was going to write their research proposal on this subject but chose not to because it was much more complicated than the time allowed. But, from what I remember, it is true that certain ranks have a de facto rule against non-Irish drivers. Someone who knows more can elaborate, but my understanding is that you have to belong to certain taxi associations/networks(?) in order to use specific ranks. And those associations discriminate based upon their own reasons.

corktina

n97 mini wrote: »

Is preferring to give business to one of my own now considered racist!?

yes, if the way you are determining they are "your own" is by the colour of their skin.

n97 mini

corktina wrote: »

yes, if the way you are determining they are "your own" is by the colour of their skin.

That's PC gone too far. If you've lived here long enough you figure out that it's possible to tell Irish people from their general appearance.

I've never gotten into a cab with what I thought was an Irish driver only to find out he/she was foreign. And I've never gotten into a cab with a foreign looking lad only to find out he was Irish, either.

bk

n97 mini wrote: »

I've never gotten into a cab with what I thought was an Irish driver only to find out he/she was foreign. And I've never gotten into a cab with a foreign looking lad only to find out he was Irish, either.

What a load of rubbish.

At a glance through a window, how could you tell a Polish bloke from an Irish lad?

And over the years I've meet Asian, Indian and African looking people who are Irish born and have Cork or Dublin accents thick enough to peel the paint off a wall.

Also I've found little difference in knowledge of where to go and the type of car they drive between an Irish driver and a foreign driver.

In fact the worst I ever had didn't know where Griffith Avenue was and he was Irish!!!

Lawrence1895

Eircom_Sucks wrote: »

well i wouldnt get into a taxi if it was a foreign national driving

because everytime i got a cab home at 3am from any driver it was always more expensive with a foreign driver , co-incidence ??? also the fact you always hear stories of the cars being tampered with to try make the meters faster

now i know theres loads of useless c*nt irish drivers too , but id rather an irish man robbed me than a foreign lad

call me what you want as i don't give 2 hoots

And would you rather wait for an Irish doctor, if you are lying on the street, just after bein beaten up or something? Even if a foreign doc could save your life on the spot?

parsi

I don't care who drives the car as long as it looks like it's well maintained and the driver looks respectable.

In fact those drivers who don't have english as a mother tongue do have an advantage as they are less likely to spend the journey moaning about the topic du jour.

-Chris-

col.in.Cr wrote: »

Eircom_Sucks:

call me what you want as i don't give 2 hoots


Your an arsehole

Banned for a week for personal abuse

-Chris-

-Chris- wrote: »

This is the ONLY topic of this thread, the next person with an anti-Taxi driver or even vaguely racist comment gets banned for a week.

n97 mini wrote: »

Is preferring to give business to one of my own now considered racist!?

n97 mini wrote: »

That's PC gone too far. If you've lived here long enough you figure out that it's possible to tell Irish people from their general appearance.

n97 mini banned for a week for reigniting the racism discussion, ignoring a specific on-thread Mod warning.


Thread locked