Professional Drivers

nc19

What is it with professional drivers and the condition of their cars in this country???

i'm talking mainly about taxi drivers but im sure its extendable to other pro drivers.

im in the motor trade and i see taxis and delivery drivers in vans in all the time. the overall condition of their vehicles would make your eyes water.

i just had a taxi in this morning with a 15yr old tyre on a 7 yr old car!!!!
Rust painted over, seat material ripped to shreds and sh1tty halford seat cover stuck over them, 2nd hand suspension parts fitted to name but a few common occurrences.

its unbelievable tbh.

if i was a professional driver i would take pride in my car. I would treat it as it should be treated considering its the means by which i make my living.
I know its not all professional drivers but its a large majority of what i see.

I dont know if its just an Irish thing or not. Are professional drivers in other countries as bad?

lway

What used to amaze me is how little taxi drivers know about their cars. I like to chat about cars and thought a taxi driver would be a great source of info on a car. Was looking at buying a Skoda Superb and happened to get a few taxi's that were Superbs so asked the drivers what engines they had and how the cars are on juice and wear and tear and what spec their car is, was shocked when the vast majority of them turned to me and said they knew nothing about cars.

Seth Brundle

lway wrote: »

What used to amaze me is how little taxi drivers know about their cars.

Not surprising really - sure they possess a similar level of knowledge with the rules of the road?

ironclaw

To put the word 'professional driver' and 'taxi' in the same sentence in an Irish context is insulting. The taxi's in Beijing are cleaner and better maintained in my experience, the drivers actually take pride in their car and don't even own them! Uber Black, even more so. Many a night I had an S8 bring me home and it was impeccable.

Pretty much every other country I've been in, I've left less money with the driver than here and felt bad about it given the level of professionalism and car upkeep they maintained. Irish Taxi's are beyond a joke. Sure any old car, any color, slap on a roof sign and do a test. Then complain they don't earn enough.

Chemical Byrne

Well in my opinion it might be due to the fact that they spend so many hours in them at work the last thing the want to do in their spare time is be arsing around with a car/van and would rather do other things.

Vehicle is just an expendable tool of the trade at the end of the day. Anyway, with the prices garages charge here for maintenance there it makes little financial sense to spend money in the upkeep of a vehicle that is coming up on 10 yrs old. I have a 04 Almera and the most I'm prepared to do with it is replace routine consumables. No way would I be horsing our money on flash accessories or cosmetic issues. On the longer term, it's vastly cheaper to replace a used car periodically than to maintain one as per the service schedule.

Who gives a sh!te about dents or scratches on a 5 or 10 year auld taxi (let alone a van), most punters are too busy to even notice what make car it is even.

duffman3833

I agree to an extent with Chemical Byrne about them not wanting to spend time with the cars after spending all day in them but i have seen taxi's that all they need is a wash and it would look a lot nicer. I understand at winter also its hard to keep car clean but it is their main source of income so id keep the car clean and presentable as possible. i personally learned to service my own vehicles, change filters etc. Each year i bring it to main dealer for an oil change and a complete check over make sure car OK, but id do most of work myself, i do all the work in driveway, don't have garage or ramps.

Summer wind

I was in a petrol station the other day and taxi drivers are always coming and going because it's fairly close to the city centre. Just as I was leaving a taxi pulled in and the back seat and floor of his car was totally covered in vomit. He got a load of paper wipes and started cleaning. I would really hate to have a job like that.

ironclaw

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Well in my opinion it might be due to the fact that they spend so many hours in them at work the last thing the want to do in their spare time is be arsing around with a car/van and would rather do other things..

Its there job?

Any professional usually spends a percentage of their spare time up-skilling or re-training to maintain a professional standard. Be that something as trivial as getting a new suit or as in-depth as a weekend training course. Translate this to the taxi game and an hour or two on your car per week is the minimum I would expect with perhaps an afternoon blocked off for some maintenance every month.

Its basically your office, why not run a hoover over it every day? You can hoover a car in 3 mins flat. Windows, 5 mins. And run it through a cheap car wash every other day. Literally 30 mins at most out of your routine.

Del2005

nc19 wrote: »

What is it with professional drivers and the condition of their cars in this country???

i'm talking mainly about taxi drivers but im sure its extendable to other pro drivers.

im in the motor trade and i see taxis and delivery drivers in vans in all the time. the overall condition of their vehicles would make your eyes water.

i just had a taxi in this morning with a 15yr old tyre on a 7 yr old car!!!!
Rust painted over, seat material ripped to shreds and sh1tty halford seat cover stuck over them, 2nd hand suspension parts fitted to name but a few common occurrences.

its unbelievable tbh.

if i was a professional driver i would take pride in my car. I would treat it as it should be treated considering its the means by which i make my living.
I know its not all professional drivers but its a large majority of what i see.

I dont know if its just an Irish thing or not. Are professional drivers in other countries as bad?

It's down to the fact that they aren't professional drivers they are ordinary people who drive a car for a living. Any company with a fleet requires their drivers undergo training/assessments for insurance purposes, and H&S, all a taxi driver in this country does is fill in a form and pass a bit of a "knowledge" test. They aren't even required to undergo a 2nd driving test or any advanced driver training, which is what a professional driver does.

But the biggest issue, especially in the Dublin, is that there are now too many taxis and they aren't making enough money to maintain their cars, but none want to give up their plate, and it'll come to a head soon when someone is seriously injured in a PSV which shouldn't have been on the roads

AndyBoBandy

You would think the taxi regulatory body would go to a few car manufacturers and try to negotiate a deal whereby its members would get fairly large chunks of a discount off new cars, let's say an Avensis/Passat or a Skoda Octavia/Superb, try to keep it to 2/3 car models max, bring it back when it's 6-8 years old and have it replaced for a newer one (at a discount). I'm sure they could go to say Toyota Ireland and agree a deal to get 10,000 cars a year at a discount plus spare parts etc...
then set up a maintenance wing/workshop where they can buy parts in massive bulk (cheaper), therefore offering the taxi drivers discounts on parts/repairs for their cars.

I don't know how they operate in other countries but I've seen in London the black cab, in Stuttgart all E class Mercs, Boston all Ford Crown Victoria's,etc etc... I'd imagine they all go to central maintenance shops for repair/replacement parts etc...

Someone here should have the game well and truly wrapped up, but instead we have the mess that is every and any aul car driving around as a PSV!!

MiskyBoyy

lway wrote: »

What used to amaze me is how little taxi drivers know about their cars. I like to chat about cars and thought a taxi driver would be a great source of info on a car. Was looking at buying a Skoda Superb and happened to get a few taxi's that were Superbs so asked the drivers what engines they had and how the cars are on juice and wear and tear and what spec their car is, was shocked when the vast majority of them turned to me and said they knew nothing about cars.

I got a taxi driver with a Skoda Superb before in Wexford town. Had a great chat with him about it. He even gave me little demos of the way the boot can be hatchback or fully open with a press of a button.

As he called it, the poor man's Limo

Del2005

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

I don't know how they operate in other countries but I've seen in London the black cab, in Stuttgart all E class Mercs, Boston all Ford Crown Victoria's,etc etc... I'd imagine they all go to central maintenance shops for repair/replacement parts etc...

No country uses a central maintenance centre for theirs taxis, some countries have huge taxi companies which may have big maintenance yard but they'll only allow their own vehicles in. The majority of taxis in the US are ex police Crown Vic's, they are at the end of their life when the cops get them never mind when they sell them on.

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Someone here should have the game well and truly wrapped up, but instead we have the mess that is every and any aul car driving around as a PSV!!

There was a garage setup in Dublin for the taxis, it was open 24/7, but it closed as like most Irish people taxi drivers don't like maintaining their vehicles.

bigroad

I remember a good few years ago the eveready garage in dublin 4 used to sell Vw jetta diesels to taxi drivers at a discount.
Dublin city used to be full of jetta s churning out black smoke.
They were using biodiesel before it was invented.

ShaunieVW

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Who gives a sh!te about dents or scratches on a 5 or 10 year auld taxi (let alone a van), most punters are too busy to even notice what make car it is even.

Alright say you're first in a rank and I walk up and see your dented scratched almera, In my head I'm going that's not well looked after I'm not paying to travel in that and I skip you and take the newer e class behind you. Would you understand my reasoning or would I be an Ahole?

Chemical Byrne

^^
Well you might be one of a minority of people who are car enthusiasts/ car snobs. For the vast majority of people a car is nothing more than a means of A to B. There'll be another punter on in 30 seconds who won't even register what type of car it is.

AndyBoBandy

^^^

I too would not want to travel in a dirty dented car, I'm the paying customer, so why shouldn't I be entitled to want to travel in a car I would feel more comfortable/safer in.

I'm not a car snob/enthusiast.

If I see a car thats dirty and and looks unkept, my mind is telling me maybe the driver doesn't give a shíté about his brakes/tires the same way he doesn't give a shíté about the cars general appearance.

km991148

ye.. don't mind too much about age of car, but I will walk past a smaller car for a bigger (not necessarily more luxurious per se) mainly because I am tall..

but some of the worst taxi ride have been here - i.e. 14 y.o. smaller cars, covered in dog hair, generally dirty, seats worn out etc..

I know when I lived in the UK for a while, the local authority (or was it the radio providers? can't rem) had minimum standards - i.e. you needed a certain size of car, certain engine size, fines for being inspected with dirty vehicles etc - small pain in the hole for the taxi drivers but as a customer it meant not being shoe horned into a ford focus or almera etc (I dont actually mind too much.. just sayin etc..)

Toyotafanboi

In terms of drivers, i havn't found Irish taxi men the worst, i've even only been in them when "well oiled" on student nights out etc but i never remember being in fear.

i was in Manchester for a couple of days earlier this year and every single taxi driver had a death wish, i literally, no exaggeration had to ask one driver to slow down, we were doing an actual 100mph in the pissing rain in the outside lane of the motorway and i passed comment to mrs. fanboi in the hope he would hear it, then we got off the motorway onto a local road, doing 45mph, went over the crest of a blind hill and the back end lifted off and the car went sideways, he kept it in our lane but only by the grace of God, frightened the **** out of the driver, left me speechless. i'm typically Irish in that i would never complain, ever, but i took the head off him! and he still wanted to be paid!!

getting a taxi back to the hotel that same evening and the next fella was a maniac too, fortunately it was dry on the way back so i was able to grit my teeth and bare it.

on the holidays there 2 years ago on Lanzarote and the taxi men were excellent. all driving real old Mercedes in class condition. interiors spotless, you'd see plenty of them buffing their cars while waiting on the ranks... they drive you half way across the island then charge you a fiver :P less than what an Irish fella charges you to open the door and sit down. now i know/ fuel/ insurance/ maintenance etc is probably much higher over here, but if we are simply comparing the price you pay for the service you get, then those are my thoughts.

a clean car isn't too much to ask.

166man

Standard of taxis in Ireland is a joke and has been for quite some time now. There's too many, and the level of aggression shown by drivers in order to win fares is frankly disturbing.

The main issue I see in the city centre is Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights when there's a massive influx of drivers who do it as a part time thing. These guys have destroyed the business for the full time guys in the game fr years.

Again, as said by others, the standards of some taxis is utterly dismal as well.

keithclancy

Professional just means they get paid for it, doesn't mean they are any good at it.

That's why I like Uber/Hailo, so you can see if they person is any good up front rather than getting the first d!ckhead at the rank

ironclaw

166man wrote: »

The main issue I see in the city centre is Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights when there's a massive influx of drivers who do it as a part time thing. These guys have destroyed the business for the full time guys in the game fr years.

But that's an issue in every business. Take any business model and you will find the same thing happening. Make a product, China et al will probably clone it and sell it for 5c a piece. It happens. The challenge is to innovate which is what Hailo and Uber are doing. Uber is a billion dollar company now and expanding. For some people its a hobby whilst others are taking it as a serious money earner (See Uber Black for example) If you go Stateside, you will see what I mean. Its not without issues but it is a new and emerging market.

I don't accept drivers saying the market is saturated etc, innovate and provide a better / unique selling point and people will come back. Its the backbone of business progression.

Del2005

166man wrote: »

The main issue I see in the city centre is Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights when there's a massive influx of drivers who do it as a part time thing. These guys have destroyed the business for the full time guys in the game fr years.
.

You mean the FT guys in the game for years who kept Dublin with ~1000 taxis when the population kept expanding, I've zero sympathy for them. The other drivers all came in after and knew that their would be PT drivers. Also I can't think of any industry that bans part time workers. The only issue with PT workers is the working time directive, but FT taxi drivers routinely ignore that and drivers hours for professional drivers.

I still meet taxi people making good money driving taxis, but they've had to work when the business is there not like some who still think they can make money working 9-5 in a taxi and then blame the PTers.

ngcxt6

While there are plenty of taxi drivers out there who do look after their cars and keep them in great condition,
I wouldn't hold them to the same standards as lorry drivers, bus drivers and chauffeur.

Especially the CPC aspect of it, which covers a lot more than the average taxi driver is shown.