Taxi drivers = moaning basts...

TwoShedsJackson

They dont regulate the fees - those are set by the government.

Doc

Taxi drivers are a bunch of plonkers for paying out that much for a plate and there is no way they should be reimbursed for stupidity. We need more taxis in Dublin so you can stick your complaints were the sun don’t be shinning.

(You’re all a bunch of TRUCKING BANKERS)

Canaboid

Hobbes, if I invested £90,000, in say, The Magic Bean Company, and it went bust and I lost the lot then yes I'd be p1$$ed off. What I wouldn't do is demand that my poor business acumen be rewarded by expecting the Government to compensate me for my loss.
The fact that the cost of plates got so high was thru' greedy Ba$tard Taxi drivers driving up the prices to line their own pockets in the first place. They've made their bed etc.

SickBoy

Castor, I'm a bit annoyed with your comments. This whole deregulation thing hits very close to home with me. Saying something like "anyone who'd pay that amount for a taxi plate needs their head examined" is totally pharisical. Maybe you’re just a tad-miffed cause you couldn't get a taxi to wherever this morning... Hobbes is dead right, "they pay 90,000 because it was a good investment". Remember £90k isn't something that most ppl keep under their beds, they would need to get a loan or re mortgage their houses and to do that they’d need to speak so a financial advisor in their bank and its up to those to ADVISE the individual if it’s a good investment or not and they obviously thought that it was a good investment otherwise they’d never get their hands on the kind of money needed to purchase a plate…Deregulating the industry is completely overkill. What should have happened maybe was RE-regulation but I guess Bobby Malloy knows what his doing. He actually made this statement this morning “Taxi drivers will thank me for this in years to come”, is this guy out of touch or what. The compensation for existing taxi drivers that paid £90k is some sort of tax relief. If the market is open to anyone then I don’t see how this form of compensation will pay off. I can imagine the war that would be caused if pub licenses were deregulated.
Its all fun and games till someone looses an eye…

Lucutus

The Government (Tax payer) didn't sell those people plates for £90,000 ...their own kind did, Taxi Drivers.

Fúck 'em. Flood the streets of Dublin with taxi's, let them spend the time on the streets earning a living, that's what they bought their plate for in the first place. We need more taxis, issue more plates, plain and simple. 2 hours waiting in Winter cold for a taxi weekend nights is a disgrace.

Anyone who is a driver, face it, you are píssed because more plates might mean you have to spend more than three days a week working as the new plates take the workload on too.

Many hands make light work, fúcking great in a 'service' industry.

Find another nest egg to sit on.

Luc

SickBoy

"Flood the streets of Dublin with taxi's"
Is someone forgeting here that theres 26 countys affected by Bobby Malloy's actions, it doesn't mean just Dublin. Think about what your saying ...

TwoShedsJackson

Sorry but it wasn't a good investment - it was a stupid investment, and I think it's ludicrous that the taxpayers will now be bailing them out of their own stupidity.

I don't see the government reimbursing people who sink 90k of their money into any private failed investment and I see no reason why the taxi drivers should be.

They have brought this situation upon themselves I feel by being totally intransigent and unwilling to compromise in any way.

What are they doing at the moment? Oh yes getting arrested for assault in Kildare Street and blocking the ramps at Dublin Airport - gotta hand it to em they know how to swing public opinion their way.

gandalf

Sickboy obviously you know someone or are related to someone who is a taxidriver. Yes it is going to effect them but de-regulation is needed.

Dublin is the focalpoint because the need for taxis here is the greatest (Althou I believe COrk are not too far behind us). Most of my friends and I hardly go into town anymore on a Friday or Saturday night because of the Taxi situation. Now if this has been sorted out I will reconsider it. Alot of people will leave their cars at home if they know there will be taxis readily available and that they do not have to queue for nearly 2 Hours for one. We will not have tourist reconsidering their trip to Ireland because they cannot get a Taxi. Taxi drivers had the chance to sort this out over a period of ten years, they spent that time overinflating the plate prices and trying to secure their little cartel and they have failed.

On the other hand I think it is fair that the government are allowing them recoup some of their "investment" with a tax break. The government should also put into place a scheme (grants or tax breaks) to allow taxi-drivers to buy decent new cars like in Spain (well the Canaries and Majorca anyway). Over half the Taxis I've been in are like tipheads.

Thats my tuppence (sorry about the disjointed nature of this as I am doing quotes and reading up on Wireless networks at the same time).

Gandalf.

DeVore

fúck them.

It used to be that you couldnt get a taxi on Sat night at 1:00am. Now you cant get a taxi on Tuesday at 1PM.

The vast majority of the new licenses will go to Dublin anyway.

Amazing the way we let a small minority disrupt the city for their own agenda.

I wonder how everyone would feel if it was 2500 migrants holding up the traffic to protest about abuse/rascism. But they'd get short shift.

Tom.

FreaK_BrutheR

We gorra taxi from parnell square the othernight going to donnybrook. We started pullin the **** outta the taxi man in a humourous kinda way really. Then we asked him to stop at spar for a sec till we got fags and skins. we were like 2 minutes. when we came out he'd ****ed off. haha free taxi. how leet

---

_________________________

http://run.to/pile

Figment

as a mater of interest does any one know the ratio of taxies to head of population in the different counties?

C B

In fairness Castor the "private investment" you talk about was deliberatly created and destroyed by the vagaries of poor public policy, so some form of compensation is not entirely unjustified.

If you paid extra for a house because it had a nice park nearby and the park was protected by legislation, and suddenly a group of TD's decide to put a landfill in place of the park you'd be a bit miffed too.

But in this case the drivers are partly responsible by blocjking all change for the past 5 years or so.

Bard

My sympathy for the taxi drivers is at absolute zero for two reasons.

1.> The ba$tards blocked the M1 this morning giving me a 40 minute wait in a traffic jam while the Gardaí tried to sort things out and shunt traffic up the hard shoulder.

2.> My fare from the city centre home by taxi took a hike from £13 at one stage (which was relatively reasonable) to £15 (which was a little less tolerable) to £20 (which is utterly ludicrous)... and I live in Donabate!!! The cab to Swords (less than 5 miles back the road) is still only £11.00. The driver's reasoning for it was that Donabate was more than 10 miles from the GPO and so was off the meter, and on this little price sheet of his, whereas Swords was on the meter.

Ba$tard!

---

SickBoy

LittleFigment, from what I know Dublin has 2700 taxis and Limerick has 210. Dublin has 1/3 of the population of Ireland, Limerick has a population of 70,000. Theres obviouslly a problem in Dublin but the rest of the country isn't in the same boat but were all being tared with the same brush.

TwoShedsJackson

CB I wasn't calling the taxi drivers investment a 'private investment' - I meant say I dream up an idea sink 90 grand in and it fails, the Government won't bail me out.

By 'private investment' I meant any other business proposition in which one could put money into.

DeVore

Yes, the government should also bail out those who invested in Eircom, Boo.com and DeLorean.

Plates dont cost 90K. Taxi drivers screwed each other over for them because of the VERY LACK OF THEM THAT THEY THEMSELVES CREATED!

Thats the free market economy and it works on the principal of Caveat Emptor... "Buyer Beware".

They took their chances, there was no guaruntee that the government wouldnt issue more and frankly I dont think the price of a plate will drop that much!

Tom.

SickBoy

A few points DeV.
The Government had controlled the ammount of taxi plates that could be issued. The price of the plate is governed by supply and demand. So its was inevetable that the price would keep rising. The problem that the taxi drivers are having is that no one spoke to them about these HUGE changes to the regulations. If more taxi licenses were issued to places that need more taxis that would have been one thing, at least there would still be some sort of control over the issue but he completley pulled the plug on it. Now as and from 8 O'Clock last night taxi plates are being deregulated and will cost £5000. Any number of ppl can apply. And you say "frankly I dont think the price of a plate will drop that much!"

WhiteWashMan

i got stuck in the middle of stephens green today in the 'go slow'
first tim e id seen that many taxis in one place. you could tell it wasnt 3 am on a sunday morning when you want to go home.

anyway, you dont go to a back and ask for a mortgage and then find a house.
dont expect the sympathy of the public without providing a decent service.
god, they could do with doing a bit of work.

hear them cry about loosing out. hear them shouting it from the window of their 00d reg car......

wancers the lot of them

ButcherOfNog

b

Originally posted by SickBoy:
A few points DeV.
The Government had controlled the ammount of taxi plates that could be issued. The price of the plate is governed by supply and demand."

The Gov have been trying to come to a compromise with the taxi drivers, the taxi drivers weren't having any of it. Fair play to the Gov for doing what they did, the only people who support the taxi's in this is the taxi's themselves.

and yes the main prob with taxi's is in dublin, here in dundalk its easy enough to get a taxi or a hackney at the weekends, yeah u might have to wait 30mins, but with all the little hackney "shops" about the town, u can sit down and wait rather than stand in the cold/wet.

Lograce

Its obvious that the taxis had it so good for so long, Iam delighted with the news which should have happened years ago. Now the boys will have to graft a little harder for their money and actualy go out at weekends instead of staying at home after making so much money mid week. Business runs on competition...whats the problem

Taaaxxxxiiiii!

Canaboid

13 - 1
Nearly unanimous.

TwoShedsJackson

The crap they're coming out with with deregulation is unreal - 'oh our business will be demolished'. No it won't, they'll have to actually work properly in a competetitive environment for their business.

As for the ones who paid 90,000 for a taxi plate whinging about compensation - anyone who'd pay that amount for a taxi plate needs their head examined.

No sympathy whatsoever.

Paladin

14-1

Canaboid

Did no one tell the poor dears that the value of investments can go up as well as down ? Stupid Bast4rds. And now they want the taxpayer to bail them out. Fu(k them.

Hobbes

they pay 90,000 because it was a good investment. I'm sure if you's were in the same boat you'd be moaning too.

However I get the feeling there is a monopoly of taxis. The fact trying to find one around christmas is next to impossible.

I assume by holding the license that they regulate the fee's as well? Had some Hackneys charge stupid prices (eg. wanting everyone in the car to pay the same price).


[This message has been edited by Hobbes (edited 22-11-2000).]

tHE vAGGABOND

BTW did u know that its actually illegal to transfer a taxi plate!(Source - taxi driver m8 of mine) So to those utter pe0ns who paid 90k for one - haha

Did anyone hear Gerry Ryan yesterday morning when a driver rang in in the middle of a debate that had gone to the fact that **** all of them pay tax to tell the world that he had paid a whole 2k in tax last year !!! (gross income therefore 7 k!) - I love, LOVE the fact that they will have new metres next year that will HAVE TO have printed reciepts for every journey.

End of the day for taxi's, they will need to get some aspect of customer service into their blood. They will need to sit down and think.

BTW - why are they not all given tickets for blocking up christchurch and parking willy-nilly about the city. I bet your ass if I parked there I would get clamped in 2 seconds. I also echo DeV's point about the non-nationals doing it they would prolly all be in jail now, but those taxi fcukers have the right to break the law do they!

OMG - Im supporting Fianna Fail here...what have these ****ers driven me to

Shiminay

I can obviously understand their being pi$$ed off - I think we all can. If I'd invested upwards on £90k and realised a few years later I could've got the same thing for a hell of a lot less (£5k now isn't it?) I'd be raging - with myself. I made the bad business decision, not the government - why should I blame them? People make bad business decisions every day but the government isn't compensating them!

Wake up taxi drivers.

---

All the best,

Bard

Slight improvement this morning as the Gardaí are taking somewhat of a harder attitude towards them - as they rightly should. What I say is this... - they're breaking a number of laws and causing serious obstruction, delay and stress and annoyance to tens (hundreds?) of thousands of commuters, and because of this, they should be arrested en masse and have their cars impounded... simple! You break the law and cause serious problems, you get arrested.

The Gardaí never take a hard enough line with these guys- never have taken proper action like that and that's why the taxi drivers continue to get away with this bull$hit... as most of you know, this isn't the first time they've crippled the city's traffic system with their futile action, - just this time, they're gaining far less sympathy than before.

Normally it would take me 40 mins tops to drive to work, or 30 minutes to get the train and walk. This morning it was 10 minutes shy of 2 hours before I got in, and that's bloody anoying.

At the time of my writing, there has been one arrest so far this morning (in Stephen's Green) and 3 cars towed away.

---

[This message has been edited by Bard (edited 23-11-2000).]

C B

Castor and Dev,

Investment in a taxi plate cannot be equated to investment in internet/tech stocks nor can it be fully expeained by free market economics, because the market was not free.

Unlike eircom or lastminute.com the price of taxi plates has been directly affected by the government interfering where it had no place.

I believe,
that deregulation is a good thing,
that it won't solve dublins taxi problem because there is a chronic labour shortage,
that most taxi drivers are *******s,
that those who invested large sums of money between 1995 and 1999 deserve some form of limited compensation.

...... and thats my two cents.

gandalf

C B they are been offered a Tax Allowance against their investment which I think is fair.

Anyone who invested money in a plate in the last two years and expected the status quo to be maintained was living in cloud cookoo land as it was obvious that things were coming to a head, mainly because of the position of the taxi drivers.

I think its time for the Gardai to start arresting these fools in numbers and impound their cars. If they persists with this madness maybe they should take the plates from the offending drivers. Anyway I thought the plates could only be used by the person that applied for them in the first place or are they offically allowing to sell them on ?? Can anyone answer this point ??

Gandalf.

Bard

Have a laff at the raxi tank... ah go on...

caption competition

---

C B

Originally posted by SickBoy:

Can you explain to me Gandalf how a tax allowance can in any way compensate for the money they paied over the years and in years to come to be a taxi driver?

I can explain it to you.

If a driver in his 40's has recently bought a license for £80,000 he will never pay tax again. Now this may not be a great pay off to those drivers who never declared their earnings in the past but who cares about them. They've already stolen their own tax allowance.

[This message has been edited by C B (edited 23-11-2000).]

gandalf

Sickboy, are you sure about this afaik the plate was only suppost to be in the name of the person who originally applied for it from the relevant Government authority. If it is otherwise please point me to somewhere where I can confirm this.

As regards compensation it comes back to the "real world" and not the "taxi-land" scenario if you make a bad business decision you cannot expect to be compensated. I mean to pay £80,000 (or something around that amount) for a plate when the government is reviewing the industry, the public are crying out for a better service was just plain stupid.

What next if the property market slumps and all those people who thought their House were worth £250,000 and find out they are worth £100,000 blame the government for bad economic decisions and want compensation, grow up please. The Tax Free option is the best they should get and I for one would not be happy if the government spent my tax pounds on some fool who thought they would be allowed to operate a cartel that was harming the economy indefinately.

Gandalf.

DeVore

The Government had controlled the ammount of taxi plates that could be issued. The price of the plate is governed by supply and demand. So its was inevetable that the price would keep rising.

Yes but they have consistently objected to any new license issues thus creating the huge internal industy pressure and demand for the few licenses that were available.

Frankly I dont care how bad they get screwed, they took their chances with investment as we all do. Their greed, their loss. Its not like anyone put a gun to their head.

Plus, while they're at it, if we ARE going to pay compo to these guys, can they prove how much they paid for the License? If they can then the tax office should become involved to see HOW THEY COULD AFFORD THAT on declared income.

If you buy a really expensive house without a big loan, you can bet the taxman cometh to check out where the money came from.

Tom.

Bard

Originally posted by tHE vAGGABOND:
BTW did u know that its actually illegal to transfer a taxi plate!

That answer the question, gandalf?

Hobbes

Radio presenters might want to be careful. I remember Eamon Dumphy on Radio called Taxi Drivers a shower of wasters (or something along that line) and no taxi driver in Dublin would pick him up for quite some time.

C B

The tax allowance is fine for a driver in his 30's or 40's who'll be around long enough for it to pay off.
But a driver who bought a plate four years ago in his late fifties for £70,000 - £90,000 will never recoup that investment by tax allowances.

SickBoy

Is it illegal to sell a pub license? NO
Its also not illegal to sell a taxi lisence. X ammount of taxi plates were issues in each town/city and after that no more. If someone for some reason is no longer able to drive a car does that mean that the license goes down with him?
Can you explain to me Gandalf how a tax allowance can in any way compensate for the money they paied over the years and in years to come to be a taxi driver?

Canaboid

When I saw the words "taxi driver" and "tax" in the same paragraph something didn't seem right.

MiCr0

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2000/1124/breaking4.htm

Chubby

A Driver Wanted:

Sal £10,000 pa. Must be willing to pay us £80,000 up front. Successful applicants will be both grumpy and smelly. Might suit former taxi driver.

MiCr0

lol
but thats not nice
they earn much more than that

C B

not anymore they won't

Shinji

Dear MiCrO,

I clicked on the link in your post on this topic, only to be confronted with a picture of one Mr Des Geraghty, who is apparently some red flag waving commie type person. The sight of this individuals multiple chins and tomato-coloured face has distressed me deeply, and I find myself unable to eat a wide variety of foods as a result. I feel that if you are going to post links to pictures of such hideous genetic mutants on the boards, you should at least include a warning of some description!

Yours Sincerely,

Shinji

PS - on the topic in question, it astounds me that it took so long for the Government to do this. They have allowed the entire city of Dublin to be held for ransom by a couple of hundred ignorant men in cars for years; it's about bloody time something like this happened. If the taxi drivers have a problem with it, they need to look at their own conduct over the past 5 years, and the way they successfully managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by turning public opinion against them totally.

Ja,
Rob

Blade

Christ this is the second time me writing this now cause the p0xy electricity went at the end of the last one!......

On the Ireland A.M. program yesterday morning they invited 2 guys in, 1 a taxi driver and the other some head of a taxi association. Before they introduced them they showed some clips of supposedly random street poll to see what people thought about it, their clips showed half the people supporting the taxi men and the other half givin out $hit about them, they then went back to the show and the presenter started to introduce the 2 geezers saying 'well there you are it's about 50-50 support yous have there', which quite obviously was a complete load of typical Irish TV cr@p trying not to upset the taxi men, isn't it quite obvious that from reading all the posts here and talking in your local pub alone that the only people who support the taxi men are the taxi men themselves and their friends and relations (sickboy on this board was the only one so far) So the real % of support they'd have is about 5% the rest of us all feel the same about them because we've all experienced at first hand what it's like to walk around Dublin City at 2am looking for a cab only to be continously beaten to one by 2 slappers in mini skirts and when you do finally find one 2 hours later (if your lucky enough not to have been mugged) it's some complete ar$ehole who always has something to moan about that you've to sit and listen to and pretend to agree with all the way home for the fear he might throw you out and you'll end up waiting another 2 p0xy hours for the next taxi. Then when you eventually get home your happy enough by then to pay the rediculous price on the meter and even let him keep the change cause your in such a hurry to get out of the car.

Anyway back to the Ireland A.M show, the presenter starts introducing the driver with something like 'This is Johnny, Johnny is a taxi driver, he has to work 80 hours a week because it takes him his first 40 hours just to break even' What a complete load of $hit, I know loads of taxi men who rent plates and clear 1 grand a week, work when they want to and pay f*ck all taxes, and now they want OUR tax money to compensate them for Taxi plates they bought on the black market and lost money on? Two words spring to mind 'F*ck off'

Yeh, sure I feel sorry for anyone who recently forked out 80 or 90 grand on a plate on the black market, it probably seemed like a good investment at the time but it wasn't the State that sold it to them for that price it was another taxi man so go back and ask him for the money back don't expect us the tax payers to pay for it, it would be just like if the FAI released 40,000 10 pound tickets to a football game and you came along too late and they were all sold out and then you bought one on the black market for 100 pounds and the next thing the FAI decided they'd release another 10,000 tickets would you seriously expect the FAI to refund you your loss? I don't think so, go back to the guy who ripped you off instead, in this case your fellow taxi man.

Blade

[This message has been edited by Blade (edited 24-11-2000).]

Hobbes

What's the taxi fare now? it's 20 quid here to go 5 miles down a non congested road. And don't even forget about not tipping the driver.

Of course in America (least MA) they are only allowed pick up in thier town. For example if it was the same in Ireland a Raheny cab wouldn't be allowed pick up in the city center and the reverse (unless someone rang for it).

Von

I vow to make an effort to puke in taxis more often.

Blade

LOL they charge you extra for that Von and I'm not messin, it's happened a few people.

Sure if the fat b@stard has to break a sweat and get out of the car to put something in the boot, he'll charge you extra, if you bring a pet he'll charge you extra, if it's unsociable hours you pay extra, I can see their next protest will be to allow them to charge you extra if your pregnant.

Take it

Fukk the taxis the reason there £80k a plate is because of the fukken taxi drivers them selfs no one else. They refused to let so many taxis on the road then they deregulate the taxis and they change there mind and say oh we are willing to talk about more licenses ****** fukk them all they deserve it.

As for blocking up the airport what do they think there at?? the public pay there wage so then they decide to fukk the public up and get them more pis$ed off at taxi men when it was the government who made the decision to deregulate. There blockades are only hurting the public nobody else and ill fukken walk home from town now or get a hackney before stepping inside a poxy cab.

Bard

Originally posted by Canaboid:
When I saw the words "taxi driver" and "tax" in the same paragraph something didn't seem right.

When I switched on 98FM last night only to hear someone on the Chris Barry phone show say "Shur day don't pay anny taxx at awwwl Kriss, je know, like?" ... I knew it was taxi drivers she was speaking of

---

SantaHoe

Just had to laugh at some of Blades post there... it's soooo true.
All the way home, you have to listen to them rambling on about something, and all you can do (or care to do) is smile and nod, thinking - "It'll all be over soon".

At least a yapping taxi-man is better than a weirdo taxi-man... I've had some scary taxi-rides.

But at the moment, I'm of the opinion that they can go scrèw themselves.
Blocking off major roadways is just not on, I mean what did we do?
It's like a supermarket spiking their food because they're pìssed about the minimum wage.
It's not our problem.
They must be genuinely retarded if they think the public at large has any sympathy left for them.