Taxi drivers protesting again today; are they the moaniest profession in Ireland?

B.A._Baracus · 16-01-2014 01:36AM

I for one think the question of "Are you good at playing the poor mouth?" should be a question added to the taxi license test

Sam Kade · 16-01-2014 01:36AM

endacl wrote: »

And the teachers. I teach. Haven't moaned since I was a teenager. I do work with teenagers though. They take moaning to a whole new level...

Nothing to moan about really with months of paid leave every year.

Strumms · 16-01-2014 01:38AM

Taxi drivers have to be the worst actual drivers out there... Either cruising at 20kmh below the limit looking for fares.. jamming on to pick up without warning or signal. Parking where the **** they like and pulling out in front of you without a ****in care in the world... . As for being whinging pricks I have met some sound taxi drivers and had some good interesting conversations but over the last two years it seems like the prick factor is on the rise... I mean I'm paying enough for the fare without you moaning that you have to work 60 hours a week and ****. Most people will charge me to listen to my problems you want to charge ME for the fare and the privilege of listening to your issues.. Ermmmmmm no.

I think most of them forget they are a public service vehicle rather then them doing you a favour and giving you a lift...

Hilly Bill · 16-01-2014 01:39AM

BillyMitchel wrote: »

Yes ill also agree that they are. It's not an insult really because we are a nation of moaners anyway, it's just they do it more than most.

Taxi service in Ireland is a ripoff but if it was any lower I doubt they'd make a living from it these days.

More people would get taxis if it was cheaper.

Smidge · 16-01-2014 01:41AM

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

Nurse has to look after people puking and sh1tting all over the place, horrible job couldnt imagine ever doing that job not for all the tae in China.

Consultant sits in a nice comfortable office, tells you you're going to die in 5 weeks and there is feck all he can do about it, gets paid 10-20x as much.

:rolleyes:

There's a lot of people every single weekend puking and sh1tting themselves in taxis locked out of their heads on the way home.

Sir Arthur Daley · 16-01-2014 01:44AM

Smidge wrote: »

:rolleyes:

There's a lot of people every single weekend puking and sh1tting themselves in taxis locked out of their heads on the way home.

That is rough stuff

Sam Kade · 16-01-2014 01:44AM

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

Nurse has to look after people puking and sh1tting all over the place, horrible job couldnt imagine ever doing that job not for all the tae in China.

That's more of a carers job nurses wouldn't do that job.

B.A._Baracus · 16-01-2014 01:58AM

Fuck the taxi drivers. Fuck the farmers. Fuck every other job.
Because no one gives a bollocks unless it's you yourself, the family of, or other people IN the job.

But don't get me wrong because if I was a taxi driver myself, yeah i'd be moaning

yeah i'd be creating a stink because its in my own interest / gain

And before anyone can't get back quick enough to hit that quote button on me - am pretty sure there is alot of taxi drivers moaning about myself and other people on the dole getting €188 per week - "Ah sure, doesnt matter if they paid tax for years, doesnt matter if its hard to get a job, feck em off the dole i say, the spongers!"

Such is life, huh?

rolliepoley · 16-01-2014 02:20AM

A Dublin taxi driver comes to the juction of Oconnell st and Abbey. The light turns red, so he stops. Meanwhile, this junkie in a Lexus has just picked up a bootload of gear and is making the rounds to distribute to his petty dealers. He is in a hurry to get rid of the gear, because his overlords want to be paid, so he is yakking away on his mobile getting the troops ready to collect the gear. He's flying up Oconnell st yakking away to one of his underlings, so he does not see that the light has turned red. He is doing about fifty, yakking away when he rear ends the taxi.The place is a mess, parts of cars and whatnot are scattered about, a few windows in buildings are broken, baby carriages are hanging from the lampposts and crack is scattered everywhere on the street.

Along comes Garda Green of Store street Finest. He interviews a couple of witnesses, who describe what happened, as above. He checks out the crystals and determines that they are, in fact, crack. Finally Garda Green goes over to the wreckage of the Lexus, checks out the boot and finds more crack. Lastly, he goes around to the left side of the Lexus, peers through the broken window and asks the driver: ‘Sir, just how fast was that taxi driver going when he backed into you?’

steddyeddy · 16-01-2014 02:34AM

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Thats nonsense regarding nurses. They're the most under-paid profession I can think of

I completely agree but they also chose their job. Just because someone gets to choose their job doesn't mean they lose the right to complain about certain aspects of it.

IvaBigWun · 16-01-2014 02:45AM

steddyeddy wrote: »

I completely agree but they also chose their job. Just because someone gets to choose their job doesn't mean they lose the right to complain about certain aspects of it.

No but thing is, and here's the key difference, taxi drivers are self employed.

The fact that they still band together like a union and cause traffic chaos with protests on a regular basis is laughable.

KyussBishop · 16-01-2014 03:05AM

What do Taxi drivers actually earn per hour, on average? And what's the assault rate on Taxi drivers, considering this is a constant risk in the profession?

Should they just be glad to have a job, any kind of a job - no matter how shít a level of pay or personal risk taken, and stop whining?
Perhaps we should extend this further: Should all people with jobs just stop whining, simply because they are lucky enough to have a job?

Or perhaps they have a right to defend themselves from worsening work conditions, or measures which force them to spend even more out of their pocket to stay in business - lowering their overall income?

Why also, do people still think workers have any 'choice' left, in a labour market where it is so easy to fall into unemployment? Very few people have any choices - they take what they can get; you even have a crapload of people working in virtual slave-labour (internships), just on the hope of getting a job out of it.

The idea of 'choice' is bullshít in that kind of a labour market.

awec · 16-01-2014 03:06AM

There are too many taxi drivers in Dublin.

feargale · 16-01-2014 03:16AM

Taxi drivers' woes began with deregulation some years ago. People who had paid big money for taxi licences suddenly found them almost worthless. Why have I no sympathy? Because in the two or three years beforehand about four young men died violently in Dublin, having left a pub or a disco and having been unable to get a taxi home. Taxiing was a closed shop and Dublin was grossly underserviced. It took those deaths to shame the government of the day into deregulation, into ensuring that Dublin got an adequate taxi service.Anyone who is of good character with a clean driving licence should be entitled to drive a taxi. Any car that passes an NCT should be entitled to be licensed as a taxi. A licence should attach only to the relevant driver and the relevant car and should not be negotiable. Ditto re pubs etc..The idea of buying and selling licences is the essence of corruption. You cannot buy or sell a driving licence. If you set up as a shopkeeper or doctor or solicitor, you can't whinge if two more set up in competition at either side of you. Free trade is all the rage now, until a competitor threatens my monopoly.

end of the road · 16-01-2014 04:13AM

IvaBigWun wrote: »

hold the public to ransom

bull****, we live in a free country, better some traffic disruption then being killed for protesting, any potential lowering of standards in the taxi industry should be stopped at all costs

end of the road · 16-01-2014 04:21AM

Hilly Bill wrote: »

More people would get taxis if it was cheaper.

i'm not sure if they would hilly

end of the road · 16-01-2014 04:27AM

awec wrote: »

There are too many taxi drivers in Dublin.

agree with this, infact i think thats one of the taxi drivers long running issues, and i believe licences are still being issued? fine during the good times but now, theirs just not the demand

shruikan2553 · 16-01-2014 04:34AM

As someone who lives across the road from a taxi rank, the less the better.

suicide_circus · 16-01-2014 04:37AM

What are they actually protesting about? The removal of some ranks and an effort to bring more professionalism and uniformity into their trade. This is a job where with absolutely zero training or skill, you can charge people 4.50 for NOTHING.

end of the road · 16-01-2014 04:41AM

feargale wrote: »

Why have I no sympathy? Because in the two or three years beforehand about four young men died violently in Dublin, having left a pub or a disco and having been unable to get a taxi home.

so let me get this straight, you have no sympathy for taxi drivers because 4 people tragically died apparently because they couldn't get a taxi rather then the fact it might have been something else, the fact they couldn't get a taxi being because of the lack of them due to the government regulating the industry rather then de-regulating it, something which wasn't in the taxi drivers control? i see,

feargale wrote: »

Taxiing was a closed shop and Dublin was grossly underserviced. It took those deaths to shame the government of the day into deregulation, into ensuring that Dublin got an adequate taxi service.

again, due to the government waiting until something happened to de-regulate the industry, so it wasn't the fault of the taxi drivers these men tragically lost their lives

feargale wrote: »

Anyone who is of good character with a clean driving licence should be entitled to drive a taxi. Any car that passes an NCT should be entitled to be licensed as a taxi. A licence should attach only to the relevant driver and the relevant car and should not be negotiable.

theirs not the demand for the amount of taxis their is now, i'm not suggesting we go back to pre-deregulation either, but the industry needs to be sustainable, so therefore it shouldn't be the case that anyone can apply for a licence, infact taxis should have higher standards then the normal car (something which should be possibly fazed in)

feargale wrote: »

The idea of buying and selling licences is the essence of corruption.

lol, seriously, if you think that is corruption you don't know real corruption

feargale wrote: »

If you set up as a shopkeeper or doctor or solicitor, you can't whinge if two more set up in competition at either side of you. Free trade is all the rage now, until a competitor threatens my monopoly.

theres a lot of demand for the professions you mentioned, however sometimes their can be a saturation of businesses in an area, which is the case with the taxi industry. sometimes a monopoly is good

BillyMitchel · 16-01-2014 06:25AM

Hilly Bill wrote: »

More people would get taxis if it was cheaper.

Rubbish. Could you guarantee that? Even still, more customers and cheaper fares doesn't automatically mean more money.

mikemac1 · 16-01-2014 06:49AM

I grew up on a farm and can confirm that nobody beats farmers for moaning

Unlike the taximen they are organised though. Like getting guarantees on trade talks in exchange for a yes vote on the Lisbon treaty.

Taximen have more unions and splinter groups then the republicans :rolleyes:

GAAman · 16-01-2014 06:57AM

BillyMitchel wrote: »

Rubbish. Could you guarantee that? Even still, more customers and cheaper fares doesn't automatically mean more money.

I live in Derry but am from Dublin, in Derry average fare is 2.50 to 3.00 when going into the town etc. When travelling a decent bit you would be looking at 5-7 quid, same distance in Dublin (I checked using car travel app on phone) costs 16-23 quid depending on traffic (not a consideration btw in Derry taxi's)

I get a lot of taxi's in Derry, I don't when down in Dublin on a bi weekly basis.

16-01-2014 06:59AM

KyussBishop wrote: »

What do Taxi drivers actually earn per hour, on average? And what's the assault rate on Taxi drivers, considering this is a constant risk in the profession?

Should they just be glad to have a job, any kind of a job - no matter how shít a level of pay or personal risk taken, and stop whining?
Perhaps we should extend this further: Should all people with jobs just stop whining, simply because they are lucky enough to have a job?

Or perhaps they have a right to defend themselves from worsening work conditions, or measures which force them to spend even more out of their pocket to stay in business - lowering their overall income?

Why also, do people still think workers have any 'choice' left, in a labour market where it is so easy to fall into unemployment? Very few people have any choices - they take what they can get; you even have a crapload of people working in virtual slave-labour (internships), just on the hope of getting a job out of it.

The idea of 'choice' is bullshít in that kind of a labour market.

Not really, but the other option is back to the old way when fares were about half as much as they are now 35+ years ago, no new entries are possible. Or go down the New York route. It's an unskilled profession and any attempts to regulate are shot down pretty quickly by the drivers themselves.

Guy:Incognito · 16-01-2014 09:05AM

end of the road wrote: »

agree with this, infact i think thats one of the taxi drivers long running issues, and i believe licences are still being issued? fine during the good times but now, theirs just not the demand

Is that not the whole point of a free market? The amount of taxi's will find their own level, just like other jobs.

SusieBlue · 16-01-2014 09:23AM

There are far too many drivers out there for any of them to have a chance at making a decent living. There are the same amount of taxis in Dublin as there is in New York. Population of Dublin = 527,600 people. New York City = 8.337 million people. That's absolutely INSANE. Competition is a great thing, especially when it allows the consumer to save money, but that's frankly a joke.

There is also a lot of tension between the Irish and foreign drivers because of the lack of background checks. They all swap their taxi licenses around and share a reg plate and it goes unnoticed. As for the background checks, there was more than one case in the last year where it was discovered that a foreign taxi driver had multiple violent and sexual convictions in their home countries yet it isn't checked or regulated here, and they are free to work as taxi drivers. They are at liberty to withhold this information when applying for licenses and the taxi regulator certainly doesn't check up.

Taking the ranks away means they lose business. People are complaining that taxis drive around towns at 20 miles per hour hoping to pick up a job..If there were ranks there, this wouldn't be necessary. They are wasting petrol driving around and around, yet making no money. Taking away the ranks takes away an opportunity to make money.

As for them being moaners..Well, if you had to deal with people shítting, vomiting, and talking bollix to you all night you'd probably be a moan as well. Its also a very dangerous job. I heard of an incident last week where a 69yr old driver took a job from Cork city in the early hours to Fermoy. The passenger asked the driver to pull over on the side of the road, where another car was waiting to collect him. 4 more men got out of the other car, beat the living day lights out of the driver and stole all his earnings and float, and ran for it. Left him for dead on the side of the road until a passing car stopped some time later.

And as for those saying its their choice to do this job and they can just leave, shame on you. I can't speak for all taxi drivers, but my father is one, and I know several other ones. My father left school at 14 with no qualifications, struggles with reading, and seems to be ageing by the minute. What other job is there for him at this hour of his life? People are saying "its an unskilled job" and "if they don't like it, get another job" in the same breath. How hypocritical. I'm sure there are many drivers out there who are highly intelligent but for a lot of them, this is all they know, all they can do. Its the only way for them to make a living.

There's nothing more soul destroying than sitting in a taxi rank for 4-5 hours waiting for a job, only to get a job 10 minutes down the road. But they have to take the good with the bad. There are days where my father will work 10-12 hours and come out with about €50. Its not all as black and white or as simple as it looks. They need to cap the amount of new licenses being handed out. There are already far too many on the road.

Guy:Incognito · 16-01-2014 09:30AM

WhiteRoses wrote: »

And as for those saying its their choice to do this job and they can just leave, shame on you. I can't speak for all taxi drivers, but my father is one, and I know several other ones. My father left school at 14 with no qualifications, struggles with reading, and seems to be ageing by the minute. What other job is there for him at this hour of his life? People are saying "its an unskilled job" and "if they don't like it, get another job" in the same breath. How hypocritical. I'm sure there are many drivers out there who are highly intelligent but for a lot of them, this is all they know, all they can do. Its the only way for them to make a living..

If your father had chosen a different job when he left school, should that job now be protected too? I'm sure there are plenty of other 14 year olds that left school at the time. What about the ones that became labourers? It's ok for them to have to find other jobs, but not your father?

Monife · 16-01-2014 09:36AM

@ WhiteRoses - The population of Dublin is over 1 million, not 527,000.

SusieBlue · 16-01-2014 09:40AM

Monife wrote: »

@ WhiteRoses - The population of Dublin is over 1 million, not 527,000.

I copied and pasted the most recent stats I could find, which were the 2011 ones. Regardless of this, my point still stands.

SusieBlue · 16-01-2014 09:43AM

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

If your father had chosen a different job when he left school, should that job now be protected too? I'm sure there are plenty of other 14 year olds that left school at the time. What about the ones that became labourers? It's ok for them to have to find other jobs, but not your father?

Of course not. That isn't what I'm suggesting at all. My point was that the attitude of "just get another job" or "its their choice" on this thread disgusts me. I don't expect my father to be any more protected than a labourer, etc. Sometimes there is no other choice. Or at least, sometimes the only other choice is to go on the dole. Which my father wouldn't get anyway because as someone who is self employed, he would be, in essence, making himself unemployed. As I said, it isn't as black and white as it seems. The recession hit those in the service industry amongst the hardest, and as those are largely unskilled professions, it sickens me to see people disregarding the sector saying its their choice to make such shít money.

Taxi drivers protesting again today; are they the moaniest profession in Ireland?

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