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

13567…15

Comments

  • #62
    Teyla Emmagan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,638 ✭✭✭Teyla Emmagan


    Depends on the taxi driver. The pre deregulation guys are world class moaners, unable to grasp the fact that their little cartel is gone and they will never again be able to work as many hours as they like and still get paid for every minute of it. The newer guys in the game are generally more pragmatic and a lot more pleasant to deal with. I remember literally standing for hours at the rank on Stephen's green to get home after a night out. The auld lads would be delighted to see those days return. No thanks very much.


  • #63
    Sunnyisland
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,562 ✭✭✭✭Sunnyisland


    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rho b
    I attended a cremation service of a friend's parent at Glasnevin Cemetery a few weeks ago. I am originally from North Dublin but it has been a few years since I have been in the area as I now reside in another part of the country. I parked up opposite the Cemetery on the main road and then realised that it was a Pay and Display area
    I happened to park beside a Taxi and I asked the Taxi driver how long a cremation service takes as I needed to know how much money I needed to pay into the Pay and Display machine. This was the second cremation service that I have attended, the first one was about 12 years ago and there was no Pay and Display parking at the time.
    He told me that it would take about 40mins and as I turned to walk to the Pay machine he called me back and handed me a Prepaid ticket that covered an hour and 10 mins.
    I know some people have little regard for Taxi drivers but this man was a true Dub and a gent as well.
    Thank you Mister Taximan

    Speaking of Dublin taxi drivers... On my very first day of work up here I missed the bus in and got completely lost looking for the stop (damn roadworks) so in a total panic I flagged down a driver. He took me to work, waited while I had a massive panic attack in his car and was very patient and kind. I know obviously he was being paid to take me to work but he pointed out all the bus routes on the way, and transformed me from a gibbering wreck to something resembling a human being. It would have been easy for him to ignore me and drive me in silence but he coaxed the words- and panic- out of me. Thanks Mr Taximan! Posted by ivy twine..

    Thought I would them up before the kill em all brigade take over.


    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057076243


    For what it's worth, Goverments have made a mess of the deregulation and it's ridiculous at this stage the way the taxi industry has gone,It wouldent have taken a lot of thought to sort it out at the beginning and do it the right way.


  • #64
    The Backwards Man
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    If only posting in AH was a profession, eh?


  • #65
    Ush1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,484 ✭✭✭✭Ush1


    Remember Where_To? He seemed like a jolly taxi driver.


  • #66
    Eight Ball
    Closed Accounts Posts: 906 ✭✭✭Eight Ball


    Farmers imo and they have a direct contact in RTE to air their grievances also.

    "Oh it's to hot" "Oh it's raining to much" "Oh the supermarkets are selling our product at a reasonable rate" F u c k off.


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  • #67
    The Backwards Man
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Ush1 wrote: »
    Remember Where_To? He seemed like a jolly taxi driver.

    There's no such thing.


  • #68
    fortwilliam
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 713 ✭✭✭fortwilliam


    This whole argument is fundamentally flawed.

    The Taxi drivers seem to think regulation/deregulation, the number of licences issued and the raising/lowering of required standards should be to their benefit.
    it should not. These factors are there to benefit and protect the customer.

    It is not so long ago that a person could find themselves waiting, hailing & begging for a driver to take their fare, only to be charged extras such as a "night time extra", or an "Out of town charge", but we paid it because we were lucky to have found a taxi who was kind enough to take our business.

    Taxi driving is not a profession, or even a trade, it is driving a car from one place to an other, something I and most of the people I know do every day.

    The drivers protesting seem to have an overblown sense of entitlement and are angry that they can no longer afford that villa in the south of France that was commonplace 10 years ago.

    Taxi driving is one of the most corrupt jobs around, fares not recorded/nixers are rife, new licence holders are faced with aggression and intimidation, this is multiplied if the licence holder is not obviously of Irish decent.

    As a customer of this public service, there is enough taxis when I can walk out onto a street in the capital and hail a clean comfortable taxi driven by a well presented professional driver within a matter of minutes and pay a reasonable fare for my journey.

    I would also ask the protesters, when was the tipping point of "Too many licences"? how long after they got theirs?


  • #69
    2ndcoming
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,605 ✭✭✭2ndcoming


    WhiteRoses wrote: »
    Competition is a great thing, especially when it allows the consumer to save money, but that's frankly a joke.

    The bizarre thing about Dublin taxis is there is no true competition due to the regulated fares, so it's not a free market. If it was the numbers could start to sort themselves out as those who couldn't match the best fares would end up having to pack it in. It's half-arsed deregulation in a truly Irish sense.


  • #70
    2ndcoming
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,605 ✭✭✭2ndcoming


    fortwilliam wrote: »
    Taxi driving is one of the most corrupt jobs around, fares not recorded/nixers are rife, new licence holders are faced with aggression and intimidation, this is multiplied if the licence holder is not obviously of Irish decent.

    As a customer of this public service, there is enough taxis when I can walk out onto a street in the capital and hail a clean comfortable taxi driven by a well presented professional driver within a matter of minutes and pay a reasonable fare for my journey.

    They don't need to not record fares as they just hit the delete button on their meter every night when they finish. Taxi end-of-year accounts are a work of fiction, simple as.

    Worth noting it's not a public service, it's a private enterprise protected by a government regulated fare system.


  • #71
    bucketybuck
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,710 ✭✭✭✭bucketybuck


    awec wrote: »
    There are too many taxi drivers in Dublin.

    Nope, there aren't enough. I have spent far too much of my life standing in the cold because I couldn't find somebody that wanted to take my money and drive me home. I hope to god we never go back to that rubbish, let as many people drive taxi's as want to drive taxi's, its for the greater good.

    Anyway, there is a simple reason taxi drivers are so moany. Many of them stand about at taxi ranks all day talking to other taxi drivers and in the process regurgitating the same complaints over and over, getting angrier and angrier the more they hear other people agree with them about how things are bad. I bet if you were stuck at work with nothing to do but chat to your workmates you would start to moan about your job also, its just human nature. Thats why the foreign drivers at night tend to moan less, they haven't been feeding on negative conversation from other drivers all day.


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  • #72
    fishy fishy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,456 ✭✭✭fishy fishy


    WhiteRoses wrote: »
    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.


    I wouldn't worry about what people are saying about taxi-drivers on this forum - they go on about them being "moaners" but the only pack of moaners I see on here are the ones moaning ABOUT the taxi-drivers.

    Anyone who has kept up with the time will understand the plight of the taxi-driver - what they have to put up with - the double standards, the abuse, the cleaning of vomit and other "liquids" from drunken jobs - the chance they take when people get into their car... etc. and yet they could be on the road for ten hours and make 40 euro - not enough to cover the price of petrol as they have nowhere to park.

    Don't worry about the usual comments - get another job etc - those comments goes to show that a lot of people haven't got a clue when it comes to taxi-men, their job and the double standards.


  • #73
    Teyla Emmagan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,638 ✭✭✭Teyla Emmagan


    Ush1 wrote: »
    Remember Where_To? He seemed like a jolly taxi driver.

    I don't know, I always thought he was a bit of a grumpy bollix. And probably a sexual deviant.


  • #74
    doolox
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭doolox


    I once worked in a dysfunctional, soul destroying place where moaning was commonplace among a lot of the lower ranking workers. On reflection after leaving that workplace on voluntary redundancy I have figured we were not busy enough or in control of our work rate and work load enough to get fulfilment and satisfaction from the job.

    I now know that I lacked the skills needed to control and improve my job regarding making more money in less time and being busy all the time I was in work instead of waiting for things to happen and being underemployed all the time.

    In my current set-up I work half the hours I used to in a job I love and I am in full control of the hours I work, wHere I work and what I do within reasonable limitations.

    This takes work, effort and not a little ingenuity to get to but is well worth it in the end.

    Most taxi drivers could build up a list of contacts and acquiantances who they could carry on a regular basis to keep busy and reduce waiting to a minimum. In fact most good taxi drivers operate that way and alleviate the waiting times that newcomers have to endure.

    There is a very real and bad danger from attacks and robbery from the public out there but it cuts both ways, many people have been robbed and attacked by rogue taxi drivers while they were drunk and there is very little they could do at the time about it. Who would take the word of a drunk person against a sober but evil taxi driver?

    It is wise to engage the service in groups if you are drunk so as not to fall victim of these rogue taxi drivers.


  • #75
    endacl
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,443 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    Sam Kade wrote: »
    Nothing to moan about really with months of paid leave every year.

    Absolutely. I'd be rightly fecked without the 22 hour week and those months off. My other job(s) would really suffer.

    :D


  • #76
    Santa Cruz
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,126 ✭✭✭Santa Cruz


    Cookie_Monster wrote: »
    'profession' is stretching it, you need to act and appear professional if thats the case, its a trade a best.

    the standards need to be upped drastically to remove the dregs

    Get rid of those people giving the "profession" a bad name by wearing nice slacks, shirt and tie.
    T shirt and greasy denims, smelling of cigarettes should be standard for all not just 98%. All taxi drivers should have a degree to match their general know everything attitude anyway


  • #77
    Santa Cruz
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,126 ✭✭✭Santa Cruz


    fortwilliam wrote: »
    This whole argument is fundamentally flawed.

    The Taxi drivers seem to think regulation/deregulation, the number of licences issued and the raising/lowering of required standards should be to their benefit.
    it should not. These factors are there to benefit and protect the customer.

    It is not so long ago that a person could find themselves waiting, hailing & begging for a driver to take their fare, only to be charged extras such as a "night time extra", or an "Out of town charge", but we paid it because we were lucky to have found a taxi who was kind enough to take our business.

    Taxi driving is not a profession, or even a trade, it is driving a car from one place to an other, something I and most of the people I know do every day.

    The drivers protesting seem to have an overblown sense of entitlement and are angry that they can no longer afford that villa in the south of France that was commonplace 10 years ago.

    Taxi driving is one of the most corrupt jobs around, fares not recorded/nixers are rife, new licence holders are faced with aggression and intimidation, this is multiplied if the licence holder is not obviously of Irish decent.

    As a customer of this public service, there is enough taxis when I can walk out onto a street in the capital and hail a clean comfortable taxi driven by a well presented professional driver within a matter of minutes and pay a reasonable fare for my journey.

    I would also ask the protesters, when was the tipping point of "Too many licences"? how long after they got theirs?


    Whats your problem Bud


  • #78
    fortwilliam
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 713 ✭✭✭fortwilliam


    Santa Cruz wrote: »
    Whats your problem Bud

    Howya.


  • #79
    Cienciano
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,208 ✭✭✭✭Cienciano


    Publicans give taxi drivers a good run for their money when it comes to moaning. Funny thing is, not many professions that the public have less sympathy for than publicans and taxi drivers. We all know how both enjoyed ripping the public off when they got the chance *

    I don't get taxi drivers. Where I work advertised jobs recently, it wasn't highly qualfied, but we got 200 cv's in. Imagine the 195 people who couldn't get work taking to the streets because the government allowed so many people to have the same qualifications? All the out of work brickies, plumbers, sparks etc moaning that there's too many people in their industry.
    I have some sympathy for them because it's tough out there, but there's a few hundred thousand people in the same situation.


    (* i know, not 100% of publicans or taxi drivers did)


  • #80
    donegal__road
    Closed Accounts Posts: 953 ✭✭✭donegal__road


    keeponhurling wrote: »
    Why is the government removing taxi ranks ?

    would it be to try and increase dependence on public transport, thereby raising more revenue for the government..


  • #81
    Sam Kade
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,297 ✭✭✭✭Sam Kade


    Eight Ball wrote: »
    Farmers imo and they have a direct contact in RTE to air their grievances also.

    "Oh it's to hot" "Oh it's raining to much" "Oh the supermarkets are selling our product at a reasonable rate" F u c k off.

    What about Dubs? In the big freeze a few years ago they wanted paths cleared to their doors. The transport minister left the country at the same time and there was uproar, what was he going to do wave a magic wand and make the frost disappear. Now that's what I call moaning about the weather. Other people that moan are people that constantly moan about farmers they pay no tax get subsidies etc.


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  • #82
    Guy:Incognito
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 38,227 ✭✭✭✭Guy:Incognito


    2ndcoming wrote: »
    The bizarre thing about Dublin taxis is there is no true competition due to the regulated fares, so it's not a free market. If it was the numbers could start to sort themselves out as those who couldn't match the best fares would end up having to pack it in. It's half-arsed deregulation in a truly Irish sense.

    The fares set are maximum fares are they not? An individual taxi driver is free to charge as little as they want to get business.


  • #83
    Katgurl
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,145 ✭✭✭Katgurl


    WhiteRoses wrote: »
    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.

    +1 to this

    Too many licences = oversaturated market, none of them can make decent living. Many days they work at a loss, driving around & looking for a pick-up wasting petrol.

    The only thing I want to add to the above post is that not only can they not find other work, they cannot claim benefits as they are officially self-employed.

    I get a lot of taxis and (especially since the market has been deregulated) can say that 99% of drivers I have gotten are decent, professional. I've had my phone delivered to my door the following day (before I even realised I lost it), i've realised too late I don't have the fare and been told I can pay it again, I've had a free lift given in an emergency.


  • #84
    mikemac1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,395 ✭✭✭✭mikemac1


    Katgurl wrote: »
    Too many licences = oversaturated market, none of them can make decent living. Many days they work at a loss, driving around & looking for a pick-up wasting petrol.

    Where do you close the books?

    The drivers who paid 70k resent the new drivers who paid 6k and all of them want no more plates issued.......the day after they got their own


  • #85
    suicide_circus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,801 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    I got a taxi home from work late one night and the driver was from Israel. had a good chat re the whole taxi game and he was coming home with 500/700 pw. his view on many of the native drivers was that they were too picky about fares, were likely to make 50euro and head straight to boyle sports, were only prepared to do short daytime hours during the week and expected to cram into town on weekends for easy pickings.


  • #86
    Rubberchikken
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,303 ✭✭✭Rubberchikken


    to answer the op's qriginal question, yes they are along with teachers.


  • #87
    copeyhagen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,354 ✭✭✭copeyhagen


    have gotten a taxi once in the last probably 4 years. robbin kunts.

    i live 5 mins from airport. got a cab called to house at about 5am going to airport.

    charged for using boot (which i knew about) of course. he drove slower than limit and tried to have a conversation with me.

    fair cost me 18e for literally a 2 or 3 mile journey.

    fook em, we reap what we sow


  • #88
    Guy:Incognito
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 38,227 ✭✭✭✭Guy:Incognito


    Katgurl wrote: »
    +The only thing I want to add to the above post is that not only can they not find other work,.
    Just like anyone else that loses their job you mean?

    Katgurl wrote: »
    they cannot claim benefits as they are officially self-employed. .

    I've never been self employed but I know people who have and they've spent time on social welfare. There has also been people on here that have given the details of how self employed people can claim.


  • #89
    fishy fishy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,456 ✭✭✭fishy fishy


    Guy:Incognito wrote: »
    Just like anyone else that loses their job you mean?




    I've never been self employed but I know people who have and they've spent time on social welfare. There has also been people on here that have given the details of how self employed people can claim.


    that would be wrong..... ask a taxi man - he'll tell you what the story is.


  • #90
    Cuddlesworth
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,030 ✭✭✭✭Cuddlesworth


    suicide_circus wrote: »
    I got a taxi home from work late one night and the driver was from Israel. had a good chat re the whole taxi game and he was coming home with 500/700 pw. his view on many of the native drivers was that they were too picky about fares, were likely to make 50euro and head straight to boyle sports, were only prepared to do short daytime hours during the week and expected to cram into town on weekends for easy pickings.

    I had another one who showed me his list of concerts and events across the city, so he could be there when they emptied. He said he was getting around 800pw after expenses, but was doing stupid hours.


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  • #91
    anncoates
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭anncoates


    Without offending anybody that drives a taxi ( I myself know two drivers), a lot of them seem from a Celtic Tiger /pre - regulation hangover and are under the mistaken assumption that they are still entitled to earn large sums of money working hours of their choosing in a monopoly market as opposed to taxi drivers in most other countries.


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