Taxi drivers

[driller]

My brother's a cabbie. He works over 60 hours a week. He often goes out of an evening and after petrol and whatnot earns less than minimum wage. You couldn't meet a lovelier, friendlier bloke.

Saturday nights he regularly deals with piss heads who think nothing of spunking £30 on a round yet begrudge a less than £10 fare (set by the council not him) at 3.30 on a Saturday morning after they've had a big night and he's been working since 7 that evening. S

You wouldn't believe the red tape that he gets tied up in, all the extra costs of being a cabbie - the insurances, the taxes, the road tests, the licences, the police checks. He's got a wife and 3 kids to support and has never ever moaned about his lot despite working a lot harder than most on here and earning a lot less than most.

All these blokes are trying to do is earn a living. It's not as if they do this protest every day so how about you try and see it from their perspective before shooting your mouths off.

*gets off soapbox*

Should have done better at school then could get a proper job instead of driving

 

[Aldo]

Personally got nothing bad to say about Taxi drivers in Brighton, in fact last Saturday night my driver gave me a £13 fare for £8 despite me telling him to just take me as far as £8 can.

 

[kevinsmith]

They are protesting about the fact that they pay £410 per year to be able to park on the station rank, but now are unable to do so.

 

[The Fifth Column]

Should have done better at school then could get a proper job instead of driving

Ouch! If that doesn't get a bite I dont know what will.

Professional drivers though, do me a favour, taxi drivers in Brighton are some of the worst drivers on the road. Regularly see them driving using mobile phones, ignoring traffic signs and going thru red lights like the highway code was invented for everyone else but taxi drivers. Oh and the favourite trick of certain taxi drivers in Brighton if they have a problem fare is to call the police and claim the fare is being racist just so they get a response.

 

[pasty]

Okay, not all taxi drivers are bad, just seemingly the vast majority of them that use the front of the station rank. They block the road without a thought to other drivers, jump any red lights in the area without a though to pedestrians, regularly create a cacophony of car horns and generally act as if they own the entire area.

I was once very nearly hit by a cabbie jumping a red light, crossing from the station front towards the 24 hour shop on the left, and when I shouted at him, he had the audacity to start having a go at me

 

[Buzzer]

Should have done better at school then could get a proper job instead of driving

Bravo.

 

[Ecosse Exile]

Yes and the powers that be sold something like 20 times as many licences as there are spots for taxis to park up. The taxi drivers have tried to push for an extra rank at the back but the coaches take up all the spaces.

Thats typical Buzzer, to be honest thats the sort of thing that made me give up, there were way too many cabs, Hackney plates were limited and changed hands in excess of 30k but private hire was unlimited and their were hundreds, then when the two towns became a city it was even worse.

Stay on your soap box btw, it is very hard to earn a living in that game now!

And as for whoever said about doing better at school, if every one was as educated as you presumably are, you would be just like everyone else, and would maybe even have to drive a cab, if its not too far beneath you that is.

 

[Foolg]

My brother's a cabbie. He works over 60 hours a week. He often goes out of an evening and after petrol and whatnot earns less than minimum wage. You couldn't meet a lovelier, friendlier bloke.

Saturday nights he regularly deals with piss heads who think nothing of spunking £30 on a round yet begrudge a less than £10 fare (set by the council not him) at 3.30 on a Saturday morning after they've had a big night and he's been working since 7 that evening.

You wouldn't believe the red tape that he gets tied up in, all the extra costs of being a cabbie - the insurances, the taxes, the road tests, the licences, the police checks. He's got a wife and 3 kids to support and has never ever moaned about his lot despite working a lot harder than most on here and earning a lot less than most.

All these blokes are trying to do is earn a living. It's not as if they do this protest every day so how about you try and see it from their perspective before shooting your mouths off.

*gets off soapbox*

Spot on.
My uncles a cabbie on the Isle of Wight, works far harder than anyone else i know and is always the last to complain about his job. In fact, im fairly confident he earns quite a bit less than any Brighton cabbie too, as not only are the fares lower, there is also a lot less demand (obviously its easier to walk from one side of Newport to the other than it is Brighton). He also tells me that many of the fares they get are say Newport to Ryde or Sandown (apologies to those that don't know their geography), which once he's returned back to the rank and queued in traffic with the engine running, he makes about £4 for an hours work.
Oh, and some of the people they have to put up with on a saturday night.

 

[Don Quixote]

You talkin' to me?

 

[Jackthelad]

They've being driving round in pointless circles as a protest but often complain about the cost of fuel - doh

LOL. I work on the Trains came out for a cig and watched them arguing with some police got all a bit heated.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Spot on.
My uncles a cabbie on the Isle of Wight, works far harder than anyone else i know and is always the last to complain about his job. In fact, im fairly confident he earns quite a bit less than any Brighton cabbie too, as not only are the fares lower, there is also a lot less demand (obviously its easier to walk from one side of Newport to the other than it is Brighton). He also tells me that many of the fares they get are say Newport to Ryde or Sandown (apologies to those that don't know their geography), which once he's returned back to the rank and queued in traffic with the engine running, he makes about £4 for an hours work.
Oh, and some of the people they have to put up with on a saturday night.

Is that the definition of a busy fool?

He must like the job otherwise he wouldn't bother. Supply and demand isn't it, the cab game is obviously saturated so leave it to someone else to work for £4 an hour. Better off with a job in McDonalds

 

[public school boy]

I'm a Taxi driver, of course The Poshest one in Sussex, so what does that tell you?

 

[8ace]

I'm a Taxi driver, of course The Poshest one in Sussex, so what does that tell you?

No time to protest then Hugo?

 

[public school boy]

Most of my business is client based so no need to protest. I used to work fro m the rank in Bexhill. Most of the drivers there were good honest hard workers but there were a few grumpy ones. The council have had a crack down on the standard of cars and drivers appearance which is a good thing. If anyone has a complaint to make about a driver then one can call their local authority.

 

[Return of the Rev]

taxi drivers have paid for station pass only to be told they can't use it for three months! lets take your falmer s/t ticket away for three months and see how it goes down! a taxi drivers lot is a wide and varied one with alot of extra service that you guys never see,the stations a bit of a bear pit tbh and i'd rather not work from there myself,you will get some knobs driving cabs but also alot of people that will go out of their way for some of our more disadvantaged customers. so don't tar all with the same brush

 

[krakatoa]

One of my Albion supporting mates is a Brighton Hackney cab owner, and I know he gets increasingly brassed off with the ever rising driver and cab licence fees, which are effectively a tax to fund a small army of bureaucratic paper shufflers in the hackney carriage office at the town hall, passing around essential documents such as "ethnic monitoring forms".

 

[Return of the Rev]

just had a taxi turn up on time,very polite driver,well done 205205!

 

[Gangsta]

Only tip them if they don't talk to you.

 

[magoo]

They need to start protesting about fuel costs, then maybe the government will do something about it.

 

[8ace]

More than 50 cabbies take part in Brighton station protest (From The Argus)