Roy June 19th, 2010
I paid for my SPSV licence over the phone in February and received a receipt in the post from the Regulator on March 7th.
On March 10th I went to the carriage office in Dublin Castle and gave in all my documents, and was told the licence would be processed in “due course”.
All the blurb from the regulator said to allow 12 weeks for the process to be completed. currently… taking the day I visited the Carriage office as the start date, we are on week 16.
I rang the regulator to ask what progress was being made with my application on the 2nd of June (the 12 week point) only to be told they don’t handle it, that the licence issuing is dealt with by the carriage office who should have sent me a “paper licence” 3 weeks prior to the due date, this Paper licence then has to be sent by me to the Regulator who issues the plastic ID. (they said this extra process takes about 2 weeks).
I tried in vain to ring the carriage office, an impossible task as they simply do not answer their phones and so instead I journeyed across to the deepest darkest Northside, to the new Carriage office in Santry.
As I expected they used the excuse of the move to Santry as the reason for the delay and said that all June licences where being processed now and that I should receive the Paper licence within two weeks. they also gave me permission to drive mt Taxi after the licence eventually lapsed. The two weeks are up and I haven’t received the licence yet.
I doubt that the licence has been vetted in any real way, in fact I’d be surprised if it’s made it out of the filing cabinet, I assume if there was any problems I’d have heard? “maybe that parking fine two years ago precludes me from driving a Taxi” (not likely, as I read an article about a Taxi driver being convicted of drug offences who had 6 previous convictions, I’m not sure if they took the licence off him this time)
Meanwhile I’m driving around proudly displaying a lapsed licence, explaining the situation to customers that ask and could be bothered listening.(maybe that’s why all these guys I’ve been complaining about have them lying flat!)
The process outlined above used to take one afternoon and cost €3 before the Regulator got their greasy mits on it, now it takes 4 months (and counting) and costs €250.
Happy days! I just got a reminder that my Licence Plate is due for renewal in September, another few hundred from my empty pockets and more bureaucratic red tape nonsense as designed by the Regulator to look forward to.
Giz a job?
Roy June 17th, 2010
I heard this guy on the radio talking about cooking food on the engine of your car while driving, and thought this was ideal for Taxi drivers, simply place all the ingredients for your dinner in tinfoil and secure it under the bonnet and then at the end of your shift ….dinners ready!
He calls it a Carbeque…. I think it’s Bleedin’ Cool!
Here are some recipes to get you started:
Carbecue cooking times are usually written in terms of miles, rather than minutes. Here are some examples from recipes found online:
Shrimp: 30-50 miles
Trout or Salmon: 60-100 miles
Chicken breasts: 60 miles at 65 mph
Chicken wings: 140-200 miles
Pork tenderloin: 250 miles
Sliced, peeled potatoes: 55 miles
We’d do those types of miles no bother daily!
For full instructions on how to Carbeque visit this site
http://www.wikihow.com/Cook-Food-on-Your-Car’s-Engine
Roy June 15th, 2010
Taxi-Pay, the new Credit/Debit card payment solution for Taxi drivers has just completed a full cycle:
Fares charged by passengers using the service for one full week
Payments made to drivers for fares paid using the service during that week
I have received correspondence and spoken to some of the drivers whose customers have availed of the service and all have been complimentary, here’s one of the E-mails:
Roy,
Got my first punter 20 mins after i put up my stickers.
Got called up ahead of 20 other cars at the airport, ¤35 to ranelagh. Went without a hitch, customer well impressed.
Nice one…
One small dispatch company in Carlow has signed up and will begin advertising the service shortly.
I was slightly concerned when a group of Spanish students decided to use Taxipay, wondering would their mobile recognise the number and whether the English menu would prove problematic, however although one or two of the menu items needed to be replayed, they completed the transaction quickly and seemed to genuinely enjoy the process.
I did have to refuse the opportunity of skipping the queue on the Green last night as the potential passengers wanted to use Amex, not sure if Taxi pay takes that?
Have you signed up yet? if not then why not? It’s a completely free service for drivers and gives you a competitive edge, stay ahead of the game……………
Sign up here
Roy June 15th, 2010
Do you wonder about the fares you might have had?
When the bloke and his girlfriend come up to the rank and he puts her in your car for a short trip then takes the next,
Or just after you move over from the feeder rank to the main one, your mate who was behind you on the feeder get’s away …….
Do you ask the girlfriend where your man was going? or your mate where his job went?
I never do……….. but I always want to
Roy June 14th, 2010
Now that the militant faction seem to have put away their posters and the Regulators reforms have been passed into law where do we go from here?
The Taxi industry is still in turmoil, the future is bleak with many Taxi drivers struggling to meet the demands of the new regime (Newer car, meeting the new suitability criteria)
Many hope a new government might see how bad a state the Taxi industry is in and how a one size fits all system for the entire country is the wrong model and will make the relevant changes, but deep down we realise that government have bigger fish to fry and that the Taxi crisis is way down on their agenda.
Somehow we must decide on workable methods to help solve the problems within our industry, not the usual outrageous demands or even worse our recent tendency to protest because we’re pissed off, moan a lot but offer no workable solutions.
I believe that at a minimum, responsibility for the Taxi service within each county should revert back to the local authorities for that county and that enforcement of the regulations pertaining to the Taxi business should revert back to An Garda, basically i’m saying that the Commission for Taxi regulation has been an abject failure and should be shut down.
If we could offer the block vote for the promise of the above cost effective measure we might have a chance of pushing them through (Taxis offer a good source of income for Local authorities, income currently being wasted by the Taxi Commission)
Cue the usual bickering and disagreement inherent in our industry, if we could only agree on a couple of basic principles we might just get somewhere!
Roy June 13th, 2010
When did it become OK to stop to pick up or set down passengers on the outside lane of a dual carriageway?
Or to stop on the outside lane of the green on the off chance someone might come out of the Residence club?
Or to drive at 5km per hour along a street, stopping every time someone puts a cigarette to their mouth, only to then eventually stop completely, get out of your Hyundai Tragedy in the middle of the road and begin adjusting the seats…. trying to sqeeze 6 people in, meanwhile holding up the entire city in the process?
Or to block the entire length of Harcourt street, Leeson Street, Camden Street and Georges Street to name a few?
I suppose I should add St Stephens Green to the above list…….. but that gets special exemption!
The whole thing is a Joke!
Roy June 10th, 2010
Us night drivers accumulate a lot of coins, the shrapnel left over from a nights drinking tends to get deposited with us, often very profitably, ” here … take it all, don’t know how much it is but it should cover it ”
Don’t know about you but I reckon the time spent counting 1, 2, 5 and 10 cent coins is not worth the amount they give you for them so I no longer bother my arse bagging and lodging them.
Cue the coin counter in Tesco! it’s the greatest invention ever, I pop a bag full of mixed coins in once a month and provided I use the voucher to do some shopping they don’t charge me a cent for the service.
What do you do with yours?
Roy June 8th, 2010
Highfield Golf and Country Club are launching a fab membership offer of full golf membership from now until Jan 1st for only €340. A number of taxi men are members already and are delighted with the golf course and it’s many amenities.
Extra Special Offer for Irish Taxi Readers!
——————————————————–
Full Membership Offer @ €299 for Irish Taxi Org readers until Jan 1st 2011. www.highfield-golf.ie 046 9731021
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Highfield Golf are offering taxi drivers who read Irish Taxi this deal for only €299! Enabling you to play golf 7 days per week, get a G.U.I. handicap etc thus enabling you to play in Opens nationwide….. just produce your Taxi ID to avail of this great offer!
Roy June 6th, 2010
I had my first credit card payment last night using the Taxi Pay system, I suggested the customer use it rather than go searching for an ATM.
I reckoned her fare would be about €16 …… she had a tenner on her so we agreed she would put €10 on the card as we drove and she could then pay the balance in cash when we arrived.
The process went through far quicker than I thought it would, the girl used the telephone keypad like it was an extension to her hand and seemed to know her card details from the top of her head! Before she even hung up the phone I’d received the SMS telling me the payment had been received and seconds after that she received her two texts : one saying the payment had gone through the other telling her how it would appear on her statement.
She even gave me a €2 tip which along with the €2 she had to pay for using the Taxi Pay service seemed over generous but hey……I’m not complaining!
I’ve just checked my account on http://taxipay.ie/ and the transaction appears there all correct also.
All very satisfactory so far, I should see the money appearing in my bank account next Monday, 14th June.
Roy June 4th, 2010
Looks like they don’t want us to sit it:
Personally I agree with the Joint Taxi council and its stance on this matter, maybe we should be obliged to attend training courses and update our skills, but to be threatened with loss of licence as a result of failure in this “test” is wrong and adds an extra layer of pressure on drivers, particularly those with below average reading and writing skills.
