Blck cab under the threat

[mos]

In Slough, Reading and sadly Windsor practically all taxi cars, many of them black cab brand, look and feel like second hand ancient clunkers. I suspect not safe for passengers.

Why licensing body is not dealing with this new trend? Should they not impose some standards which would preclude usage of second hand cars which responsible drivers decommissioned years ago?

Its just so sad and unfair.

[SimonMac]

Thought you meant this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20031436

[Lockhouse]

I'm a registered Winchester cabbie. Long story.

[Alias]

very few of them about in the areas you mention, mostly private hire ones that are stupidly overpriced and the drivers don't follow the rules of the road (its questionable if they have a driving license in the first place anyway)

[DodgyAgent]

I'm a registered Winchester cabbie. Long story.

Time is one thing that is in plentiful supply on CUK pray tell us

[Scoobos]

My experience of that area is that you're right, and I also concur with the belief that there's something fishy going on in Slough.

Most drivers dont seem to be good enough to have a licence.

I also lived on a street with lots of foreign nationals who lived 10+ a house, and they seemed to have at least 4 taxis outside. Do you get some kind of tax break or something , if your car is registered as a taxi cab?

[DodgyAgent]

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ALL TRAINING DONE BY INTERNET.



they are advertising for taxi drivers in romania!

[BrilloPad]

My sister works in Slough. Random drive by shooting at entrance to her office recently. Only an air pistol - but even so.....

[Paddy]

In Slough, Reading and sadly Windsor practically all taxi cars, many of them black cab brand, look and feel like second hand ancient clunkers. I suspect not safe for passengers.

Why licensing body is not dealing with this new trend? Should they not impose some standards which would preclude usage of second hand cars which responsible drivers decommissioned years ago?

Its just so sad and unfair.

Tax drivers outside of London are hard pushed to make a profit. I am happy to ride in any age of car.

[Lockhouse]

Time is one thing that is in plentiful supply on CUK pray tell us

Up until a couple of years ago, we (me and the missus) used to own a wedding car company that ran classic American cars. We did this in our spare time - she did the business side, me (being that way inclined) took care of the cars. Anyway, we started off doing prom work as well as weddings but then we had to jump through all these hoops for licensing as it's hire and reward - unlike wedding car work which anyone can do.

So we gave it a go with one of our classic cars, we upped the insurance, got CRB checked, I took my Winchester taxi test (I actually took the test in Basingstoke) and then we got one of our classic cars registered in Winchester as a licensed taxi. We even made the local paper when we did that.

All this came at a cost though. We found that we were paying maybe £2000 per year in compliance for £1500 of prom work and as much as we wanted to carry on doing proms (and other hire and reward work) it just wasn't paying it's way. We went back to just doing weddings.

We sold the business for lots of reasons - it was full of great highs and some serious lows. I'm saving the best stories for my forthcoming book....