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London Black Cab Takings Down 30%

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sojourner said:
Jesus

Different breed up here. Ours are all miserable bastards, skint and miserable.
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Ours are all rich and cunts.

In fairness, I remember the first time I got a hansom from Lime Street and nearly fell over when it was cheaper than a minicab in my home town in Essex, so no surprises they're all skint if they're that cheap.

e2a - actually, my first line isn't entirely true - I've had some great cab rides with superb cabbies who've really known their shit (not just The Knowledge, but other, more useful knowledge of where you can buy things at 4am) and haven't been the stereotypical 'string 'em up, it's the only language they understand, I 'ad that Boris Johnson in the back of the cab the other day' type...however, I've had my share of tossers who I've had to tell to shut up too...
 
Worth making the point about north/south travel.

While sometimes it's because they're lazy, can't be arsed to drive outside the central zone etc, the main reason is that the further out they drive the less likely they are to find a fare on the way back in. If you're dropping someone off in Hammersmith from Chelsea, there's a strong chance you'll find someone in 'smith looking for one back into town, where again there are more possible fares. How many people do you see looking for a cab into central London at 3am in the morning in Brixton or Streatham.

Doesn't stop them being tossers about it, but it is a reason.
 
kyser_soze said:
Ours are all rich and cunts.
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Where I live isn't a particularly affluent area and a few cabbies live round here, mainly running older cabs. I can't imagine they're particularly rich.

I've only ever once got a black cab in London, coming back from Greenwich one night when for some reason the buses were all badly delayed. It cost me more than a tenner. I wished I'd walked...
 
kyser_soze said:
Worth making the point about north/south travel.

While sometimes it's because they're lazy, can't be arsed to drive outside the central zone etc, the main reason is that the further out they drive the less likely they are to find a fare on the way back in. If you're dropping someone off in Hammersmith from Chelsea, there's a strong chance you'll find someone in 'smith looking for one back into town, where again there are more possible fares. How many people do you see looking for a cab into central London at 3am in the morning in Brixton or Streatham.

Doesn't stop them being tossers about it, but it is a reason.
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Are you saying all drivers live North of the River?
 
I've always found myself somewhat fearful of them; over-priced unpredictable Daleks. I'm looking forward to a good culling.
 
Last one I had spent the first half of the journey telling me what a cushy life he had, always out on the golf course with his brother in law etc. and the second half going on about all the immigrants ruining the country. I could just imagine him out on the golf course getting the shit kicked out of him by a gang of feral Albanian caddies. :)
 
TBH at least they get you where you're going without scaring the crap out of you staring at their sat-navs instead of the road!
 
This doesn't surprise me at all. It's incredibly easy to get a black cab these days, and every one I've got recently has moaned about how bad business is.
 
kyser_soze said:
While sometimes it's because they're lazy, can't be arsed to drive outside the central zone etc, the main reason is that the further out they drive the less likely they are to find a fare on the way back in. If you're dropping someone off in Hammersmith from Chelsea, there's a strong chance you'll find someone in 'smith looking for one back into town, where again there are more possible fares. How many people do you see looking for a cab into central London at 3am in the morning in Brixton or Streatham.
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My recent if infrequent experience is that most cabbies have been a lot more willing to take a night job to the Streatham Hill/Brixton Hill fringes of SW2 than they were fifteen years ago. I reckon it is partly because of the boom in Clapham's nightlife - they were able do a quick loop down the South Circular and pick up people with more money than sense who weren't willing to wait for the N155.
 
haven't ever had a problem getting a black cab back to streatham in the two years that i have lived here: as the poster above says, they probably just shoot over to clapham afterwards and pick up.
 
Just been on BBC London about cabbies protesting today in the west end. Something about the council making it easier for people to get mini cabs. Times must be hard for black cabs.

Could try reducing them prices. :p
 
My old man is a black cab driver / owner - he's always cursing the rules and regs for them. The theiving gits at LTI have them over a barrel for parts and servicing, costs a fortune. He's seriously considering selling it and getting out of it. Mind you he is 65 this year!
 
I have zero sympathy for black cab drivers. Overpriced, they often won't stop to pick you up if it's 'inconvenient' for them, paying by card carries a 12.5% surcharge which they usually don't tell you about - absolute rip off.

I had to argue with one recently in the cab rank outside City Airport to take me back to Hackney at around 9pm on a Friday evening. Ridiculous. Sod 'em, I'm glad they're losing money and IMO with the way they operate they deserve to disappear.

:mad:
 
The company I worked for paid for our cabs home once from our Christmas do (we had to expense it). I asked about 5 of them to do Waterloo - Surbiton all of them turned me down. How they can complain about wages, try going South of the River once you cunts.
 
Not much sympathy for black cab drivers from me. The one I got back from St Pancras International late at night could see that my husband's disabled, that we were both knackered after a long train journey, and we both had large rucksacks, but he just stayed sat on his arse instead of even bothering to open the boot or offering help us take the rucksacks off.

Okay, we didn't expect the fare to be cheap, but he would've got a decent sized tip (£10 instead of none) if he'd had a better attitude.:mad:

IME good minicab drivers are a lot more helpful (even if you have to pick them out from among the ropey ones), and they get tipped because they've earnt it.
 
Greebo said:
Not much sympathy for black cab drivers from me. The one I got back from St Pancras International late at night could see that my husband's disabled, that we were both knackered after a long train journey, and we both had large rucksacks, but he just stayed sat on his arse instead of even bothering to open the boot or offering help us take the rucksacks off.
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You'd think if he was sitting on his arse all day he'd be glad of the chance to get up and stretch and be active for a moment.

Still, he'll be the one having the heart attack or whatever so don't worry about it!
 
<< Cheap and fun ways to see through the credit crunch >>

Spend your Saturdays pulling over money-needy Hackney carriage drivers.

Engage them in a long drawn conversation about where you want to go describing it to them with landmarks and shop names. When they eventually say "Ah, that's such-and-such in Brixton" retort with "Shit, sorry mate, you don't go south of the river do you?"

Then, depending on their desperation, drag out the argument as long as possible about the fact you wouldn't want to put them out before sending them off fareless to your friend who is waiting twenty yards down the road for his turn...
 
Ms T said:
This doesn't surprise me at all. It's incredibly easy to get a black cab these days, ...
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What the 3 years it takes to qualify for the knowledge is easy??

I don't tend to use cabs unless in a group of 4/5 due to the cost, but you can't deny that they training that requires them to know every one of London's streets is a major undertaking, and the testing system is slow and cumbersome. Also, I don't know how far surbiton is, but they don't have to go more than 8(?, 12?) miles by law and its hard to blame them. Thats what minicabs are for anyway!
 
I'm a London cabbie and alot of what is being said on this forum about us is crap. Yes there are some miserable cabbies who are rude and wont take people south but people dont bother to take their cab number and report them to the Public Carriage Office so they will continue to do it. You need to report them! It's these selfish idiots who are first to complain when business goes quiet and they give the rest of us a bad name.
Also i love when people say we are expensive but they dont have a problem spending £10 on a cocktail in the trendy bar i picked them up from or the best one is the guy i picked up from a strip club who complained the £25 cab ride that took him to his door was too much but to give a stripper £20 for a 3 minute dance was better value for money.
Someone on this forum said cabbies are "rich". how much do you think we earn mate? If i work 9hrs 5 days a week i will make £900 in the busy season. January, February and August i will be lucky to make half that. The most i made in a year was £40k. I owe £38k on my taxi. Thats £7800 a year for the next 5 years. I spend £4500 a year on diesel. Insurance, Maintenance and cab overhaul costs me £4000 a year so thats £16,000+ in outgoings. In a good year i can clear 20k after tax. I dont get holiday pay. I dont get paid when im sick and i dont get a pension so not very impressive is it? I have tried working more hours but believe me 45hrs a week is more than enough sitting in traffic breathing all the pollution, picking up drunks and rude people and worrying if your next customer is going to put a knife to your throat and rob you. Maybe this is the reason why some cabbies are rude and miserable.
And thanks Mr T for appreciating what we have to go threw to learn the knowledge. The rest of you sound like the miserable whingers who thankfully i dont come across that often doing my job.
 
yeah thanks for the two year bump, bog off eh

edit: and sending me insults over PM is definitely going to get this thread unlocked, oh yes, that always works well and doesn't get you banned
 
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