Tuesday 30 May 2017

London taxis and private hire industry – Did you know?

History:

  • The history of taxi service in London is back from 1600 and it was the time when the taxi was not a motor vehicle but carriages driven by horses.
  • Even the horse carriages were not affordable to all the common public as people in contemporary time can use taxi anytime anywhere.
  • The city of London is one of the oldest city in culture and tradition among all the European cities. 
  • When the horse driven carriages were used for a taxi in past time, people say that animals feed were also transported by the carriages as hired taxi.
  • Initially, that particular taxi services were city based and intra-city for the continence of the public.

Modern London tax:

  • Modern London taxi was started and regulated in 1906 and very luxury cars like Rolls-Royce were also used for taxi.
  • When the people were given the rights to drive their cars as a taxi then the new regulation was also designed.
  • All the taxi very licensed and then allowed to drive on the road.
  • All the safety parameters were taken even at that time to ensure the safety of the Londoners.
  • As we know that London is an old city that is why the driver was asked to drive the car in very short radius to pass the test. There are many narrow streets in London so it was to ensure that cars can approach there.
  • Asquith, Fariway and Metrocab were the three cars which were allowed to drive as a taxi in London and the permission was granted by the London Metropolitan.  
  • There was no limit as such for a taxi driver, a driver has spent 75 years of his life as a taxi driver.

Private hired Taxi:

  • I would like to differentiate black cab and minicab before I start to explain the new era of a taxi.
  • Minicab is booked on call in advance but you can ask for a black cab just by standing beside the road.
  • The black cab driver is bound to pass the knowledge base test before getting the license for a taxi driver in London.
  • Minicab and private hire taxi drivers are not given this notice yet to pass the knowledge base test. But the new rules and regulation are underway to bring them in the loop.
  • Knowledge base test itself is a huge task for a driver to pass because how difficult for a driver to know the about more than 25000 streets and more that 50 thousand locations.

Uber regime:

  • After the arrival of Uber in transport industry in2010, it revolutionised the concept of a taxi.
  • They introduced an app to book a taxi.
  • Private hire cars like minicabs were also shifted to the app. It created such an amazing ease for the users.
  • As Uber came into the market it invited many competitors as well.
  • So the competition in the market came with a benefit for the users, they got the very reasonable fares for riding.
  • According to some eye-opening facts, in 2010, there were about 50000 taxi drivers in London. After the Uber invitation in the market this number has risen to more than 90,000.
  • Only in London, 30,000 times Uber app is downloaded in a week which is used by the individual rider for the first time.
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Wednesday 24 May 2017

Minicab Numbers in London



Uber Era:

The concept of a taxi in the world has changed and the process is so simple to ride in the taxi or to drive a taxi car. When the things are growing rapidly, it becomes more complicated to handle all the issues. To solve these complexities in the taxi business, an Uber era Begins. They privately hire the cars, drivers are the owners of their vehicle. They just need to pass the simple driving test which excluded of knowledge base test. Knowledge base test is compulsory for those drivers who are driving in the main city, like London. So if we take the great city of London as a case study then we can fully understand the issues of taxi business in London.

Minicab number: 


Many people have written blogs and Streatham minicabs business has discussed in the news. A narrative was established that after Uber era things have been changed. Uber can easily hire the private vendors in their stream. As I discussed earlier that don’t need to pass knowledge base test in which a driver should completely know each and every nook and corner of the London city. From some official figures, we can conclude that 20% of minicabs have increased in past few years. This numbers didn’t affect the minicab business. There are more than 80,000 taxi cars in which more than 14000 Uber private hire also included.

Regulations for private hire:


Private hire taxi business so rapidly gets into the Streatham taxi market that the margin for new regulations has created yet. This business has also created hundreds of thousands of jobs for the private cars owners. It created social mobilisation and connected the people with short distances and minimum time. Certainly, this narrative is not correct that private hire business replaced the minicab business. There is some astonishing factor that minicab drivers are also using the Uber app in the main city. Especially those drivers who drive in the suburbs of the city, find an illegal mean to drive within the city. So, there is an urgent need for regulation to establish for the future security of the minicab and Uber’s private hire cars.

Business Vs income:    


The increase in the income of the company and all the staff employed by the business is the real success of any company. It has been seen that drivers who are working with black cabs and minicabs are getting less as compare to private hire cars. In private hire taxi business, companies usually award the drivers and vendors with rewards and guarantees which increase their income and makes them feel secure. In addition to that riders also give the tips for their best services. Minicab and black cab drivers get tips but due to the complexity of the calling riders usually not as such pleasant to award any tip to the riders.