Is the NTA fit for purpose?

Taxi drivers who have returned to work in recent weeks have found themselves earning less than the minimum wage, less than they were getting on the covid 19 pandemic unemployment payment.

There has been no advice on this coming from the NTA, the taxi regulator, and no mention of financial assistance for taxi drivers returning to work. Nor has there been any advice as to what requirements there are when returning to work. 

 Is a dividing screen effective?

 How many passengers should be carried?

 How to keep the taxi covid free.

 Advice should be given on disinfecting etc. 

 And is there a grant available to purchase a dividing screen and disinfectant, gloves and masks?

Issues taxi drivers have regarding the NTA are far to numerous to mention. Within this blog, issues that constantly arise will be discussed, but the immediate issue now is the lack of advice surrounding the covid 19 pandemic and getting back to work. 

It seems taxis are not considered to be public transport, no mention is given within news bulletins or advertising campaigns of taxis when the NTA are advising people on travel.

Taxi use needs to be promoted at this time, people are not hailing on the streets and there are reports from drivers of sitting on ranks for up to two and a half hours before getting a fare which tends to be mostly local. 

Freenow claimed recently that taxi usage has increased in the past couple of weeks, drivers say this is untrue and don't know where Freenow are getting this information from. 

Driving a taxi for a living is like no other profession. Particularly in Ireland where the national transport authority and especially the taxi regulator give the impression of disliking the taxi industry and taxi drivers as a whole. 

The number of hurdles, rules and regulations, that are put in place is ever increasing. A lot of these hurdles are quite ridiculous and frustrate drivers no end.

One example, though there are many, is the annual NCT test along with the suitability test.

Why haven't the two tests been combined? They are both carried out under the same roof but at different times. How ridiculous is this? Is it perhaps 2 fees paid by the taxi driver?

 The NTA will argue that the suitability test cannot be carried out unless the vehicle has recently passed a road worthiness test and if the 2 tests were combined then what happens if the vehicle were to fail the road worthiness part of the test. 

Taxi drivers wouldn't mind paying the same fee for both tests if they were combined, the NTA simply don't want to convenience them. The NTA prefer that taxi drivers have to make 2 separate bookings and attend on 2 separate occasions where the one visit would suffice. 

The suitability test has to be the most rigorous of all tests. Depending on how the tester of the day reads the rules, very few taxi's will pass first time. The slightest scratch on the paintwork, an innocuous stain on a seat or carpet, a slight tear in upholstery may be read as a fail. Plasters out of date in the first aid kit will mean a fail!!

 These items should come under an advisory from the tester and not a straightforward fail. Of course there is an appeals process but in the meantime the vehicle has no licence to operate so no taxi driver is going to bother appealing and has to then rebook and pay a second test fee 

Another rule which frustrates drivers is the age limit. Every body accepts that as a car ages it develops problems and that a troublesome or unsafe car is unsuitable for use as a taxi, but, isn't that why the national car test was brought about, to keep unsafe cars, bangers if you will, off the roads. 

If a car passes the rigorous NCT test, regardless of it's age, it is then deemed to be safe for Irish roads. So why isn't this the case for a taxi? 

Are the NTA saying that the NCT test is not good enough once a car reaches a certain age? Plenty of perfectly good, well maintained cars have been scrapped because of this age rule. Taxi drivers have put themselves into unnecessary debt borrowing to buy a new car when the car they have is perfectly fit for purpose, will pass the national car test and be considered perfectly safe to be driven on the public highways. 

The rules surrounding a taxi licence, (the plate), have to be bordering on illegal. A plate owner cannot sell the plate. The only way to pass it on is to will it to a relative otherwise the plate dies with the owner, yet it was a purchasable item when the NTA sold it. Surely if one buys something it is theirs to do with what they will or there should be an option to sell it back to the NTA. 

In the past couple of months a new rule has been introduced. When applying for a badge renewal, at a cost of €250, drivers now have to supply a driving history. Of course, there's a fee for this as well even though the click of an NTA computer will give them all the information they want. 

Taxi's and taxi drivers are just a cash cow for the NTA who give very little in return. 

There are a number of ways that taxi's pay into the exchequer, fuel purchase, income tax, licence fees, regulator fines, VAT on service and repairs etc. 

The average taxi would use in the region of €160 fuel per week. The exchequer take on fuel is 57%........   57% of 160 is 91.20......... taxi drivers are paying €91.20 tax per week on fuel alone. Multiply that by the amount of fulltime taxi drivers along with income tax, VAT and licence fees that taxi's pay and there is a hefty sum at the end. The question is, “What do taxi drivers get in return”?

Fare increase announcements from the NTA are always met with derision from the majority of drivers. Another bill to be paid with the taxi off the road for the time it takes the meter to be recalibrated. The increase never meets the cost of having the meter changed and yet if it's not changed the driver can be fined, yes, fined for under charging passengers!!!! 

There are a lot of issues affecting taxi drivers that the National Transport Authority, which incorporates the taxi regulator, simply never address, they did recently run a campaign requesting respect for taxi drivers but this did nothing to address the real issues and it is the NTA who need to show taxi drivers respect. 

The following are problems within the industry that the NTA have ignored.......

ISSUES AFFECTING TAXI DRIVERS

• ASSAULT AND ROBBERY

 

• NON PAYMENT (RUNNERS)

• FACEBOOK TAXI'S (non taxi's advertising cheap airport runs)

• T.D.s denouncing taxi's in bus lanes 

• Illegal taxi's 

• Decommissioned taxi ranks 

• Pedestrianisation of College Green 

• Freenow making rules 

The way things are now, with covid 19 practically under control, the taxi industry is on it's knees. No airport work, no night club work, concerts and sports cancelled for the foreseeable future and with the unemployment pandemic payment coming to an end what is to become of taxi drivers? 

Comments or opinions email taxisincrisis@gmail.com