r/Glasgow Tools

Answered this a few months ago, think it's a serviceable response that will fit here. Warning; it's a tome!

My Dad's a recently retired Hackney driver after 30-ish years, godfather and mother's partner both cabbies and my godmother owned and ran a Private Hire Company in North Glasgow years ago.

The issues for the hackney's can be broken down into 3 areas. Uber and self-employed drivers, industrial changes and lifestyle.

So a bit of background, 15 - 20 years ago taxis in Glasgow were split between the Hackney's and Radio Cars (Private Hires). For ease I'll refer to them as Taxis and PH's.

Taxis are regulated and licensed by GCC, everything from their vehicle requirements to fares is set by the council. A benefit of this regulation is that legally they are permitted to pick up passengers from the street and have primary access to taxi ranks across the city.

PHs are licensed by GCC, however, the licenses have to be sponsored by a company GlasGo or Uber for example. These are fairly unregulated so they can use standard cars and set their own fares, as such generally they undercut the Taxis. They cannot pick up passengers from the street, only pre-booked collections and they use to be limited by their radios ranges, hence why there use to be a number of PHs across the city.

The two could work somewhat in harmony. PHs swept up routine contracts (some school work) and in advance bookings. I.e. you know you need to be at a meeting on Friday, so you call ahead and book a PH. Taxis do the majority of ad hoc work old dears coming from the shops, tourists landing at the airport and the weather changing suddenly so people dive in a taxi to get around the city. An example of this harmony is a Saturday night. PHs got people into the town as they knew where and when they were going. Taxis get them back out, when they just need to get home!

Uber

Uber up ended this harmony. No more needing to hope there's a taxi on the rank, no more scrabbling for a telephone number to be told that PH doesn't cover your area and no more needing cash to pay the fare. Instead in seconds from your pocket you can book an Uber, see where he is, pay in advance and bish bash boosh done. Uber can also to a degree undercut the PH, who is also undercutting the Taxis. A fabulous race to the bottom!

So now taxis are sitting on the ranks not making money. PHs arent getting as many call outs. People have lives to support so they move on.

With this Uber drivers have become semi-professional market manipulators. They know there is scarcity and know how to use the app to drive up prices, they won't take anything except surge rates and very short journeys are not worth their while.

Industrial changes

Let's be frank, the average age of a cabbie is likely somewhere between the late 40's to mid 50's. A good portion are later 50s gusting pension age or over. They, like my old man, have driven for so long that is now more habit and particularly in the Glasgow Taxis circles they have built friendship groups and societies on their ranks.

PHs on the other hand (excluding Uber) are generally on average slightly younger mid-late 30s/40s.

In both groups those that have been in a while are being faced with industrial changes, which are hurting the taxis more. So the older boys decide to retire, do less hours and or cab share. The younger guys who have families to support and want some more job security tend to jump ship to Uber ( who iirc offered(s) a bounty to drivers who already have their licenses), Amazon or one of the other delivery companies.

So what are these industrial changes that are upsetting the old boys. Firstly, GCC have introduced a requirement for all drivers to pass an English language course. Not a terrible request, however, the driver has to pay for it upfront (it can be claimed as an expense later on your tax returns) and there are no grandad rights. So the fact you have been driving since there were horses and carts on the road is seen as an irrelevant. This is ontop of the various other driver courses, that have dubious benefits and deliveries.

Then there is the environmental changes. Emissions charges, banning of diesel vehicles, etc, etc is gradually forcing taxi and PH drivers to look at changing their vehicles. For the older drivers, who aren't making as much money, the prospect of shelling out £45,000 - £60,000 for a new electric Hackney is unpalatable. PHs fare a little better, as they have a bit more flexibility in their vehicle choices.

Then another nail is the current cost of living increase, hackney's have to be serviced to a high standard (believe it or not), these services and cleaning of the taxi are becoming more expensive. Shifts are long so there's food charges like every other worker... That's before we talk fuel.

Lifestyle

Taxi driving can be a very antisocial life style. To make most money you need to work the evenings and weekend nights. This means that your days are often written off having coming home at 3-4am. If you have kids this can be challenging as they want you up to play at 8am, before you go back out to work again between 4-6pm.

This then blends into the next point. People generally suck. Through the day its mainly old dears, people going to medical appointments, some school work (put the pen down kid!). They are infrequent ad hoc and usually now very valuable jobs. Occasionally you get a gem, a Glasgow Airport to Edinburgh Airport or Central Station to Carlisle due to strike or fall down in a transport link.

As I mentioned earlier the money is really in the night work and that brings violence, crime and drunk people. If someone pukes I your taxi its off the road for 2-3 hours. If they are drunk you have the challenge of getting the fine and their fare off them - which takes more time and then you need to find somewhere to clean the cab out thoroughly. This turns a profitable evening into an unprofitable one rapidly.

Even if someone doesn't puke (or other bodily fluid dump on your cab) you then have fare dodgers, who will give you a bogus address and bail out to get money from the house never to be seen again. If you are lucky someone will be stupid enough to give you a real address or better yet be incredibly dumb and mention their intentions while in the cab on the way.

Violence and crime aren't limited purely to night - get stuck in parts of the city after an old firm match and you may have your taxi damaged, similarly some parts of the city kids throw stones and bricks at taxis. Then there are the punters that start getting aggressive and the crem de la crem, those who hold you at knife point for your float and earnings (less frequent these days!). There use to be a good counter to crims if they got in your cab - the automatic door lock and drive to the nearest police station. Now many police stations are gone or unmanned at night.

The hassle and expense mounts. Some drivers hit breaking point and walk away, others switch to cab sharing by doing reduced hours (and then suffer when the cab is taken off the road due to damage or inconsiderate punters). Its a hard life for frequently less and less pay.

I don't know what the solution is... self driving cars? But I, nor my old man for that matter see it improving. And it's not just limited to Glasgow. There may be a day where the iconic black hack is just in films...