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25 October, 2008 11:42 (GMT +00:00)

Recession hits London cabbies

One of the most visible barometers of the economy in London are the black cabs, London Daily News columnist and BBC London commentator John Kennedy a black cab driver, along with all the major news organisation’s accepts recession is now a reality, but what next and how does this impact on the 25,000 black cabs in London.

by John Kennedy

We must be under no illusion now and prepare for a recession hitting our trade like a wave off an Old Spice advert.

The latest Gross Domestic Product figures came out and showed that the economy shrunk by 0.5% between July and September this year, add to this black October and I think we all understand that 2009 will be a very difficult year for all parts of the London taxi trade.

So what can we do to mitigate this dismal future that lies ahead for us all, well I've bounced a few ideas around my head and had a chat with a few of the regulars at the Chelsea Bridge Tea stall and Tom's on Clapham Common and came to the following conclusions.

1. We need at the very least another 1,000 rank spaces throughout London.

2. “Going Home” ranks and shared taxi-cabs facilities will certainly need to be reviewed at the earliest opportunity in 2009. These may well be luxuries we can afford when the economy is growing but I'm not sure these are viable in a recession.

3. We need taxi marshals at every mainline station ensuring the ranks move smoothly and offer an increased level of customer service to our passengers.

4. We must form teams of venue marshall’s and approach clubs, bars and major hotels and provide a taxi service rather than rely on door staff to put taxi work into mini cabs.

5. We must advertise via the trade press and on all forms of media that a London taxi cab is value for money, VFM

Visiting London why take the tube when you can travel door to door, two or more of you in a taxi-cab and we don't just compete we're actually cheaper than the tube. Remember it's £4.00 per head in zone one without a Oyster card.

6. The PCO must be split in two if just to preserve the different service taxi-cabs provide when compared to mini-cabs.

7. Touting must be taken seriously by those in authority with the courts opening at night to deal with this problem once and for all. Let's use the recession to sort the city out in time for 2012.

8. Radio circuits must put taxi work in taxi-cabs.

These are just a few ideas that many of us think and talk about. With a recession looming we must now put some if not all of these ideas into practice because opportunities will arise for us to get some of our work back. The first casualty in the transport industry appears to be the National Express dot to dot mini-coach service, if the reports are correct this service is to be scrapped and at £22.00 per head I'm not surprised, rather like the Heathrow Express we can compete and beat these services, we just need to market ourselves correctly.

The recession will certainly shake things up within our industry so I say let us the taxi-cab drivers do the shaking and not just the stirring!

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