Dublin taxis drop Christmas cab-sharing proposal

Taxi drivers have been forced to scrap their plan to introduce taxi-sharing from next Friday as a way to reduce queues over the Christmas period.

Mr John Ussher, president of the Irish Taxi Drivers' Federation, said the union had received legal advice that its proposal, which would have created special taxi-share ranks, could not be operated legally without new legislation.

He said the drivers were "very disappointed" that they would not be able to operate the scheme over Christmas. He argues that sharing is the only way that new seven and eight-seat cabs can be utilised to their full potential.

"We have received legal advice that Dublin Corporation are correct to say the taxi-share system is illegal. But the allegation that our proposal would lead to customers being ripped off is wrong.

"Modern cab meters have the ability to facilitate cab-sharing, and our English colleagues have operated such a system successfully. Obviously we can't go ahead with a plan that's illegal, but in the absence of our initiative, we would appeal to people to come to taxi-sharing arrangements themselves and make sure that no cab leaves the rank with only one person in it."

Mr Ussher also criticised comments by the chairman of the Competition Authority, Prof Patrick McNutt, describing the leasing of taxi plates to drivers by wealthy individuals as a form of urban share-cropping.

Prof McNutt said Dublin's taxi policies "should not create a system where individuals or groups of individuals are making a profit by leasing taxi plates".

He said that those who bought taxi plates in Dublin were "usually wealthy enough to raise £80,000 without recourse to credit markets". Consequently, owners felt "a fierce need to protect" their large investment "regardless of how this affects the long-suffering travelling public".

Some drivers were "left with the minimum wage" once they had paid a fee to drive the car, and could be described as "a modern form of urban sharecropper".

A discussion paper written by Prof McNutt and an economist, Mr Patrick Kenny, and released by the authority yesterday, called for "complete entry liberalisation" in the taxi industry and the phasing out of quantitative limits on taxis. The report also said plate owners should no longer be able to transfer ownership of their plates.

In response to Prof McNutt's remarks, Mr Ussher said the Competition Authority "doesn't seem to realise that 90 per cent of plates are individually owned by the taxi drivers.

"There are over 3,500 people employed in this business at the moment but deregulation would be the ruination of it as an employer. It would turn into a part-time profession.

Mr Ussher said deregulation would hit the 400 people who purchased licences for seven and eight-seater cars in the last 12 months particularly severely. Each had paid £15,000 for a licence and up to £30,000 for their cars, and would be "wiped out instantly" if the industry were deregulated.