TAXI DRIVERS are revolting. They’ve been staging angry rallies on the streets of our towns and cities in recent weeks, demanding a moratorium on licences and other industry reforms.
They argue that taxi regulation is a mess in this country. They may have a point. There are far too many tax-dodging, xenophobic chancers driving around in filthy deathtraps with shifty meters. Understandably, the hard-working drivers who make up the majority want to purge the bad apples.
But while they may have genuine grievances, their latest stunt has been a public relations disaster.
Since when does possession of a taxi licence, a yellow roof sign and a 1998 Almera confer on the bearer the right to break the law?
Most taxi drivers profess to know everything about everything. So why can’t they realise that staging wildcat actions like go-slows that block traffic and public transport is no way to garner sympathy for their plight?
By alienating the very people they’re relying on for their livelihood, they’re shooting themselves in the feet.
And why protest on weekday afternoons when there are no fares anyway? If they withdrew services on Friday and Saturday nights, maybe they’d have half a chance of being taken seriously.
Until then, no to a moratorium. Such measures make a mockery of the free market. And does anyone really believe their true agenda isn’t a return to the dark days where hordes of frantic people queue at ranks for hours in the vain hope of ever getting home safely?
That said, there would be one obvious advantage to a moratorium. The next time drivers decide to kick up a stink, there will be less of them to clog up our streets.