Taxi talk
Challenging issues for Cavan operators
Figures published last week showed that Cavan has still not recovered its pre-COVID taxi driver numbers, as it experienced a 16% drop since 2019.
According to two local taxi service providers, there seems to be a range of obstacles facing those in the business today, from challenging regulations from the National Transport Authority (NTA) to the increasing presence of Local Link services in towns.
The owner of a Cavan town taxi service, Cavan Cabs has described it as “next to impossible to get workers” with few willing to work after 9pm.
Further to this, “the taxi regulator complicates the matter,” Francie Graham told the Celt.
Cavan Cabs employs nine drivers, half of whom work part time. It has a fleet of eight vehicles. Francie says the “younger generation aren’t interested” in driving a taxi and he believes more should be done to encourage young drivers to get behind the wheel.
Those who want to drive a taxi face the barrier of completing the Small Public Service Vehicle Driver Entry Test, which Francie said is “posing an issue for a lot of people”.
This test must be passed by all applicants before they can apply for an SPSV driver licence, with the exception of applicants for local area hackney driver licences.
The test consists of 90 multiple choice questions in two modules. The first module, known as the Industry Knowledge Module, has 54 questions relating to regulations and the second part, which comprises the Area Knowledge Module, features 36 questions. The pass mark for both modules is 75%.
At €90 a go, Cavan Cabs has one driver who had to go through the test nine times before passing. Another driver who completed the test in Dublin but had to re-sit it when they moved to Cavan.
“How did you get here today?,” Francie asks the Celt.
The same way anyone gets around these days, punch the Cavan Cabs Eircode into maps and follow the way.
“Exactly,” he says, expressing his view that the area knowledge test is “absolutely not necessary” with the GPS systems available to drivers these days. “Not in this day and age of technology,” he remarks.
This is just one aspect of how the taxi industry has become complicated, but there is another “stumbling block”. The 65 year old pulls out his licence showing his Category D1, which allows him to drive his minibus holding 16 passengers. However, with this licence, he cannot drive his eight-seater, which is a small public service vehicle, as he needs a SPSV licence. He has both. However, he can’t see the logic in needing a “different licence depending on the vehicle” even though the former holds more passengers than the latter.
In another case, Francis describes how he was trying to register a taxi on the road. The NCT certificate had to be issued within 90 days of the date of an inspection appointment. Even though the current NCT was not out of date, it had to be refreshed. When speaking on the phone to get the vehicle registered, he was forced to endure an answer machine and a 35-minute wait before he got speaking to somebody who, he said, read out pre-prepared responses.
“They just complicate everything,” he said of the regulator.
Meanwhile, Francis said abuse from customers towards taxi drivers is “few and far between”.
There have been times when he has dropped somebody home with the promise of cash in the house, however they did a runner.
“It’ll happen,” he says, citing experience gained since he started out with his first bus in November 1990 and later Cavan Cabs in August 1997.
In some cases he says “taxi drivers are dirt at the end of your shoe when people are out”. However, having grown up and worked in Cavan Town, he knows a lot of his customers and says that 98.5% of people are “good people”.
In relation to taxi services available in the county town, the Cavan man believes “there’s loads of taxis available”, however if people are all coming out of a nightclub at once then they have to expect a “waiting time.” He advises people to make contact with their taxi service before going out.
While he admits that he is open to apply for the Local Link contract, he says “it’s not without its problems” too and has decided not to go for it. However he said the service is “definitely affecting taxis”. While his service goes “door to door”, he said the Local Link service is “cheaper”.
Travel pass
With private taxis going through all the government regulations to legally provide a service, he called for the free transport pass to apply to them also.
“Why can’t it work on a taxi if it can work on the Local Link?,” he asked, adding “I don’t see why we can’t read the Transport Card” describing this as an “unfair advantage” for Local Link services and Bus Éireann “against” private providers.
“We’d gladly take the Transport Card,” he added.
‘The work isn’t there’
Meanwhile Bailieboro Cabs is also facing some issues in the industry as of late. Owner of the hackney service Jim Johnson said he has no bother getting drivers for his cabs, however there is nobody looking for a lift.
“It’s not drivers, it’s the lack of work at night,” he told the Celt.
“There’s nobody coming out to go to the pubs, there’s no discos for the young people to go to. There’s really nothing.
“Every place that used to have a disco is closed, never to open again and that’s the way it’s gone.”
James has been in Bailieborough for 25 “very busy years” and he recalls the weekends when he had five to six drivers on the road.
“There’s one [now], that’s all,” he said, describing how this is only required on a Saturday.
“He’s not even getting his wages,” James revealed.
“That’s the reality of the thing, that’s it.”
He says “if there was work” there is “no problem” getting drivers.
They have three people working during the week, when he says business is “not bad”.
“Everything is against the taxi business at the present time, they’re after putting on a bus going from Cavan to Dundalk through Bailieborough six times a day and that takes a bit away. There’s a bus coming now from Shercock, Bailieborough, Virginia next month, so that’ll take a bit more business away.
“It’s not great for the taxi business at the present time.
“It’s not a very good picture to be painting but that’s the reality of it, that’s what the lockdown done.
“The work isn’t there at all.”