Bristol Taxi drivers cancel strike

[whole diary]

[infoman]

If any one would listen back to Patrick Massey who I think is the rep for the Bristol drivers,about London Paddington being the taxi drivers biggest earner

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07j9gkl

Listen from 7 minutes in

 

[infoman]

The demonstration that was planned,

was for the central area of Bristol,

although not sure how the demonstration was going to work.

[grahame]

So a permit to ply from Temple Meads is only a little over half the cost of one for Bristol Parkway or Bath Spa? Strange. One would have assumed that the bigger the station, the greater the price that could be charged for the permit. Presumably Bath's tourist trade boosts its numbers (but it has a much smaller forecourt), but what about Parkway?

I wonder if we should look the "other way" - to the typical taxi journeys - for the pattern in station fees.

Speculation - the most common taxi journey from Temple Meads is to closer locations within the city centre, with the average fare per pickup being "X".  But from Parkway and also from Bath, there isn't this dominance of very local trips and an average pick up fare will be "3X".  Therefore a Parkway or Bath permit has a far greater earning potential than a Temple Meads one.

[TonyK]

So a permit to ply from Temple Meads is only a little over half the cost of one for Bristol Parkway or Bath Spa? Strange. One would have assumed that the bigger the station, the greater the price that could be charged for the permit. Presumably Bath's tourist trade boosts its numbers (but it has a much smaller forecourt), but what about Parkway?

I wonder if we should look the "other way" - to the typical taxi journeys - for the pattern in station fees.

Speculation - the most common taxi journey from Temple Meads is to closer locations within the city centre, with the average fare per pickup being "X".  But from Parkway and also from Bath, there isn't this dominance of very local trips and an average pick up fare will be "3X".  Therefore a Parkway or Bath permit has a far greater earning potential than a Temple Meads one.

I tend to disagree slightly. There are many thousands of homes that are closer to Bristol Parway than to Temple Meads yet still within a tenner fare, including Stoke Gifford, Bradley Stoke, Patchway, Winterbourne, Bromley Heath, possible even Keith Emersons Green. Then there is Thornbury and its suburbs. I wonder if the taxi permits are more a traffic control measure than a slice of the profits.

[Bmblbzzz]

Reducing the number of permits available would tend to suggest traffic control rather than profit taking. Parkway obviously has much more taxi space than Temple Meads, and although Bath has limited space directly in front of the station entrance, I think the taxis might queue up through one of the arches to the r/hs as you look at the station.

I was thinking of the price more from the drivers' perspective than the railways': not as taking a slice of profits but as the amount drivers would be willing to pay.