Taxis

Taxis are strange little things.  They are private hire cabs that allow you to ride in them to a destination.  I don't use them that much but a lot of people do.  Well, this got me a’ thinking.  Why set up a taxi company and what sort of guidance does the government give in making then?  The government has published all their guidelines about taxi companies and shown what sort of things that they have to do.  

Why set up a taxi company?  If I was to set one up, then where would it be?  What are the qualifications that are needed (If any).  In times gone by, all you needed to be a taxi driver was to talk into the town hall and say “I want to be a taxi driver, please!” (The please was optional). Is it the same now?  So I asked all Welsh Councils the same questions, which were:

1. How many Taxi drivers are in your brough
2. What is the cost of getting a taxi driver licence
3. How much has been made on taxi’s

On the table that I have made below, I have deliberately left off the answer to the third questions, purely because I think some of the council's misunderstood what I meant by this question.  I meant what profit has generated from the licensing of taxi drivers.  Most of the council's replied with revenue or were confused.  As a result, I am not saying.

Name	Amount	Cost
Blaenau	324	270
Bridgend	588
Caerphilly	566	224
Cardiff	2132	£100 for 3 years, £60 for one
Carmarthenshire	583	£38.00
Ceredigion
Conway
Denbighshire	352	140
Flintshire	413	259
Gwynedd	484	174
Anglesey	174	346
Merthyr Tydfil	253	130
Monmouth	276	186
Neath Port Talbot	368	213
Newport	726	246
Pembroke
Powys	523	268 – 3 years
RCT	535	239
Swansea	1120	236 for 3 years start & 191 for renewals for 3 years

Torfaen	254	150
Vale Of Glamorgan	328
Wrexham	409	250

Over 2000 taxi driver in Cardiff!  Jeepers!  They must be making some money there!  That being said I was quite surprised by a number of things.  There is a wide variety of taxi driver licences that there are to choose from (the ones here are the ones that you can get from the rank).  The other thing that shocked me was that most council ask you to get qualifications in being a taxi driver (Identify risks, help disabled people, how to maintain a car), but some of them required that you pass a knowledge test. It’s not the same as the London Cabbie Knowledge test, but it is similar (Thanks, Swansea!).  

So it shows that Taxi drivers are getting more professional and council are trying to improve their standards.  It also shows that Cardiff is not the place to be a taxi driver.