Only licensed taxicabs can pick up passengers on the street. London's Black cabs are particularly famous on account of the specially constructed vehicles and the extensive training course (the Knowledge) required for fully licensed drivers; unlike many other cities, the number of taxicab drivers in London is not limited. London's taxicab drivers are even well-known for having developed an especially big hippocampus, a region of the brain where, among other things, information about locations is stored.

London's black taxicabs - short for "taximeter cabriolets", that is, "cars with distance meters" - are a ubiquitous sight on the streets, and a common way to travel around the city in addition to the Tube and buses. In their favour, they're warm, comfortable and the drivers generally know where they're going, as they have to pass a rigorous test called "the Knowledge" before they can get their license to drive. The downside to the black cabs is that they're expensive, and unless you have very deep pockets there's no point using them for longer journeys across town. This situation has been exacerbated recently by the ex-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone's decision to let them charge more at night, since the drivers would often be reluctant to work at night.

Although the traditional London taxi is black, they now often come in a multitude of colours. Try looking out for their distinctive shape, that said, there are now newer, bigger, boxier models as well. If in doubt, look out for the orange "TAXI" light above the windscreen. If it's on, you can hail the cab. If not, you'll have to wait for another.

The London black cab is an icon of our city. Black cabs are extremely reliable, but rather expensive. The reason for this is because the drivers know so much about London. All drivers have passed "the Knowledge" which means they have studied and memorized 25,000 London streets within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross, proving they know the most direct route for your journey. These studies take about 2-4 years so it's rather like them having a university degree in 'London'.

The legendary black taxis of London seem to have been around forever, though nowadays not all the 23,000 black cabs in greater London are black, and a modernised streamlined version has been added to the "lumpy" old beasts. The bulging roofline of these taxis was originally designed to accommodate the height of bowler hats.

All taxis are wheelchair accessible and most have a variety of additional features to assist passengers. The fares charged are regulated, and with safety paramount all taxi vehicles and drivers must meet minimum standards . Licensed vehicles are subject to regular checks by the Public Carriage Office.

http://www.taxi-london.net/

The Black Cabs' history goes back to the time of horse-drawn cabs which were called Hackney Cabs. The term comes from the French word haquenee referring to the ambling horses used to pull the original Hackney Carriages. The Hackney Carriage originated in London, England in 1625. The cabs still come under some of the old rules from the horse-drawn days. The Black Cabs are the only taxis that are allowed to pick people up from the street. There are also mini cabs in London, however they can only collect someone if they have made a prior arrangement by phone.

Before a taxi driver gets his Hackney Cab Licence he or she must pass a test called 'The Knowledge'. This is a difficult test and requires the cabbie to know the streets of central London like the palm of their hand. Mini cab drivers do not need to pass this test.
The Knowledge

Taxi drivers in London undergo a demanding and arduous testing of their knowledge of the city, its daily traffic patterns and the fastest routes between locations. Estimates suggest that gathering the basic understanding needed to acquire The Knowledge involves a full-time year of study, absorbing the information provided by street maps and travelling around the city itself.

The result is that drivers of official London Hackney Cabs are renowned for their detailed and intimate knowledge of London's streets and attractions. Strangely enough, scientific study has shown that possession and expansion of The Knowledge increases the size of the anterior and posterior hippocampi of the brain - the area that handles spatial memory and spatial navigation.

Compared with baseline controls and inexperienced cabbies, long-serving taxi drivers possessed considerable more developed hippocampi.

The Vehicles

There are currently 3 makes of vehicle licensed to ply for hire in London:

LTI (London Taxis International) - FX4 taxi, Fairway taxi, Fairway Driver taxi, TX1 taxi, TX2 Taxi & TX4 taxi.
Metrocab - Series 1 Metrocab, Series 2 Metrocab, Series 3 Metrocab & TTT Metrocab.
Eco City Vehicles - Mercedes Benz Vito Taxi.
All of these vehicles have to conform to the conditions  of fitness as set out by the PCO (Public Carriage Office).
http://www.taxi-london.net/

The latest price on the only licensed market for trading and leasing taxis, BSX Services, shows a deal about to go through at $462,000.

That's not a far cry from the $513,000 peak price recorded in May — a 10% drop to be precise — but it shows how even that market is feeling the pinch of borrowing costs and that it fears there will be fewer taxi users as the economy slows and companies and people cut back on costs.

Trading of taxi licences is still in its infancy in Australia, having only started in a regulated form in late 2006, but in the official market, sales and leases worth almost $130 million were handled in the year to June 30 and $120 million the year before.

BSX Services, a subsidiary of second-tier securities company NSX Ltd, has so far only been making markets for sales and leasing arrangements, known as assignments, in Victoria — and even then confined to Melbourne's metropolitan market and two regional markets around Ballarat and Frankston.

BSX, which charges $350 and $117 respectively on licence and assignment transactions to each party, generated about $311,000 revenue last financial year. There are eight or nine licence sales a month, and about 110 lease sales.

BSX Services manager Roma Poole said there had been a lot of interest from capital cities and regions wanting a more transparent market for trading and owning taxis.

But the most likely next place is either Sydney or Perth, she thinks, noting taxi brokers from those states have been expressing interest for some months. Smaller regions will be offered the opportunity to advertise on the BSX website — like the Emerald Taxis operation seeking a buyer with $2 million for its six cabs.

Part of the attraction may be that since the BSX market began, according to figures from the Victorian Taxi Directorate, the prices of licences have moved up from under $400,000 each to between $470,000 and $500,000.

The Essential Services Commission's recent report into taxi fares had a table showing the average revenue per taxi cab in 2007 was almost $143,000. In 2000 that figure was about $126,000, so the increase seems modest at 13% but in between times the number of taxi licences in the state rose by 500.

The additional licences are so-called peak-time taxis, the ones with green tops, that the Government owns and operates. Only licences issued before 2002 can be traded on the BSX.

http://business.theage.com.au/business/taxi-licences-a-make-or-brake-affair-20081017-539z.html

A SENIOR Tiger Airways executive was charged in a district court on Monday with choking a taxi driver earlier this year.
David William Barker, the head of group engineering and fleet planning with the Singapore-based low-cost airline, allegedly throttled the cabby on May 8.

According to the charges, the attack happened along Tanjong Pagar Road.

The 58-year-old Barker, a British, faces a a maximum of two years' jail and a $5,000 fine.

He is out on $10,000 bail and is scheduled to next appear in court on Nov 17.

A spokesman for Tiger Airways, when contacted by The Straits Times on Monday, said: 'This is a personal matter under legal proceedings and accordingly inappropriate for the company to comment on.'

Barker joined the airline just over three years ago and is here with his family.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_292673.html?vgnmr=1

www.taxiblog.co.uk

Javaid Alam was devastated following the accident in which dad Wayne Kerrigan was killed.
Mr Kerrigan, 28, stepped in front of his taxi in a poorly lit stretch of Rochdale Road, Collyhurst, after a night out with friends, an inquest into his death heard.

The coroner said Mr Alam, from Levenshulme, was not to blame for the death and there was no evidence to suggest there was anything wrong with his driving or his car.

But the dad, a taxi driver for 11 years, he has now been ordered to pay a £45 fine after being taken to court for having the dice and two air fresheners hanging in the car {ndash} even though prosecutors said they did not contribute to the cause of the accident.

The Crown Prosecution Service said the dice, which had been in the car for two years, had the `potential' to obstruct his view and charged him with failing to have a full view of traffic.

Mr Alam, 38, who pleaded guilty to failing to have a full view of traffic and has no previous driving convictions, said: "To pursue the furry dice seems so trivial when you think what the young man's family are going through.

"I was heartbroken when I heard he had died, but it is nothing compared to what his family must feel. In 11 years I have never been involved in an incident in my taxi and when my car has been in for tests no one has ever told me the dice could be a problem.

"Paying a fine doesn't take away the fact that someone lost their life."
The inquest heard that Mr Kerrigan, of Burgin Walk, Collyhurst, who had a young daughter Poppy, had been at a party at The Swan pub last September when he stepped in front of the taxi as he waved goodbye to friends.

He suffered multiple injuries and was taken to North Manchester General Hospital where he died three days later.

Mr Kerrigan's father Joseph, 70, said: "I will never know who was at fault. I don't think this man deserves to go to prison but less than £50 because of some furry dice does not seem like justice for my son's life. He was a happy go lucky lad. That night was the first time he'd been out in a while."

A CPS spokesman said: "The size and position of the dice was such that the driver's vision had the potential to be obstructed.

"GMP indicated that their normal practice would have been to issue a fixed penalty notice."

http://www.theasiannews.co.uk/news/s/1059214_cabbie_fined_for_hanging_furry_dice

Datuk Shahrir also said that the savings from reduced subsidies for the government this year now amounts to only RM2 billion instead of the initially estimated RM4.4 billion as the price of crude oil has gone up.

In other public transport fuel-related news, the government will be pushing for buses to use CNG (compressed natural gas) instead of diesel. This will increase the consumption of CNG in this country, currently used by NGVs consisting of 94% taxis, 0.4% buses and 5.6% private vehicles. It won’t be a “dream fuel” forever as the price for CNG is also expected to go up in the future.

UPDATE: Taxi drivers have been asking for a minimum charge of RM3 instead of the current RM2 when a passenger gets into the cab, and are still persistent in requesting for the higher charges despite the new petrol subsidy. Malaysian Taxi Drivers and Owners Association secretary Hiew Pow Man says this is because the new subsidy doesn’t do much to help taxis as most run on NGV.

http://paultan.org/archives/2008/07/18/720-litres-of-subsidised-petrol-a-month-for-taxis/

 MOST cab rides will cost 30 cents more from next Thursday, after Singapore's largest taxi operator ComfortDelGro yesterday announced its decision to levy a fuel surcharge on all trips.
The first of its kind for the cab industry, the flat rate payable regardless of the distance travelled comes just months after fares went up in December.

Most of the other cab companies are expected to follow the lead of ComfortDelGro, which owns Comfort and CityCab taxis. The industry giant was reported three weeks ago by The Sunday Times to be considering such a move.

ComfortDelGro said yesterday the surcharge is to help cabbies mitigate the unrelenting rise in fuel prices.

It noted that diesel pump prices have risen by more than 50 per cent in the last six months alone - to about $1.83 a litre after discount.

Mr Yang Ban Seng, chief executive of ComfortDelGro's taxi business, said: 'In the past six months, we have been absorbing a large part of the increase in diesel costs.'

He pointed out that cabbies get diesel dispensed at company-run pumps at $1.19 a litre.

In the first quarter, ComfortDelGro declared that it incurred a $6.3 million loss on diesel sale because it has been selling diesel at sizeable discounts.

Mr Seng Han Thong, adviser to the Taxi Operators' Associations, supported the move. Mr Seng had said that taxi firms could not continue to subsidise fuel indefinitely.

'We call on other taxi companies to continue to help their drivers cope with rising diesel prices,' he said.

Assuming that each cabby gets about 30 customers a day, the 30-cent surcharge will raise his daily takings by $9, which ComfortDelGro said will help to offset his bigger fuel bill.

Even with subsidised diesel, ComfortDelGro drivers pay about a $15 more a day, based on an average consumption of about 45 litres a vehicle.

To commuters, the surcharge amounts to a 2.6 per cent rise in fare for an average 9.3km ride.

ComfortDelGro said it will remove the surcharge when diesel falls back to $1.19 - the market price of the fuel in December 2007.

Asked if it would raise the levy beyond 30 cents if diesel continues to climb, spokesman Tammy Tan said: 'We've not come to that. This is a very new thing to us.'

Smaller taxi operators are following ComfortDelGro's lead.

Mr Johnny Harjantho, managing director of Smart Taxis, said: 'We will most likely follow.'

Mr Lim Chong Boo, managing director of Premier Taxis, said his company is also likely to implement the surcharge 'after consulting with our drivers'.

The exception, at least for the moment, is Mr Neo Nam Heng, managing director of Prime Taxis, whose fleet of cabs runs entirely on natural gas, which is cheaper than diesel.

'We should consider the commuters' interests. Our drivers have to accept it too,' he said.

Cabby Tan Soon Huat, 49, who has been driving a Comfort cab for 14 years, said: 'I think the 30 cents surcharge is quite reasonable. I just hope commuters see it that way too.'

Others added that the rising diesel prices have wiped out much of the higher takings they were starting to get from the December fare hikes.

Regular taxi user Tang Swee Noi, 33, a teacher, said: 'Much that I am unhappy about it, I still have to take taxis, or I will have to wake up much earlier to go to work.

'We all know the fuel price is increasing so I don't think there's very much that taxi drivers can do. For now, it's still cheaper than getting a car.'
 
http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_256847.html

Moaz Yusuf Ahmad presented an impassioned defence of our taxi drivers in which today's dire state of the service is attributed to the economic of supply and demand.

By the precise same reasoning, we should accept snatch thefts and burglary as they too are driven by the basic economics of supply and demand.

Easy money is hard to obtain and in short supply, but the demand is so high that some people are willing to break the rules in order to obtain it in ways which are not permitted.

There is no difference between theft and a taxi driver not using the meter and setting his own fare above that to which he is entitled. A taxi driver who does not use the meter is guilty of fraud in that he has advertised himself as 'Taxi Bermeter' when he is in fact not.

He is guilty of obtaining a permit by deception, guilty under the Consumer Protection Act of falsely advertising prices, and of breaching the regulations which apply to him.

We do not tolerate theft and therefore we must not tolerate the current actions by taxi drivers. I firmly believe that they should be hauled up before the courts in just the same way as a thief should and face criminal charges for their actions.

I further feel it would be advantageous for the government to make a clear statement that where the meter was not used, no fare can be requested and the taxi journey is entirely free of payment, and that such a rule makes any agreement whether verbal or written void. 

Likewise, where a ticket system has been implemented, it should be required that the meter is run in addition and the passenger pays the lower of the meter or the ticket value upon arrival, in order that ticket systems are not used to inflate prices above those to which a taxi driver is entitled.

In some areas, the number of taxis not using the meter is so high it makes it very difficult for passengers to wait for a taxi which does use the meter. 

I personally spent more than half an hour hailing cabs on Petaling Street one recent Saturday before giving up and walking to another part of Kuala Lumpur to find a taxi driver using a meter. 
Rest assured that I reported all those drivers and only regret I did not have a camera to add additional evidence.

I can assure the writer that I felt threatened, disappointed and under pressure to pay the over inflated fares quoted – which were all more than double what I know the meter rate would be having taken a metered taxi to Petaling Street just an hour ago.

It is important to remember that a taxi driver has a choice whether to accept the meter rates or not.  At any time, a taxi driver who feels he is not earning a fair wage for his effort is free to quit driving a taxi and take up another job which will pay him what he feels he is worth.

When there is a shortage of people willing to be taxi drivers, then and only then is the fare structure too low. Until that day, the continued presence of taxi drivers on the road is proof absolute that the fare structure is sufficient.
 
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/86298

 MOST cab rides will cost 30 cents more from next Thursday, after Singapore's largest taxi operator ComfortDelGro yesterday announced its decision to levy a fuel surcharge on all trips.
The first of its kind for the cab industry, the flat rate payable regardless of the distance travelled comes just months after fares went up in December.

Most of the other cab companies are expected to follow the lead of ComfortDelGro, which owns Comfort and CityCab taxis. The industry giant was reported three weeks ago by The Sunday Times to be considering such a move.

ComfortDelGro said yesterday the surcharge is to help cabbies mitigate the unrelenting rise in fuel prices.

It noted that diesel pump prices have risen by more than 50 per cent in the last six months alone - to about $1.83 a litre after discount.

Mr Yang Ban Seng, chief executive of ComfortDelGro's taxi business, said: 'In the past six months, we have been absorbing a large part of the increase in diesel costs.'

He pointed out that cabbies get diesel dispensed at company-run pumps at $1.19 a litre.

In the first quarter, ComfortDelGro declared that it incurred a $6.3 million loss on diesel sale because it has been selling diesel at sizeable discounts.

Mr Seng Han Thong, adviser to the Taxi Operators' Associations, supported the move. Mr Seng had said that taxi firms could not continue to subsidise fuel indefinitely.

'We call on other taxi companies to continue to help their drivers cope with rising diesel prices,' he said.

Assuming that each cabby gets about 30 customers a day, the 30-cent surcharge will raise his daily takings by $9, which ComfortDelGro said will help to offset his bigger fuel bill.

Even with subsidised diesel, ComfortDelGro drivers pay about a $15 more a day, based on an average consumption of about 45 litres a vehicle.

To commuters, the surcharge amounts to a 2.6 per cent rise in fare for an average 9.3km ride.

ComfortDelGro said it will remove the surcharge when diesel falls back to $1.19 - the market price of the fuel in December 2007.

Asked if it would raise the levy beyond 30 cents if diesel continues to climb, spokesman Tammy Tan said: 'We've not come to that. This is a very new thing to us.'

Smaller taxi operators are following ComfortDelGro's lead.

Mr Johnny Harjantho, managing director of Smart Taxis, said: 'We will most likely follow.'

Mr Lim Chong Boo, managing director of Premier Taxis, said his company is also likely to implement the surcharge 'after consulting with our drivers'.

The exception, at least for the moment, is Mr Neo Nam Heng, managing director of Prime Taxis, whose fleet of cabs runs entirely on natural gas, which is cheaper than diesel.

'We should consider the commuters' interests. Our drivers have to accept it too,' he said.

Cabby Tan Soon Huat, 49, who has been driving a Comfort cab for 14 years, said: 'I think the 30 cents surcharge is quite reasonable. I just hope commuters see it that way too.'

Others added that the rising diesel prices have wiped out much of the higher takings they were starting to get from the December fare hikes.

Regular taxi user Tang Swee Noi, 33, a teacher, said: 'Much that I am unhappy about it, I still have to take taxis, or I will have to wake up much earlier to go to work.

'We all know the fuel price is increasing so I don't think there's very much that taxi drivers can do. For now, it's still cheaper than getting a car.'
 
http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_256847.html