My mate works in a city centre hotel, he was telling me last night it is now almost impossible to get a taxi for customers between 4:00 and 5:00 pm, as all the taxis are booked to collect children from school.

Walking home from school might be a bit dangerous, but isn't letting a complete stranger drive your child home even more dangerous ?

Most often, children collected from school by taxi are being so for a reason. Social services will organise taxis for children who have a specific need. For instance, when my friend died last year, her young daughter went to live with her sister over the other side of town. A taxi was provided so she could continue to go to the same school. It was a god send and organised and payed for by social services. It's not like parents are just too lazy to get their children so call a taxi to collect them. I think social services must have certain companies and drivers they use to collect children. I would aloso imagine that it's quite closely monitored.

My mate's hubby is a taxi driver, and these fares are their bread and butter. He tends to ferry the same children day in and day out - and therefore knows them and the parents. So I'm not so sure that they are strangers.

All taxi drivers who are given these contracts are subject to exactly the same police background checks as their teachers at their school.

Also it’s never really an issue of safety, my friend used to live in some poxy little Hamlet miles away from anyone else, the LEA worked out it was cheaper to give him a taxi then redirect a bus route to accommodate him.

yeah my mum's school has a lot of children who are collected & driven to school in a taxi. A lot have been taken in to foster care so they have a distance to travel school.

All the drivers are vetted. Yes, there's the potential for a rogue driver to be out there, but I think kids today face far more dangers from other sources.

My real point was that there are so many children using the taxis that it's almost impossible to get one at that time in the day.

My point about them not being safe was because I though parents were booking them for their kids without checking-out the driver, but it looks like this is not the case.

If most of these taxis are being booked by social services, a) how much does this cost, and b) would it not be cheaper for social services to run a minibus ?

Right with you there - on the face of it it doesn't seem like a terribly cost efficient transportation method. I'm not sure how it all works but my guess is that they use taxis cos:
a) buying minibuse(s) in any one year financial year would mean the department would go over budget
b) the insurance would be v v high (imagine a fatal crash and then the council getting sued by 10-12 families)
c) the ongoing maintenance/depreciation costs
d) we'd all be moaning cos the minibuses (and their salaried drivers) sit idle for 5 hours a day

I dare say that it's a lot less hassle for the Soical all round if they don't run their own transport. Whether it represents good long-term value would probably require some good calculations (and some long-sighted politicians - like that's ever going to happen!).

But it's a practice that's been going on for years. If it's 'hogging' all the cabs, perhaps there's been an increase in the number of children deemed as needing this service. May be that needs to be looked in to.