After more than doubling the number of cabs working the streets of Sheffield has anyone noticed an improvement,( apart from some councilor shaking his politician head and saying I don't quite agree with that) I think not.
Recently a new cab driver asked the council for a list of taxi ranking spaces to ply his trade in, and discovered that an unbelievable figure of thirty-one spaces are provided by the City Council for Sheffield's almost six hundred and fifty cabs. If that is not a recipe for unrest in the "ranks" I don't know what is.
I understand that the number of cabs have increased by roughly the same as the private hire cars have decreased. Simply means that just over 300 private hire drivers have bought themselves Black cabs and are swelling the numbers in town, leaving fewer private hire cars to serve the public on the outskirts on bookings. No surprise then that taxi companies like RCA and MERCURY are struggling to provide a decent service on the outskirts of Sheffield. The balance that had existed between cabs and cars in taxis has permanently been altered in favor of a poorer less disciplined service.
The taxi drivers association is now asking the council to limit the number (They have the authority to do that) because they fear not even being able to earn a living, and that will inevitably lead to poorly maintained and unsafe cabs. I am sure you will hear more about this as more and more independent cab drivers join the trade and scrape the same barrel yet again.
Some pen-pushers from the Office of Fair Trading came up with this seriously flawed idea in a report, of unlimited number of taxis for every city and Sheffield was one of about four local Authorities who jumped on the bandwagon. Most of the other larger cities have opted to keep tight control on the quantity and quality of taxis in their cities. Sheffield council is trying to now make sense of chaos that seems to be looming for Sheffield’s taxi trade.
What do you think a solution for better service could be?
:confused: :confused: :confused:

I would have to say that the Taxi situation is 10 times better than it used to be. Ten years ago I used to go to lots of nightclubs in town and I often waited for over an hour in front of the city hall, in a freezing winter night, for a black cab in a line of only about 20 people. These days it is much easier to flag one down. On a weekend night I can usually get one going back to town at busy times without much trouble at all. Although I go to nightclubs much rarely now, I find it astonishing when I come out, there ARE taxis. And what's more they are new, comfy, safe and clean.

This situation of lack of taxis was worsened considerably in those days, because everyone was tipped out onto the street at 2am. or 11.30pm. This will change for good in November when the new licencing times come into use.

I think there are already enough taxis on the road, and they should be stricter when licencing taxi drivers.

They should crack down on the number of taxi drivers who pull up suddenly in the middle of busy roads to pick up customers, and those who use main roads like Ecclesall Road as a giant taxi rank, parking on corners and blocking side roads etc.

Do we need more cabs?


i have always found that one cab is enuff for me

I think there are too many taxis now especially on ecce Road, becoming a danger. Try on West Street on Friday nights usually a traffic jam of taxis all shapes and colours, but yes I have to agree, a better service though.
Its getting so good that you flag one down and three stop next to you. Maybe they need to sit down and work it out with the council on a ballanced number for themselves, so that they can provide a decent service and earn a living.

Originally posted by Patchy
I think there are already enough taxis on the road, and they should be stricter when licencing taxi drivers.

They should crack down on the number of taxi drivers who pull up suddenly in the middle of busy roads to pick up customers, and those who use main roads like Ecclesall Road as a giant taxi rank, parking on corners and blocking side roads etc.

That is the situation with about 650 taxis all competing for work, just imagine another two hundred or so would make it fun wouldn’t it?

That is the situation with about 650 taxis all competing for work, just imagine another two hundred or so would make it fun wouldn’t it?

Funny that i found this old thread, hows the situation now DAV? with over 1100 black cabs.. a completely crippled industry is what.

I am not that familiar with Sheffield taxis but I have noticed that quite a few are running around using Sat Nav devices fitted surely in order to get a licence they must have some sort of idea where they are going.
I must say I could imagine the reaction by Cockney cab drivers in London they would get laughed out of town.

I am not that familiar with Sheffield taxis but I have noticed that quite a few are running around using Sat Nav devices fitted surely in order to get a licence they must have some sort of idea where they are going.
I must say I could imagine the reaction by Cockney cab drivers in London they would get laughed out of town.
Actually many London Black cabs do use Sat Nav devices, but mainly for long runs out of the city, they also give information about accidents and congestion I understand so thet would be useful.

I heard about this in a programme about London Cabbies on the radio, and the "Knowledge" is far better than a sat nav in the central london areas, but some of them do longer trips to areas further afield, and they are not expected to have an encyclopedic knowledge of places like reading, crawley, Luton and all the little side streets as well.

in order to get a licence they must have some sort of idea where they are going.

A licence, that's a joke.
You have all on finding a driver that can speak English.

I think to start with they should clamp down on the cabs in Sheffield. We need spot checks and some monitoring for a few weeks to get rid of the ones that are dangerous. There are many that drive like complete idiots without regard for other road users. I have seen some totally stupid and dangerous manouvres by cab drivers and unfortunately it's not a rare occurance, it's most nights! Speeding, U turns, dangerous driving, illegal parking, stopping right in the middle of busy main roads such as Ecclesall Road to drop people off and taking time sorting change out etc.

I know not all cabs are like this, there are some decent drivers out there, but it's time they got tough with the bad drivers and got rid of them, for public safety if nothing else. This would then allow others, that can drive safely and legally, to take up the job and offer a better service.

I prefer to use private hire cars to cabs as they work out cheaper, but obviously you have to book them first. The good thing about them is that you know which company you have got and if you have a problem the driver's easier to trace and it's all on record.

The number of cabs in Sheffield is probably about right, we need more private hire cars though so that the companies can cope with demand and so that us, the customers, can have a better choice of which service to use.

One other thing, isn't it about time those horrible chav waggons (Limos) were put under similar license conditions as cabs and private hire cars? They take bookings, pick you up, taxi you around and charge for it. Surely that's a large taxi?

I am not that familiar with Sheffield taxis but I have noticed that quite a few are running around using Sat Nav devices fitted surely in order to get a licence they must have some sort of idea where they are going.
I must say I could imagine the reaction by Cockney cab drivers in London they would get laughed out of town.

Although none of the comments made have anything to do with the thread, i must answer this one.

As posted by me before on another thread, taxis have sat navs mainly for finding house numbers which speeds up pick up times/eliminating you sitting behind a taxi slowing you down, while we look for the house number, and as someone else mentioned, for use out of town.

Implying that taxis shouldnt have sat-navs, is no different to saying a road worker shouldnt have a drill, give him a pick axe, or a journalist using a type writer instead of a word processor, its a simple tool to make life easier.

ash

why do people always find something to complain about? so there are more taxis in sheffield, which is surely a good thing, but oh-no they stop and pick people up and do other things unexpected of a taxi!!! surley it is much better for sheffield as a whole if people are able to find a taxi to get them home and out of the city centre taxi ranks as quickly as possible of an evening?

It was the Lib Dems who agreed to unlimited numbers of taxis, that's why the numbers shot up. 'Fair competition', I think, was the term used. In the last 18 months there has only been one application approved and that was to replace one which left. There have only been a small number approved in the last 3-4 years. Numbers have stabilised.

The problem in the city at the moment is that taxis from North East Derbyshire are coming into the city and seeking trade which is not theirs. Evidently they are struggling to find fares in Dronfield and Killamarsh. The trouble is that this is against the terms of their licence and Sheffield Hackney cabs have the right to be cross with them. Choose Sheffield taxis if in Sheffield, they are legal.

why do people always find something to complain about? so there are more taxis in sheffield, which is surely a good thing, but oh-no they stop and pick people up and do other things unexpected of a taxi!!! surley it is much better for sheffield as a whole if people are able to find a taxi to get them home and out of the city centre taxi ranks as quickly as possible of an evening?

were you meaning me complaining? I wasnt, i was pointing out that the market has been cripled by the decision to lift the cap on the number of cabs.

more taxis-surely a good thing... yep, for customers intially, but not for the taxi drivers..

oh-no they stop and pick people up and do other things unexpected of a taxi!!!It's fair enough when they pick people up, but doing things such as stopping on Hunters Bar roundabout itself and picking people up off the traffic island is just plain stupid, dangerous and illegal. Stopping right in the middle of the road instead of finding somewhere to park and blocking traffic is annoying. U turns in the middle of main roads, again stupid, dangerous and illegal.

There are many cabs in Sheffield the exhibit what can only be seen as dangerous, stupid and illegal driving and it's time these drivers were stopped so the decent cab drivers of Sheffield could continue without the risk of a bad name that the bad drivers give them.

I bet if I fit a camera to my car and film for a couple of weekends that people would be shocked when watching it how stupid some of them can be.

(This is not all cab drivers, there are lots that are great drivers, but there are plenty that need clamping down on)