I am a licensed taxi driver who is self-employed and forced to ‘affiliate’ or ‘work’ for a recognised taxi company, paying £21 a day in order to operate my taxi before Social Security and income tax, fuel, maintenance and repairs and advertising.
I cannot drop my prices to the level of rank taxis or to ‘Jersey Lifts’ levels – they don’t have to pay £21 a day, and people habitually walk to a taxi rank exclusively situated at the main doors at the Airport and Harbour and all taxi ranks in town.
While I have sympathy for yellow-top taxis they are not the ones hard done by here, as they have a constant stream of work that they don’t have to pay for. While I accept that their business may be in decline as a consequence, it is clear for all to see at Liberation Station taxi rank, where there are at least 12 white-top taxis waiting for clients between midnight and 3 am, yet there is a constant queue of clients waiting to go home at the Weighbridge taxi rank and yet Jersey Lifts are actively picking up at the new taxi rank or opposite.
How can these people take bread and butter from taxpayers and blame Income Support for not paying them enough in the first place?
The authorities keep stating that they can’t stop Jersey Lifts, yet they find it very easy to remove a taxi plate from a licensed taxi driver, removing their livelihood while they have taxi insurance and a fully equipped taxi – even to the point that all of the pre-existing taxi companies can actively discriminate against a driver and stop them driving a taxi again.
By reading this story, it appears to me that a vote of no confidence against the Minister for Infrastructure and all his office and the Minister for Home Affairs and the Chief Minister Ian Gorst is needed.
Illegal taxi drivers earning £100 a night: Click here
