On 27/04/2016 17:21, Robin9 wrote:

'JNugent[_5_ Wrote:
;155296']On 27/04/2016 12:02, David Cantrell wrote:-
On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 05:04:16PM +0100, JNugent wrote:

No London green-badged cab driver can afford to hang around in the
suburbs where there isn't enough work to keep him busy.
However, there is the London yellow-badged driver, licensed only to
ply for hire within certain London suburban areas (known as sectors).
They are available in the whole of outer London:-

I do not recall ever seeing a black cab cruising around looking for
customers in Thornton Heath. Those yellow badges might as well not
exist.-

That's rock-solid proof, then?

He doesn't have to prove anything.

Neither does anyone else have to accept his anecdote as substantial
evidence.

He has the right to choose whatever means of transport he prefers.

Up to a point, certainly. But not beyond that.

For instance, he may not ride in an unlicensed taxi (at least, not
unless he can persuade the driver to do the job free of charge). He may
not ride an uninsured motor-bike, or use a car which has no MOT or Road Tax.

He does not have the option of riding on an unlicensed and unauthorised
bus, still less on an unregulated train or Tube line.

If his
experience is that it's pretty pointless to try to find a
Hackney cab, that's enough reason for him to opt for a
minicab instead. Like everyone else, he is under no
obligation to use Hackney cabs.

Quite so.

But so-called private hire cars have to operate within a set of
restrictive rules. Those rules exist at least in part so as (attempt) to
prevent them from operating as if they were taxis.

If the rules were tightened (as they have been - after all, it's a
comparatively short time since registration was even introduced in
London), that would become the new background and the new environment in
which hirings took place.

Some people seem to have either forgotten (or not to know) why the
loophole of "private hire" exists in the first place.