Last Century

At a meeting I attended at our local Town Hall the Taxi licencing officer suggested that it would be a good idea for the local taxi firms to exchange information on issues concerning the trade. A kind of Taxi Watch.
This would be useful to drivers, then bad payers and violent fares could be banned from all firms.
The only easy way to do this this would be an e-mail exchange between firms, but as we from the trade pointed out even in this day and age some of the firms unbelievably don't even have an e-mail address.

 Just what century they are living in in is a mystery not being able to send and receive e-mails is doing a disservice to both the firms and its drivers. 

The licencing officer has contacted all the firms to try and set this taxi watch scheme up and has asked those lacking one to supply an e-mail address.
Guess what? Absolutely no response from any of the firms!
Does this show that they don't give a shite for the well-being and safety of drivers or are they all just lazy buggers who cant be bothered?

Sorry, we don`t accept Cash.....

This week I have to submit my details for my CRB check renewal. For those not familiar with this, we need to have a CRB (Criminal records Bureau) check every 3 years to make sure that we are what the council deems as "Fit and proper" people for the job.

In all honesty I wouldnt like to think that any of my family were being picked up by a convicted killer or rapist so in my eyes the CRB check is a good thing.

However, what I do not agree with is the cost of £36 to the Town Hall and they don`t accept cash. Payment by credit/debit card or cheque and the procedure to make this payment is as follows.

First you go into the Town Hall and see the "Floor Walker" who takes your name and issues you with a ticket. You then sit and wait til its your turn and then they realise they cant deal with it and then ring someone from taxi licensing to deal with it.

After someone from licensing has seen you then you need to pay the fee and to do this the taxi licence person gives you a little slip of paper and you have to get another ticket from the floor walker and queue all over again just to pay.

Today, handing in my CRB check and paying for it took near on 35 minutes.

And these are the people that boast that the new payments system, speeds things up.