Taxi protest Tuesday 15th

 On Tuesday 15th there will be a taxi protest.

The state of governance in the industry is chaotic and I hope you never have to deal with such a sham circus.

For example I needed a receipt for PSV (public service vehicle) license. After around 1/2 an hour on the phone I was told to pay €40  for a copy. For just printing one sheet of paper and sending it to me the demanded €40. I told the person who had asked me to produce it in the first place that all the information was on the taxi portal which displays all my details to look there instead.

When I stopped work I was told to inform the NTA who told me to remove the greed taxi discs from the front and back windows and send them back.

My license lapsed during this period and they sent me a letter saying that if I did not renew within 14 days I would have to pay a €500 penalty. I was not working anyway so I complied.

When I got the PSV license it had not been suspended for one day never mind 3 months.

You have to jump through hoops, NCT car testing, then a suitability test (which I failed and had to re sit because I had not got the blind which covers the luggage. I told him to hold on to my papers and I would bring it back in less than one hour. No! pay €30 and come back tomorrow)

When I sold my first Prius The new owner took off the green stickers and disposed of them. When I was transferring the license they asked me for the discs. 

You won't believe this. 

"We will have to re issue them so that we can destroy them". (For a fee)

Are they mad or is it just me?

There was another thing (As Colombo said)

You do your NCT Car road worthiness test. When it passes you do the suitability test. Window tint and 100 other little things. 

Then you have to wait 48 hours until the information is on the system

Wait  until it is on the system?

Its in the same building, with the same people !

So there you are, 

Death by 1000 knife cuts.

So just you know.

There was a young girl who was made pregnant by the father of her friend, I think she was 12 or 13 at the time. The courts got involved and she was brought to the UK for an abortion, it was known as "The X case". 

The man involved got a taxi license !   

 One driver who had lived close to him identified him and reported him to the carriage office, 3 weeks later he saw him again driving his taxi, but this time he went to the newspapers. The excuse that the Garda gave was that he had changed his address when they checked him out !.

Around Christmas there were a few rapes done by a foreign taxi driver.

After a while a guy was caught and while he was awaiting sentence the judge told him that he could continue to drive his taxi as long as no girls sat in the front seat.

It reminds me of a Judge (true story) who was very easy on handbag snatchers.

16 previous offenses ! Oh I see you are trying to turn your life around, 6 months probation.

All the minor assault cases in Dublin wanted her.

Then one day she was standing on the footpath when a guy grabbed her bag and yanked it off her shoulder, he didn't hit her. He pulled her around and broke her hip.

6 months later she was back at work, the first one up in front of her had pulled a purse from a  woman's hand,a first offense.

"6 months jail " 

A few of these judges need to feel what it is like on the other end.