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I am typing with one hand and holding the the phone with the other hand.
The subject of my call is the National Transport Authority.
I even went out to the test center this morning and was told it was not their department.
So I went to to the HQ and was told at reception that the people upstairs do not check that kind of thing and they do not have the computers to deal with it anyhow.

So back to the phone.

My call ended in 16.4 minutes with the news that "The matter is under investigation"

It is a well known fact that we are all only ever 2 weeks from poverty.

Think about this, your income stops?.


How long would you last?

So today I did something to try and help my situation. I wrote to a politician !
You will never know if it will do some good.

I was heading up the M1 a few times over the last few days. A red car cut in front of me and weaved his way past me and through the traffic ahead. He had hijacked the car at Malahide golf club and he crashed in Donabate putting a woman and her 3 year old son into hospital. The driver of the stolen car is critical.
He had been in prison and the last time he was caught  he told the judge that he had learned his lesson and would never get behind the wheel of a car again. So he was let off..
Just to add a bit of heat to my argument he had 75 previous convictions
"Well Judge what would you like to say to the people in hospital?"
In America the justice system is very strict on repeat offenders.
3 strikes and you're out (In jail for life) 

One thing to say about people weaving around in traffic is stay well back and let them at it.

Yesterday I followed a guy for around 5 miles, he had no lights on.
But when I overtook him I noticed that his headlights were on.
Its the new thing. Day lights on cars, the driver thinks the lights are on.
My old Prius had automatic lights which was great.

I walked past a guy today who was selling his book Tight bastards guide to life click here

Writing a book? Thats a good idea

Update

Just an update to the other piece.

From today's Sunday World
A Nigerian man from Drougheda is driving a taxi.

He has had 3 taxis impounded
5 convictions for no insurance
5 for not holding a licence
He has been disqualified from driving
A string of dangerous driving raps +30 other road traffic offenses

He is still driving a taxi!

In July the taxi regulator announced that they were having a clampdown at the weekend.

They caught no one !

Its Sick

Thank God I am an old man

                                        e2 worth of fruit in Sicily.

     I was at this pole one day and a guy reversed over the first step,bounced up the other step and hit the lamp

          If this door in Modica could talk..


Thank God I am not starting over again.

I gave my old car over to a friend whose car had broken down while I was in the process of getting a new one.

I saw a great car in London and bought an air ticket and Sterling to pay for it.
Before I flew off I rang my insurance company to tell them and was told by them that they would not give me cover to drive it home !
So I had a day in London and came home by boat.

(The insurance company told me later that this information was incorrect)

I did housework and looked on the net.
Then I was at a wedding in the midlands and saw a Prius advertised.
I bought it and the next day I rang to have insurance cover on the car to bring it up and have the meter put in and made ready for a taxi.
Then I was told by the insurance company that they couldn't do that either.
But if the car was registered in somebody else's name I could drive it on my insurance.
Therefore I asked the garage to register the car in my sons name.
So I brought the car home and had the meter fitted, then I rang the NCT people,expecting to get a date 2 or 3 days later.
I think the date for testing was 5 weeks away. "No there is nothing sooner"
A few days later the the notification was on my phone and the first words were
"Please bring your drivers license and the car must be registered in your name.".
Time enough  to change this so I sent the tax book back to Shannon with instructions to put the car back into my own name and I worked at home and then went off to sunny Sicily for a break.
Its a great place for sure.

Then I came home and there is the motor tax letter with my name spelled wrong. I had a full 8 days to go so I typed a cover letter saying how this was urgent and sent it off..
No It didn't come back in time but they did test  the car.

Next to get the "suitability test" You need to bring in the old green stickers from the old car.
I had shredded them as there was nothing written on them to sat that they must be retained.
Pay €50 for a duplicate set so that we can destroy them and issue new ones.
So I have to pay €50 for another set to be destroyed I said, so you can issue new ones "Correct"

Then I answered questions and when it came to my PPS number they stopped me.
That is not your correct PPS number.
I was back on to them and then to the Revenue who agreed with me.
But it is a BIG NO from the National Transport Authority.
I photocopied 6 tax documents showing correct number.
Still nothing back from them.

I have not worked in the taxi for more than 6 weeks.

The National Transport Authority tells me that they cannot speak to the Revenue as it would be against the freedom of information act !

Tonight in Dublin I guarantee you there are more than 800 illegal taxi drivers working without fear of detection or prosecution.  Some unions have placed the number at over 1,000
A woman told me that she arrived at Dublin Airport and the driver didn't know where the city center was.
So she directed him to show the way.
Isn't that just dandy.

I hope that anyone injured, raped or killed in an illegal taxi manages to sue the National Transport Authority, perhaps this might loosen up this bullshit.

Just to say it is not any individual that is to blame.
The entire system is flawed and the staff are working on short term contracts so they never get a handle on the job. Plus there is no accountability.

Just in from Roys taxi blog.

Sunday World expose

Roy October 11th, 2014

I got a call from someone purporting to be a reporter from the Sunday World who said there is an article appearing tomorrow exposing a driver who has been removed from the road thirteen times and still continues to operate as a taxi without licence insurance or valid plate.
Might be worth a read?


Have a nice day !

A scare for halloween and longer

This is scarier than Halloween.

A customer told me that we didn't have a drug problem until this comes to town.

And it has arrived .

I only want my Christmas presents with red tape.

 Could it just be me? Its a bit early for Christmas.
Couldn't loads of goods be bought and sold on this floorspace in the next 2 months ?

Two famous doors of Dublin one in Merrion Sq. the other is Trinity College some nutcase aged 66 drove a car into the Trinity doors causing thousands of euro in damage..


Well I am still grounded, I passed the NCT and went to do the next stage.
Among the things he told me was that I had to bring in the green discs from the old car.
I told him that  I shredded them and that if they were to be brought back they should have printed a notice to that effect on the back of the disc.
I may have this wrong but it seemed to me that he said that I have to pay to have them replaced so that they can be destroyed..
"After all how do we know that the old car is not still being used as a taxi?"

I was tempted to ask him that if he stopped the illegal taxis driving away from checkpoints he would do more good rather than stop a legal tax paying and insured driver from working.
But I wouldn't say that.

Now today after 3 phone calls and an email to the transport people a TP2 form was issued and signed.
So I rang them back again to book the suitability test.

Guess what?

Now they tell me my income tax number is incorrect !

A few years ago they had the wrong number and it was corrected at the time but not it seems in their records.

No No they will not accept my tax documents as proof, or my sworn oath.

I am sure there has to be a play there somewhere.

How the big machine that eats more and more paper causes the servants to look for another ruler.

A new start.

My insurance company would not give me cover to bring my new car back to Dublin and have it passed out as a taxi.
But they would provide me with cover if the car was in someone elses name.
So I registered the car in my son's name.
I brought it home, got the meter put in and applied for the NCT.
The letter came giving me more than a months notice, but the first line read "Bring your drivers license and the car must be registered in your name"
So I sent the tax book away with a covering letter.
While I was away on holiday it came back with my name spelled wrong.
So once more it went back and the deadline is Monday
.
So here I am. I can't work because my taxi has not been passed out.
Hungry mouths to be fed !

What is a guy to do?

A complete stranger contacted me out of the blue from an undertaker company with a job offer.

"It is really simple, just look at this sheet of paper


Someone dies and you come over to the house with this piece of paper.

If it is a King or a Traveler for example they would need this fine monument costing €900,000

 An ordinary Joe Soap would be happy with the standard casket.
You get the picture by simply folding in the middle section.

Once in a while you might find that the widow is too mean to even pay for the standard funeral.

IN THAT CASE YOU JUST FOLD IN THE 2 ENDS, THIS IS THE CHEAPEST FUNERAL!!!!

By the way the car passed the NCT Next section in 48 hours

Back but still in limbo

                     All the women have great legs from going up and down steps

Well here I am after two weeks in Sicily and glad to be back.
The weather and everything else was fantastic,
I was staying in apartment of a friend of a friend in the old part of the town.
Ryanair are now flying to the south part of the island.

Cheap as chips,go discover.

I found the photo of "Sam" go back to the post Irish freedom fighter and take a look

Taxi firm in profit !

                         "Looking forward to Christmas" Mark Nixon photography Clontarf Rd.

                      Antique looking cars in Talbot St. window

                                     Tank in army display near airport at the weekend.

I often put newspapers aside to read later.

I found this

Irish Times business section Monday 9 July 2012

"O'Leary taxi firm in profit."

That was the headline.. Michael O'Leary head of Ryanair bought a taxi plate in 2003 so that he could zip in and out of the airport using the bus lanes.
He was even caught speeding while driving once.
But the judge missed out that he had no PSV license for driving a taxi at that time.
Now jump to the present day and he has a taxi "company" which drives him to work and looks after the household business with the meter running.
The company made €624,144 profit last year.
The company also provides horse breeding services. (I suppose this keeps the driver busy all the time)
 .
Back in the real world I am waiting for the NCT to give me a time, when I have to jump through the other hoops to be back on the road again.

I got the meter fitted and there was a big red 8 to the left of the display.
This happened once before and the legal meteorology would not pass it, the display was faded in sunlight and hard to read as well.
So I went back and the guy took out the chip and started to blow on it!
The slightest contamination on a microchip sets it off.
In places like Intel they have "Clean Rooms" where a few specks of dust set off alarms.
The workers wear space suits and here today is  my man blowing on the chip with his breath to clean it.
He had no compressed air aerosol or cleaner.
So I headed into Peats of Parnell St (Alas it is gone)
So it would be Maplins for "Servisol IPA 170" Isopropyl alchohol cleaner. e15.60
(In case you ever need it)
This has the meter working perfectly

My old taxi is working well I hope. The Chinese family who have it now were very unlucky with their last car.They depended on a mechanic who lived beside them to guide them with regard to cars.
He passed a lemon on to them as fit for service and they lost all their money on it.
There are still bad cars around.
My Daddy used to say that you could tell if a car was good if a Taxi driver bought one more than once.
For a van? What is the traveler driving?

It gives me time to reflect..
In Afghanistan and Iran also Iraq and also in Palestine and Ukrane there are thousands of innocent people caught up in war.. Thousands of people had to leave their homes to seek shelter in the mountains of Iran.
No blankets or shelter were dropped in for them. Hundreds of infants died from heat, cold and thirst.

This weekend 2 American football teams with marching bands and thousands of fans arrived in Dublin to play a football game.
Then they flew home again. 

Not that I am saying that there was anything wrong in doing that but  you have to ask
Where is our humanity gone?