Hail the facts

I wish to respond to Kirsty Gunn’s article on taxis (Perspective, 4 December). She seems to have forgotten you can order a cab by phone or app when she compares the inconvenience of walking to a stance against the apparent revelation provided by her daughter that an Uber car will pick you up.

She claims taxis cost more than Uber cars. Try telling that to anyone who has paid three to six times what the metered taxi fare would have been during periods of “surge charging”, when demand is high.

Yes, taxi stances are not as conveniently situated at train stations or the airport as they used to be. Relocation is not in the control of the trade and merits petitioning the management of transport hubs and the City of Edinburgh Council.

We are supposed to believe that Kirsty’s daughter offered to pick her up in an Uber and was able to book it, get picked up and make her way to Haymarket station to meet her mother in less than a minute.

What’s more, Kirsty claims you are never able to say “leave me here at the kerb” to a taxi driver. I don’t understand what that means or where we are dropping passengers off if not at the kerb.

She claims her Uber driver told her there is “illegal black cab activity … where great gangs of unregistered drivers are moonlighting on a single licence”. Taxi drivers are mostly in uniform these days, all wearing photo ID around their necks, driving vehicles that have security partitions and most importantly, in the local trade we mostly all know one another. A stranger driving a taxi without ID would be spotted quickly. There is no evidence to support this bizarre claim and it would be an issue for the Licensing Department of the City of Edinburgh Council and Police Scotland if one driver was found to be driving a taxi without the necessary ID, police checks and qualifications.

The strangest claim is that Kirsty’s Uber driver claims “[black taxi companies have] let themselves be bullied into operating in ways that aren’t helpful for their customers”. We don’t know what ways these could be, who it was that might have bullied us into them or what this comment means at all.

For the avoidance of doubt Kirsty; a black cab can be booked by app or by phone. It will come and pick you up wherever you want and it will drop you off wherever you want. The fare is just as likely to be less than an Uber quote as it is to be more; and the inside of the vehicle will be warm and dry.

They are also driven by many nice people just making a living but these ones have gone to the time and expense to get themselves qualified and in the case of Central Taxis, 100 per cent PVG certified. Their vehicles are all wheelchair accessible and have a partition between driver and passenger for mutual security. As public hire transport they can also access green lanes and bus gates and navigate the city more efficiently than a private hire – which often means a shorter journey and lower fare. In recent weeks, Uber has been judged not to be a fit and proper entity to hold a booking office licence in London. Central Taxis has held a booking office licence in Edinburgh for nearly 50 years and is owned and operated by 1,200 local men and women. The Edinburgh taxi trade is founded on providing safety and security, local knowledge and service. What are Uber’s values, Kirsty?

TONY KENMUIR Chairman, Central Radio Taxis

Edinburgh