Moving this issue on.

David if you want to discuss moving the establishment of this NRC driver forum on, you can ring me on 0877828770 or if you can access a meteor phone I,ll call you as I have free meteor to meteor calls.

Regards
John Fitzpatrick

Hi John, I'd like to see this grow by word of mouth. I've no doubt there is a need for it but I would also be mindful of what you said about NRC management taking a dim view of it. I like the company and I'm happy with the company but you know they my not be happy with this (and they know me well in there). So best for now that we stay anonymous to each other and proceed with this with a certain amount of caution.

Agree with you Admin , mgmt will take a dim view as they seem to be none to kind to allowing us forward positive ideas that will make our position better. However they afre the best out there and we have to keep the head down and get thfrough the bad times hopefully . I think this forum could be of great benifit to us all and the more word gets out and we use it constructively the better it will become .Don't suppose we could get a message out on the MDT !!!! for a small fvee we could buy our own domain and go that route if it takes off , best of luck .

Hi Proud Dub, thanks for joining. Word of mouth will probably be slow to begin with but if the board fills a need it should take off or at least prompt mgmt to start something similiar.

Personally I think we would be better off not being anonymous. I,m with NRC for years and would regard PK LB and MB as friends. The problem is they will not listen to anybody as an individual. All everybody gets is take the radio out, or your the only one complaining. Personally I believe I can advise on ways to work smarter not harder, and if more of us agree on certain things changing then they should listen and act accordingly. BTW under refusal to supply terms of the anti competition act they can,t take the radios back without good reason, and that does not mean cos they don,t like the fact their customers (us the drivers) are getting organised. Under the governments Partnership agreements it is a written in stone right to be organised and has legal grounds as acceptance if a group is formally organised. Thats why the Taxi Regulator gets away with consulting with the so called representative organisations, the FED, NTDU, SIPTU, etc.

They seem to be losing more client accounts than they are gaining and I don't believe that's down to the quality of service being offered by drivers but rather the higher administration charges they apply to account customers than our competitors. So I have been told by former customers. By organising ourselves we could have a voice in these matters which currently we don't but I feel that such organizing would be viewed by mgmt as a threat to their position as mgmt so I guess drivers would prefer to remain anonymous for now anyway. There's lots of goodwill towards the Co. and acting together as a team would be beneficial for all. Ideally I would like to see them create something like this from James St but again it might be viewed by them as opening a Pandora's box that they could do without.

100% , this would be best utilised if coming from the control tower at James st , but I can't see that happening . John fitz , what areas do you believe should be focused on ? Re the lost accounts , I think it is more about cutbacks and belt tightening . EG St Lukes , CPL

Proud Dub wrote:100% , this would be best utilised if coming from the control tower at James st , but I can't see that happening . John fitz , what areas do you believe should be focused on ? Re the lost accounts , I think it is more about cutbacks and belt tightening . EG St Lukes , CPL

Also Guinness and RTE. Major a/c's lost with no explanation to the freight paying drivers and no forum for asking or getting an explanation anyway. Even the newsletter appears to be a thing of the past after people moved over to receiving the weekly worksheets by email.

Proud Dub wrote:100% , this would be best utilised if coming from the control tower at James st , but I can't see that happening . John fitz , what areas do you believe should be focused on ? Re the lost accounts , I think it is more about cutbacks and belt tightening . EG St Lukes , CPL

I,ve no idea why the company is losing accounts. Personally I believe the company needs to generate more accounts to cater for the increased number of taxi operators. We were promised lots more accounts once the taxi operator numbers had increased but I have not experienced any new accounts in a long time.

Hello lads. Tanx for setting this up. NRC have been losing accounts all over the place and cars are now sitting on ranks and the radio work is gone.

at the end of the day they don't care about us untill somebody gos up to them and says that all the divers are with him then maybe we will get somewhere cos it is very bad this month did 2 jobs today for 7 till 4.

Hi All

I would like to make a few comments in response to the contributions made by others. nrc are losing accounts because of (1)cheaper competition from other companies (2) quality of service and response to complaints by nrc. from talking to passengers overcharging seems to be a problem and passengers have said to me that nrc do not respond well to complaints. (3) quality of vehicles and the overall cost of taxis is also a big issue. i have spoken to numerous passengers who feel taxis are a luxury purchase. furthermore people did not submit comments to the regulator because they felt it would be a waste of time similar to contacting the energy or telecoms regulator. it appears to me that the attitude of mgmt has become quite hostile in recent years. i wonder is this due to the typical irish attitude to people who ask questions. i also feel that the cost overruns on the building of the new base are having an impact. the potential buying power of drivers should be exploited but it will have to be done by drivers!! mgmt have no interest.

Regards and best wishes
Taximan

Hello taximan and welcome to the new posters that have joined lately.
You make good points there. I know overcharging is an issue and I've been amazed in the past seeing the a/c's put in by some drivers. Pages of rounded up figures, 20,25,40 etc. There's always been a culture of overcharging that eventually effects us all and not being an insider I don't know how they've been tackling this.

I just wonder if nrc have lost the edge for management and for chasing work for us given the huge freight they must be collecting from 800+ taxi operators week in week out.

Admin wrote:Hello taximan and welcome to the new posters that have joined lately.
You make good points there. I know overcharging is an issue and I've been amazed in the past seeing the a/c's put in by some drivers. Pages of rounded up figures, 20,25,40 etc. There's always been a culture of overcharging that eventually effects us all and not being an insider I don't know how they've been tackling this.

I just wonder if nrc have lost the edge for management and for chasing work for us given the huge freight they must be collecting from 800+ taxi operators week in week out.

Personally speaking I believe the management are concentrating on running NRC and its profits for the shareholders. THe overall programme of expansion including the use of the new radio /GPS system, was in place long before dereg. Mgmt have been very busy overseeing the building work, new staff etc.

The real issue is the amount of money coming in from drivers versus the percentage they charge account holders on top of the fare. When there was only 200 drivers the company had a vested interest us doing long country jobs as the companies percentage was a significant part of the companies income, now it,s much smaller in terms of drivers payments at about 70k per week. The rapid expansion of the business I believe is taking its toll on the lack of adequate management (which means more staff). The aggressive nature employed by the other companies is what is losing accounts, personally I do not believe it,s the quality of the service, or overcharging, or the cars, that are the issue, the management would not be long in getting rid of drivers that justify those kind of complaints. There is a need to have a dedicated sales person on the road, but again alas thats means more staff and more wages to pay, so I won,t hold my breath on that one.

Good points John. As this recession bites harder our customers company accountants will be looking closer at their taxi expenditure and be even more open to switching to other companies. A full time dedicated sales force on the road is vital for NRC to stay in the game.