The Maiden's Prayer
Page 47
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SELDOM does one find the recommendations of an official committee accepted so promptly as those of the Runciman Committee whose report on the taxicab service, with particular reference to London, was published a few days before the Budget. In the opinion of the committee, there would ultimately cease to be an effective service in London if the decline in the number of taxis were allowed to continue. Any alteration in fares at the present time was deprecated, and the committee felt that there were weighty arguments against a petrol rebate for one class of user.
The main recommendations of the committee were that London taxis should be exempt from purchase tax and freed from restrictions on hire purchase. Mr. Butler complied on both these points. The committee may congratulate themselves on achieving their aim so completely. Perusal of the report suggests that in any event they found their task congenial, if not fascinating. The report is a model of what all such documents should he.
Save the Taxi " Our opinion is that it would be against the public interest" to allow the London taxi to disappear. So runs the report, and a number of sober, practical reasons are given to support the opinion. London is the capital city of Great Britain and the hub of the Commonwealth. Its varied activities have ramifications in all parts of the world, and it receives a continual stream of visitors from this country and from overseas. Many of its important centres, particularly railway stations, docks and air terminals, are awkwardly placed in relation to one another. The flexibility and convenience which cabs can provide are needed to supplement the system of public transport running on fixed routes.
There are other things the Londoner and the visitor to London would like to say in favour of the taxi. It is as characteristic of the Metropolis as the Houses of Parliament and the City police. There is nothing romantic in the original purpose of the taxi nor in its design. which must conform to conditions of fitness laid down by the Commissioner of Police to promote the safety and convenience of passengers and to provide manceuvrability in traffic. But a ride in a taxi is an experience which has no parallel.
State Occasion One can ride in state in a separate compartment, and only the dull or jaded intellect can fail to be exhilarated by the atmosphere of opulence and claustrophobia. A taxi ride can stimulate the lushest ideas and inventions. It can be particularly rewarding when there are "additional passengers beyond one," to quote the jargon of the trade. Few would begrudge the extra sixpence that the cabby has all to himself, a kind of surcharge for discretion. Conversation between friends is never so sparkling as when they are sharing a taxi. The business deal that is clinched to the click of the meter is more sauve and glittering than it would be anywhere else.
The driver himself has bwome,a legend. He would be found time and again in any taxicab anthology: a cheerful character, with a reinforced Cockney accent and a fund of homespun philosophy and humorous anecdote that he is alarmingly liable to turn on at the drop of a flag. The dark side of the legend conjures up somebody very different: a morose type who never has change, expects a -massive tip and is vociferous when disappointed, swears continuously at the rest of the traffic, and chooses a route that would lead one to suppose he had passed his apprenticeship in the Hampton Court maze.
Examples may exist of both extremes of the legend. The usual taxi-driver is not so highly coloured a character. He is on the whole friendly and no more argumentative than other road users. He does not press his conversation upon the fare, and accepts a small tip with no more than a sigh. Perhaps what one notices most about London cabbies is that so many of them are elderly.
Over 300 Septuagenarians This piece of observation is corroborated in the Runciman report, which gives in an appendix the age groups of drivers at the end of 1952. Out of a total of 9,134, more than a quarter were born in the last century, and over 300 had passed the age of 70. At the extreme end of the scale comes one driver whose year of birth is recorded, with an engaging lack of precision, as" 1871 or before."
The high average age of drivers is an indication that theirs is a vanishing craft. For in a sense it is a craft. A wide knowledge of the Metropolitan area and high driving skill are required before the police will grant the necessary licence. The taxi business is not thriving, and this is strange because in most other countries and even in the provinces there is not the same problem.
On the whole, the owner-driver seems to do better than the cab proprietor who makes use of journeyman drivers. The number of owner-drivers, like the total number of cabs, has fallen in recent years, but their importance in the industry has steadily increased, and 41.3 per cent. of cabs in circulation now belong to owner-drivers.
Most Lucrative Place One explanation is that the owner is better able to regulate his activities so as to be in the most lucrative place at the right time. The proprietors maintain in addition that the journeyman is paid on a basis that encourages him to stop work when he has made enough money to suit himself but not enough to safeguard his employer against an 'operating loss. The journeyman retains 371 per cent, of the fares on the meter, plus tips and the whole of the extra payments for luggage and for additional passengers. When fares go up because of rising costs, the journeyman can earn as much as before with fewer tips, whereas more revenue is essential to the proprietor, who has to bear all the increased costs himself.
• He has given no very warm welcome to the Budget concessions. In the long run, however, they should be beneficial, as the problem of replacing cabs became critical following the doubling of the purchase tax in 1951 and the restrictions on hire purchase last year. One may hope that the drop in the number of London taxis will now be arrested.