Cabbies are the new economic indicator
Emerging at half past midnight last night from an awards do in London’s west end, I felt unusually unexcited about the prospect of cycling home. I decided to bung the machine in a cab and pay my dues.
Putting a full-sized cross-breed bike in a cab is remarkably easy. It fits exactly behind the driver’s screen with the wheel turned in, then you prop it up with your foot on the crossbar.
The thought passed my mind that with 10 cabs ticking over outside the Hilton hotel, the recession would ensure I’d have no difficulty finding a cab that would accept my cargo.
Interestingly, not so. The first cab, a little too new for the endeavour, turned me down. “I don’t take bikes,” the cabbie said – slightly imperiously, I felt. But the scruffier old-style cab behind was happy.
I am beginning to regard the London cab as another economic indicator. There is a taxi rank outside the Channel 4 News office. Last year there would rarely be a cab on the stand in the day, but these days you can go and get a coffee from up the road and find the same four cabs that were there when you left the building, still idling at the curb.
Worse, you look up and another four or five cabs with taxi signs lit are heading down the road from Kings Cross.
My driver last night told me that whilst he used to turn in at 1am at the end of his shift, he now has to extend to 3am to make his money. How long before “I don’t take bikes” becomes “Get in, mate. I’m desperate”?
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There are 11 comments on this post
Cabbie in Swindon told me two weeks ago that takings for drivers in the town are down 50%. Echoes what you found last night in London.
A very good indicator I think. Good observation, Jon. I am just waiting for the day when cabs become cheaper than catching the train. London Midland tried shoe horning six coaches worth of people into three this morning and still at top dollar fares. It will be a nice way to commute: part cycle, part cab.
I don’t blame you for taking a cab, having been rushing around all day doing big interviews, having the plan altered because of Wendy Richards news, then having to do a 50-minute live TV programme where things went a little bit wrong once or twice. Perils of live TV, eh?
But I still found the programme to be informative, educational and challenging. I’ll watch again tonight. Well worth doing. Thanks everybody.
I’ve always found my barber a good indicator. I’ve been using him for years. I used to have to wait for ages as others queued for his services. Nowadays I can walk in and have a cut straight away. He tells me business is quiet nowadays. Many people seem to have longer hair. Some, of course, have bought their own trimmers.
I agree, Jon. Every time I take a cab I ask the cabbie how things are and how business is going. I have always thought they represent a wealth of information and that they act as a litmus test on the economic and political situation.
Sadly, it has become more and more clear that the answer they give is that it is very quiet indeed. Plus – it has become a lot easier to find a free taxi lateley. The free taxi queue outside Waterloo railway station went on for ever last time I was there…
Congratulations on the latest crop of awards. Well deserved in my view.
While you were at the bash, I was watching the drama/documentary on Margaret Thatcher.
I won’t bore you with what I thought about those BBC programmes here, but if anybody really, really wants to know you can follow the link…
My dad is a cabbie (but not black cab) in London. He’s busy, but this is because hospitals are cutting costs by using cabs instead of ambulances.
Not great for his health, as he is in his late sixties, single-handedly pushing wheelchairs into the (non-wheelchair access) homes of the patients, but not bad for his wealth.
Congratulations to JS on the award. Better still for me was the Channel 4 News and interviews last night (26/02/2009) with brilliant questions, which, among other things, showed up just how special the relationship is with USA.
Well done Jon on being awared the presenter’s award in the RTS awards last night. Great result and very well deserved. All the best for the rest of 2009. John Ellard
Thank you for an excellent lecture at Northumbria University on Friday, which I attended with my daughter who is doing a chemistry degree there.
I recently retired from BT after 42 years service in the line of customer service. How I wish the government would hurry up and invest massively to provide high-speed broadband in the UK. I bet you would find that handy.
Hope you enjoyed your visit to Newcastle and had a bottle of “Brown Ale”. Thanks again. Malcolm Preston
As one who enjoys a bike where possible, I totally agree that biking home at 1am after a day like that would make even me feel madder than I could cope with! And these days probably not a good risk factor with some of the skp’s we read and hear of.
Yes, cabs are a sign of the times. I think you are onto something. Sadly, a turd posing as a cabbie in Athens made off with my poor cat still in the boot. We never again met. What with that and my ex-cabbie landlord who I used to ferry around on his booze-cruise, I can’t face taxis at all and I have hardly ever used them.