National taxi Forum

The N.T.F. are appalled to learn of the attack on one of our young female drivers last night. This attack like so many others must be severally punished by the justice system in order to protect taxi drivers in the future. This case is under legal investigation and we cannot comment any further but our thoughts are with her amd her family.

Hello, happy Christmas to all taxi drivers. I left my phone (Samsung A32) in a black taxi boot last Saturday, 17th of December. Taxi driver was Irish man about 70 years old with beard and cap. I've got him in Dublin airport 9.30am and he dropped me to Lucan village. Please check your boot or back left seat and if you find my phone give me a call on this number: 0894351033 and I'll collect it anywhere in Ireland. I don't mind the phone; but two SIM cards are very important for me; I have all business contacts on them. Christmas gift warranted. Thanks in advance.
Regards Archie.

Some good news for all of us today ..fill her up folks

Tweet,tweet 🐦🐦🐦🐦 .. we are now live on twitter.follow us for industry updates.

Written by the brilliant mr Derek o keeffe (cork)

The Irish independent again today started on taxi drivers. I sent them this response - Enough is enough.

This is noting more than click bait headlines without truly understanding the real problems and a lack of real investigative journalism. I’ll rewrite this for you and then maybe you can post this version which is the truth or just leave your version which has not and does not give the real picture. I’ll start with the headline.

Governments failed Public bus and Dart night service puts huge demand on Taxis.

Christmas has returned to Dublin and we now see more people enjoying the festivities than ever before. While the majority of these people enter Dublin by Bus, Train, Luas and Dart, Sadly we see that these services do not serve the people late at night and if they do then it’s at minimum. Unlike other European cities that ofer an amazing transport system that operates 24 hours a day, Unfortunately Ireland does not provide this service and leaves customers stranded. People and organisations have made it very clear to Government that Dublin needs a full 24 hour Bus and rail service but this has not happened and leaves Dublin Taxi drivers with a huge problem with customers that have been abandoned by these services.

Ireland has also changed since Covid and now we see people fuelled by alcohol and drugs. This deadly combination makes people extremely aggressive which leads to fighting on the streets and Taxi drivers being abused in confined spaces. Drivers now face extreme fear that they will be assaulted. Again in other European cities Taxi ranks are controlled by Security or police but not in Dublin or Ireland. We have a system of when drivers are assaulted they go to court and are always given a warning and left back on the streets. Again in other European countries they are charged and sentenced to a year in prison which sends a clear message this type of behaviour is not acceptable.

The Taxi industry has lost many Drivers since Covid and while others discuss this unfortunately they don’t give the true picture of the real reason. They don’t talk about the amount of people that actually died from Covid or other Conditions. They don’t talk about su***de. The media currently points the finger at the taxi industry. No one asks why has no one used this persons taxi plate that passed away ? The reason is because it can’t be sold or transferred. The plate can’t be passed on to a new driver so obviously numbers will go down. It’s almost by not allowing the transfer of taxi plates the Government want taxis to go down?

So how do we fix this problem? It’s very simple. We start by operating a 24 transport system. We operate buses, Dart, Luas and trains to not only get people in but also get people home. We increase Police numbers in our City to restore law and order. We put in proper nighttime taxi ranks that are monitored by security to make the public and taxi drivers feel safe and obviously we come down hard on anyone that assaults transport drivers and make sure if they commit the crime they do the time. Government are using Taxis as a deflection for the failings they have made in a proper transport system which they need to rectify immediately and not pull the plug at 12 AM at night and leave everyone on the streets.

Pat Kenny show 30/12/2022



On behalf of the members of the National Taxi Forum. With reference to the comments made by the Uber representative Mr Kieran Harte on the Pat Kenny show this morning. Yes, there is a shortage of Public transport at certain hours, especially late at night But it is a Public transport shortage not a shortage of taxis. There is a shortage of a proper 24-hour public transport network of which taxis are only a small part. Taxis are the only 24-hour 365 day public transport service available to the Public but we are not the solution to this problem which would be solved very quickly if the government mandated all public transport companies to provide a proper 24 hour service to the public. All you have to do is compare the amount of taxis in Ireland per head of population against most other countries to see that it’s not a shortage of taxis.

I would like to point out at this point the numerous times that Uber have been cited and prosecuted in many countries including France for the failure of its vetting process to properly vet its driver as well as the number of times it failed in its duty of care to its customers to deal with complaints about suspected sexual assaults.

The prices charged by a taxi are set by the NTA and on the meter Uber charges are controlled by what they term surge usage. The busier it is, the more Uber charge customers

Will Uber drivers be subject to the same regulations as taxi drivers ie Garda vetting

The taxi service available to the public in Ireland means a pickup within minutes of booking 95% of the time, it is only for a few hours late at night at the weekends that the taxi industry struggles with the excess demand which is caused by the lack of all other public transport not being available.

If you really want to discuss the taxi industry, the questions you should be asking the NTA are



· Why is it so difficult for them to recruit new drivers into the taxi industry is it?

· Driver Safety

· Why are assaults on taxi drivers not recorded by the Garda as such.

· Why do the courts consistently ignore the serious impact of these assaults on drivers' health and mental health?

· the Cost of insurance

· Prohibitive start-up costs

· Why are Taxi licences no longer transferable

· Unsociable hours

To all the young men and women who may frequent the Eden Quay rank .we've been asked to notify drovers that harbour Court will be closed from Monday 5th of December for 2/3 days for repair works.

It's with great sadness we say goodbye to a true gentleman of the ranelagh rank
Stephen was ever present in ranelagh and will be remembered for his kindness and great sense of humour. Sleep well gent .

We all know there will be periods during the Christmas where it may be difficult to get a taxi especially after the bus/tram services cease to operate. We still do not operate a late night bus/tram service in dublin unfortunately so your taxi driver is always the last available service to get you home safely so please be patient. There will be a constant demand for more licences to be issued as opposed to the real issues which could be simply addressed by providing 24 hour bus/tram services and not abandoning customers at a certain time. Below are maps of available taxis in dublin on Friday from 2 different providers which definitely shows the extent of availability and addresses the myth that we don't have sufficient amounts of cabs in dublin

Get downloading folks

Heavy flooding across Dublin city folks. Please be careful 🚕🚕🚕🚕

Non petrol.diesel.hybrid vehicle with severe over heating issues on a Very. Well known road in south county Dublin at the moment
Vehicle ID for some reason not known

ID4 on fire outside terenure garda Station, terenure Road west .avoid

The N.T.F. would like to commend the N.T.A. for thier understanding of the current situation affecting our industry post covid with thier issuing of a very generous extension. A lot of drivers were struggling and some may have missed out on various e.v. grants due to vehicles reaching sell by dates.
Hopefully this extension will help drivers through this stressful period for all industries.

Again folks ,a little respect goes a long way .

Regardless of diplomatic immunity may we please ask that you respect dublin taxi ranks in future as during quiet periods spaces may be difficult to obtain.

The ntf would like to offers congratulations to David Knox and his partners regarding the launch of their new app. We wish all involved the greatest success. The app can be downloaded but is currently in test mode for 2/3 weeks to iron out any bugs and then will be available for the Dublin market initially.

We may have some very exciting news coming soon regarding a fully irish operated app .watch this space.

Is this the final nail in the coffin for radio companies?. Can they still compete financially with international apps? Hopefully there will still be a place in the market for irish based companies.

We need your help folks to find jim. If you have any information please contact nenegh gardai

Brilliant memory.

It's extremely important that all drivers who may be affected by the age restrictions on vehicles carefully read and summit thier views on the public consultation below.

Public Consultation on Proposed Small Public Service Vehicle (Contingency Measure – Vehicle Supply) (Maximum Permissible Age) Regulations - National Transport Public Consultation on Proposed Small Public Service Vehicle (Contingency Measure – Vehicle Supply) (Maximum Permissible Age) Regulations A Public Consultation on the proposed Small Public Service Vehicle (Contingency Measure – Vehicle Supply) (Maximum Permissible Age) Regulations commenced toda...

Hi looking for some help if possible, my partner pulled a taxi on the street up by the kilmardinny pub in coolock early hours Sunday morn 6am or a Lil after unfortunately didn't get any info on the driver an can't think what car it was, she lost her phone an thinks its in the car she's hoping the driver may have came across it she was dropped at belcamp the phone is worth nothing but huge sentimental value to her as all her photos of her mam who passed away recently are on it could this be shared on the page or amongst drivers please. Thank you

Hi folks .a little vague but worth a try . Silver prius picked up from cloneen House on friday/Saturday morning at roughly 1.30 am going to santry .phone was possibly left in vehicle.if you think you may be the driver can you please p.m. us or leave phone at santry carrig office. t.i.a.

To any punters looking to travel today with aer lingus. Unfortunately there is a serious technical issue in terminal 2. Expect large queues and possible delays. Photo courtesy of John Mcgrane

For Any drivers who may have an appointment in North point today , please check in advance as there is currently a protest denying access to test centre . Photo by. Paul Duff

A massive shout out to Paul and Brian from mypos who suffered 3 hours getting N.T.F. members up and running with card readers tonight and also for a generous discount for our members .The N.T.F. would also like to thank st annes gaa club for facilitating us tonight.

The n.t.f would like to offer our sincere condolences to the family of Philip lynch. its with great sadnese that we say goodbye to our brother and a true gentleman.philip has been ill for some time and has finally found peace . On a personal note Philip has always kept in touch during my own illness with words of motivation and kindness. R.i.p. friend,never forgotten.

Unfortunately we seem to be sharing more r.i.p.s at this time than we would like but this one is special for not only myself but all drivers on the sackville rank. Frank was a true old school gentleman and was widely admired by all drivers who knew him . The N.T.F. would like to offer our sincerest condolences to the family of a true legend in our industry. R.i.p. Frank .

World taxi protest day regarding ride sharing and the illegal lobbying to various parties across Europe and other countries globally. A number of representative bodies have come together to organise an official strike/protest and have asked any drivers who fear for the future of the industry to withdraw services on the 8th of September. We have been asked to relay this message and all information can be found on the page below.

Good morning all.. we have just spoken to mechanic 24 and all hale updates are now available. There is no need to call for appointments just simply arrive and Stuart and the team will get you back on the road a.s.a.p

So some freenow drivers are getting €100 bonus for completing 60 fares this week and some are not . Very odd from freenow