The Rise of the Taxi Wallah.

A wallah is defined as,

 

wal·lah | ˈwälə |
noun [in combination or with modifier] Indian or informal
a person concerned or involved with a specified thing or business: a rickshaw-wallah.

• a native or inhabitant of a specified place: Bombay wallahs.

ORIGIN
from the Hindi suffix -vālā ‘doer’ (commonly interpreted in the sense ‘fellow’), from Sanskrit pālaka ‘keeper’.

Why are British councils licencing thousands of wallahs to drive taxis?

Take a taxi in any British town or city and it is most likely that the driver is from Bangladesh or Pakistan and not a native of the Isles of Britain. Why might this be the case?

Almost four years ago, I had an altercation with a neighbour who goes by the name Masood.

He is a licenced taxi driver of the Mohammedan religion and he is from Pakistan. I had parallel-parked my car in a tight space between his vehicle and the one in front, whilst he was sat in the driver’s seat.

In his heavily-accented and broken English, he grumbled that I had made it very difficult for him to get out. Reasoning that he is, after all, a ‘professional’ driver and that he should have the levels of skill necessary to get out of the space, I told him that I needed to be parked there, outside the house as I had two small children and an assortment of luggage to unload.

Although he had a sensor on his Toyota hybrid car, he reversed, albeit gently, into the vehicle behind him. At this point he jumped out and started shouting, “You fooking bastard, I fooking kill you!”

His wife came out and pulled him away, thus preventing what may have turned into a bout of fisticuffs.

It is a minor event but I cite it as an example of the manifest lack of skill he has as a ‘professional’ driver and his unreasonable behaviour, by which I mean his inability to keep his temper.

In the parlance of his own country, Masood is a taxi wallah and he is one of tens of thousands operating around the towns and cities of Britain right now.

Of course, not all wallahs drive taxis. some work on electric bicycles, travelling around with large square backpacks on their shoulders, delivering pizzas and fast-food to customers in exchange – literally – for a few credits.

In fact, it is fair to state that over the last 3 decades or so, the UK’s taxi, bicycle and home delivery services have become monopolised by Pakistani muslims and other immigrants.

Travel to Pakistan, India or the Far East countries like Vietnam or Thailand and you will immediately notice the proliferation of the rickshaw – a pedal or mechanised 3 wheel carriage.

 

In India, the drivers are called Rickshaw Wallahs:

Invariably, and I write from direct experience of my time in India, Nepal and Thailand, there are more rickshaws available than customer demand. This means that many of the wallahs are under-employed and spend their time snoozing in the back of their taxis/rickshaws. Fair enough, one might say.

As one might expect, many of the immigrants who come to the Isles of Britain immediately look for work as taxi drivers. Taxi drivers are, in effect, government operatives as they are, by definition, taxing individuals for their journeys.

The historical origins of the taxi service lie in the 19th century:

taxi (n.)

1907, shortening of taximeter cab (they were introduced in London in March 1907), from taximeter “automatic meter to record the distance and fare” (1898), from French taximètre, from German Taxameter (1890), coined from Medieval Latin taxa “tax, charge” (see tax (n.)) + meter (n.3). An earlier English form was taxameter (1894), used in horse-drawn cabs.

To become a licenced taxi driver, one has to apply for the licence via the local council. All well and good, one might state.

However, it appears that the application process has become monopolised and, in particular, by Wolverhampton city council which operates a stream-lined process . Here is a comment on You Tube made in relation to the operation,

It took me 7 months to get my PHV licence from start to finish. That is including getting my vehicle and getting it fully insured and licenced. And the fact that it takes Wolverhampton a fraction of that time is in fact worrying. I live next door to Rotherham, and the effects of that are still felt today within the taxi industry. The fact that it takes days, instead of months within Wolverhampton should be alarm bells in the first place.

Seemingly, it is not necessary for the licencee to even live in the city,

“The majority of the private hire vehicle licences issued in Wolverhampton were registered to drivers outside of the city. Only 1,310 were currently registered to residents, with a whopping 95.5 per cent of applicants living elsewhere.

Taxis with Wolverhampton plates have been spotted in Manchester, Bury and York, according to recent social media posts. One X user also highlighted an “increasing numbers of cars in Blackburn”, adding: “Anyone know what that’s all about? It’s not as though the two places are cheek by jowl, is it?”

City of Wolverhampton Council has previously denied it was ‘quicker and easier’ to get a private hire licence with them, having come under fire for licensing cabbies from outside the area. It said while it didn’t “actively encourage” applications from ‘out of towners’, many favoured its “efficient, yet rigorous, licensing process”. Source

 

An article in Bolton News, states,

“More than a third of private hire taxi drivers in Greater Manchester (GM) are licensed by a council that operates around 80 miles away in Wolverhampton.

According to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, 8,952 private hire drivers, licensed by City Of Wolverhampton Council reside in GM.

This makes up 35 per cent of the private hire cabs operating across the city-region.” Source

The money-making scheme/scam of Wolverhampton Council has meant that,

“Wolverhampton has become a major hub for licensing due to its streamlined process, lower costs, and quicker turnaround times. This has led to a surge in drivers choosing Wolverhampton over local councils, even if they never intend to work there.”  Source

Now, whilst I appreciate that my views are anecdotal, they are based on my direct experience of the levels of competency demonstrated by the plethora of taxi wallahs that operate around Nottingham. In the main, the levels of competency are poor and are characterised by a lack of awareness of how to position their vehicles when turning right and a general inability to be courteous, without so much as a raised hand to show appreciation of a fellow motorist granting them right of way in a congested road.

In a recent Wolverhampton Council meeting, John Roseblade, Director of Resident Services, stated that,

“As (of) 1st July, we licenced 45k licenced drivers and just under 30k private hire.”  source

As always, when one follows the money, it becomes apparent that the Council is making large profits from its stream-lined application service.

Additionally, there are demonstrable connections with Muslim taxi drivers and the endemic Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) cases that have been documented in towns like Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford, Oldham, Huddersfield and elsewhere,

Aware that taxi drivers were offering children rides for sex, in 2006 it (Telford Council) suspended licensing enforcement for drivers, allowing high risk drivers to continue practicing. As the Telford Inquiry found, this was “borne entirely out of fear of accusations of racism; it was craven”. Source

Whilst I do not doubt that there may well be a minority of these taxi wallahs who are competent, the question remains – why are there so many plying their business around the Isles of Britain? Do we really need them and what impact has this had on the native population’s drivers? Have they been priced out? Is it simply a money-making scam or is there something sinister going on?

Of equal significance, is it not high time that multi-culturalism is declared to be a failed experiment?

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