Taxi Leaks has received this letter from GreenBadgeJohn (on Twitter). It details clearly the fact that Taxi drivers are currently being treated different to not only Private Hire Drivers, but especially Uber drivers, when applying for or renewing their licence.
John was charged an extra £13, having already paid the full amount for an enhanced DBS criminal records check, or was threatened with unemployment when his DBS was caught up in the system.
TFl unsuccessfully tried to deny how I was threatened with temporary unemployment unless I paid to join the (non mandatory) Update service because my CRB had not been duly processed due to high demands at that period and even though I had started the process within the prescribed 4 month advanced application period they require.
I was given one option once my old licence expired:
I had to attend TPH's office in southwark and sign a form to obtain a Temporary Measure Licence, but before doing so it was made a mandatory that I joined the "update service" costing a further £13 (although I had paid the full amount required to re-licence) ...."or I would not be licensed to continue working"
I contacted my appointed GLA member who duly emailed TFL about my issue and was emailed with all the facts I state above.
I find it disgusting how Uber has a completely different "arrangement" to me as a licensed taxi driver who has no prior criminal record and as this "record" has rolled over 10 times in 3 yearly stages over the years (not counting the 2 & 3/4 years knowledge) as opposed to new private hire drivers applying to TFL in their droves from places that may not be willing to divulge prior records due to filing inadequacies or from corrupted war torn regions who are given the freedom to continue to work unconditionally or until the dots of acceptability are presumably joined up somehow? (and that is another story)
Every Licensed London Taxi driver has a history.... 'The Knowledge'... which is a long time based characterisation of every applicant.... new Private hire drivers do not.
As we who have completed the knowledge process know it is more than just showing you can find your way around London as you are tested on characteristics over a long period of time which allows licensing authorities time to study suitability and measure character and fortitude and all on a time linked CRB system and creates a license of value for those knowledge students who have taken years to obtain and will truly value and would never wish to jeopardise.
Compare that to the overwhelming numbers of out of the blue private hire applicants who will try to make some kind of a living from being lost in a world capital city and dangerously gaze at a windscreen sat nav device and hold a no value license to work which is given to them for the payment of a fee.
There have always been serious implications as to how private hire drivers can honestly be vetted over a staggeringly short period of time-lapsed investigative study, but to now allow driver an non-investigated working period before potentially uncovering serious character faults and latterly barring them is a scandal and must stop before any further crimes are committed.
TFL have a duty of public care and must do their job properly as this scandal is truly astonishing and unchecked drivers with no history must not be allowed to hold any form of private hire license until satisfactory checking is completed.... no compromises.
Be Lucky
greenbadgejohn (on twitter)
I was given one option once my old licence expired:
I had to attend TPH's office in southwark and sign a form to obtain a Temporary Measure Licence, but before doing so it was made a mandatory that I joined the "update service" costing a further £13 (although I had paid the full amount required to re-licence) ...."or I would not be licensed to continue working"
I contacted my appointed GLA member who duly emailed TFL about my issue and was emailed with all the facts I state above.
I find it disgusting how Uber has a completely different "arrangement" to me as a licensed taxi driver who has no prior criminal record and as this "record" has rolled over 10 times in 3 yearly stages over the years (not counting the 2 & 3/4 years knowledge) as opposed to new private hire drivers applying to TFL in their droves from places that may not be willing to divulge prior records due to filing inadequacies or from corrupted war torn regions who are given the freedom to continue to work unconditionally or until the dots of acceptability are presumably joined up somehow? (and that is another story)
Every Licensed London Taxi driver has a history.... 'The Knowledge'... which is a long time based characterisation of every applicant.... new Private hire drivers do not.
As we who have completed the knowledge process know it is more than just showing you can find your way around London as you are tested on characteristics over a long period of time which allows licensing authorities time to study suitability and measure character and fortitude and all on a time linked CRB system and creates a license of value for those knowledge students who have taken years to obtain and will truly value and would never wish to jeopardise.
Compare that to the overwhelming numbers of out of the blue private hire applicants who will try to make some kind of a living from being lost in a world capital city and dangerously gaze at a windscreen sat nav device and hold a no value license to work which is given to them for the payment of a fee.
There have always been serious implications as to how private hire drivers can honestly be vetted over a staggeringly short period of time-lapsed investigative study, but to now allow driver an non-investigated working period before potentially uncovering serious character faults and latterly barring them is a scandal and must stop before any further crimes are committed.
TFL have a duty of public care and must do their job properly as this scandal is truly astonishing and unchecked drivers with no history must not be allowed to hold any form of private hire license until satisfactory checking is completed.... no compromises.
Be Lucky
greenbadgejohn (on twitter)
It appears that if you are a private hire driver, and in particular, if you are registered with Uber, then the application standards appear to have been relaxed, even though TfLTPH general manager Helen Chapman gives assurances when talking to the media, that all private hire drivers go through the same enhanced criminal record checks process as licensed Taxi drivers do.
But Helen statement doesn't appear to be factual, as we've since found out (by FOI request).
Only 2,642 private hire drivers, out of the 13,000 Uber drivers found to have fake DBS certificates back in January this year, have subsequently resubmitted genuine applications.
The question needs an answer:
Why have TfKTPH treated these Uber drivers -who failed to comply with regulation- different?
Why haven't the licenses of the 10,300 odd who never resubmitted not been suspended?
Is it really one rule for Taxi and Private hire Drivers, and a different rule for a Uber drivers?
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