Taxi Regulator Responds Over Cab Company Bankruptcy

San Francisco’s largest taxi company (Yellow Cabs) may soon declare bankruptcy. 

Yellow Cab Co-Op’s financial move has set off alarms across the industry, The City’s taxi regulator is finally weighing in. 

Kate Toran is head of taxi services at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which regulates cabs in San Francisco. 

Firstly she said, she wanted to clarify that Yellow Cab’s bankruptcy is a Chapter 11, which is a restructuring to shed debts, but not necessarily to close. It had been initially reported that the company would close, as many news outlets reporting the story implied Yellow Cab was “doomed.”

Although many customers have moved over to ride-sharing App's such as Uber and Lyft, according to Toran there’s still a demand for taxi service in San Francisco, countering assertions in the national news. 

When asked for numbers to demonstrate that, she said Uber and Lyft historically do not share numbers in a public fashion with their regulators, the California Public Utilities Commission. Without a point of comparison, she said, people may make mistaken conclusions about the taxi industry’s health.

“Information they provide is under seal,” Toran said, of Uber and Lyft. 

If a taxi company were to close, Toran said one concern for the SFMTA would be ensuring taxi medallion holders transfer those medallions elsewhere. A medallion is a license to operate for a cab driver, some of which are sold by the SFMTA to cabbies for $250,000.

“The main concern is making sure those medallion holders are placed at other companies, Toran said. 

Also, she said preserving drivers’ records to an entity where they could be accessed would be another priority, after a taxi company closes. Among these records would be waybills, which are taxi drivers’ work history often used when trying to purchase or transfer a medallion. 

Toran said “it's also important to point out the taxi industry is trying to innovate and the Flywheel app is an example of that. The app works similarly to Uber and Lyft, but for taxis".

“It’s a game changer in a lot of ways,” she said.

Flywheel’s strength lies in combining the might of the entire taxi industry under one app, she said. Some taxi apps, by contrast, only hail cabs from one particular cab company. YoTaxi, for instance, only works with Yellow Cab. 

“My perspective,” she said, is “another thing the industry should do is stop being fragmented, shifting from each company focusing on its self-interest to taxis as a whole.”

That, she said, is the way for taxis to innovate in the new tech age

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/1ntJsk7
via IFTTT

The Time Has Come For Every Taxi Driver To Step Forward And Show Support For Your Trades Future.

   

As you may have heard "Action For Cabbies" has been set up by #SaveTaxi to raise awareness and funds for the campaign to seek a Judicial Review against TFL to have Ubers operating licence in London revoked. 

You have been given the voice to be heard and now we need each and every one of you to support this campaign and contribute financially to make this work. 

The time for talk is over - the time for action is NOW. 

Yes times are hard for us all, but this may be our only chance to properly fight this, so grab it with both hands, it's now or never!! 
Here is the link to make your donation 

>CLICK HERE<

It's your future, and it's now in your hands

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/1n6GJwg
via IFTTT

Rickshaw rider JAILED as Westminster cracks down on ‘anti-social menace’.

Juris Briedis has been sentenced to six months in prison for riding a pedicab in Westminster (Photo: Metropolitan Police)

A rickshaw or ‘pedicab’ rider has been sentenced to 24 weeks in prison after he breached a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) which had banned him from riding a rickshaw in Westminster just three days earlier. 

Juris Briedis, of Edgware Road, had been given the CBO on Thursday January 7 after he broke a Community Protection Notice that forbade him from using his pedicab in an antisocial way. 

But on Sunday January 10, just three days later, he was spotted riding a pedicab in Bird Street, so found himself in Westminster Magistrates’ Court yet again on Tuesday - where he was jailed. 

However, the 21-year-old rickshaw rider is not alone in persistent antisocial behaviour whilst on the job. When he was given the CBO banning him from riding a pedicab in W1, SW1, W2 and WC2 for five years, so were four others: 

Elvis Bergins, 21, and Elviss Krauklis, 23, both also from Edgware Road, Kristaps Lapins, 21, of Wells House Road, NW10, and Ivo Laskivs, 25, of Clarendon Court, NW2. 

To date, 116 pedicab riders have been summonsed to court for parking their rickshaws in a way that causes an obstruction - and police and TfL say the crackdown is working. 

Inspector Guy Ellwood, of the Met’s Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street team, said: “This should send a clear message to riders who persistently engage in disruptive, criminal and anti-social activity will face significant consequences.”

Steve Burton, TfL’s Director of Enforcement and On-Street Operations, said: “We work closely with the police and officers from Westminster to stop Pedicabs from being an anti-social menace in central London, so this sentencing is welcome news. 

“We will continue to support the officers on the ground, and push for the toughest penalties, while continuing to lobby Government over the legislation of pedicabs in the capital.”

Source: LDN24 Zoah.Hedges-Stocks

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/1ZFPFut
via IFTTT

Cabbie's Wife's Showing Trade Orgs The Way To Go.

A campaign group set up by the wife of a taxi driver will this week mount a bid to force Transport for London (TfL) to put the brakes on Uber, the app which has recruited thousands of drivers and attracted a multibillion pound valuation.

Sky News can reveal that Artemis Mercer, who started a Facebook group last year in support of London's taxi trade, will launch a crowdfunding drive to raise £600,000 to fund the initial phase of a judicial review against TfL.

The move will come amid a fierce debate about the breakneck growth of minicab and other ride-sharing apps in London and elsewhere, with Uber facing an array of regulatory measures to restrict its operations.

Mrs Mercer has established Action for Cabbies as a private company to spearhead the campaign, which will use the platform Crowdfunder.co.uk.

The group wants to secure a judicial review on the grounds that TfL was wrong to grant a licence to Uber and its drivers in 2012, because it failed to follow correct procedures.

"There has always been a two-tier system with private hire vehicles on one side and black cabs on the other," Mrs Mercer told Sky News.

"TfL did not follow those regulations in 2012: it went from being a law-enforcer to a law-maker," she said.

"In doing so, it compromised public safety and cost black cabbies the opportunity to compete on a level playing field."

Action for Cabbies will repeat the widely deployed argument that Uber's drivers use a meter of the kind which should only be available to drivers of black cabs, while complaining that the app does not implement insurance and public safety standards as rigorously as those imposed on black taxis.

The crowdfunding campaign, which will launch on Monday, will target London’s roughly 25,000 licensed black cab drivers to raise the required money, with further finances expected to be required if Action for Cabbies is successful in securing a judicial review.

It will also be open to others who wish to contribute, although it will be unlike many crowdfunding efforts in that there is no prospect of a direct return on the funds invested.

TfL is itself proposing a series of new rules that would curb private taxi-hailing groups, such as forcing drivers to wait five minutes before picking up a customer and providing fixed fares at the beginning of each journey.

Those plans sparked a critical response from business groups including the Institute of Directors, as well as – unusually – the Competition and Markets Authority, the chief executive of which said that TfL would "artificially restrict competition".

In the promotional material for its crowdfunding campaign, Action for Cabbies will warn that unless TfL's decision to grant Uber a licence is revoked, the "black taxi industry will be decimated and the iconic black taxi [rendered] extinct".

Source : Sky News.

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/1QfQ5li
via IFTTT

Test

Yes I use iZettle and I'm very happy with their service.

I have in the past posted about Cab:App and iZettle, thought it would be fair to advertise all options available as what suits one driver, doesn't always suit another.

However I have been told that although all these hand held machines are currently advertising they comply with current TfL requirements, the game changes in April when new requirements will be announced. 

I would therefore advise drivers to wait before purchasing machines until after we know exactly what the new requirements are and which machines comply fully after April 2016.

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/1n9QZ7M
via IFTTT

Minicab driver targeted in horrific attack, ambushed in Plumstead by waiting gang members.

A minicab driver was sent on a back-and-forth journey through south London before being ambushed by a gang of thugs assembled by his passenger. 

Police said the driver and the passenger became embroiled in a series of arguments during the bizarre journey on December 12. 

Having been driven through south-east London for almost an hour, the customer asked to be returned to the original pick-up point of Invermore Place, close to the garages near Walmer Terrace.

On the way there the passenger made a call, and the driver heard him asked the person on the other end of the line to meet him at the garages.

As the cab arrived at its destination the driver noticed five men waiting in the area.

He was then dragged from his silver Skoda and brutally assaulted, leaving him with head and hand injuries. 

The attackers are then said to have made off with £30 they stole from his car. 

Graphic footage of the assault was later uploaded to social media after the incident was filmed on a mobile phone. 

Police today issued an appeal to trace a man in his 20s in connection with the incident.

The suspect is a slim black man, with a beard, who spoke with an African accent, police said.

Detective Constable Danny Banks, from Greenwich CID, said: "We want to urgently speak with anyone who saw this vicious robbery and assault, or who is aware of this incident and can assist with our ongoing investigation."

Anyone with information should contact police via 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Calls to Crimestoppers are free.

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/1leAR2S
via IFTTT

Plan for London's first underground hotel rejected

Plans for London’s first underground hotel, 50ft below the surface with windowless rooms, have been rejected by councillors who warned it would be a “minus-five star” destination.

Criterion Capital applied to convert a below-ground NCP car park in Bloomsbury into a 166-room Tokyo-style “pod hotel”.

The LDN hotel would be artificially lit and have no restaurant and bar. It would be on the fourth and fifth floors beneath a commercial block in Great Russell Street, near Tottenham Court Road Tube station.

It was touted as budget accommodation for tourists and business travellers. But Camden council turned down the scheme last night.

Councillor Stephen Stark said: “With no windows in the rooms, it’s not a zero-star rating for the hotel but probably minus five stars.”

Colleague Adam Harrison said: “We need to ensure it’s safe staying five storeys underground in a part of London with some of the worst air quality in Europe.”

Criterion argued it would “have much benefit to the area and create 24 jobs”.

Source: Evening Standard.

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/234HXcz
via IFTTT