THE BLACK CAB KNOWLEDGE OF LONDON.

I've been send this article which appeared in the Dutch Media, giving support to the London Taxi trade and its drivers’.  

 

The wife of a green badge who is Dutch saw this and has kindly translated it into English and thought it should be published for the London trade to read.:

THE BLACK CAB KNOWLEDGE OF LONDON.

 

Every month there are about a 1000 more private hire vehicles coming onto the streets London: mini cabs + Uber.

 

Resulting in even more queues and congestions in an already clogged-up ancient City with it narrow streets. Therefore, is it possible for the Black Cab to survive under these conditions with its highly regulated driver, vehicle and overheads?

 

Written by Titia Ketelaar,  29 December 2015.

Translation Marian Di Lieto.

 

This is what a Cabbie, the iconic driver of the famous London Black Cab knows by heart;

How to go from the centre: the Statue of Charles the I Island at Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, to about 25000 streets within a 6 Mile radius.

 

Where, in the middle of the night, you can find a Chemist open. Or, how to find the quickest way through a web of streets from Mayfair to the Ritz Hotel at Green Park and the Lost and Found Property Office by Baker Street.

 

Where to drop off at the forever disrupted Liverpool Street Station.

 

Which pub is the nearest to whatever office, and that Kings Road and Kings Place are two completely different destinations!

 

It is simpler to let an Elephant fly than to learn the Knowledge, according to a Cabbie in the making. He still has to do another 5 month, before he hopes to gain his Licence.

 

Every day he goes out on his scooter to learn a new area and street plan, like all the Cabbies before him since the end nineteen century.

 

The London Black Cab driver unlike the private hire driver does not gain their licence until they have satisfied the Knowledge Examiner that they are of the high standard that the licencing authority requires of them. This allows them to accept immediate hiring’s from a rank or street hail.

 

All other forms of cars in London using route planners or not must be booked beforehand via a licensed operating centre, its App or telephone system.  This gives the private hire driver ample time to work out a route prior to undertaking the journey.

 

We’re talking about private hire licensed vehicles and unlicensed mini cabs and Uber Cars.

 

But there is one big problem according to London Cabbies and Cabbies all over the World.

 

The App to book Uber cars is really waving down or hailing on the side of the road, because they’re arriving so quickly.

 

Because of this we’re losing our privilege says Steve Mepham from the United Cabbie Group. The choice between studying the knowledge for (3-4 years) or making money straight away is the easy choice for most.

 

This means that a part of London’s soul is slipping away!

 

The amount of Cabbies in training is down by 60%. In the meantime the amount of different private hire vehicles is rising by a 1000 per month!!!

 

There are now (18th  January 2016) in London 96.890 private hire drivers and 75,394 private hire vehicles , 18.000 of which are Uber Cars and only 25.077 Black Cab drivers with 22,127 Black Cab taxis.

 

Applications:

Application volumes for licences - 539 applications are awaiting initial assessment. Of those applications, 457 are new (9 taxi and 448 private hire) and 82 are renewal applications (26 taxi and 56 private hire). Renewal applications are prioritised over new applications.

 

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That is why the Laws need to be changed to protect the London Cabbies.

 

UNFAIR COMPETITION.

 

The rules need to be changed and it is for the government to make that decision for change. 

 

The rising amount of private hire vehicles as you can see from the above figures is causing queues and blocking up the roads in a City which is already congested.

 

The rules were laid down before the last King died (1953) says Steve Mepham. In fact the first act was London Hackney Carriage Act 1831. 

 

The Big question is…will the Government and TFL protect the special place and position of the London Black Cabs.

 

“We understand the pressure Black Cabs feel because of us, but they need to lower the rules” according to a statement from Uber.

 

It’s not that the Cabbies are luddites and against digitalising, which was said by Mayor Boris Johnson at City Hall last September.

 

Steve Mepham’s reaction: We created Radio Circuits and recently HAILO, an App to order Black Cabs, that was 2 years before Uber came to London.

 

THE HUMAN FORM OF GPS

 

In his Cab Steve Mepham has an I-phone so he is able to pick-up Hailo customers, an I-pad for the Get-Taxi passengers and a Blue tooth connection to offer a Credit Card service.

 

Half of my passengers are coming via my App said Steve. They like to be picked-up from home and they know that the map of London is in my head and the shortest and most direct route will be taken which is far superior to a GPS.

 

Cabbies are not against other door to door transport services; Steve Mepham reckons that 10 years ago there were 25.000 Black Cabs and 7.5 Million Londoners. Now there are 8.6 Million Londoners, so if you stop other taxi drivers from working here, we would not be able to cope with the demand.

 

And yes…Black Cabs are more expansive than a mini cab—which again is more expensive than Uber.

 

But there is a market for both. When Primart opened the doors opposite Selfridges, Selfridges didn’t go down in quality. They both have they’re purpose.

 

Steve Mepham is very proud of the service that he and his colleague Cabbies are giving to the Public.

 

“When I drop you off, I will always look and make sure you get safely through the building door.”

 

A lot of trainee Cabbies are Uber or private hire drivers or working as Couriers to learn the City/Town. Jamie Holmes was a Lorry driver and Gary Freeman use to deliver Pizza’s.

 

They are attending The Knowledge Point one of the many schools where Cabbie’s studying the enormous Map and testing each other’s Knowledge.

The school was on the verge of closing down (being demolished) but they found another smaller venue enabling them to carry on.

 

BAROMETER OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

 

In a room upstairs at the Knowledge School is teacher Derek O’Reilly examining trainees. 30 questions need to be answered by the nine Men and one Woman (2% of Cabbies are Woman). In the early days this room would be packed out. We use to be the Barometer of unemployment in this City. When Ford motor car plant cut down we had Mechanics coming through the door, when the City slimmed down we had Bank staff coming in and now we see a lot more Policeman and Firefighters signing on.

 

The Knowledge is an expensive study, about £30.000 on average. Having to buy a scooter and pay the insurance, petrol etc. and often without a fulltime employment.

 

ARCHAIC KNOWLEDGE.

 

During the study they also have to learn things like:

The staff at Harrods Department Store needs to be dropped off one street further then their customers as there is a passageway under the street from their canteen to the Store. They also know that the West part of London is richer than the East, so there are more trips being made on the Westside of town.

 

The question if the Knowledge is, in this time of GPS irrelevant, there is a protest!

The Conservative Party called the Knowledge Archaic. But Jimmy Jeffrey says: we know all the road works, queues etc. which the GPS doesn’t! 

 

James Holmes says that he does not have to feed other addresses into the GPS machine when the meter is running, but maybe it won’t take long before there is a app for that as well.

 

THE OLDEST TAXI IN THE WORLD.

 

The London Hackney Carriages (the official name of Black Cabs) are the oldest taxi service in the world! In 1636 Charles I gave 50 carriages from Hackney consent to pick-up people off the street. The Knowledge started in1851 because Police Commissioner Richard Mayne was upset by the amount of Hackney Carriage drivers who didn’t know they’re way around the City. For them to gain London Hackney Carriage drivers licence from then on they had to study the roads.

 

A Black Cab driver knows all the roads within a radius of 6 miles from Charing Cross. Through Roads are called Oranges and Lemons according to the colour on the map, derived from the Children’s nursery rhyme:  ”Oranges and Lemmon’s says the Bells of St. Clements”

 

The Hippocampus, a part of the brain where orientation ability is situated is in cabbies significantly larger than in other humans. This was the result of tests that were carried out at the University College London in 2006.

 

At the start of the Knowledge the Hippocampus was the same size as in other human beings but after 3-4 years of study it was found to have become enlarged! 

With thanks to Les Hoath.

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European MP accuses Uber of being 'designed, from the start, to reduce its tax'

A European member of parliament has accused Uber's European business of being "specifically designed, from the start, to reduce its tax liabilities."

Labour's Anneliese Dodds made the comment to Business Insider over email after we pointed out that two Dutch companies closely involved in running Uber's UK business had no employees for up to a year after it launched here. 

Uber employed eight people in its Amsterdam offices in 2013. But the corporate entity that immediately controlled the UK operation had none.

Uber strongly contests Dodds' characterisation of the business and argues that there is nothing wrong with the two companies in its Dutch structure that had no employees at the time. The company stresses that at the time eight employees worked for Uber overall in Amsterdam and it now employs over 150 people in the Netherlands. 

Uber runs all of its European operations from the Netherlands. The company has faced criticism for the set-up in the past and been accused of using the country as a tax haven, skirting corporation tax by processing revenue from Uber rides in places like London through its Dutch subsidiaries, where there is a lower tax rate.

Business Insider obtained documents from the Dutch Chamber of Commerce on Uber's Dutch businesses, which show Uber BV, the company that currently issues invoices for UK rides and handles the revenue from UK fares, had zero full-time employees as of December 2013, the most recent period the Chamber has accounts on. 

Uber International Holding BV, the immediate controlling party of Uber's UK company, also had zero employees up to December 2013.

While these two had no direct employees, a Dutch business that owned them both has eight.

A spokesperson for Uber said: "In 2013, all international employees based in our headquarters in Amsterdam were contracted to a Dutch company that wholly owned Uber BV. We restructured, and today there are more than 150 employees of Uber BV."

Uber declined to specifically say what the purpose of the two zero-employee Dutch businesses were, but said it was not unusual to have such structures to allow legal separation of subsidiaries, protect legal accountability, and allow varying ownership.

We've noted before that Uber's UK fares are processed through a Dutch subsidiary. This means revenues and profits from the UK company, which might be liable for corporation tax, end up in the Netherlands. Uber BV's 2013 accounts show it had $51.2 million on its balance sheet.

The most recent accounts for Uber's UK-registered operation show it made a £888,436 pre-tax profit on revenues of £11.2 million in the year to December 31, 2014, according to DueDil. It marks a 951% increase in revenue on the year earlier.

Here's a screenshot of Uber BV's 2013 accounts from the Dutch Chamber of Commerce's website, with the employee figure highlighted:

While the accounts are out of date, they do cover a period in which Uber was operating in the UK. Uber launched in London in June 2012, with the two Dutch subsidiaries examined here opening months later. They are also the most recent accounts available.

Anneliese Dodds, a Labour Party MEP for the South East, told Business Insider via email: "It is especially worrying that Uber's business model appears to have been specifically designed, from the start, to reduce its tax liabilities."

"I share many of the concerns that have been raised in the UK and elsewhere about Uber's tax arrangements," she said. "As a result, I have asked for the company to appear in front of the European Parliament's 'special committee' which was set up to investigate corporate tax avoidance. I have also raised issues with their business model with the EU's Competition Commissioner."

Responding to Dodds' accusations, a spokesperson for Uber told BI:

“Our corporate tax structure is probably the least innovative thing about Uber:  it’s the standard approach adopted by most multinational companies.  Uber is a significant net contributor to hundreds of local economies, creating new economic opportunities for thousands of people in each city where we operate.  In terms of corporation tax, this is a moot point today because unlike more mature, highly profitable US companies, Uber is still investing heavily to roll out our service around the world”.  

Dodds has been a leading voice calling for European tax reforms to stop large corporations avoiding paying dues. Many of the recommendations made in a report she authored last year have been endorsed by the European Commission.

Dodds' office clarified that Uber has not yet been asked to appear before the special committee on tax, and the EU Competition Commissioner has not yet responded to her letter about Uber.

Dodds continued: "Some people have suggested that criticising Uber's business model is to criticise the new digital economy. This could not be further from the truth. There are huge numbers of digital companies out there which are creating value through increasing productivity and adopting innovative new business models."

"Uber's profitability, however, seems to be based on reducing its tax liabilities and screwing down pay for drivers. That is not the kind of 'innovation' which will help us create a sustainable digital economy for the future."

Source : Business Insider 

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TfL Statement : Card Payments To Be Accepted By Every Black Cab.

Travelling in one of London's iconic black cabs is about to become even easier. Today (3 February) it was confirmed that every London taxi will be required to accept card payments for their fares by October this year. The move was approved by the Board of Transport for London (TfL) following a consultation in which an overwhelming 86 per cent of respondents backed the move.

Cash has always been the standard method of payment in London's 22,500 licensed taxis but around half of all cab drivers now accept card payments. By requiring cards to be accepted in all black cabs, taking a cab will be even easier for Londoners and visitors.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson MP, said: "It's great news that with a quick swipe of a card, millions of passengers will be able to pay for their journeys in London's iconic black cabs. It's an essential part of modern life and it'll make paying for your journey swifter and simpler than ever before."

Garrett Emmerson, TfL's Chief Operating Officer for Surface Transport, said: "We believe the acceptance of card and contactless payments will be a huge plus for both taxi drivers and their passengers. Card payments are part of everyday life in London, and people use them in every aspect of their lives. The TfL network is seeing more and more contactless payments so this would bring the taxi trade into line with other transport services in the Capital. It means that customers no longer have to check whether they have cash for a journey beforehand and will open up taxis to potential new customers."

TfL has also committed to working with the card industry to link card payment devices directly to the taximeter in future.

Richard Koch, Head of Policy at The UK Cards Association, said: "Consumers are increasingly choosing to pay with cards as a convenient and secure alternative to cash. It's great news for Londoners, and visitors to the Capital, that they'll always have the option of using a debit or credit card in taxis now too. With one in ten card transactions now contactless, many passengers will also welcome the ability simply to touch and pay for their cab journey."

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UNITE THE UNION TO SUPPORT TAXI TRADE DEMONSTRATION

Unite the union London Cab section said that it will actively participate in the Taxi Trade protested called for Wednesday 10/02/2016.

Called originally by United Cabbies Group (UCG), the protest will be supported by the RMT, LCDC and now Unite London Cab section.

No word of support yet from London's largest representative group the LTDA, but on their Twitter feed, they are implying they may support the action.

Below is a statement from Unite which has appeared on the online Cab Trade News website: 

The Tory party’s interference in London’s private hire review shows how it will do everything in its power to deregulate the UK taxi service and private hire trade.

Unite calls for a stop to the Tory Government’s taxi and private hire deregulation agenda and an end to the lowering of transport safety standards.

Conservative Mayor of London, Boris Johnson’s capitulation to his party’s aims and Zac Goldsmith’s voting record on the Deregulation Bill shows that the Tories cannot be trusted with the UK’s taxi services.

Unite Cab Section also calls upon the Government to create a level playing field by making sure that companies such as Google and Uber pay their full share of UK tax.

Unite the union has been at the forefront of the fightback against Tory deregulation will continue its campaign for safe, regulated and accessible taxi and private hire services.

The taxi trade protest will be held on Wednesday 10th February, from 2:30pm in Whitehall, London, SW1.

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Violent Minicab Tout Deported After Attack On Taxi Driver.

   Justice finally catches up with violent minicab tout.

An illegal minicab tout who dodged deportation for ten years is finally being booted out of the country for attacking a black cab driver, the Old Bailey heard yesterday. 

Lounes Khalfi, 53, spat at cabbie Paul Griffin-Ahamed and punched him in the face for taking his picture while touting for business outside a West End casino. 

He then threatened another black cab driver, Andrew Donovan, who had witnessed the attack, claiming his friends would 'f*** you up'. 

After his arrest, it emerged Khalfi should have been deported as long ago as 2004 after a conviction for fleecing tourists, but blundering officials allowed him to stay.

In 2013 Khalfi was arrested again by British Transport Police, a spokesman said Khalfi, who lived in Essex, had been charging “extortionate rates”.

For many years, Khalfi had “preyed” on tourists around Camden high street and had also been banned from eight London rail stations for five years.

Lounes Khalfi, 50, was given an Asbo in 2013, which barred him from approaching members of the public outside stations, including Euston, King’s Cross, St Pancras and Marylebone. But it made little difference to Khalfi who just moved into the West End where he thought he would have little chance of being caught touting.

Khalfi operated as a tout outside clubs and casinos in the West End, undetected by compliance if the police and probably would have still been operating there today, had he not used violence against a couple of licensed Taxi drivers who filmed him at work.

Presently in London's west end, a minicab tout has more chance of winning the lottery, then being arrested for touting. TfL's answer to the increase in touting reports is to double the team of compliance officers who have no powers other than to report suspected incidents. Compliance teams rarely go out on patrol, looking fir touts. Their main duties are normally limited to Badge and Bill checks on Taxi drivers at station ranks. Operation Neon officers who seem to only concentrate on PH parking offences only go out Friday and Saturday.

Just before Christmas, ex top cop Chief Superintendent Matt Bell resigned as head of compliance after just a few months. No statement has been made by TfL to the reason why Matt quit. It's a shame because Matt Bell was approachable and for just a few months, things certainly improved as visual action was being taken against the touts.

Because of the lack of enforcement, touts outside night venues have become more aggressive with reports of assaults on Taxi drivers common.

  

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NOW CYCLISTS ACT AS UNPAID SPEED COPS!

If you thought cyclists were just a nuisance, prepare yourself for a shock!...by Alan Fisher

Over the years, we've heard many true stories that at the time we found difficult to believe, but the one involving a Dial-a-Cab driver just before Christmas outside the Houses of Parliament has surely moved to the very top of the list! 

It also brings into play a situation that is not just shocking, but in reality puts our licenses and very livelihoods into the hands of our Mayor’s undoubted favourites – his fellow cyclists!

Debbie Hope had been travelling along St Margaret’s Street towards the Parliament Square traffic lights. Soon after – on Christmas Eve in fact - she received a police letter enclosing three stills taken from a video camera appearing to show that Debbie’s taxi had been driven through the lights whilst they were red.

Debbie's tells her story in the lasted Dial-a-cab in house magazine Call Sign. 

“The photos undoubtedly showed my cab going through the lights on red and although I couldn’t understand how I missed them, I obviously did and was prepared to hold my hands up,” Debbie told Call Sign. “The first photo showed me a short distance away from the lights with them showing red and amber, so the next sequence should have been green. But they obviously must have changed straight back to red because the second photo showed the lights as being red again and my cab going through them.”

Continuing with her story, Debbie told us: “Receiving that on Christmas Eve was bad enough, but the police then said that on looking at files, I did not have any insurance and that frightened me even more! So far as I knew, I was insured with Quotax and had never had any renewal problems. But the letter now made me wonder if, and for how long, I had been driving while uninsured? It really did frighten me.”

Debbie phoned Quotax and they confirmed that she was insured and that any police enquiry must have shown an incorrect registration. But she still faced the possibility of three points for what their own photographic evidence proved was an incorrect light change sequence. 

So Debbie then phoned the number on the letter and they confirmed that she was indeed being prosecuted for going through a red light. But what they told her next not only amazed her, but should shock every single taxi driver in London.

“I asked if I had been filmed by a yellow camera because I had never noticed one there. When I was told no, I then asked if it was a police hand-held camera and again the answer came back as no. So I asked where the footage had come from and after a few moments of silence, the voice at the other end said it had been taken by a member of the public!

“My husband, Duncan, took a look at the photos and said that in his view they seemed to be still shots from a video that had been taken by a cyclist with a helmet camera who must have been behind Debbie and passed the footage of a taxi going through a red light over to the police!

“I was still reeling from the shock of what I had been told by both the police and then Duncan, but pulled myself together enough to call the police again and explain that the sequence of lights was obviously wrong and although I admitted going through a red light because the photo showed it, surely the incorrect lights sequence was mitigation enough for the matter to be dropped? 

The voice at the other end said she would look at the footage and call straight back, obviously hearing the concern in my voice. True to her word, she did phone back and confirmed that I had indeed gone through a red light, but went on to add that an incorrect sequence was no defence. She also apologised for the police making a mistake re my insurance, but they were not going to cancel the offence.

“Because I now believed it was probably a cyclist, I asked if that footage was allowed as evidence for something serious enough to carry three points if proved and she said yes! 

"I was truly stunned and several days later when I spotted a policeman in the street, I asked if he could confirm that cyclists’ helmet camera footage was acceptable. He said that he too was amazed and had never heard of it!”

Debbie, who has been with DaC for 15 years, went on to tell the magazine that she now has a camera in her taxi and had contemplated passing over footage of any cyclist that jumped a red light! But she added that with their advantage of not needing registration plates, they all looked the same from behind! And besides, that would probably be a full time job!

“I assume that the cyclist who passed the footage of my cab over to the police just didn’t like taxi drivers and has probably done it before,” said Debbie, “but I doubt that an all-out war between us would do anyone any good. 

However, I’d like to warn all Taxi drivers that with so many cyclists having helmet-cams, this may be just the thin end of the wedge."

Source : Call Sign Feb 2016.

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PH Regs Review And The LTDA, Who's Side Are They On? ...by Gerald Coba

An email from the LTDA to its members, followed by an article in an online business blog!!!

And now in the words of reggae's Johnny Nash

"There are more questions than answers".

Towards the end of the consultation period relating to the new Private Hire regulations, the LTDA sent all members a detailed email, explaining how they should respond.

It contained this passage regarding a preposed 5 minute wait between an operator receiving a booking and the driver arriving at the pick up.

See image:

After TfL's update on the PH regulation review was announced last week, LTDA members recieved an email containing this paragraph:

Private Hire Regulations Review 

You will probably be aware that Transport for London (TfL) announced the results and their intentions following the Private Hire Vehicles Consultation. Unfortunately they have decided not to implement several of the proposals that would have gone a long way to bringing Uber and other minicab app based services within the regulatory framework. However some of the proposals that they will be proceeding with, including the decision to make minicabs pay the congestion charge and scrapping minicab satellite offices, are to be welcomed. I have attached a full breakdown of all the proposals and TfL's decisions to this email.

Ends.

Then this article below authored by TfL's fall guy Garret Emmerson, appears on the CityAM blog

Read the whole article here:

>CLICK HERE<

Summary:

This is the paragraph from Emmerson's article we find most interesting, it states:

 

On the so-called ‘five minute rule’ there were always strong arguments for and against. In the consultation responses, major stakeholders - almost universally - said they didn’t support the proposal. This included everybody from major private hire companies to businesses, from politicians to consumer and community groups to even the LTDA – the largest of the taxi driver associations.

This statement goes directly against the message the LTDA had previously pervaded to their subscribers in the email detailing how they should respond. Also, no mention was made in the follow up email appertaining to the LTDA's change of direction.

If Emmerson's statement is factual, it would appear that LTDA backed down again, in the face of TfL's continued support for Uber to be allowed to circumnavigate current legislation.

Questions needing answers:

• Is Emmerson telling the truth???

• Did the LTDA executive and COM consult with any of their membership on policy change, before going directly against the advice previously given to their members?

• Why did the LTDA feel it necessary to omit their policy change from the follow up email sent to the membership?

Intended Fare Increase And Fitted Contactless Terminals:

Last week, one of our colleagues was present at a meeting with TFL. Helen chapman was present and it was explained how customers will blame driver for fare increase, that tfl need to release a press statement stating the reasons for increase, because this will put passengers off from using us and that tfl are playing with people's futures. 

It is alleged by our colleague the Chapman actually laughed at the thought of our demise and after protests from those present, had to apologise.

Interestingly, she stated that if any driver is reported for having a sock or bag over the terminal TfL intend to mandate fitted in back, compliance will put a stop on the cab. 

She made it clear that this will be a priority for enforcement.

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