Lee Osborne's UWCB Boxing Challenge To Help Beat Cancer Sooner.

Former UCG secretary Lee Osborne, has given much time and effort supporting the fight for survival of our trade.

Now it's our turn to show thanks and support him.

Lee will be taking part in an Ultra White Collar Boxing match in four weeks time, on Saturday 26th March, at the Woodside Leisure Centre in Watford. 

All money raised is to go to cancer research. 

For tickets to the event, please go to 

www.UWCB.co.uk

To support Lee, please go to his Just Giving page

                    >CLICK HERE<

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Police Warn New Threat From OnLine Fake Taxis. ... By Gerald Coba.

A new warning has been issued after a surge in ‘fake’ taxis being advertised on social media.

Police are warning people about the dangers of getting into unlicensed taxis after an increase in the number of people offering their services on sites like Facebook.

Passengers using these online fake taxis can never be guaranteed how safe they are going to be. By getting into one of these vehicles you could potentially be putting your life at risk.

A really important part of a night out is making sure that you can get home safely afterwards. 

The best way to ensure your safety is either to prearrange a lift with a friend or family member, or to only use a licensed taxi, especially in light of the recent minicab sexual assault statistics for 2015 which show 180 reported serious sexual assaults including rapes, with 112 driver arrests.

A spokesperson for the police said:

"We don’t want to see people getting into these online unlicensed fake taxis. If you get into one of these cars you are putting yourself at risk. An unbooked car ride, is just a stranger with a car.

By getting into an unlicensed vehicle at the end of a night out you are taking big risks with your personal safety. 

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Google driverless car has been involved in a collision with a bus

A Google driverless car has been involved in a collision with a bus in California.

The tech company has admitted responsibility for the accident which occurred on 14 February.

It is thought to have happened while the company was testing 24 of the cars fitted with sensors and cameras near the tech firm's Silicon Valley headquarters.

In a report filed with California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) the company reveals the car was trying to navigate its way round some sandbags at 2mph when it hit the bus that was travelling at 15mph.

Google says the accident came from the same kind of negotiations and misunderstandings that take place between human drivers every day.

The company says its cars will now have a better understanding that buses and other large vehicles are less likely to give way than smaller ones.

A DMV spokeswoman said the agency hoped to speak with Google soon about what went wrong.

Earlier this month, the Department of Transport revealed they were in "active discussions" with Google about trialling driverless cars in the UK.

In London, deputy mayor for transport Isabel Dedring said her office had spoken to Google "at least half a dozen times" over the past three years.

Google has admitted its driverless cars have been involved in 11 accidents - sparking new fears about the safety of autonomous automobiles.

"Over the 6 years since we started the project, we’ve been involved in 11 accidents 

Google always blame crashes on other people, giving colourful descriptions of the other motorists on California's roads.

Google were asked how many of the 48 robotic cars were involved in crashes, but it has not yet replied.

This information is important because it could indicate wider problems with driverless machines.

If all the crashes happened to one car, it could be faulty. 

If 11 separate motors were involved, this could potentially indicate a wider problem.

Would you get into a driverless car?

Brave? Former Business Secretary Vince Cable sits in a driverless car. 

Notice the door is open and the car is stationary.

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The Sharks are circling!....by I'm Spartacus.

I recall to this day the last words the chief examiner said to us all as we got our shiny new badges at Penton street all those years ago.

'Many people get a very good living out of the cab trade' our faces lit up after years of slog on the KOL, he continued after a pause, 'none of them are cab drivers'.

His words are as true today as ever, we now have the Credit Card fiasco, another good idea totally ballsed up by TfL and the trade incompetents who have agreed to having fixed terminals for no good reason as millions of traders from car booters to Michelin starred restaurants seem to get by with mobile terminals.

The bogus argument about security is probably more about who advertises in what trade paper, after all we could pass forged notes all day long, we don't because we are mostly honest and/or we don't fancy a spell in the scrubs!

We also have TfL not mandating a maximum percentage charged to the driver staying that it's a commercial matter between us and the provider, all this noted through without a murmur from the TfL board and we all know the membership there.

So many are still paying 10% plus monthly rental for a unit that's well past it, my local shop pays 1.5%!!!!!

So again we have trade orgs agreeing to things without consultation and effectively creating an 'uncommercial' market to the disbenefit of the people who pay their wages, luxury company vehicles etc.

I wonder what percentage the suppliers of these fixed units pay on their own transactions?

If it's more than 3% I would be amazed.

Wake up folks!

I'm Spartacus

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Taxi driver slashed with knife and hit with hammer by three thugs

An award-winning taxi driver was left shaken after he was attacked by three thugs armed with a hammer and blade near his Dublin home.

Paul Cullen (52) was working in north Dublin when he stopped to pick up a fare in Finglas.

After a short journey to the Poppintree area one of the men produced a blade and demanded that he hand over money.

Brave Paul - who had a little over €100 cash on him at the time - refused to give them anything.

He struggled with one of the men as the thug slashed the back of his head and another hit him around the head with what he suspects was a hammer.

The attack happened shortly after 8.30pm on Thursday.

Just two hours earlier a taxi man in his 60s was also robbed by three men. A sum of money was taken and the driver was also injured in the incident.

Paul, who has worked as a cabbie for 10 years, said it was the first time he had been assaulted while on the job.

Last year, he was nominated by his customers for the 98fm Pride of Dublin awards and walked away with the title of Best Taxi Driver.

He has now been left with bruising to his face and cuts on the back of his head.

Last night, he returned to work despite the attack.

"I'll be nervous for a few weeks, but if I don't go straight back I never will," the dad-of-three said. "I'm shook enough, but it could have been a lot worse."

"It's the only area of Ballymun that has no CCTV."

The thugs sustained the attack for a short time before they left with just Mr Cullen's smart phone, which he later traced to a bin in a nearby estate.

A garda spokeswoman confirmed that gardai were investigating two robberies of taxi drivers in the Ballymun area.

No arrests have been made and an investigation is ongoing

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Tarrif Update...As Clear As Mud. Credit Card Surcharge Change?

Driver to pay Credit Card surcharge from April???

I spoke to LTDA Chairman Steve McNamara on Wednesday and in that conversation he informed me (in his opinion) the argument over surcharges is irrelevant as rules governing CC transactions including surcharges, may well be change in 2017 due to an EU directive. 

The information is actually contained in the results from TfL's consultation on Credit Card Payments.

The actual wording states:

The current surcharge of up to 10 per cent is generally felt to be too high, but the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 already bans excessive surcharges and traders, including taxi drivers, may not charge more than it costs them to accept card payments.

This is pretty clear so far and quite understandable.

The report continues to say:

It is also expected that future legislation (Following adoption by the European Parliament of the Revised Directive on Payment Services), will remove most card payment surcharges when it comes into effect which is expected to be by end of 2017. 

The statement is unspecific as to which "most card payments" are referred to. 

Also, this may not happen,because by 2017, we may no longer be part of the EU. 

So why are TfL pushing for something so strong, that may never happen?

Until this actually happens, why should we even consider passing CC payment surcharges over to the driver?

How would this 2017 European consumer rights regulation affect us here in the UK?

This will mean retailers will not be able to charge cc customers the surcharge or service charge. 

This will include paying bills, booking theatre tickets, shop purchases and the like of us. But most retailers will build this into the retail price of the goods being sold.

TfL have offered us a 20p extra to the initial meter drop, but that was based on a CC surcharge capped at 3%. 

Now we are told that the Card clearing companies have turned this down and TfL are going to let market forces set the rate.

Why is there such a lack of information from our orgs about what is coming in April, in regards to CC surcharge payments?

Is this another example from TfL's spin doctors of while we are tearing into each other over this, something else more controversial is about to slip under the radar. 

Perhaps TfL feel that if we are arguing about something that's possibly inevitable, we won't be resisting the  unenforceable CC mandate -about to be tested in court I hear- or the unnecessary fitting of equipment in the rear.

The way TfL have tried to bulldoze this through based on their consultation is nothing short of scandalous. 

This whole issue has been a complete mess from start to now and has been handled dreadfully by the Orgs/Unions, suppliers and TfL.

Too many vested interests looking at grabbing larger market share, stirring the already muddy waters. 

A complete  

The TfL consultation result recommendations should be based on majority of opinions from those who responded. It's clear that this is not the case.

It's alleged TfL are trying to manipulate the conclusions by making the results unclear. 

See for yourselves and make your own mind up:

>CLICK HERE<

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Taxi Leaks Statement On Post Comments.

It is with much regret that we've had to stop accepting  anonymous comments, as It's getting too much work to moderate the good from the bad, the libellous from the personal attacks. 

We were having to deal with over150 comments most days, which come in the form of an email, have to be read and a decision made whether to post or delete. It's become too time consuming. 

Over the past 10 years, we've run into a few drivers who seem to believe totally that even though we are just a Taxi news service, all comments carry our complete blessing. 

We've always tried to be fair and give everyone a voice. We've tried hard to be fair to everyone but we get criticised when we post, we get criticised when we don't. Fair enough, when you stick your head up, I suppose you have to dodge a few bullets.

But recently it appears certain drivers have gone way too far over the line.

We hope our new system will stop most abuse, as commentators will have to have a registered google account, which means accountability. 

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