London Assembly committee flags up concerns over policing a 24-hour transport system

Don't Say 'No One at old Me'... Demo No2 23rd March....Whitehall

  

   

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Reading Borough Councillors Turned Down Uber's Application For A Private Hire Operators Licence

The Uber smartphone minicab dispatch app will not be appearing in Reading any time soon.

Reading Borough Council's licensing committee turned down an application by a Mr Thomas Elvidge on behalf of Uber Britannia for a private hire operating licence.

The committee rejected the application to establish the company in the town because:

• there was insufficient evidence of demand
• no clear evidence about the number of vehicles that would be operating in Reading
• no clear indication of how or by whom the Uber office would be manned.

Licensing officer Jean Champeau raised concerns there was no “safe and lawful place” for the vehicle to park if Uber’s office was based in Davison House in The Forbury.

Mr Elvidge explained the Uber model to councillors, talking them through the process by which a customer can get straight through using an app on their mobile phone.

Customers can track their minicab as it drives through town, receive photo identity of their driver and their journey to their destination is also tracked.

But councillors were curious about the self emp,owed drivers and wanted to know:

a) Where the private hire drivers would be parked when they were not driving? 

b) Why the office would only be open from 9am to 6pm?

c) Who would be in charge of it?

Clr Jeanette Skeats was particulary keen to find out how licensing officers or the police would be able to find a manager at night if there was a problem.

She wanted to know where Mr Elvidge would be and discovered that he was in charge of a massive area surrounding Greater London.

Cllr Marian Livingston questioned Mr Elvidge’s claim there was a demand because 20,000 people in the Reading area had already downloaded the app.

She suggested Uber might just be “trawled by phone app junkies who if they don’t have their phone in their hand they think they have had an amputation”.

Opposed

The application was also opposed by chairman of Reading Taxi Association Asif Rashid who raised concerns about the Uber surge pricing which uses a computer algorithm to increase prices during periods of high demand to attract more drivers to the area.

Mr Rashid questioned Mr Elvidge as to how much more than the regular fare Uber’s prices could rise to - he asked if it was possible they might rise to five times the standard rate.

Mr Elvidge said that twice the rate was more usual but it could go as high as five times.

Mr Rashid said someone who had “drunk too much” could easily find themselves paying much more than they realised.

He was also concerned that drivers could come in from other borough and from as far away as London to answer calls to the app in Reading.

But his key argument was that there was no significant unmet demand in Reading for cabs.

Mr Rashid was able to point to the strong evidence from the three-year independent survey on unmet demand, which has to carry out if the council continues to cap the number of Hackney carriage licences it allows to be operating in the borough.

The independent consultants CTS, which carries out exhaustive surveys throughout Reading counting taxis at ranks all over the town, concluded: “There is no evidence of unmet demand for Hackney carriages either patent or latent which is significant at this point in time in Reading area.

“The committee is therefore able to retain the current policy and limit at the present level and defend this if necessary.”

Editorial Comment:

In London, we've been told on countless occasions that there would need to be a national law change to introduce a cap on Private Hire vehicles licenses. It would appear from the above statement from Reading council that this is indeed not the case.

It appears that TfLTPH's compliance department don't seem to be concerned that Uber cannot be contacted outside normal office 9-5 time (which is when the majority of customer safety concerns are presented)

It would appear that Reading Council think more about members of the public being ripped off by extortionate surge pricing than TfLTPH management.

It would also appear to be of no concern to TfLTPH that the massive over supply of Uber vehicles, illegally park all around the WestEnd and City causing major nocturnal congestion. 

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An open letter to the TfL Board .... By Will Grozier.

Boris Johnson
Isabel Dedring
Peter Anderson
Sir John Armitt CBE
Sir Brendan Barber
Richard Barnes
Charles Belcher
Roger Burnley
Brian Cooke
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE
Angela Knight
Michael Liebreich
Eva Lindholm
Daniel Moylan
Bob Oddy
Keith Williams
Steve Wright

Dear Transport for London Board Members

On 17th March you will be asked to adopt a set of proposals from TfLTPH to place additional controls on the activities of the Private Hire Sector

These regulations contain no safeguards to check the recent massive increase in minicab numbers on London's streets nor do they contain any meaningful brake on the total eclipse of the Black Cab industry.

If you, the board, do not vote these proposals down and insist that TfLTPH 'think again' your names will be forever remembered as the men and women who had the opportunity to save the London taxi but failed to act.

This is not a little taxi boy crying 'Wolf', it is a whole industry under attack from a predatory and ruthless wolf pack called 'Uber'

Please do the right thing and say 'No' to Brown, Daniels & Emmersons's attempt to impose a pro Uber lobbyist's ant-iregulatory agenda and rubber stamp the existing status quo.

Do not accept the free market apologists argument that a mechanism to prevent drivers who respond to App sourced demand effectively plying for hire would be an unreasonable imposition.

Such an instrument based on zoning limits of access and visibility could be easily implemented via the very technology that has led us to this sorry state of affairs and is a crucial first step in preventing the London Taxi being consigned to the scrap heap.

Ignore the siren calls of those who would have you believe that the plight of the London Cab is a function of it's inability to adapt to a new technological  landscape - that is just plain wrong - taxis equipped with CC payment systems and Apps such as Gett & Hailo simply can't compete with a rival empowered to ply for hire (illegally we would maintain)
by virtue of legalistic sophistry - a device operating as a meter and referred to by Uber as a 'meter' is apparently not a meter - and the creation  of the oxymoronic and hitherto unheard of entity 'an immediate booking'.

In addition to your explicit statuary duties of regulating such an historic and revered world icon, the London black cab, there exists a concomitant implicit responsibility to behave as 'good stewards' toward a 350 year old tradition.

In that capacity your primary function is to ensure it's continuity which is now under threat as never before.

Failure to grasp this nettle now will simply repeat the old bad habits of national self denigration - The British Disease - tearing down to the detriment of society at large that which we edify and excel at.

Recent events such as the LBC expose have led many observers outside the taxi business to concur with us that TfLTPH is no longer an agency fit for purpose and that administration of the taxi industry should be removed from it's jurisdiction as soon as possible. 

If you are in any doubt as to the veracity of that statement I urge you to visit Pancras Road between King's Cross and St Pancras Stations any time when a Eurostar train is due and witness for yourself the rugby scrum of PHV's double and at times triple banked jockeying for advantage in the wait for a ping on the iPhone, causing traffic mayhem in the process, whilst a line of idle taxis yellow 'for hire' signs ablaze snake away on the Kings Cross taxi rank as far as the eye can see.

These disgraceful scenes are your handiwork and you now have the opportunity of taking a first step in turning the tide, already one of Tsunami proportions, to ensure a continuity of supply of the best taxi service in the world to residents of and visitors to the greatest city in the world.

As I write we learn that a 1 year old child has died, mown down by one of your Google Gawping Gimps in Sw7 on Monday night.

All 18 members of the board bear an individual and collective responsibilty for that tragedy and I urge you on behalf of all Londoners including my fellow taxi drivers to take that first bold step and say 'No' enough is enough


Will Grozier

Licensed London Taxi Driver of 39 years service -  but maybe not 40!

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Taxi Trade Protest Outside Downing Street Over Falling Standards In PH Regulations

The Taxi trade has again staged a mass protest outside the gates of Downing Street over the non enforcement of private hire regulations by TfL.

But this time, it was slightly different than in the past. After unfair harassment from the Met Police -who had been dishing out Public Order Section 12/16s like sweets- it was decided to leave the vehicles at home. In the past, Taxi demos have been treated worst than some terrorist groups, simply because of the disruption they've  caused to TfL's bus network.

Yesterday saw the emergence of a completely new group of protesters -#DadsDefendingDaughters- who held up placards condemning TfL and the BBC over an alleged cover up of escalating minicab related serious sexual assaults including rapes. 

The group started their protest outside Broadcasting House, marched along Regent Street to joined the main body of the protest in Trafalgar Square, where they were met by a massive cheer and found of spontaneous applause. 

The combined groups then embarked on a two-hour demonstration finally arriving at TfL head offices Windsor House in Victoria Street. 

The Taxi trade made it clear, they were protesting over the dropping of standards in regulations which govern Private Hire drivers and operators. The Taxi drivers claim, safety standards have dropped to a level where most women are no longer safe in a minicab.

The protest, organised by the United Cabbies Group (UCG), supported by the London Cab Drivers Club (LCDC), SupportBlackTaxis group and the RMT was also in protest to the Government's interference in the industry's regulatory affairs, while actively supporting a tax avoiding multinational corporation.

A few Taxis lined Whitehall while a mass of drivers on foot, holding banners marched to Downing Street. The group were seen wielding placards claiming PM David Cameron told Mayor Boris to leave Uber alone. Another massive banner  accused TfL and Boris Johnson of Totally failing London. 

A group of female drivers, from the #SaveBlackTaxis group, had two banners one reading TfL, Totally failing Ladies and the other pointing to TfL's failures regarding PH drivers CRB checks, Hire and Reward insurance and poor safety standards.

The on foot protest, was the latest in a number of demonstrations organised by the United Cabbies Groups calling on Transport for London and the Government to impose tougher restrictions on minicab drivers and operators.

The next protest will be held on the 23rd of March, where again drivers will be back with their Taxis to cause as much disruption as possible (details will be posted nearer the day). Earlier this week Steve Headley of the RMT Union, called for London to be bought to a stand still in a massive 48 hour Taxi strike. 

   

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LTDA Member's Lobby Of Parliament ... By Marc Turner

Yesterday morning (8/3/16), the largest congregation of LTDA members ever seen for many a year massed in the splendour of the Central Hall, Palace of Westminster. 

The LTDA had organised a lobby of MPs. Members and MP's did not let them down. 

The day bode well when with two colleagues, on entering the security screening area, a policeman enquired, "are you cabbies"?...We owned up. He then uttered under his breath, "Good luck lads, get rid of them" He wasn't referring to some of the incumbents of the House. 

The exercise of LTDA's lobbying intiative was that members could persuade their MPs to commit to taking action that TFL had failed to do.

We had to adhere to the protocol of lobbying by making for an area where lobby cards had to be filled in. I was promptly reprimanded by a rotund  bobby for trying to take photos, ironically, by a sign proclaiming 'No Photography'. That tickled bobby. 

Rules are made to be broken, Uber have conclusively proved that adage. I took a picture of my Lobby card and promptly tweeted it to my MP Wes Streeting (ilford North). To my amazement Wes tweeted back, he was on a committee and would be down soon.

We didn't have to wait to long, and his taxi driving constituents weren't disappointed. 

Wes is well informed, engaged, energetic and was generous with his time. He was empathetic to our plight. Wes revelled to us, on March 22nd he's airing our greviances in the House, introducing a 10 minute bill. Hopefully it will be debated, but it's not a given. 

Lastly Wes insured us that our historic great trade has many friends in both Houses. We all left with a spring in our step....But how many times have we done that before???

Looking forward to today's demo 11o/c Trafalgar Square.

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Tomorrows Demo : UCG Press Release

The Press Release

The London Taxi Drivers are once again taking to the streets on Wednesday, the 9th of March - Whitehall 11:00Hrs to 13:00Hrs

The London Taxi Drivers are once again taking to the streets on Wednesday, the 9th of March, to voice their grievance over the Government’s interference in the industry’s regulatory affairs while actively supporting a tax avoiding global corporation, Uber, that presents itself as an “IT company”. Some very sensible proposals were put forward by the regulator, yet they have been quashed by the Government. Naturally, this has angered decent, hard-working London Taxi Drivers who pay their taxes and conform to the strict rules and regulations. 

So the question is: why would the Government actively support a global tax avoider, a virtual company with no assets and no experience in operating the taxi trade, while providing it with a competitive advantage over its own domestic workforce? 

The answer is not one that makes our politicians look competent or above board.

But let us look at some of the statistics that paint a very gloomy picture of the way Uber operates. Last year it paid less tax than any four randomly selected London Taxi Drivers! Even though the company takes 25% to 35% of every journey undertaken by vehicles operating under its  umbrella. In real terms, they paid just £22,134 last year. And the most amazing thing of all is that Uber is still not making a profit, as it is involved in undermining the competition by operating with lower fares, in the hope of establishing full control over the taxi trade.   

Which brings us to the next point about the danger that Uber poses for consumers as the future monopoly that doesn’t play by the rules. Once the competitors would be eliminated, prices, as it happens with all monopolies, will go up dramatically. That is how it works in the world of big business that builds its success at the expense of smaller competitors. 

And then there is the issue of sacrificing safety and quality to cut costs. Does anyone actually believe that a company that has no experience in running a taxi service and cuts costs by avoiding rules and regulations can provide safety and high quality of transportation? Of course not! Which means that customers are taking a gamble when they travel with Uber. Unlike the reliable and tested traditional purpose built London Cabs that are subject to three tests per year and with their drivers going through a very rigorous testing process over four to five years. 

And it gets worse when it comes to the attack on the interests of the London Taxi Drivers.  The London Mayor’s Transport for London (TfL) have dropped the requirement for Private Hire Drivers to have a full CRB/DBS check. This means that TfL can now “feed the system” with 600+ new drivers every week while London Taxi Drivers are often unable to work, waiting for months for license renewals pending the mandatory requirement of a valid DBS check. As a result, passengers find themselves driven by people with practically no experience and of a dubious character. There are over 100 reported sexual assaults in minicabs in London every year and we know that less than 10% of rapes and sexual assaults are reported.  

Make no mistake, once Uber takes over the taxi trade in the UK it will move against other forms of transport and hundreds of thousands of jobs on the London Underground, on the railroads and in long haul deliveries will be in danger. In effect, the London Taxi Drivers are defending not only their own livelihoods but the interests of people involved in many other industries. 

As the elections of the London Mayor approach, it is time for candidates to make their views clear whose side of the argument they are on when it comes to London Taxi Drivers and Uber. We are talking about the livelihoods of tens of thousands of drivers and their families. Londoners who value their traditional taxi service should rally round it and send a signal to the candidates in the London Mayor Election that they will support those of them who give a clear pledge to put an end to the unfair practises of Uber and protect the iconic heritage of London that London Taxis represent.

Give us your support, Londoners!

Further reading here:-

http://j.mp/21XgviH

All Press Enquiries to:

Len Martin

United Cabbies Group

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