St Pancras update from the Mayfair Mob(MM) & Dads Defending Daughters (DDD)...by Rayman

Camden have contacted me with an update on St Pancras.

The guy I met in early May has asked if drivers could show a little bit more patience as the design team are finalising their reports and have a couple more things to get signed off. We have a revised completion date of approx 4 weeks. I know this is frustrating but having met the guy personally he comes across as genuine and eager to get this resolved.

Apology

I would like to issue an apology on behalf of MM to Peter Rose and the LCDC for the strongly worded tweets they recieved last week. The tweets were in reaction to the article in Cab Trade News which we feel misinterpreted parking legislation, however this was no excuse to tweet in the manner in which we did especially as we are a multi org group.

Airport Style Drop Off

Myself and Walkbar along with a traffic consultant had looked into the plans for this during the consultation and were all of the opinion that the chances of getting it through to planning stages were very slim. We did not voice our opinions at the time and fully supported the plan as although the solution was flawed on several counts it was better than the status quo at the time.

DDD

Once this plan was rejected the chances of a solution looked bleak. This was where the DDD stepped in. Their brilliant action along with drivers from every org got Camden talking which led to a solution. Without this action and pressure from the RMT we would be looking at a solution around Christmas or beyond and not in approx 4 weeks.

COP OUT

I have seen on twitter people saying that the double yellow lines are a cop out. I have experience in Highways Planning and along with Walkbar assessed that double yellows was the most immediately practical solution we could find. This was also backed up by a Traffic Consultant we liased with. The 2 guys I met at Camden were also very knowledgeable in highways and parking laws. 

Once the 'airport' style plan was rejected they had come to the same conclusion as ourselves. To anyone in doubt I can 100% say that Camden have not copped out on this issue.

SUPPORT

Once the yellow lines are in place vehicles are no longer entitled to 10 minutes grace and are only entitled to drop of or set down. Camden will have marshalls present as much as they can and there will be help from TFL and the police to enforce the law. Whilst there will be occasions where the problem may creep back drivers are asked to call 101 and report it to the police. 

We would also ask TFL and the current UTG to fully support this solution for a period of 5 months to see if this solution works.

 As this is all being done on an experimental order if the lines do not work other solutions can be looked at. We would advise that if it is decided to go for the airport style solution again that major changes are made to avoid a repeat of last time and the MM are prepared to offer advice if needed.

M&S

No changes will be made outside M&S. There are only limited parking spaces here so in theory if these were full vehicles will be forced to move on. However this section should have no bearing on our ability to drop customers safely at the front end which was the problem for the Taxi trade. Camden are obliged to provide an area for pre booked Taxis and PHV but will have to deal with any abuse of this obligation.

Editorial Comment:

A couple of weeks ago I reported to TfLTPH, the Taxi rank sign outside "Sketch" had been taken away. They said they would report it to licensing as stolen and get a replacement put back. 

Last night, I stopped on the rank behind a parked minicab. I approached the driver and ask him (politely) to move but he pointed to the new sign that says (in massive font) "Taxi rank suspended".

It was only when I checked out the sign to find why the rank was in  suspension, I noticed in minute red font at the bottom the rank is actually still in operation to serve Sketch from 6:30pm until 7am. Typical TfLTPH. 

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Latest From The Lords Regarding Rickshaw Pedicabs.

Lord Storey

Liberal Democrat Lords Principal Spokesperson for Education:

Asked.

Her Majesty’s Government what are the health and safety requirements for operators?

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Transport) (Jointly with the Home Office):

Replied.

In England and Wales, excluding London, rickshaws (in the form of pedal-powered vehicles for carrying passengers, often also referred to as pedicabs) are regulated as taxis. 

They are therefore required to meet a local licensing authority’s taxi licensing conditions and any applicable byelaws. Under the different legislation that applies to London, they fall outside the scope of taxi regulation. The police have some limited powers to address inappropriate behaviour such as obstructing footways or driving in a reckless manner. The Government has recently announced its intention to introduce legislation to enable Transport for London to regulate pedicabs in London.

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Latest From The Lords, Regarding Rickshaw Pedicabs

Lord StoreyLiberal Democrat Lords Principal Spokesperson for Education

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the health and safety requirements for operators?

Lord Ahmad of WimbledonParliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Transport) (Jointly with the Home Office)

In England and Wales, excluding London, rickshaws (in the form of pedal-powered vehicles for carrying passengers, often also referred to as pedicabs) are regulated as taxis. They are therefore required to meet a local licensing authority’s taxi licensing conditions and any applicable byelaws. Under the different legislation that applies to London, they fall outside the scope of taxi regulation. The police have some limited powers to address inappropriate behaviour such as obstructing footways or driving in a reckless manner. The Government has recently announced its intention to introduce legislation to enable Transport for London to regulate pedicabs in London.

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Uber Pitch, Get Investors to back your brilliant idea.

It seems Uber have so much money, they want to share some of it with their customers who may have business ideas. How about this one.: 

UBER BUSES, to run in direct competition with TfLs bus fleet. 

Half price but with no fix rout so you never know quite where you end up. 

Stopping at any bus stop they like and asking passengers where they want to go. 

Buses could be navigated by wonderful new technology of the Sat Nav.

Plenty of staff on hand at TfL to help organise. 

Uber has launched a business pitching opportunity dubbed UberPITCH across three UK cities, which will provide entrepreneurs the opportunity to win over investors with their idea during a car ride, while the most popular will get to meet the on-demand car service’s founder Travis Kalanick in Germany.

UberPITCH could be the most important road trip of your life

The American business has teamed up with British investment partners including Atomico, EQT, Seedcamp, Elevate.VC, Hoxton Ventures, Flight Ventures, Backed, and more.

Meanwhile, the campaign will run across London, Edinburgh and Birmingham, with the in-car pitching to take place on Friday 3 June between 11am-3pm. Successful applicants will have ten minutes to pitch to an investor who will be waiting in the car, while they will then receive ten minutes of feedback.

“Every day Uber helps connect thousands of people to get around the UK. We want to celebrate these cities in which we live together with our growing community of riders and drivers. By making use of our technology we can bring people closer together and connect great ideas with the right audience,” the company said.

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The Question We'd All Like An Answer To ... by Tom Scullion.

I know we have a wide audience here from Tfl, MP's and others involved with the surface transport industry, what I cannot understand is why Tfl have not revoked Uber's operators license? 

Let's explore :

The reported alleged sexual assaults and rapes by one company.

The amount of crashes from one company.

The total lack of driver criminal checks from one company.

The complete lack of fleet management in terms of insurance from one company.

Question :

If Tfl are to be taken seriously, please explain why they allow "One company" to ignore the rules and ride roughshod over every regulation in the book?

Could it be the 40,000 license fees from this one company, blinkers their vision?

Is it £'s over principles?

Who knows, but one thing I am sure of, if any other PHV operator acted is this manner they would be closed down within 24 hours.

Why the favoritism ?

Be lucky

Tom Scullion

Space is available on this blog should TfL wish to explain their actions....or non-actions 

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Undercover Cop Spied On RMT. Taxi Trade Not Surprised!

Nothing new to Taxi drivers, they've been spied on by TfL at virtually ever demo they've held. 

The first time I personally noticed we were being watched as individuals, was in Trafalgar Square November 2011. 

This young lady above was seen taking photos of Taxi licence plates and then walking round taking another photo of the driver. At first we thought she was a member of the paparazzi, but after observing her for a while, noticed these were in fact the only photos she was taking, "Plates and Faces".

When we approached her to asked what she was doing she walked towards two burley minders wearing hi-vis jackets with TfL logos and hurried towards the underground. But she surfaced again in Whitehall, a bit later.

This has now become a common sight a Taxi demos. The photos below are from the second Windsor House demo, where a number of what looked to be bus inspectors, walked amongst Taxis jotting down ID badge numbers and cab plate numbers.

Round the back of Windsor house seemed to be the rendezvous point, where these TfL spies gathered to exchange notes. 

Probably to discount duplicated entries on their clip boards. 

The "Blacklist Support Group" recently revealed hey had photographic evidence of undercover police spying on RMT union officials.

Photographic evidence shows that in October 2004 the spy cop was present at the industrial dispute following the sacking of the prominent union militant Steve Hedley (now elected as Senior Assistant General Secretary of the RMT union) at the Kings Cross terminal for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link .  

The presence of this particular spy from the Met's disgraced Special Demonstration Squad was actually captured himself on camera, by the freelance photographer Andrew Wiard.

 The photographs allegedly show the police spy standing behind an RMT banner with the slogan ‘Reinstate Steve Hedley’ while handing out leaflets to construction workers who had walked out in support of the victimised union activist.   

Steve Hedley commented:

"I am appalled that a secret police spy thought that it was justified to turn up on a peaceful RMT picket line in order to gather information. I had earlier housed this person rent free as he claimed he was being made homeless and feel shocked that taxpayers money could be used like this to betray the trust of people engaged in completely legitimate industrial action. We heard a lot growing up about police states in other countries whilst it turns out our state was doing exactly the same thing here".

The photographs were discovered by Dave Smith while researching for the updated version of the book Blacklisted and first made public at the GMB conference in Bournemouth on Sunday (5th June).

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Uber Announce $3.5 Billion Investment From Saudi Public Investment Fund...by Sean Paul Day.

The Secretary of State and the Department of Transport ignore human rights violations in favour the market.

Whilst the political drive in the USA is forcing Uber to recognise labour rights, and resistance in Europe shows no sign of abating, Transport for London, at the behest of the U.K. Government are ploughing ahead to amend regulations to accommodate Uber in its entirety. 

Uber's history of violations and the protests knows no boundaries. For Uber, no money is bad money! 

Uber recently announced that it nabbed a $3.5 billion investment from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the investing arm of the Saudi Arabian government. The Saudi fund will have a share of Uber's ownership — cashing out on Uber if it gets bought or goes public — and crucially,  the fund's manager will join Uber's board

Global domination: This is the most recent development in a long, soiled history of human rights issues Uber has faced, especially regarding women. 

Women have been regularly sexually assaulted by drivers who critics claim haven't been sufficiently background-checked. Uber's lost-and-found feature has been used to harass female drivers and Uber executives have threatened to stalk an expose female journalists' private information. 

UN Women cancelled a partnership with Uber that aimed to create jobs for women at the company after objections were raised about Uber’s safety record with women and treatment of its drivers. The UN claimed that Uber represented  “exactly the type of structural inequality within the labour market  that the women’s movement has been fighting for decades.”

This is to say nothing of the worldwide protests against Uber's exploitation of drivers and disregard for national democracies. 

It seems, everyone has their price, the U.K's being an immorally low one!

Sean Paul Day. 

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