ARRO, Just What We've Been Waiting For? New Taxi Hailing App From CMT.

With the requirement for contactless credit card readers to be fitted in the rear of all taxis looming, and not wanting to leave it to the last moment, I decided to check out all the available options.

There are many pros and cons with all available systems, but taking into consideration my own personal circumstances and requirements, I found the system offered by Taxi World, fits my needs best. 

No initial layout expense, inclusive printer and best of all, no contract. I also prefer the fact that the system has its own GPS chip and works independent from my phone, unlike my present set up with iZettle. I found having to frequently disconnect my blue tooth hands free to get the machine to connect to my phone, annoying.

I had a very informative conversation with Linda who was taking payment for the meter I currently rent from Taxi world. She told me to book as soon as possible as bookings close to the deadline were filling fast. 

As luck would have it, I was able to book a fitting at my nearest White City branch. The fitting was quick and the fitter even went to the trouble of hiding the cable I had running to my dash-cam. Everything looks much neater now. 

While there, I was informed about an exciting new app being developed by Creative Mobile Technologies (CMT), a Long Island based tech company who make and market the CC equipment. 

CMT'S "ARRO" On The Horizon. 

Could this be the light at the end of the tunnel?

CMT have a Taxi hailing app called "ARRO" which is currently being used by over 10,000 delighted New York yellow cab drivers. This very professional app is now being adapted for the London market. This will not be just another run of the mill app no one hears about, CMT have the resources to take on a Uber big time, in the same way they've taken then on in New York. 

When a user taps the app, a nearby Taxi driver is sent the passenger's name and pickup address. The rider is sent the driver's name and ID number so he/she can identify the Taxi. Users store their credit card details in the app, allowing them to pay the metered fare, plus tip, automatically. (Sound familiar)

"Our solution is completely integrated with the taxi, whereas Uber's is not," said Mr. Epley, who worked as a logistics consultant for CMT before leaving to launch Arro.

The next feature that Arro says gives it a leg up on Uber: 

NO SURGE PRICING.

See this article from Mashable http://ift.tt/29RQXi8

Allegedly, the app will run on the GPS tablet which comes free with the CC system, so won't use any of your phone data. 

The app will also be available to non Taxi World's system users, available as a download from both Apple and Android app stores.

But the success of this venture lies in your hands. The more Taxi drivers that sign up, the more successful it will become.

And so off to work, with my new CC contactless reader on board!

At first I found the plethora of window stickers, advertising the fact I now had this contactless machine quite daunting. The thought was running round in my head that I may never take a cash ride again.

But to my surprise, I managed to complete two whole night shifts without taking a single card payment. It was only half way through my third shift, I had my first take up. The tip option proved fruitless though. 

Funny that, wasn't we told by TfL, this whole issue came about because according to their consultation, over 85% of my customers wanted to pay by Credit Cards!

Downside:

There is however a downside to these new machines, they definitely impair vision through the rear view mirror. With the head rests already blocking so much of the rear view, the machine appears in the mirror between two headrests blocking even more.

 I must say I'm surprised in these days of the nanny state, with strict health and safety requirements, that rear fitting these machines has actually been allowed. Front fitted and hand held units have been workable for many years, with no problems whatsoever. 

Most drivers believe the only reason TfL are insisting on units fitted in the rear, is solely just because they can.

There seems to be no clear safety or financial advantage to the passenger or driver. Unfortunately, this issue has seen a number of smaller independent suppliers, forced out of business by TfL's decision.

Again we see an uneven playing field, as there is no similar mandate or requirement for Private Hire to take CC payments or have a unit 'fitted' in their vehicles.

There is also no requirement for a minicab driver to have to pay the service charge on transactions, customers can still be billed by the driver on top of the fare. The London Taxi trade has become the first ever group of traders to have this requirement forced upon them.

Amazingly, our representative orgs have never questioned the fact that TfL went against their own consultation results when it came to rear fitting of units and transaction service charges. The only statement I managed to get from Steve McNamara general secretary of our largest org the LTDA, was "it's a done deal". 

Done deal...done by who?

Freudian slip? or using the wrong wording perhaps? 

Or is Steve referring to the deal appertaining to the revenue that's being generated by the constant stream of advertising in trade papers?

Still Woefully Inadequate : 

In my opinion, this whole issue is proof that TfLTPH haven't a clue about what's best, when it comes to the every day workings of our iconic industry. 

They certainly take no notice from their own consultation, which appears to be no more than a waste of resources. 

It's as if they sit in their office all day dreaming up schemes to squeeze the life out of our trade.

Still, it's no good moaning about these new requirements now. 

When the trade had the chance to do something, nowhere near enough drivers came forward. Most drivers seemed to believe £24 per head was too expensive to fight for their survival. Some org leaders didn't even bother turning up to meetings with LTPH, when arranged. 

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IN PICTURES: Cabbies treat underprivileged kids to a day out in Southend

Girls from Totenham, enjoying trip to Southend.

A convoy of 100 balloon decorated London taxis came to Southend with 300 deserving children. The fantastic smiles on the faces of excited children tells its own story.

Taxi drivers Caterina Bellandi came all the way from Florence for the trip.

The London Taxi Drivers’ Fund for Underprivileged Children brought the children on the annual outing, which took them first along the seafront, before enjoying the afternoon at Adventure Island.

Children from Gainsborough School enjoying the day with driver Matt Howard

Simeon Yeracaris, Malcolm Shaffron, Mike Son and their furry friends soaking up the atmosphere

Boys from Bethnal green on the London taxi drivers fund for underprivileged children trip to the seaside

The kids and drivers also got to enjoy a lunch and disco at the Cliffs Oavillion in Westcliff where they were met by the mayor.

The children were brought in brightly coloured taxis, for many of these kids it was their their first visit the seaside, as well as their first ever ride in a taxi.

Cameron, Pauline and Aseea with Sue Harris

Taxi driver Claire with more children from Totenham.

Founded in 1928, the charity is well known for its outings to the seaside, when convoys of London taxis decked in balloons and banners take excited children and their helpers for an amazing fun day out

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Marc Turner Attends Exhibition On Proposed Revisions To Disastrous Taverstock Place Scheme.

Thursday evening (14th July) i attended Mary Ward House for an exhibition of proposed revisions to the disasterous implementation of experimental traffic changes by Camden Council last year. 

There was a respectable turnout of concerned cabbies, far outnumbering local residents. 

But on chatting to said locals, I was surprised to hear their lifes have been blighted even more then ours over the ill judged 'traffic tinkering' that even Camden Council concedes 'isn't' working! 

They exhibited three revised plans, only one was prefered by the taxi fraternity.

It wasn't perfect, but an improvement on what we and our customers are currently suffering. 

We all filled in a questionnaire with the welcome option of choosing for the failed experiment to be totally scrapped, and returned to the areas original layout. 

The Exhibition resumes on Saturday (16th July) 10:30/ 16:00. 

I implore interested parties to attend. Remember you've got to be in it to win it!...

Our arguments are valid but don't amount to anything if we can't be bothered to voice them. If you can't possibly get there and want to be heard, email your views to madison@cavendishpc.co.uk

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Letter To Taxi Leaks From The Vito Taxi Club. Question that needs an answer???

Great work by all you guys, you are a credit to the trade.

I would like an answer from the government & TfL to the question I have asked Val & both Mayors for some time.

Why did George Osbourne working then as Chancellor of the Exchequer pressure BJ to accept a US tax dodging billionaires dangerous minicab app into London as admitted to Val Shawcross under her questioning at a GLA meeting?

Uber got into London via dubious orders from at least one obviously dubious senior government official so it should be ejected upon examination of the dangerous distracting SatNav & phone app interaction modus operandi of this business model.

Our streets are littered with the car wrecks of distracted PH drivers & Londons A&E depts deal with the consequences on a daily basis.

Why have our trade unions & reps not insisted on an answer to this ?

I applaud Val for asking the right question, but when answered by BJ why did she not follow it up & pursue it to its obvious conclusion..........corruption right to the top, & attempted crucifixion of the licensed trade. 

Mike
VitoTaxiClub 

Today's special video from London Taxi Benevolent Association For War Disabled

   

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Comprehensive Guild To Joining The UCGup Twitter Account.

One of the best resources we have in our trade, to help drivers maximise their working skills is the free UCGup account on Twitter. And yet, less than 10% of drivers are using it. 

There are a lot of older drivers like myself who sometimes need help with technology. So I've put together this guild to show how simple it is to get on the UCGup account.

UCGup, was born out of need to reverse the elitist  attitudes that saw our trade divide and devastated for the best part of a decade. 

In a politically motivated move against certain new boys on the block, a number of high profile drivers were expelled from the Tweet a London Cab "CABup" account. 

The UCG decided to sponsor their own account. It was decided from day one, to make the account non political and available free to every driver in the trade, regardless of which org, Union or group the driver supports.

So, what are the attributes of being on this service?

Work updates. 

• The whole service depends on the actions of all the subscribers. If Paddington/Kings Cross/Waterloo etc...need Taxis, the observing driver sends a direct message to the app. This is then sent out as an update to all the subscribers. 

• Same thing with ranks at Hotels, bars, restaurants, clubs, in fact anywhere people are seen looking for Taxis.

• Then their are the traffic updates, jams, roadworks and RTAs. 

After being on the service for just a few days, you'll find it will become an essential piece of kit to make your working day/night easier.

So how do you get on this service?

First, you need to have a Twitter account installed on your smart phone. But don't worry, you don't have to follow anyone except UCGup, it's your call.

Once on Twitter, you will need to search for the UCGup account and click on the follow button. You won't be accepted straight away. 

Next, you need to send a photo of your Bill and Badge and Twitter ID to ucgupmedia@gmail.com.

Once accepted you will have to ability to start receiving regular up dates from UCGup.

Once you get the hang of things you can advance to receive notifications on your phone without actually having the app on screen. 

Go to notifications on your phone and choose Twitter, click on allow notifications. 

You can also choose to turn on the sound alert and notification centre, but that's optional.

Now go to the UCGup Twitter page click on the settings wheel and turn on notifications. 

And basically, that's it. You will now get notifications from UCGup whatever program is running on your phone or tablet. You will even get updates while the phone is in lock screen mode.

Finally listen to this short sound clip: 

The Ucgup welcome Speech

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And that's it, it's that simple! 

But then the best solutions normally are the simple ones. 

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Very Emotional Short Clip, Which Shows Bonds Formed Between Veterans And Taxi Drivers.

Often our Taxi drivers become quite close to the war veterans they take on trips. Here is one of our long-standing drivers, David Webb, talking about the veteran he has taken to The Netherlands several times, Stan Daines. We also hear Stan talking about the Taxi Charity.

...

Dick Goodwin and his team of London cabbies, are appealing for your votes as they strive to get national recognition for our veterans disabled in war, on BBC One in this year’s National Lottery Awards.

The project beat off stiff competition from over 600 organisations to reach the public voting stage in this year’s National Lottery Awards – the annual search for the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects.

 

The London Taxi Benevolent Association for War Disabled is competing against six other projects to be crowned the winner of the Charity/Voluntary category. If they win, they get a £3,000 cash prize to spend on their project, an iconic National Lottery Awards trophy and the chance to attend a star-studded glittering Awards ceremony in London, and be featured in a special Awards show, broadcast on BBC One in September.

TV star and actor John Barrowman will be presenting the National Lottery Awards for the sixth time this year. He says:

“The National Lottery Awards are a great way to shine a spotlight on outstanding lottery-funded projects. Now in their 13th year, the Awards celebrate the talent and dedication of the amazing staff and volunteers that run incredible life-changing Lottery funded projects for the benefit of their communities and the people who live in them.

“This project has worked very hard to become a finalist and they now need your support because the project with the most votes in each category will be crowned the winner. 

“Projects like this receive funding thanks to National Lottery players who raise £36 million every single week for Good Causes across the UK.”

To vote for the London Taxi Benevolent Association for War Disabled please click this link:

 >lotterygoodcauses.org.uk<

or telephone 0844 836 9712 

and follow the campaign on twitter: hashtag #NLAwards.

 

Voting runs until midnight on Wednesday 20 July.  

There are seven projects competing for votes across seven categories, reflecting the main areas of National Lottery funding: arts, sport, heritage, health, environment, education and voluntary/charity. 

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Travis's Great American Dream Crumbles, As The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is Switched Back On.

Uber's Dream Has Starting To Crumble....And We Are Still Here.

The plan was, by mid July 2016, Uber would have expanded to 42,000 drivers. Using their own brand of predator financing subsidies and free give-a-way bonanzas, they would swamp the Iconic London Taxis out of existence.

Well it hasn't quite gone to plan. Uber are actually desperate to fill the void created by drivers who have 'seen the light' and departed and are now having to advertise on national radio for replacements. A landslide of bad PR on social media, has done Uber immense damage.

To Travis's surprise, we "the best Taxi service in the world", are still in there fighting our corner.  

Which proves the old saying, 'cream will always rise to the top'.

To add to Uber's problems, we are now seeing a reversal of attitude at the top of TfL. 

Directors who thought they were invincible have gone, or moved sideways, with remaining top brass on close assessment. 

• John Mason pushed out in the cold.

• Sir Peter Hendy survived an adulterous affair by saying he was no ones moral compas, but then jumped off like a rat deserting a sinking ship. (Did he really jump, or was he pushed?)

• Matt Bell quit a top compliance appointment after just a few weeks.

• Peter Blake, allegedly unsuitable from day one, punching way above his pay grade. 

• Leon Daniels, lucky our representative orgs are so weak, they didn't press for him to be prosecuted for malfeasance (carries a custodial sentence). The evidence has clearly been there!

The only people left at TfL who will be dealing with Taxi and private hire are;

Commissioner Mike Brown, 

Director Garrett Emmerson and 

General Manager Helen Chapman.

This new slimline administration are there to oversee the implementation of certain so called new PH regulations (actually they're nothing new!!! just old reg's, dusted off and finally being enforced). 

 

The first of these regulations, mandatory hire and reward insurance, started yesterday with the mythical on/off policies, finally kicked into touch. No new PHV will be licensed at passing stations without the required paper work. 

TfL stated yesterday their compliance teams now have full access to the MIB data base to check compliance on the fly.

It must be a massive victory for our trade, as both Uber and Steve Wright are up in arms. 

It's alleged Steve Wright already had the right hump after being given the old heave hoe from TfL's board because of conflict of interest....along with Bob Oddy and Peter Anderson.

Peter Anderson -to those who don't know- was chair of the board of TfL who, after being responsible for our April fare hike, then announced he actually use's Uber, because we were too expensive. 

But now he's gone, KARMA at last.

Apparently half the board are now gone through alleged conflicting business interests to TfL projects. 

Boris promised us protection but then stabbed us all in the back. The new Mayor has again, like Boris, promise to protect the trade....but to be serious, I won't be holding my breath. I want to see a dramatic change in TfL's attitude towards the London Taxi industry. 

The new regulations (or should we say the regulations TfL have decided to finally enforce) are having a marked effect on PH. Their representatives have asked for immediate suspension, which shows us they are having the desired affect.

In the run up to the implementation of the new H&R regs, over 600 new PH vehicles were being licensed every week. Last week, in light of the new hire and reward insurance requirement the figure suddenly dropped to just over 100. 

#Action4Cabbies:

Last month #Action4Cabbies, attended a meeting with deputy Mayor Val Shawcross. The informal pressure group bought up the major issue of the increasing number of road traffic accidents involving Uber drivers. Too many PH drivers with absolutely no experience driving on London's streets, continually taking their eyes off the road to check their sat-navs. Everyday on social media, we see images of horrendous crashes and Uber cars driving the wrong way down one way streets. This is a serious issue as there has already been loss of life. 

The Deputy Mayor told the group that a new topographical test was definitely on the cards and would soon be introduced. She also hinted that in future prospective PH drivers will have to take an advanced driving test, similar to the one undertaken by Taxi driver applicants.

Action4Cabbies bought up the need for PH accidents to be recorded separately from Licensed Taxi sets. We are currently witnessing escalating premiums due to the increasing number of Uber smash ups. 

Also bought up at the meeting, was the requirement for warranted cab enforcement officer patrols, foot soldiers who have the power to stop/arrest/move on errant PH touts. Benign compliance teams who only have the power to harass Taxi drivers are a waste of budget. Deputy Mayor Shawcross said this is an issue she would be bringing up at her next meeting with police commissioner Hogan Howe. 

Leaving the meeting, I came away with the distinct impression the new administration is fully behind our trade and will be working towards its survival. It appears that many bad decisions made by previous TfL directorates, are to be revised in the coming months.

Interesting times ahead. It seems the light at the end of the tunnel has finally been turned back on.

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