#NOMORE....... BACK TO THE MET....by Dads Defending Daughters.

DaC Chairman Brian Rice Says : TfL Have Got This Totally Wrong.

There isn't any question that having the PED in the back of the taxi could be a threat to driver safety. That is why in March 2011 we at DaC sought and obtained permission from TfL to site our PED's in the front of the taxi, although it is wired to the taxi and gives a printed paper receipt, the PED can be passed to the passenger in the rear of the vehicle or through the luggage window and the driver remains locked in the front of the taxi.

I sought permission for the PED to be sited in the front because I was convinced at some stage TfL would mandate the acceptance of Credit Cards, which they have now done. The difference is we at DaC understand our trade, those employed at Palestra do not!

Since the 3 March this year I have sent over thirty e-mails to TfL highlighting their error regarding having the PED in the back of the taxi and six months later they inform me that it is still being discussed! 

Why are they being so pedantic about this situation? They have made a mistake and those of us that know our trade have pointed this out to them, why they choose to ignore our advice is beyond me, or is it they are so high and mighty and out of touch, they think they always know best?

They have got this totally wrong and if they persist on this disastrous course it is only a matter of time before one of our colleagues is badly injured or worse and the blame will be with TfL and they will have a huge lawsuit on their hands for negligence, especially as we can prove they were warned, but too stubborn to heed our warnings!

Brian Rice

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Drivers Security Compromised With Rear Fitted CC Readers.

Imagine, you pick up two or three male passengers, it's obvious they've been drinking. They take you to a destination, 10 miles from the centre of London, it's two in the morning and they direct you to a quiet, badly lit, side street.

 

One says "can we pay by card ? ". 

He then says "it's not working! ". 

You cancel the transaction and tell him to try again, " it's no good.....can you come round and show me how to do this?".

What could possibly go wrong? 

You're in a quiet location with two passengers who you know nothing about. You get in the back and about to turn your back on them to concentrate on the CC reader.

Now imagine you are a female Taxi driver.....what do you do.?

There has been no consultation with the trade in respect to safety of the driver, male or female.

Trade representative orgs haven't bought up the safety aspect of the new condition of fitness with TfL. 

It appears the whole process has been rushed through without common sense.

Question: Apart from everything else, should TfL have the right to compromise our personal security, in favour of stakeholders with financial conflicts of interest.

To be honest, the only reason we can see for having the machine fitted in the rear compartment is to facilitate a favoured few by introducing a restriction of trade in regard to smaller suppliers who have now had to withdraw from the Taxi market.

One radio Taxi company has said the financial burden or equipping all its 1,200 vehicles could be the straw that breaks the camels back, with then disappearing from the trade completely.

Advice from TfL has been contradictory, condescending and confusing. They say we have a duty of care to assist passengers with any equipment fitted in the Taxi, then say it's up to us to assess the situation for our own safety.

This is TfL's official line given out on social media, although we couldn't pin anyone down to put their name to it.

'Given the popularity of using credit/debit cards as a means of payment in London, I believe this to be a very unlikely scenario. If a customer does experience difficultly using  the card machine, you can offer verbal advice, or you can remove the  handset from the cradle and provide assistance that  way. Ultimately it will be the drivers’ responsibility to assess the situation & decide whether it's appropriate to enter the rear passenger compartment to resolve a payment problem.'

Typical of TfL...not one of the units we've seen is removable from its cradle, with getting into the rear to remove it. Some units cannot be removed by the driver.

There are more problems emerging as drivers have equipment fitted before the deadline. Machines won't boot up, screens freeze. TfL say if your machine develops a fault, you must stop working until it's fixed, 

Many drivers have been using hand held units for many year, with no problem and no complaints from passengers.

#NoMore.

The Independent Taxi Alliance will be asking all female drivers to turn up at City Hall for a protest to coincide with  the Mayors question time. Banners will be provided curtesy of Dads Defending Daughters and the Mayfair Mob. 

If you care about driver safety, whether you are female, or male, come along to City Hall and make it clear to the Mayor, you have no confidence in TfL's handling of the Credit Card Mandate. 

Not fit for purpose, Totally failing London

Editorial comment:

About Independent Taxi Alliance (ITA)

The Independent Taxi Alliance is a driver led organisation of Licensed London Taxi drivers, from all Orgs and Unions, united in a common cause.

The ITA is a proactive group of drivers from DDD, MM, LCDC, RMT, UCG, Unite, LTDA and non affiliates.

We ask no fee or subs.

And we support all Orgs, Unions and pressure groups favouring none above any other.

All members are expected to demonstrate, protest or use civil disobedience in the fight for justice.

The ITA motto: 

'Nunquam redono, nunquam deditionem', means 'Never give up, never surrender'.

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Make Your Own Arrangement For Credit Card Validation....by greenbadgejohn

It is so clear the conclusively derived dissent which is bubbling up within this trade will eventually explode on the streets of our capital, We all knew how poor the ideology behind compulsory fitting of a Card reader in the passenger compartment of a taxi (whatever model or make)

And after Alan Fleming's post on taxi leaks surrounding the safety issues (read his posting) it beggars belief that a licencing authority does not understand the ramifications in those safety problems and demonstrates in the clearest terms yet how the three wise monkeys came to the decision it did.

Stop paying union memberships & only pay for legal/livelihood cover as those who say they represent you clearly do not, as this would have been a dead duck from the very start if brains instead of coercion were the honest processes used ... instead corruption & self interests rule here 100%.

Why is there no pre-validation software in any of the approved Card readers? Are we vetted crooks who cannot be trusted? As We are on offer from the first inch of the fare to the finish, and the four dodgy passengers with a potential stolen card have no prior checks made until the service has been supplied unlike uber who use approved surge pricing...all paid in advance... but you will be knocked, & why? .. go ask TFL as their answer will be hilarious to anyone but you!

Buy yourself a paypal card reader, keep it separate and use it particularly to validate any card you are suspicious about ( as any hotel in the whole world does) as credit cards are only valid if you are paid... otherwise they are useless.

Paypal will set you up an account for business (free set up) and you buy the cheapest 'personal' equipment for yourself & call your own business shots and do the advance checks yourself (as a sole trader) not as a taxi driver, why?, because your own Authority has failed dismally to equally protect your interests as it has done for the passenger as it claims under TFL's own statement "Every Journey Matters" but not bothered if you get paid for it!

Remember too, Join the coming Drive ins to media expose our grief & publicise TFL's complete cock up by over involvement in card reader choice and safety as we as know understand the benefits of having card acceptability... just not at any cost including security and theft by deception.

Be Lucky

greenbadgejohn (on twitter)

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INDEPENDENT TAXI ALLIANCE (ITA) ON CREDIT CARD CHAOS.

The ITA believes that TfL's card machine fiasco is a scam.

A scam backed by credit card companies and groups with vested interests in the deregulation of minicabs, and the demise of the Taxi.

Steve McNamara has to hold his hands up and publicly announced he was wrong to agree to such a toxic mandate.

 

Isabel Dedring is gone, but not forgotten.

The old TfL Board, which was infested with privateers, has been dispersed. We have a new TfL Board now.

The unctuous former Mayor of London has been given the task of cocking-up Britain's relationship with the rest of the world.

Most of the people who agreed upon this current TfL Credit Card Mandate are gone.

So please do not use the term 'set in stone', to fob us off.

 

The trade needs every Taxi Organisation to demand a rethink.

Taxi drivers are sick and tired of their Orgs doing nothing, but accepting the 'inevitable'.

We need to hear that the Orgs are willing to take to the streets, if need be.

 

We need the Orgs to publicly state that they believe the current TfL Credit Card Mandate scam is ill thought out and potentially dangerous.

We need the Orgs to state they accept the TfL Credit Card Mandate is unworkable.

We need the Orgs to state they recognise the law of the land over the misguided and unworkable mandate TfLTPH have concocted.

We need the Orgs to listen to their members.

 

 • The ITA wants card machines to be a mandatory piece of equipment for Taxis.

 • The ITA believes the fixed machine in the back of a cab should not be compulsory.

 • The ITA believes the choice of equipment should be that of the Taxi driver, not of the regulatory body.

 • The ITA believes the Taxi driver should be able to shop around for a card machine, and not have to sign expensive contracts.

 

When we revert back to the original reason behind the need for a card machine mandate, we come to a singularity; the need for taxis to accept credit and debit card payments.

All was well until the greedy people got wind of it, and realised they could earn some easy money off the backs of hard working Taxi drivers.

 

Whist PH minicab drivers can saunter around London, untouchable, breaking the law, and terrorising the public; Taxi drivers are being regulated by undemocratic, illegal and draconian methods, threatening their livelihoods and revocation of their licenses.

This has to stop!

 

It is time the Orgs got together and publicly announced their intention of a unified mass disobedience, and ignored the mandate.

Demanding that TfL and all the Orgs returned to the negotiating table and redressed this unmitigated sham.

 

If your Org refuses to act upon this manufactured travesty, leave them.

There are plenty of good Orgs out there who will welcome you with open arms.

 

Posted by,

The Independent Taxi Alliance

Nunquam redono nunquam deditionem

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Letter To Taxi Leaks : The Path Of Least Resistance

 

  

How about the London PHV get the same treatment as most of the other PHV up and down the country?

We are licensed to strict conditions, we have a plate in the rear and not a window sticker, we have insurance for the full plate term, we lose our license for plying for hire.

Around the country we are regulated just as strictly as the London Cabs and accept this because its what is needed for the industry.

If the Tfl are scared to upset the PC bregade on what they require for a license then put conditions on the vehicle. I doubt General Motors would kick up a fuss.

Stop being half pregnant and get a policy in place like Sheffield, Leeds or Birmingham... Then see how many flock to get a car licensed.

Remember, no law on human rights with vehicles!

 So make that the target with least resistance. 

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Letter To Taxi Leaks : Non compliance and double standards by Tfl true or false

Incredible though it seems, Tfl are blind to the fact that Uber and others within the PHV market appear to be above reproach....and the law. Some of these operators have even been handed awards by Tfl for excellence and innovation.

Note to self, more sponsorship next quarter I may even win an award.

So let's accept the fact they are being allowed to ply for immediate hire (electronically), which is illegal.

Let's swallow the fact that they charge their tariff on time and distance basis, using "a meter" with a twist, SURGING the price when busy, which although is not illegal, is immoral. 

Here is the latest scandal:

http://ift.tt/2bCG7w3

There are calls to ban car sharing but one dead victim, a passenger in a Tfl approved car, is just another "Body" perhaps.  

Collateral damage in the grand scheme of things between Tfl and the PHV industry:

We've seen the shocking statistic on sexual assaults including rapes. In addition, there's a plethora of other criminal offences being  committed 24/7 by minicab drivers. Not to mention road traffic acts offences, touting, harassment, personal fraud and the hacking of some individuals or company's accounts.

Uber do not have a suitable operators center in London. They have no landline for bookings, for assistance or complaints, again a non starter for applying for a PHV operators license. 

Fast tracked minicab drivers obtain a London license from Tfl in a heartbeat. By design, our Yellow badges suburban drivers are restricted to work locally, which is there choice and what they've worked to achieve. But when an Uber driver is licensed by Tfl, he can then, under cross boarder hiring rules, work all around the Uk. TfL know this but say nothing. They just keep dishing out the paper and taking in the money.

Here's another fact :

Why do tfl put a "STOP notice" on a Taxi  (takes you off the road, until you comply and represent your Taxi to their testing centres paying even more money into their coffers) for not having three of is it five 'No smoking' stickers in the cab. Yet if you present your cab without ashtrays, you fail their inspection. It just doesn't added up.

Any tolerance here? .... not even 1%

PHV owners pay their money and then do as they please.

Be lucky 

Tom Scullion

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