Woefully Incompetent From TfLTPH, Over Credit Card Acceptance Mandate .... By Jim Thomas.

I woke up to the sound of the postman banging on my door. It seems I had a very large package that wouldn't go through my letter box. Inside were the new stickers TfL is expecting me to put up all over my Taxi. Also included were covering letters explaining where these stickers must be placed.

They are expecting me to comply, or face getting a stop note from their new army of over 300 compliance officers, taken on not to make sure Private Hire are complying with their PHV act 1998, but to insure we are carrying out Helen Chapmans and their financially interested third parties wishes.

Brushing aside the obvious safety compromising issues, in their infinite wisdom, TfL insist from 1st Jan 2017 every taxi must have a fixed CC reader in the rear of the vehicle.

I have been taking credit cards quite happily for many years with no problem or complaint from customers. TfLTPH are now informing my passengers to complain if they experience any problem with me and not only that, they even supply a " special phone number* " ... Just incase passengers have any difficulty getting drivers to accept Contactless payments. 

We can't even get a special phone number to complain about drivers waiting on licence renewals. 

Now look carefully at the 

" special phone number* "

Believe it or not, it carries a service charge !!!

How come TfL can charge a service charge and we can't ?

Why haven't they used a freephone number ?

One rule for TfL to charge a service charge, but another rule forcing us to absorb all transaction charges.

Taxi Leaks would like to take this opotunity to say that nowhere in the covering letter, does it stipulate that drivers 'must' accept card payments of any kind. They may have mandated this using an act passed in the nineteenth century, but have failed to inform the 25,000 Hackney carriage Taxi drivers living in the 21st century.

Talking of ancient legislation, didn't TfL once say they couldn't enforce against Uber's virtual plying for hire through their app, as the technology didn't exist when the act of 1998 was written. 

Can Helen Chapman please show me an illustration of a credit card reader from around 1847 ?

While we're on the subject of new technology, not all drivers are on Twitter, not every driver reads trade publications. Not one word on the legallity of TfL's mandate in the covering letters.

They may have posted on Twitter and it may be on their website, but not every driver has a smart phone or computer. 

Twitter just doesn't cover it Ms Chapman, you need to write to every Taxi driver, laying out in detail, how TfL can mandate payment and insist on rear fitment of equipment. Also we need to know the legislation that gives TfL the right to insist we take un-guaranteed contactless card payments. 

And, as if this wasn't bad enough....wait till you see the media campaign LTPH are putting together.

You only have to look at the mess they made of the Cabwise campaign. 

LETTER TO TAXI LEAKS FROM GREENBADGE JOHN :

As I write this message thousands of drivers will be receiving a large pack of instructions and stickers from TFL with threatening ultimatums but ironically paid for through our license fees....what a waste of our hard earned money eh?, I have not yet received mine but I do have a post office delivery notice through my door (the package is too big for the letterbox) stating I have 18 days to retrieve it from the sorting office.... yeh right.

I have been fighting tooth and nail about the nonsensical involvement TFL has illegally and unconstitutionally placed itself into and how the whole fiasco will ultimately end.

Yet TFL continues to plug away down the forceful route with no statutory duty in UK law to compel a private business (you) to accept credit or debit card payments so TFL separately threaten our vehicle licensing not having it fitted and strangely refusal for not accepting in the vehicle (two different legal points) as it seems how the legal bodies in our trade have distanced themselves on assumed promises of the greater good of the overall trade without first closing the clearest open wound of safety to the drivers let alone open day for major fraud losses it is therefore not a good day for a vote on strength of protest within the London Taxi trade to date.

Every driver must do themselves a favour NOW... by creating a separate unlinked & cheaper personal account for taking your own chosen suppliers for card payments, and never use the equipment being forced upon you by TFL a dreadful oppressive regime who take our license fees and spend it with such disrespect & frivolity they need to be taught a lesson by being given a bloody nose on this whole messed up over involved issue.

If a card is declined for any reason after a driver has supplied a service a driver must seek compensation for losses forced upon them by TFL's forced involvement and practically aided and abetted it, this is simply not (as TfL will try to argue) the same as being bilked because you have the legal right to ask any potential passenger for a deposit if you choose & refuse if they wont pay so this will be no different on advance card payments particularly if no percentage of the perceived estimate for the journey is stated, you can simply choose 90% and the balance can be paid by a 10% final transaction.

This precaution is clearly not necessary to a high number of your passengers, but we all know through job experience who makes the hairs on your neck stand up and you will not need any excuses at the journeys end & it will be deposit validation clearance option for out of the Met or expensive rides in certain circumstances as allowed by law.

This whole stupidly derived Mandate will eventually die a death like card printers and retro emission fitments, simply because of a financially over obtrusiveness by TFL who have this time idiotically swam out to far in the sea of bull $hit and are seeking a small but crafty percentage of self interested greedy suppliers trying to corner a huge chunk of a now corrupted market argue the glossy points for them without any sympathy for safety whatsoever and remember this..., 

THESE SUPPLIERS ARE GOING TO CHARGE A MONTHLY FEE on top of all they sell you now, I cant emphasise that any clearer and TFL are backing them up whether your machine works or not, but your vehicle will be deemed unfit and the package TFL have sent out today contains in taxi signs for passengers to report you if you refuse card payments.... so reach out and use your own personal up front reader and watch the cobwebs will render the forcibly fitted equipment useless.

Be Lucky

greenbadgejohn (on twitter)

Editorial comment: 

John, I have a guarantee from CMT that no rental charges will be put in place, no matter how little you use their equipment throughout the 3 year contract. 

But 3 years down the line is anothe matter. 

It is almost certain next year, TfL will mandate card readers will have to be connected to the meter.....this will leave drivers who have invested over £400 for independent machines, cradles and Bluetooth printers will be left high and dry. 

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London's Mayor Tells American Business, "London's Open". You Couldn't Make It Up....by Gerald Coba.

Saw this story, posted on Twitter earlier today. I found it quite amusing after hearing our 'BullShit Mayor,' telling the businesses in New York andChicago 'London's Open'

@TfLTPH have a read from my job yesterday as this is only beginning because of your sheer incompetence & the future… 

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LTDA Branch Meeting 13th October, A Call For Questions From Members To Be Answered.

The next LTDA branch meeting, will be held Primrose a Hill Community Association, 29 Hopkinsons Place NW1 8TN, on Thursday the 13th October at 7pm. 

Items on the agenda will include General Secretary's report, future branch guest speakers and most important answers to members questions. 

Below is a list of questions put together by w number of concerned members, who wold like full and comprehensive answers to be given at the Primrose hill meeting. the list was compiled because of time restraints. Therefore the list has now been delivered to Taxi house. We also ask that written answers to here important questions be available at the branch meeting on the 13th.

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LTPH To Allow Addison Lee The Right To Use a The Word Taxi To Advertise There Minicab App.

Again, we see TfLTPH bending over backwards to facilitate a 'private hire operator' circumnavigate statutory legislation laid down by Parliament. 

 

Have you ever wondered what LTPH's legal department do to earn their money, well so have we. 

In our opinion it doesn't appear to be protecting the taxi trade against PH companies illegal offering their services, describing themselves as a Taxi service. 

Taxi Leaks first reported UbiCabs well over 4 years ago for advertising minicabs as a Taxi service. We made repeated complaints over a 11 month period to LTPH, but got just one reply from John Mason saying his team would look into it.
We are still waiting to find out what "his team" are going to do about this issue.

What is a taxi?
In a letter from The Department for Transport, Paragraph 4 reads “your subsequent e-mail asked for the legal definition of a taxi……A taxi is a vehicle licensed under Section 37 Of The Town Police Clauses Act 1847…. This is a hackney carriage Act, so a taxi is a hackney carriage.

The Miscellaneous Provisions Act defines a private hire vehicle as a motor vehicle constructed or adapted to seat fewer than nine passengers, other than a hackney carriage.
Substituting the word taxi for hackney carriage it becomes clear that a private hire vehicle is...a motor vehicle constructed or adapted to seat fewer than nine passengers, other than a taxi.
Therefore there cannot be a “private hire taxi” or a “taxi private hire”.

Mr. James Button licensing solicitor agrees in this book that taxi is "not a generic word" as this legal definition of taxi has been consistently used in every Act since the 1980 Road Transport Act. 

A FEW TWEETS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED :

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TaxiApp Goes Live Today

Thursday 6th October 2016 see’s the launch of a new Taxi App, “oh no not another app” I hear you say, well yes, another app but this time it is different from the previous offerings.

Previously all of the apps that have been aimed at Taxi drivers have been from Corporate companies backed by Venture Capitalists looking to earn a profit off the back of the hard working Taxi driver.

Well this new app is different, their are no investors, no venture capitalists, no CEO’s on outrageous salaries, nope, it has been set up as a Not for Profit company.

The app is simply called Taxi App and has been set up by a small group of passionate London taxi drivers who believe in the future of our 360 year old trade.

Taxi App will also operate in a different way to other apps, there will be no commission charged on any job, so no 10% or 13.5% deductions from your earnings, the fare on the meter at the end of the journey is yours to keep.

So how will Taxi App operate? drivers will be charged a subscription of £5 per week, so it doesn’t matter if you accept jobs totalling £400 or more in a week, all you will ever pay is £5 per week.

Is there any work on the app you ask? Well lets be honest, to start with of course not, there have been a few jobs go through the app but without any money to promote the app to the public the steering team will have to wait until funds start to build up before they can embark on any promotions.

I have, for over 5 years, been extolling the virtues of the London taxi trade owning and controlling its own app, there has always been the worry that the existing apps want to control the trade so that they can manipulate the trade to maximise their profits, and if one investor backed app gained market share within London then where would that leave the working driver? They can remove a driver from the app at will leaving you without part of your income that you may well have become used to earning.

This is the app that our trade has been crying out for, an app for drivers, run by drivers with no one creaming any profit off the top, but it needs as many drivers as possible to get involved.

There is a caveat, it needs you the driver to sign up and be available for work on the app, it also needs you to promote the app to every potential taxi customer.

There is no point in saying “I will sign up once there is some work on the app” it doesn’t work like that. to make this work there needs to initially be an oversupply of drivers to service the customers. When a customer uses the app to order a Taxi there needs to be one available otherwise that customer may never use the app again.

Taxi App is not looking to convert the street hailing passenger, far from it they want to encourage customers to use street hailing when and where possible but to use Taxi App when they are in a location where Taxis do not normally drive past.

Any surplus income from subscriptions over and above the operating costs of Taxi App will be reinvested to promote the London taxi trade as Taxi App does not need to make a profit, the app has been set up purely for the benefit of the working taxi driver in London.

If you value your job and this trade you have nothing to lose but everything to gain, what is a fiver, 2 Costa coffee’s, less than a packet of cigarettes. Taxi App needs you the driver to sign up for the App, work the App and promote the App.

To find out more about Taxi App or to sign up please click here

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Cycle Superhighway Lanes Are Strangling The Life Out Of London Square Mile Struggling With Recent Closures.

Traffic jams in the Square Mile are being made worse because road space has been lost to make way for Cycle Superhighway routes, according to a report by the City of London Corporation.

Officials say that extra room needed to accommodate bike-only lanes running into the City, installed to protect cyclists, means there is less space to re-route traffic when problems arise, such as street closures for construction sites and emergency roadworks.

There were nearly 500 applications for roads to be shut in the City last year, the highest number since 2008, which added pressure to the dwindling amount of carriageway available.

It comes as Tower Bridge began three months of closure to vehicles this week, with drivers complaining of “complete gridlock” as they struggled to cross the river.

Further construction to extend a north-south portion of the Cycle Superhighway cutting through the City is due to begin in the spring.

But a report, due to be heard by the City’s policy and resources committee tomorrow, complains there are already extra “pockets of congestion” linked to space lost from cycle lanes.

The report says: “The most significant impact on the City’s road network in the last 12 months has been the construction and subsequent operation of TfL’s cycle super highway, and although it is too early to reach definitive conclusions, observations would suggest that areas of traffic congestion can frequently be found on those roads directly affected by the scheme, and a degree of network resilience to absorb other temporary activities has been lost as road capacity has been reallocated.”

The report gives the example of Newgate Street’s closure for gas works, when traffic would normally be re-routed to Ludgate Circus, but the Cycle Superhighway meant “traffic congestion was greater than previously experienced”, the report says.

Due to a “surge in development activity”, the corporation received 494 applications for road closures this year, compared to 382 last year and 232 the year before.

It is likely to compound the woes of drivers and cyclists on Tower Bridge sent on diversion routes over London Bridge and Southwark Bridge, who posted photographs of Twitter showing heavy traffic at a standstill and complained about increased pollution.

Neil Coyle, Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, tweeted it was “complete gridlock on Bermondsey St, Tooley St & beyond in SE1”, while Leni Candan, a digital communications freelancer, added how it was a “struggle to breathe through all the car fumes” caused by idling traffic affected by the Tower Bridge closure.

Pedestrians and cyclists wheeling their bikes are still allowed to walk over the bridge for the time being.

A City of London Corporation spokesman said: “The City of London Corporation is supportive of the Cycle Superhighways in principle.

“We are working hard to encourage workers and residents of the Square Mile to cycle and walk more regularly, with the aim of 10 per cent of City workers walking or cycling to work by 2030.

“We are looking at ways to improve the flow of the City's roads and work closely with TfL to ensure Cycle Superhighways fit into the City as smoothly as possible.”

MANY COUNCILS FINALLY WAKING UP TO THIS PROBLEM THATS KILLING LONDONERS 

Source : Evening Standard. 

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UCG letter to Sadiq Khan demanding action following the Sun exposure of corrupt GPs selling PH medical certificates.

Dear Mr Khan

As I am sure you are aware  The Sun recently printed an article by Jake Ryan exposing alleged corruption concerning medicals for Private Hire and Uber drivers.

Three GPs are said to have taken bribes to supply an 'all clear' medical report based on  ,at best,  a paucity of medical tests and in one case 'No tests at all'

This ,as Im sure you will agree ,has put many members of the public at risk and must be thoroughly investigated as a matter of great urgency.

It is beyond comprehension how TFL has allowed this to happen . When I, as a licensed taxi driver, have my triennial Medical Examination it must be with a GP who has known me for at least 12 months, however it would appear that a PH driver may go to any Doctor ,even one who does not know the applicants medical history and leave with an 'all clear' certificate.

On December 5th 2015 Muhiddin Mire attacked passengers at Leytonstone underground station and cut he throat of Lyle Zimmerman ,an innocent bystander.

It transpired that Mr Mire had a long history of mental illness and yet was granted a PH licence by TFL and consequently worked for Uber.

After much stalling and refusing to answer a UCG members question as to whether Mr Mire had undergone a medical check prior to licensing ,TFL eventually but blandly replied that he 'had a medical assessment with a registered practitioner '. The Doctors exposed by Mr Ryan were 'registered practitioners' and it begs the question did Mr Mire visit one of the corrupt GPs ? and were the GP vetted by TFL before  being allowed to issue a medical certificate to the standard of the DVLA 2 requirements ?

You will recall that some Topographical Test Centres were closed down after the,shall we say, less than rigorous testing of applicants was exposed and all those who received a PH license through those disgraced centres were required to re-sit the tests with a large number failing !  How many PH drivers would now fail a full medical assessment carried out by a GP whose integrity cannot be bought fo £50 ?

It would appear that a full investigation is needed into the whole PH Licensing Outsourcing fiasco . It is 'not fit for purpose ', which  coincidentally is the same phrase leveled at TFL by Val Shawcross and the GLA last year  and yet the same 'not fit for purpose ' staff remain in place. !

The United Cabbies Group would like to know what you, as Mayor and TFL, as regulator intend to do about this appalling situation as revealed by  Mr Ryan

Will you confirm that ALL PH drivers who have received medical certificates from the GPs identified by Mr Ryan will have their licences suspended pending a medical by a GP who has known the applicant for a minimum of 12 months and if they have not been resident in Britain for twelve months , by a GP approved by the General Medical Council  or Royal College of General Practitioners ?

Secondly, will you confirm that any PH driver suspected of complicity in obtaining a medical certificate by deception will have his license revoked with immediate effect and prosecuted.

Finally , TFL have not yet revealed the most recent Sexual Assault figures , even though they were due for publication on Sept 20th. I must request that you direct TFL to release the data without delay.

Please let us know , within 7 days , of your intended course of action to address the above concerns.

Should we receive no reply within 7 days we will have no alternative but to ballot our members for a vote on a return to sustained direct action.

The previous administration abrogated their responsibility to public safety  and were branded ' Woefully Inadequate  by Val Shawcross and the GLA.

The finest cab trade in the world is fast losing confidence in the present  regulator as are the general public.

We now look to you to offer not just an Adequate regulatory body but an Exemplary one .

Kind regards

Angela Clarkson

Secretary
United Cabbies Group 

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