Taxi Leaks Readers Give Opinion On The Dave Davies Letter.

Dave
Formally seconded, some along with yourself have been campaigning for years for an inquiry.

The UTG didn't want to know, in my opinion in case they were excluded from the now proven meaningless consultations or in the case of the LTDA the lucrative recruitment opportunity of badge day, in effect they allowed TfL to corrupt their representative remit and render themselves impotent.

Others have come together, fallen out etc etc, some support policies publicly such as defining plying for hire or WAV yet undermine it in the shadows, you have either got a policy or you haven't, don't get your 'orchestras' caught on the fence!

Tariffs, cross border hirings, bogus documents, sexual assaults, tax avoidance, political interference and lots more all are subjects to be looked into.

I have previously called for a proper trade summit with an independent chair where surely no one would not want to sign up to our demand for an enquiry, let's have an all trades demo outside DfT, questions in the house etc etc. 

No bleating 'don't want to inconvenience anyone', or 'if their there we ain't coming' and all the rest of the tired old bullshit, all because someone might cancel their membership or yet another trade organisation' spring up.

Forget 'London is different' let's get the entire country involved for maximum impact, let's be clear the threat is existential to us all.

SIMPLE DEMANDS, ALL ON BOARD FOR THEM

MASSIVE AND CONTINUING ACTION UNTIL GOVERNMENT NATIONAL AND LOCAL HEEDS US!

I won't say the time is now, it's well overdue, will the leadership step up,? If not sweep them away! 

I'm Spartacus.

 .........................................................................

Great post, I will forward adjusted template letter on to my MP without fail.

I also agree with a fellow post responder about the tight arses who didn't pay into the crowd funding petition to raise funds for an enquiry but now think the time has come for a second serious crowdfunding collection petition especially with all the serious happenings at TFL since the last one and I am convinced that the mood in our workplace has driven a greater sense of fighting spirit and taxi trade camaraderie higher than it has been in all the time I can remember in the past.

A £25 fighting fund donation per cabdriver donation should sought & a numbered sticker should be issued similar to the ones cab drivers displayed after earlier drive-ins (I was there in the square etc) just to make each drivers donation feel significant, proud & displayed with pride... as it really has now become a seriously desperate fight for survival and that cannot be stated any louder.

Be Lucky

greenbadgejohn

 .........................................................................

Dear Sir,  

I am not a london black taxi driver but I fully support your trade.

I have on previous occasions sent letters to my MP Joan Ryan, expressing my concerns regarding the huge number of PH and the way uber and its 'partners' have been allowed to operate in our city.

Today, I have forwarded the letter by Dave Davies to her as my MP as requested on Taxileaks. 

Yours in support, 

Rosemarie Odell

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2eZfeGo
via IFTTT

Letter To Taxi Leaks : Taxi Trade Must Call For A Public Inquiry...by Dave Davies

London Thunderbird Taxis Are Go...

Watch our for five Thunderbirds taxis in London this weekend!

The publicity stunt hosted to celebrate the new series of ITV’s Thunderbirds Are Go, will see five traditional London black cabs transformed on October 22 and 23 into either Thunderbird 1,2,3 or 4. A tribute to Lady Penelope’s iconic six-wheeled pink Rolls Royce, FAB 1, will also be available to hire.

Each car will be transformed with wings, personalised number plates and what are being billed as ‘rockets’ – though even the Tracy family have to abide by the law. Scott Tracy, who drives Thunderbird One in the series, will give every passenger a mission and each cab will be driven by a take on Penelope’s Parker.

Thunderbirds Are Go is ITV’s reboot of Gerry Anderson’s classic Thunderbirds (1965) which continues to draw in new fans to the incredible Gerry Anderson original 51 years on from its original production.

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2efZ5dG
via IFTTT

Midnight Flash Demo, Joined By Exciting New LED AdVan.

Late last night, London's finest, decided to bring to public attention, the disgusting bias and agenda being waged against the Taxi trade by our licensing authority TfL

While TfL's PCOs visit mainline stations harassing hard working Taxi drivers with Badge and Bill checks and operation Neon officers casually saunter from McDonalds to Starbucks around Mayfair, illegal touts are openly touting, encouraged by TfL's lapsed attitude. One of the worse areas appear to be the Shoreditch High And surrounding streets.

It's being alleged by disgruntled Taxi drivers, that both TfL COs and City police are turning a blind eye, letting the touts clear the streets, because it's cheaper than actually policing the area and keeping the public safe. 

It's also alleged, 75% of all minicab sexual assault and rape victims, have been picked up outside clubs are bars in the Shoreditch area.

Concerned members of the Flash Demo group were joined by other groups such as the Dads Defending Daughters, Mayfair Mob and the ITA. Drivers assembled at Finsbury Square at 11:30 pm and on the stroke of midnight, made their way to Shoreditch, bringing the area to a complete standstill. 

The night time protest also saw the latest addition to the trades armoury, a LED screened AdVan. Financed by the brand new -driver owned, driver lead- TaxiApp. 

This latest Demo is the third in eight days. 

A spokesperson for the drivers said:

"We intend to step up our action now, and could be having three demos a week, eventually increasing to daily demos, if TfL keep choosing to ignore us."

The spokesperson went on to say:

"TfL must be worried, as all the different groups are uniting. The recent protests have also attracted support from the majority of trade representative orgs. The one thing TfL fear is our unity. There seems to be only one org who refuses to support the latest wave of action and there's no prizes for guessing which org that is.

"The police were initially caught out but were in good spirits and some even told protestors they supported our action."

 

"Initially the protests was kept between a small group of individual drivers, but word of mouth, surprisingly saw over 300 drivers turned up".

As the protest dispersed, drivers were adamant that more flash style action needs to take place, as a compliment to main line demonstrations.

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2efslRB
via IFTTT

Friends In High Places...by I'm Spartacus

Good piece on the landline, but it goes deeper, much deeper.

If anyone would care to visit politico.eu you'll find an article on there from a chap called Daniel Korski which is a list of reasons why Brexit triumphed leading to the demise of Cameron.

Daniel Korski is a self confessed policy wonk and free marketeer (although quite who is made free has never been clear to me apart from the rich free to pay the poor less), anyhow this chap worked for Cameron in number 10 on policy matters at a senior level.

The second paragraph in his article stated that they (Cameron and the In campaign) used Uber's 'customer' base for propaganda in some way yet explained.

We know from FOI that this chap Korski was on the circulation list of correspondence about Uber from Leon Daniels of TfL and that Leon attended meetings with Korski.

Why is a TfL official copying him in?

We know again from FOI there was significant telephone and email traffic to and from 'Dear Jo' at Uber from Daniels including on a Sunday morning.

These are the facts as we know them.

So we can attempt in a vacuum to join the dots up, we can reasonably speculate that these conversations weren't about inadequate driver checks, non insurance, tax avoidance etc etc and the need to stop this.

Any answers Leon?

We can speculate that that the licensing authority seemed happy to risk the livelihoods and living standards of many thousands of their licensees and endanger the public for someone's short term political gain.

Again Leon, we are not alleging anything just seeking clarity.

It certainly makes the call for a high level parliamentary enquiry essential and to have Korski, Daniels, Bertram and if need be Cameron before the committee.

That is certainly something both us and PH must call for TODAY, this is about democracy, rule of law and the possible subversion of the impartial quasi judicial licensing process, again we allege nothing but we seek the truth.

What of Korski and Cameron?

Cameron has been described as the worst prime minister for a hundred years (that is saying something!) and he is disappearing into well heeled obscurity, but it's the obscurity he won't like but it's well deserved.

Korski remains active, obviously an intelligent chap but on reading his article, he doesn't seem to have the wisdom to truly grasp the dynamics at play and makes the common mistake of politicos blaming the delivery of the message for the failure rather than the fundamental flaw of the message.

We're still here, bloodied but unbowed, we will still be here when the EU, Cameron, Daniels, TfL and  Uber are long forgotten.

Why?

We're just much better at our jobs than they are or were!

I'm Spartacus

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2eeF1uE
via IFTTT

TfL To Drop Requirement For Private Hire Operator To Have A LandLine. Ignoring Consultation Result

Someone pinch me please....is it really 2016.

After reading be latest diatribe spewed out from Blackfriars, I'm truly beginning to think we a stuck in 1984, or living in North Korea. 

For 4 1/2 years TfL have continued with a light fingered approach and ignored, Uber's reluctance to conform to regulations set down by acts of Parliament in a number of Hackney Carriage acts, Cab Orders and the PHV act 1998. 

Number one on the long list of noncompliance must be the failure to insure their drivers were fully insured, closely followed by them never having an accessible landline for pre bookings and customer contact (a requirement for licensing as a PH operator and covered by the PHV act 1998)

Let's not forget the jaw dropping sage as Managing Director of Surface Transport Leon Daniels explained to a benign GLA Transport committee, all about a mythical on off insurance policy (which according to the Association of British insurers never existed in the first place). 

This then lead on to more lies about Uber's landline which when asked by GLA members to supply, he said 'haven't got it to hand right now', then on a subsequent occasion,  supplied the private number of Uber's director of operations, saying it was the illusive pre booking line. 

When pointed out who was at the end of the line, Daniels added 'it wasn't mentioned in the act that the landline had to be a permanency'. Much concern has been shown over this issue, so TfL in their infinite wisdom, held a consultation. 

Now we find in light of the consultation, even though the majority voted to keep the landline requirement, TfL have decided to drop it, saying they feel the consultation could have been filled out by aggrieved Taxi drivers. 

Meanwhile we've had to watch PH applicants licensed with fake medicals, fake topographic test passes, not being in possession of Hire and Reward insurance.

While we've been harassed for over ranking, we've seen compliance walk by PHV's openly plying for hire, sometimes sitting on licensed Taxi ranks....and while all this has been going on, Licensed Taxi regulations have been updated and will be vigorously enforced by a new army of compliance, no prisoners will be taken. 

We've been told:

 •You will take CC

 •You will take contactless payments

 •You will absorb transaction and incidental charges

 •You will gave a paper, printed receipt

 •You will remove all previous stickers 

 •You will replace with TfL authorised stickers

 •You will buy a Purpose built electric Taxi vehicle

The list seems to be never ending. 

If all this wasn't ridiculous enough, we come to yesterday's unbelievable edit from TfLTPH, who now informs us 

You cannot refuse Scottish notes

News to the Bank of England's banking code on legal tender.

 Can you see the pattern unfolding here?

As Taxi regulation are aggressively tightened up, private hire regulation has being relaxed. And where legislation seemed to be solid, TfL top officers have coached Uber on how to circumnavigate you regulations. 

So why do we find ourselves in this uncomfortable position?

Uber's licence runs out in the spring of next year. TfL and the Mayor office are reluctant to take any action that may halt issue of a Uber's renewal. So any action against uber will be postponed until after they are relicensed. 

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2dsambr
via IFTTT

Taxi Vigilante Catches Two Uber Cars (Licensed by TfL) Illegally Working Egham Railway Station, in Surrey.

Salvatore Barrile has been a Hackney Carriage driver for 16 years in Surrey - and said the situation was bigger than many might think

A self-styled "vigilante Uber hunter" has been filming himself as he takes-on what he claims are illegally-parked taxi drivers parking in disabled bays.

Salvatore Barrile, alongside a group of taxi drivers "fighting for their livelihoods", has been challenging private hire drivers parking illegally in taxi rank bays at Egham Railway Station, in Surrey. 

The 46-year-old, who has been a Hackney Carriage driver for 16 years in Runnymede borough, said the situation was bigger than many might think.

"It isn't just parking on non-authorised taxi bays."

Mr Barrile has documented his woes with drivers over the months, taking pictures and video of various cars parking in both disabled and taxi bays, 

A spokesman for the national taxi hailing mobile app said he "believed" both taxis featured in Mr Barrile's videos were "Uber Partners".

Meanwhile, the Transport For London Taxi and Private Hire vehicle checker was able to verify both taxis in the video are licenced in London, meaning the two drivers caught on camera were carrying out trips in the Runnymede area.

A spokesman for Uber added the company "will remind drivers that have carried out pre-booked trips from Egham Station where they are able to park".

Uber drivers fall into the Private Hire Vehicles category of taxi licencing rules which means that, once a licence is obtained, the holder can "take pre-booked jobs in an area covering a radius from that borough" according to advisory literature on the Runnymede Borough Council website.

This means in boroughs which do allow Uber drivers to operate such as Windsor, Maidenhead, London Boroughs and Woking, the holder can then use their licence in "a radius" from that area.

But Mr Barrile believes these rules make a "mockery" of the licencing system.

"As a taxi licenced by Runnymede, I have to follow all the regulations including a topographic knowledge test of the area, proof that I can drive safely by doing a driving test too," he said.

A self-styled "vigilante Uber hunter" has been filming himself as he takes-on what he claims are illegally-parked taxi drivers parking in disabled bays.

Salvatore Barrile, alongside a group of taxi drivers "fighting for their livelihoods", has been challenging private hire drivers parking illegally in taxi rank bays at Egham Railway Station, in Surrey. 

The 46-year-old, who has been a Hackney Carriage driver for 16 years in Runnymede borough, said the situation was bigger than many might think.

"We are getting flooded by Uber drivers coming from all over," he said. "It is going on every day. I just hope people understand the effect Uber is having on our livelihood

And in the meantime, all those drivers coming from outside the area don't have to follow any of these regulations."

He also claims Uber is "overworking" its drivers by making them work "over 16-hour days", an allegation refuted by an Uber spokesman.

"Licensed private hire drivers who use the Uber App are independent contractors who are free to log into the app when and where they choose," he said. 

The spokesman added the average number of hours a driver has logged onto the Uber app is 28 hours-a-week.

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2ewsyho
via IFTTT