York Businessman Speaks Out In Support Local Taxis, As He Implores People Not To Use Uber.

Standing outside his Micklegate nightclub, Andrew Whitney saw several Uber drivers picking up fares – but none of the cars was registered in York.

It prompted Andrew to livestream an impassioned plea for residents to boycott US-based Uber and use the city’s long-established taxi firms.

And that Facebook video has clocked up nearly 6,000 views and won praise from many York people concerned about the impact of Uber on taxis in York.

Andrew, who owns the Mansion club on Micklegate, as well as the Whippet Inn restaurant on North Street, told YorkMix: “The taxi system in York has never failed us. It didn’t fail us during Royal Ascot at York. It didn’t fail us during the Tour de France.

“The Uber drivers are only appearing en masse on a Friday or Saturday night. All they’re doing is coming over and taking the cream from the people that support us seven nights a week".

...

Andrew said "if people use Uber it’ll lead to taxi firms laying off call takers as well as drivers. Half the people who view the video will probably know a taxi driver who lives on their street".

Meanwhile the Uber drivers from out of town don’t have the local knowledge: in the comments under Andrew’s video people reported seeing drivers going the wrong way down one-way streets.

Andrew claimed that £3 of every £10 Uber fare goes to the global company which doesn't pay proper taxi or VAT in this country and the rest is going out of York to the drivers from other cities.

His video sparked a debate, with some residents saying they found Uber convenient and cost-effective. But others agreed with him.

Steve Sholder posted on FaceBook: 

“Answer this, would you rather your daughter got a local York taxi home or get a uber car where the driver lives 60 miles away and hasn’t got a clue where he is in York

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An extra 60 Hyundai ix35 Hydrogen Fuel Cell taxis for Paris

A taxi fleet of five Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell electric taxis run by Société du Taxi Electrique Parisien is about to grow by 60 and will soon reach hundreds.

Hyundai’s latest pitch for ‘Green’ motoring has focussed around the new Ioniq and its choice of Hybrid, plug-in hybrid or BEV powertrains.

But even if it looks like Hyundai are playing the BEV game, despite eschewing it back in 2011, that’s because they really have no choice but to pursue what others are pursuing, even if the core belief in BEVs is missing. A bit like Toyota, really.

But alongside the Ioniq BEV and hybrids, Hyundai are still producing the world’s first mass-produced, commercially available hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle in the Hyundai ix35 FCEV, and we’re about to see a chunk more on the roads of Paris.

The world’s largest FCEV taxi fleet currently consist of five ix35 FCEVs run by Société du Taxi Electrique Parisien (STEP ) in Paris, but at the opening of a new hydrogen refuelling centre at Hyundai’s European HQ in Germany an MOU has been signed to deliver a further 60 ix35 FCEVs as Paris taxis.

Thomas A. Schmid, Hyundai’s COO in Europe, said:

STEP and Hyundai Motor have committed to bring 60 additional ix35 Fuel Cell taxis to the streets of Paris. Not only will the fuel cell taxis provide a clean transportation solution for the city, they are also a practical, comfortable and reliable choice for drivers and passengers.

It’s a drop in the ocean of replacing the 17,000 predominantly diesel taxis roaming Paris streets in search of a fare, but even if you’re sceptical about the amount of damage CO2 does, you can’t deny it’s good to get rid of particulates from the atmosphere in cities produced by diesel-engined transport.

Paradoxically, despite long believing hydrogen power is the future, we’ve long believed the best place for BEVs is as taxis in city environments.

Editorial Comment, From Gerald Coba

So, is this a vehicle that could save the Taxi trade?

No wheelchair accommodation ! 

But then, TfLs two wheelchair using board members seem to be quit happy to see no considerate wheelchair access to a fully pedestrianised Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road. 

Dr Alice Maynard CBE and Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE.

In fact, when Taxi Leaks asked , Tanni Grey-Thompson to support a campaign against pedestrianisation, she said "well I have no trouble getting about Westfield and don't need to be dropped right outside each shop entrance". Nice words, from an ex-Olympian Tanni ! Unfortunately not every wheelchair user is an Olympic athlete. 

Only holds 4 passengers....hasn't put people off getting in a Prius !

No 25ft turning circle but with more and more no U-turn signs going up, perhaps the fact we could turn on a sixpence should be consigned to the past.

Having a hydrogen fuel cell zero emission vehicle has the added advantage of not having to queue up to connect to one of TfL board member Michael Liebreich's fast charging stations. 

It's may not be an iconic shape, but having an iconic shape is currently doing us no favours. 

We are a dying trade, and our iconic Taxi is not saving us, as passengers are deserting us in huge numbers for Prius'

They don't care about icons

They don't care about personal safety 

They don't care that the driver has no clue where he's going

They don't care about background checks 

They don't care about drivers mental health 

They don't care about the horrendous number of passenger sexual assaults and rapes. 

Now for the answer to most drivers question 

How much ?

Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell.

Price £53,105 OTR; Engine 100kW fuel cell stack & 24kW hybrid battery; Power 100kW (134bhp); Torque 221lb ft; 0-62mph 12.5sec; Top speed 100mph; Range 369 miles; Gearbox single-speed automatic; Kerb weight 1830kg; CO2 zero.

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Letter To Taxi Leaks : Harry Wall Points Out TfL Board Members Conflicts Of Interest.

Jamie Hawes works out of Heathrow and recently discovered the credit card machines TFL have approved for cabs were supplied by Worldpay, whose vice chairman happens to be a Ron Kalifa. 

This man is also a newly drafted in member of the TFL board.

Obviously, he and Worldpay stand to earn a considerable chunk of money from this but, for some reason, TFL failed to mention it when they announced plans to force this on us.

This got me thinking so I decided to do some digging myself.

I looked at TFL's board members including their registered interests and found some interesting stuff.

Firstly:

Sadiq Khan is Chair. 

His brother Arif works for Hays Recruitment and has been assigned to TFL as an infrastructure engineer.

He's brother-in-law, Tahir Ahmad is director of Project Leaders LTD, a management consultancy with Network Rail.

 

Second:

Ron Kalifa, as stated above is vice chairman of Worldpay.

This is a card payment company that TFL has approved for use in cabs. What I discovered was that he has an interest in the growth of contactless payments and pre-pay cards, something TFL have been keen to promote.

Third: Dr. Lynn Sloman.

She's founder and director of Transport for Quality of Life and specialises in all things green. Amongst her company's clients are Department of Transplant UK, London Borough of Southwark and curiously ASLEF, RMT, TSSA and Unite.

She's also a board member of cycling England.

Fourth:

Michael Liebreich.

Chairman of Bloomberg Advisory Board of New Energy Finance. He's also a director of Pearlshare, a travel app but more interesting is that he's a director of Chargepoint Inc.

This is a company based in US and supplies charging stations for electric vehicles, it's one of the largest vehicle charging networks in the world.

Any alarm bells ringing??

Add to this lot in pic number three, paragraph 3.4 you'll notice that Bob Oddy and Steve Wright have been removed and are no longer on the board of TFL. They have not been replaced with anyone from the Taxi trade. 

So in summary, in-spite of his promise to save the cab trade, Sadiq Khan has 

• Sorted his family out, brought a man in to force in the CC issue and fleece us of thousands 

• Bought in a woman who is obviously green mad and bent on making London a cyclists paradise whilst strangling it to death.

• Appointed another who's destined to make millions from installing charging stations that we'll be paying for to power up the cabs we're being forced to buy. 

And all of this is happening without any representation from our trade being allowed on the TFL board.

Now, in light of what you've just read can anyone honestly feel that Sadiq is still our man?

 

The right people are being menouvered into the right positions in order to slam shut any possibility of a return to the trade we remember.

The media once again slammed us for disrupting people's lives last Tuesday, with never a mention of the shattered wreckage of our lives left from the wake of 16 failed TFL years. 

I don't believe Tuesday's demo was the success it hailed to be.

The police controlled it from start to finish with great effect. Those in Whitehall were naturally jubilant at their efforts, especially delivering a letter to no.10 as they should be but London was not locked up as it should've been and in that respect I was disappointed as were others.

Add to that the drivers (scabs) that were working despite a demo state being obvious and I think a new approach needs to be put into motion.

It's plain to see TFL, Khan and co. have no interest in us whatsoever. 

As with all politicians, his promises were obviously made just for the campaign and in reality complete bullshit, there's no other explanation. 

TfL are still churning out an extra 600+ PH per week, still Uber accidents each day, etc, etc. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAS CHANGED.!!

Christmas is looming which will be closely followed by January, eventually followed by May with Uber's license renewal date. I'd say if we carry on with the current plan of being good, predictable little cabbie chappies that renewal is cut and dried. 

We need to change tack, take back control of demos, control of our ranks and control of our future. 

The orgs are bound by procedures, due process, rules, regulations and time, they do their best. But time is a luxury we don't have. 

We must make what little we have left count. 

 

It's clear to so many people that we need to bring London's corporate giant down to a fair fighting level, one where the odds and laws are not stacked in their favour. 

A fair level playing field with everyone playing to the same rules, that's all we want. Up to now we tried to use the law to fight our corner but it's failed and I think we've been duped into the trick of misdirection. 

While we've gone down the legal route, our enemies have been laying the groundwork for their future in our trade, e.g., Worldpay and Chargepoint Inc.

I was recently described as an angry man, I am.

I'm angry at TFL, Uber, the general publics desertion of us, the orgs, those within our trade who've not proved as genuine as they should....But most of all I'm ashamed at the cab trade for allowing this to happen. 

The trade's full of fairly hard men who stand for no nonsense at all yet as a trade, with the obvious exception of the demonstration faithful, we really are gutless. Much to TFL's joy.

As a New Years resolution can we all do something that I've never seen in 23 years and actually come together, stand up and fight for something we all earned the right to do on the Knowledge. 

Show some bulldog spirit and take our future back from those greedy, vile, thieving bastards who suck the lifeblood from the working class because nobody says no.

If we all say no and stand firm 2017 could be a good year instead of just being insignificant like last year, and the year before that. 

The orgs will say great strives have been made and to some degree that's true, but it's not enough because we're still struggling.

As I've said many times before, we have no friends in high places so it's all down to us. 

On Sunday we had the remembrance services in Whitehall, a day of pride and remembrance and as usual hundreds of cabbies gave up their time to ferry old soldiers round London free of charge, but you won't see that in City AM. 

You will see the disruption we caused on Tuesday though because that's what we're up against, the power of misdirection illustrated right there.

The media have that power but if we create so much disruption, in much greater numbers they can't ignore us when we try and get our points across. 

The damage we could inflict on London could be so severe the public would demand an in depth explanation, therefore giving all media outlets no option but to allow us to speak unhindered.

Perhaps I'm talking crap but we're no further forward than we were this time last year, so what have we got to lose?

Drive safe and be lucky

Harry Wall.

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A Safer Solution, To Traveling With A Small Child In A Taxi.... From @beltupbaby

Taxi Leaks recently received this letter from Juliette Whiting, a young mother of two small children. 

As a regular Taxi user, she was dismayed to find the only solution to traveling in a Taxi, or on public transport with a small child (should you find yourself without a child seat) is to sit with the child on your lap.

She tried to find a safer option on the market, but there appeared to be nothing suitable. So Juliette along with friend Sharon Cave, decided to design their own solution. 

Please take a minute or two to read her letter and visit the website.

Letter To Editor:

My name is Juliette Whiting and I am a mother of two. I have travelled many times in a Taxi with nowhere but my lap to hold my young one.

As a responsible parent I always tried to take a car seat with me however, I regularly found myself in circumstances where this simply wasn’t feasible. 

I was often abroad and using a taxi to explore the local attractions or simply go shopping, knowing that it would be physically impossible to lug a car seat around with me, especially having a hundred and one other things to contend with! I was convinced that there had to be something on the market that would resolve this problem.  

However, after thorough searching to my surprise, there was nothing. I turned to my husband Charlie, who with his many years experience of developing safety systems in Formula 1, came up with an initial design.

I showed this to my friend Sharon who told me that she had also found herself in similar situations and, from there, we embarked on the Belt up Baby project and this is where our journey began.

We started by making a prototype on my kitchen table which, over time, was followed by some field trials, some initial sled testing and then full scale crash tests.

>CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL SCALE CRASH TEST<

The tests were all carried out at TRL, the leading UK laboratory for child restraint system research.

We now have a product that has been proven to significantly reduce the risk of injury and can help save the lives of the ones most precious to us.

> CLICK HERE FOR WEBSITE<

Belt up Baby are looking for 5 volunteers to try out the child restraint system. 

If you are interested, please contact them on their email account:

 > enquiries@beltupbaby.com < 

or through their Twitter account @beltupbaby.

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THE RAPE OF LONDON : MONEY TALKS ... BUT NOT THE TRUTH

Rape and sexual abuse has skyrocketed since Uber came to London and persuaded Transport for London to deregulate the Taxi and Private Hire industry, to accommodate their work model.

Everyone in authority knows about the rapes. Some choose to do nothing, while others are actively involved in assisting this disgraceful crime.

   A silent version of Boris Johnson, Mayor Khan

Two years ago the Birmingham Mail reported that Birmingham City Council hid links between Asian minicab drivers and child sex victims for twenty three years.

With recent child exploitation scandals in Rotherham and Rochdale, a normal thinking human being would take it for granted that every taxi authority and council in the country would be tightening regulation, not relaxing it.

But the normal human being would not be factoring greed, political ambition and business aspirations, into their thought process.

They would just be thinking about protecting the public.

Protecting the public is not part of the deal. Becoming rich, being promoted, being elected is part of the 'Owners' deal.

No one in authority cares about you or me. Unless it is election time.

Six hundred Private Hire minicab licenses are issued in London every week. Yes every week!

Standards have been lowered to gutter level to accommodate Uber.

David Cameron and George Osborne actively supported the deregulation, the flooding of the minicab market, and openly lobbied for Uber.

Goldman 'Government' Sachs know about the rapes and sexual assaults, but do they care? Yes they do care, about profit margins. And if those statistics get out into the public domain, it might effect their investment.

Minicabs and Taxis have worked in London for decades.

There were some reputable minicab companies, who have gone to the wall, because of self interested people in authority like Sajid Javid, who openly promoted Uber and refused Mayor Johnson's plea to cap minicab licenses. And Baroness Susan Kramer who fought to abolish Cross Border Control, taking the authority to control minicabs away from councils.

      Someone has to get the message out there

We have active bodies prostituting themselves, such as the IEA, which is chaired by the mother of Rachel Whetstone, an Uber executive, who made a video, staring young women, calling for even more deregulation. These women were actively and consciously telling other young females to use Uber, totally aware of the statistics of recent minicab rape and sexual assault. They shamed themselves and betrayed their sisters for money.

And CityAM, a throwaway freebie magazine, who fully understand the dangers of rape and road traffic accidents in Uber cars, but still choose to write adverts in the guise of stories to promote Uber.

Lets face it, if you write for CityAM you have not quite made the grade in your chosen profession, have you. But that does not give you carté blanche to brazenly prostitute yourself for rape appeasers.

   Wicked Witch of the IEA, Linda Whetstone

Do you remember Unite and Tom Watson? Unite are the union-come-political party who put Sadiq Khan in office.

And Tom Watson is the one who Tweets about his cat and stabbed Jeremy Corbyn in the back.

Well they promised us the Earth a year and a half ago. Heard anything from them lately?

Unite have the money and the power to take TfL to court and force a public inquiry. But according to Unite, TfL are doing a marvellous job.

So on the face of it, we have another whitewash, where people get raped, abused, injured and killed, but no one will be found accountable.

Every MP and every member of the House of Lords knows about the rise in rape and sexual assault, and the accidents and injuries, by satnav-watching, inexperienced, unqualified, unvetted Uber drivers. If they claim ignorance, they need to step down.

Mayor Sadiq Khan was forced to publicly acknowledge last year's rape stats by David Kurten MP, a UKIP member of the GLA.

Khan was quick to point out that not every sex offender was an Uber driver (only 32 out of 154). Correct, but the deregulation that allowed for unsavoury drivers to slip through the net was brought about by Uber coercing and enticing TfL.

What Mayor Khan failed to inform the GLA was that those stats were incomplete. Those figures, gleaned from a Freedom of Information query, were from only six of London's thirty two boroughs. And that the stats did not count minicab touts or those drivers who committed their crimes whilst their Uber app was logged off, or was moonlighting for a bit of cash unbeknownst to their minicab employer.

Now take into consideration what the Metropolitan Police and Rape Crisis tell us, that only ten percent of rape and sexual assault victims come forward, we are looking at over eight thousand attacks in 2015 alone!

   Uncaring and unmoved, Val Shawcross

At the moment, TfL and the Mayor's Office are refusing to release the latest minicab rape and sexual assault figures, due two months ago, claiming they need more time.

More time for what? They have the stats. Are they massaging and manipulating them?

Are the authorities, like Birmingham, like Rotherham, like Rochdale, like many others across the country, suppressing and reshaping the truth?

If Sadiq Khan and Val Shawcross really cared, they would inform the public.

Khan and Shawcross played the Taxi and legitimate Private Hire industry.

THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU OR ME, OR OUR CHILDREN!

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All Our Problems Can Be Solved By Enforcing Existing Legislation - But Only If TfL Wish To Do So.

Letter to Taxi Leaks, from Gerry O'Leary.

All the problems we face, can be solved by TfL and the enforcement authorities using the existing legislation - but only if they wish to do so.

Spartacus hit the nail on the head when he said "it's my view that they are implementing national 'standards' for PH as proposed by the Law Commission by stealth"

Among the 'standards' is the unlawful allowing of plying for hire by licensed private hire vehicles.

In 2010, Manchester Airport told a Commons committee that it had introduced a second on-demand taxi service - something which it could not lawfully do because in Greater Manchester only hackney carriages can ply for hire at airports or car parks.

Not only did the Licensing Authority (Manchester City Council) fail to enforce the law, but it advised the airport on measures it could take to avoid the attentions of MCC enforcement officers. 

Manchester City Council gets about £12m a year in dividends from its stake in the airport, which in turn benefits from its percentage cut from the takings of its chosen private hire operator. Talk about having a dog in the race!

To make matters worse, the council has gone further by allowing chosen private hire firms to ply for hire in car parks at pop concerts.

The excuse they give is that plying for hire (a criminal offence under the Town Police Clauses Act, 1847) doesn't occur until a driver takes a booking which contravenes the LGMPA Act of 1976. 

This is NEW law, introduced without the involvement of parliament or the courts.

It is dangerous nonsense because it removes from the licensing authority the power to act against criminals and predators who use their private hire licences to prey on victims elsewhere in the city.

The rule of law, which used to protect the public against arbitrary decision-making by bureaucrats, has been eroded to the point where a coach and horses has been ridden over the law - by bureaucrats who have been entrusted to uphold that law. 

The government would prefer not to touch this matter with a bargepole and neither would local politicians because the neoconservative ideology of the free market has taken such a grip of politicians that they reject any regulation as "red tape" that must be removed by hook or by crook, even if that means acting unlawfully. 

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Flags of Convenience....remember that term?

It applied  to 'coffin' ships registered in jurisdictions where safety standards were low and employment protection non existent. 

Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable seafarers killed, injured and underpaid.

Ring any bells?

We have TfL licensed PH operator encouraging drivers to go to cities and airports outside their licensing district to cover work at predatory rates below cost with the intention to kill off long standing local operators and taxi trades, forget any local democratic process or decisions, it matters not.

TFL state the law allows this (case law says it doesn't TfL) and many local authorities have just inserted a condition (just like our mandated acceptance of CC) that their licensed vehicles have to work exclusively or almost so in their area, you don't need an Act of Parliament just a notice changing the conditions.

If you tried Plying for Hire (and that IS what they are doing) outside the Met you would be nicked.

TfL won't act of course as its their (Dear Jo) favoured partner and it's my view that they are implementing national 'standards' for PH as proposed by the Law Commission by stealth with the tacit agreement of the Department of Transport and have found an operator willing to do so.

Of course release of the Sexual Assault statistics would cause a national outrage and could cause the agenda to hit the rocks, will they ever be published in any meaningful format?

Small matters as to the fiction of bookings taken in London (Uber's office isn't staffed 24/7 so it can't be true), and it's billed in Holland to avoid VAT despite HMRC guidance, other 'legal' tax avoidance, bogus MOT's and Medicals endangering the public are more casualties of the grand plan.

If any of that passes a 'Fit and Proper' test then the test surely isn't fit or proper?

100,000 plus licence fees plugs a big hole in the budget and tops up the bonus trough at TfL. 

Small local authorities fees and cab operators are again just collateral damage.

So the London scandal has gone nationwide, other countries are acting why not us?

On Sunday I will be on the Poppy Cab run with our valued ex service folk who we all are so very proud of.

Monday onwards I will be ashamed that the likes of the management of TfL are my fellow citizens.

Next up for TfL, licensing Pedicabs, waiting areas for them, ever more pollution and congestion, more sexual assaults etc etc.

'A land fit for heroes'

No longer.

I'm Spartacus

EXTRA COMMENT FROM LES REID:

Hi Jim

 Read your piece on Cambridge Uber being hackneys.

Cambridge unlike London is governed by the LGMPA Act of 1976.

Hackneys which use UBER's surge pricing are committing a CRIMINAL offense each time they do so.

I attach the relevant section of the 1976 act.

67 Hackney carriages used for private hire (1) No hackney carriage shall be used in the district under contract or purported contract for private hire except at a rate of fares or charges not greater than that fixed by the byelaws or table mentioned in section 66 of this Act, and, when any such hackney carriage is so used, the fare or charge shall be calculated from the point in the district at which the hirer commences his journey. 
 
(2) Any person who knowingly contravenes this section shall be guilty of an offence.

Les.

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