UK Economy Takes Hit From TfL's Licensing Of NonDomicile Company, Fuelled by Self-Employed.

The UK's "gig economy", powered by self-employment and casual work, is starting to hit government revenues.

TfL are a government body that has licensed a foreign company they know pays no corporation tax in this country. 

A company that relies on cheap labour, pays no NIC through hiring self employed drivers at below the minimum wage. These workers have to survive on government hand outs like tax credits housing benefits and such. 

By operating a predator pricing scheme which in itself is illegal, they are undercutting a regular trade body that has no control over its own prices which are actually controlled by parliament. 

The regular trade who all pay tax, are being forced out of the market, many will sign on and receive hand outs in the form of job seeker and housing benefits, so no longer will be contributing to the countries economy. Many businesses on the periphery of the trade, who pay tax and employ workers (who pay tax and NIC), will also go under

TfL are obliged by law to keep issuing licenses to new applicants at the rate of 600 a week, because the government refuse to impose a cap.

A group of Uber drivers have established that they were employed by Uber, which should give them some statutory rights. 

But according to Andy Chamberlain of the IPSE, it doesn't effect their tax status, which is still one of self-employed.

He said: 

"For instance the ruling on the Uber drivers last month that established that they were workers, employed by Uber, gives them some statutory rights. But it doesn't effect their tax status, which is still one of self-employed."

It's not just Uber! if you employ someone for £100,000, you pay the taxman about £13,000 in NIC. If you pay a self-employed person the same amount, the government loses that tax revenue. The loss in tax revenue for the government is not because self-employed workers are paying much less. The real differential is because the employer is no longer paying National Insurance Contributions (NIC).

No money coming in to the exchequer, but billions going out. 

Now ask yourself the question "WTF is the Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond on". 

Remember what Dickens said in his wonderful novel David Copperfield:

Perhaps this Christmas the Chancellor should be given a copy of David Copperfield to study for the sake of the country's economics. 

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An Offer From 'The Cab Driver' That Shouldn't Be Ignored.

This month saw another taxi protest that was not as well covered by the media as it could have been.

Several drivers have told us that over a number of these protests, they have had other drivers approached them in an angry fashion, asking them why they were working and not joining in with the protest.

The simple reason (they say) is because they didn't know about the protest. 

'The Cab Driver' understands their view, if they are not followers of social media and don't frequent taxi establishments such as green huts or the eating places used by cab drivers, then it's quite possible not to be in the 'taxi driver loop'.

Social media is a great way of getting messages around and no trade paper, especially one that comes out every two weeks, can come anywhere near social media for speed. But the trade needs to understand, we are missing a large section of the target market.

Press releases to the trade press before protests, with bullet points of what the protest is about, would also enable all drivers involved to be singing from the same hymn sheet.

Some trade organisations were telling reporters that we will protest thing about Uber!

Yet I heard one driver on the radio stating "it's not about Buber with protesting about the incompetence of TfL".

The whole trade needs to be on the same page. 

We at Cab Drivers would be happy to publish details of these proceedings as other trade papers would too no doubt.

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Stef McNamara Fails To Attend LTDA Central Branch Meeting, Members Walk Out.

Controversy reigned last night, at the LTDA's new Central Branch meeting, held at the Rugby Tavern in WC1.

As a prelude to the meeting, a letter contain g a list of demands had been taken and delivered by hand to LTDA accountant David Sparks at Taxi house. 

As their demands were serious, LTDA members had asked that General Secretary Steve McNamara attend the central branch meeting, to discuss the contents of the letter.

As the meeting convened, members were informed by the reps, that McNamara had gone to a meeting with the Clean Air For London group, and would probably not make it back in time to attend the branch. 

Members were also informed that the two reps in attendance had no knowledge of the contents of the delivered letter. 

Because of the severity of their demands, a spokesman for the members ask if the two reps in attendance could immediately contact the General Secretary and demand he attended. The two reps were then informed that the majority of members present did not recognise their positions of branch chair and branch secretary.

The spokesman also alleged that the whole election process at the last meeting held in Harlesden was bordering on illegality. 

A text was sent to Steve McNamara and he was given 15 minutes to reply. 

When no reply was forthcoming, the members arose en Masse and vacated the venue.

Taxi Leaks spoke to two attendees after the meeting, both said they felt extremely let down by the contempt shown to the branch members by the General Secretary. 

  

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Written Answers To 16 November 2016 Mayor's Question Time Meeting: letter from Caroline Pidgeon AM.

Another Bad Decision Sees TfL Shot In The Foot At Windsor House Demo... By Jim Thomas.

Going by the odds against, yesterday's static demo should have been a complete disaster, but TfL tried to be too clever and ended up shooting themselves in the foot.

Many were put off by the weather, plus the demo was initially wrong footed by a certain Union committee member lying when asked a serious question, instead of telling the truth. 

But even so enough drivers turned up to make our presence felt.

Drivers from Dads Defending Daughters and the Mayfair Mob, made up the bulk of the protest. Which looked impressive outside Windsor House. 

Then we received word, at the last minute TfL had changed the venue for the meeting to Palestra. So protesters jumped into a procession of taxis and were at Blackfriars road within minutes.

TfL's tactical decision, actually done us a favour as the weather had taken a turn for the worse and Windsor House has no protection from the rain. Palestra on the other hand, has a portico entrance, offering shelter.

Drivers were in fine voice calling for Leon Daniels to be sacked and for Mike Brown to come out and speak to us. 

At one point, security guards menacingly came forward, asking who they had to speak to to get the crowd to step back out onto the pavement and into the heavy rain. 

They were informed, "You will need to speak to each and every driver in turn, as this is not an organised demo but a spontaneous protest".

It was pointed out, that moving out onto the pavement, would cause an obstruction to the public walking past. The security decided to back down.

The meeting overran by about an hour and first to exit was LTDA general Secretary Steve McNamara. 

Steve was handed a microphone to address the crowd, but he didn't go down at all well and drivers made their feeling known by heckling.

As soon as Grant Davis emerged, the microphone was taken away from Steve in mid-sentence and given to the LCDC chairman.

Grant immediately ran through the agenda to an almost silent crowd, explaining in detail what he, on behalf of the LCDC had put to the TfL commissioner.

We've been asked not to report in too great a detail as many of the issues are subject to an embargo, which Taxi Leaks will respect.

But we can confirm that the issue of driver safety, in regards to the rear fitting of CC readers, was talked about in detail. As predicted, incidents have now been reported to Police of drivers being assaulted after being asked to get in the back to sort out problems with the CC reader unit. 

We were told Mike Brown has given his word that the full 32 borough (including the City of London) minicab related sexual assault statistic break-down, will be publish by next week.

Grant finally went through the catalogue of lies and deceit we've had to suffer from Leon Daniels, asking the TfL commissioner, 

"Why has this man still got a job with TfL".

Jim Kelly of Unite, slipped away unnoticed by the drivers.

A big thank you to all who gave up their afternoon to attend and support the protest.

As they say, actions speak louder than words

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Good Business Sense, Or A Race To The Bottom? .... By Gerald Coba.

Last year Uber, a global company with a valuation of $65 billion, paid the same amount of tax in the UK as four (yes four) London taxi drivers. 

Their 'employees' are paid less than the minimum wage with majority working excessive, unsafe  hours. Many sleeping in their vehicles. It's an all too common sight to see their Uber Eats 'employees' sleeping rough on the streets of London. 

This company has been securely ring fenced by Her Majesties Government, who have instructed successive London Mayors to leave this company alone.

Many in the taxi trade want to slash our prices to try to compete with this company....but be warned!!!

M&S, were renowned for quality, which their customers were happy to pay a little extra for. 

In a bid to increase profits, they decided to change most of their suppliers get stock from the Far East, made in sweatshops by children. 

They soon found, inspite of the quality drop to lower prices, therefore maximising profit, they couldn't compete on the high street with retailers such as Sports Direct and Primark.

The quality of most M&S garments has deteriorated and people, no longer willing to pay the premium for their goods, are shopping else where. 

Now M&S have announced it is to change many smaller branches over to food only stores. 

Moral:

It was always going to be a race to the bottom.

People will pay for a premium, but must receive a premium service in return. Once the service deteriorates, they will shop elsewhere. 

YOU DO THE MATHS :

Maths is a wonderful leveller, so they say.

We're told we need to spend £205 billion renewing trident, so that 30,000 people won't lose their jobs. 

So, why not give each of these people a million pounds each to retire!

That way, the country will save £175 billion 

Every year, UK tax payers meet an unemployment budget of around £3 billion, and yet Hugh Grosvenor Duke of Westminster has just avoided inheritance tax bill of £4 billion

Since moving its headquarters to Switzerland, Boots have avoided paying £1.2 billion in tax.

 

That's money which should have been spent on the NHS, Schools, Fire service, Police etc.

This money now has to be found by extra austerity cuts. 

We've just had another highly successful BBC children in need appeal, where tax dodging billionaires ask the poor to give what they can, till it hurts. 

If these disgusting people paid their tax, there would be no need to have these appeals.

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UCG Excluded From TfL Meeting.... Is It All For One And One For All ? Should Trade Leaders Tell Mike Brown To Jog On.

It's been announced that there is to be an "all trade org" meeting at Windsor house this Monday afternoon.

 Sadly, we've heard from Deputy General Secretary Trevor Merralls that Mike Brown on behalf of TfL, has decided to exclude the UCG from the meeting. 

It is completely outrageous that a truly democratic voice of the London Taxi trade, has once again been excluded from engagement with TfL. 

This is an obvious attempt once again to divide the trade.

When TfL are backed into a corner, they immediately put into practise the divide and rule philosophy. 

The commissioner's reward to orgs/unions/groups who go along with exclusion, is a seat at the engagement table, giving a false impression of importance. 

This exclusion shows a weakness on behalf of Mike Brown who appears now to be running scared. 

It's time to stand up and be counted, time to man up. 

Lets do away with this temptation by smashing the table. 

All orgs need to unite on this and tell Mike Brown it's 'all for one and one for all'. 

Future invites must be for every representative group or it's no show from all. 

It's now up to you the driver, to show your disgust with this repugnant and shambolic attempt to wrong foot our trade. 

Phone your trade representatives on Monday and ask them to attend the meeting briefly, just to tell Mike Brown to his face how the trade feels about this tactic. Then get up en masse and walk out. 

Taxi Leaks has been informed that concerned drivers will be mounting a picket-line outside Windsor house on Monday between 4:00 and 5:30 pm, asking all trade leaders to walk out on the meeting.

Trade leaders wishing to stay behind and engage will have to walk passed their members in full view or the trade, on the way out. 

All this meeting will achieve is more division along with weakened trade representation. 

This action is not about the colour of a lanyard, it's about the survival of the badge that hangs from it. 

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