It's The Quiet One's You Need To Watch............................by Semtex.

"Quiet People Get The Most Accomplished, Because Their Next Move Is Always Unknown."

Ex-serving Police Officers within our Cab Trade, will tell you that when you apply to join the service, you get put through a series of stringent tests.

During my Military Service, I was seconded for a short while to the Met's Surveillance Training Unit, and was working from Aybrook Street in Marylebone.

Part of the test that was shown to aspiring new Police recruits, was to show a video of an angry demonstration gathering. It was politically led and as some of these violent demos normally are, quickly becoming intimidating, precarious and dangerous.

After watching the video for about ten minutes, we would stop it half way through. The candidates were then asked who, in their opinion were the potential main antagonists. Where were the flash points and what area of the crowd presented the main concerns. We were looking for candidate's natural observational skills. People who could, without further training spot a needle in a haystack. As you can imagine, people with a very pragmatic and analytical mind set would be chosen to progress to specialist training to further their already natural skills.

The candidates would sit at their desks, fill in the questionnaire and hand their papers back. We would then restart the video, and the reactions of the future police candidates were very interesting. Some of them spotted the hidden dangers of course, but many failed to observe, that the quiet man in the middle of the crowd, the chap looking as though he didn't want to be there, and the student academic who was on his mobile and appeared to be showing no genuine interest...............actually revealed themselves to be dangerous, highly motivated and an escalating volatile threat as the video rolled on. 

The moral of the training video was of course, that surveillance Police Officers need to evaluate threats which may not be coming from the most vocal and obvious origins.

Politicians and MP's worldwide, are now learning fast after a spate of huge professional cost and personal loss. Ignoring the 'quiet people' is a very dangerous practise these days. Ask David Cameron, Hilary Clinton and many others.

During the 70's and 80's, owning up to liking Abba was regarded as being very 'uncool'. Despite the fashion of sneering at the Swedish group, somebody must have bought their 375 million discs and albums, mustn't they ?

Roll on forty years and the opposite has generally happened. I have watched two documentaries within the last four weeks, actually admitting how musically and lyrically brilliant, Abba actually were. Its fashionable to say they were great nowadays.

It is 'cool' to shout that Donald Trump and Nigel Farrage are cranks, isn't it ? 

Look how vocal the crowds and demos are of the bleeding hearts and The American Civil Liberties Union are at the moment. To watch the news this evening, you could be forgiven for thinking that President Trump had held a gun to somebody's head to pave his way into Office. 

The media and TV crews zoom into the academics and tree huggers crying of unfairness, as the 'quiet people' are once again ignored. But again, who do you think put Trump into the White House ? 

Yes Sir. The 'quiet ones' voted for Trump. They voted in their absolute millions. Sick of being threatened with bombs and murder, the 'quiet people' voted in a man who said he would stop it. He won, and he's delivering his manifesto. That's what he was voted in to do.

Closer to home on the UK's shores, the same thing is happening. Watch the TV, watch the news. You would have thought that leaving The European Community was by way of some unfavourable act of Parliament or something, wouldn't you ?

No, it wasn't. It was the 'quiet people' once again, backing Nigel Farrage in their millions, and demonstrating that they are sick to their back teeth of our once great country, sliding into the sewer. Sick to the back teeth of our elderly, sick and war veterans dying in hospital corridors, as foreigners from the Middle East and Syria, come here to milk our NHS dry .

The abusers and users are naturally screaming the place down and crying foul play, as the media film crews zoom in again, giving their huge but minority voice a platform. Meanwhile,  elderly citizens and veteran service men and women, continue dying in hospital corridors and care homes, after paying into their NHS service all their lives. Nobody films them as they pass with 'quiet' dignity into eternal sleep. Once again, the 'quiet people' ignored.

It is fair to say I guess, that the hierarchy, MP's, Ministers, and the Establishment, should be very concerned when it comes to ignoring the 'quiet people' these days.

Take the global mini cab firm, Uber, Loud, brash, making a big noise wherever in the world they go. The media and news once again zoom in their lens, giving the Corporate giants a vocal platform.

Treading roughshod over a world renowned and dignified London Taxi Trade, the hierarchy dig their boot studs into us, as they give assistance, part the waves and ensure that Uber's transgression through lawful criteria and licensing, is as comfortable for them as possible.

Once again, the 'quiet people' are ignored and abused. 

Unfortunately for them though, The Great London Taxi Trade now have their own 'Quiet People'. They operate in secret. They are unseen, unaccountable and unknown to most. They do not shout, they do not threaten. They do not need to.

A band of Trade Brothers and Sisters, who fight for decency, fight for justice, fight for fairness and fight for survival.

They are unpaid, anonymous, without malice and without egos. Tired of being beaten down by the corrupt, fed up with having the profession they trained so hard for ripped from their grasp by a Regulator with ulterior motives, and resolute that our legacy will be protected. 

They ask no fame, they ask no finances. They ask no spotlight, they ask no expenses.

They are The London Taxi Trade's 'Quiet People.' They are fighting the good fight for our trade's survival and unafraid of confronting a bent, unfair regulator. They are the Independent Taxi Alliance.................And they're Coming To Get You.

Be lucky all.

8829 Semtex.

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Rank And File : News From The Mean Streets Pt1... by Jim Thomas

This is a new feature, that we hope will bring you information and also put your mind to rest by dispelling rumours of no substance. 

News that Novikov's Taxi rank has been clearly marked on the road surface by Westminster Council has been marred, by the fact that the official rank board has now been removed. Also two massive signs have suddenly appeared at this location, stating that the rank limits will be enforced by video surveillance. 

Drivers have been warned numerous times about over ranking yet nothing has been forthcoming from LTPH about the constant abuse of Mayfair Taxi ranks or the numerous cases of kerbside touting from private hire drivers.

TfLTPH have informed Taxi Leaks that the blue Uber rear window light is in fact illegal and stops will be put on any Uber vehicle seen displaying the illuminated signage. 

If you see, please take down location, time and registration and send with photo to the @TfLTPH Twitter account who will pass this on to enforcement. 

Prius was spotted outside Nobu's restaurant Berkeley Street W1, 1:30 on the 21st of January 2017. This vehicle has been reported to compliance.

There have been fears that Taxis are about to be excluded from the bus lane running the length of Baker Street. 

Taxi Leaks did ask the TfLTPH Twitter account to confirm or dismiss this rumour. But we was told LTPH couldn't say either way as they were waiting for clarification on the signage. 

After inspecting the signage, we found just the one without the word Taxi on the board, at the beging of the section between Dorset Street and Blandford Street (image 3). 

But it appears all the other boards running the whole length of Baker Street include the word Taxi. We will issue an update on this, as soon as we get a proper reply from LTPH.

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New rules from the DVLA applied to all new cars from 1st April 2017 will cost passenger transport industry millions

 

The government’s decision to change the road tax system in the UK will hit the passenger transport industry, specifically those purchasing or leasing vehicles that cost over £40,000. These new rules will hit taxi drivers who purchase the famous London Taxi where prices for a TX4 Euro 6 auto cost over £41,000.

But it is not only taxi drivers who will be hit hard in the pocket. Chauffeurs or executive hire services who buy or lease executive vehicles, such as Mercedes S Class, Audi estate cars, Volvo S90 or V90’s will also find themselves seeing their annual road tax costs substantially increase.

When the outgoing system was conceived, taxation was linked to a car’s CO2 output – this meant that cheaper, more efficient cars paid a relatively small amount while pricier, more polluting cars paid much more.

Due to advances in engine technology and software (depending if you bought a certain brand of vehicle,) CO2 emissions have dropped across the motor industry. This improvement hit the governments coffers hard, resulting in more and more vehicles either dropping out of an annual charge or being in the lowest band.

The problem with this system emerged when it became clear to the treasury that, thanks to greatly improved engine and vehicle design, many normal cars were emitting such little CO2 that they actually fell into the tax-free bracket. This lowest band was originally intended for electric, hybrid and niche low-emission cars but, more conventional cars wound up here and paid no tax.

To bolster its cashflow, the government has introduced this new taxing regime to push more conventional cars back into taxation and reserve tax-free status for a handful of zero-emission cars.

What are the 2017 road tax changes?

As before, you’ll have to pay a first year tax rate that’s linked to the car’s CO2 emissions, followed by a standard rate for each year after that. The standard rate for every car is £140 per year but models costing more than £40,000 (after options) will incur an additional £310 cost, meaning most premium models will now cost £450 in total per year to tax.

Any zero-emissions vehicle – i.e. electric cars – won’t incur either the first year or standard rate of tax but, unlike previous years, this no longer applies to plug-in hybrid models that still use a conventional combustion engine. If, however, your zero-emission vehicle costs more than £40,000 – such as a Tesla Model S – you still incur the £310 additional cost for the first five years of ownership before returning to tax-free status.

As before, tax is no longer transferrable between owners. This means if you sell your car, the new owner will have to tax it themselves – any remaining tax on the vehicle can be claimed back from the government. Also unchanged is the £10 reduction in tax rates for alternative fuel vehicles such as those converted to run on LPG.

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Headlight on Bus Safety

The safety of buses has deteriorated in the last year. The number of collisions involving buses has increased in recent years. There were 4,297 injuries by the end of Q3 2015/16, compared with 4,196 over the same period the year before (an increase of 2.5 per cent). 

• Why aren’t bus drivers first-aid trained?
• Why doesn’t TfL have targets to improve bus safety?
• How is TfL making incident investigations more rigorous and transparent?
• How does TfL ensure that all incidents are properly managed, reported and investigated?
• Are bus drivers comfortable with the incident reporting process?

The London Assembly Transport Committeemeets tomorrow to consider the safety record of London’s buses and what can be done to improve it.  The guests are:

• Gareth Powell, Director of TfL Strategy and Contracted Services, TfL
• Jane Lupson, Bus Collision Reduction Programme Manager, TfL
• Tony Wilson, Managing Director, London & Surrey, Abellio
• Wayne King, Regional Coordinating Officer, Unite
• Paul Russell, Head of CIRAS (Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System)
• Sarah Hope, Victim's Support Consultant for TfL and Founder of the Sarah Hope Line and Elizabeth's Legacy of Hope

The meeting will take place on Thursday, 02 February from 10:00am in The Chamber at City Hall (The Queen’s Walk, London SE1).

Media and members of the public are invited to attend. 

The meeting can also be viewed via webcast.

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In Answer To ITA Statement Of Intent..... By Harry Wall.

   

 

I start this post with the fantastic news that the ITA have reinstated daily direct action beginning March 1st. This is as a result of a failed meeting with COL yesterday. Please note ITA reps didn't fail, COL did, they failed to listen to reason, facts or common sense due to obvious intervention from TFL. So now we have to do it the hard way which I have to say was inevitable but nevertheless at least we tried the right way (again) without success, so now it's game on and I can't wait. I wish it was starting today.

I must say the absence of the main orgs from yesterday's meeting was disappointing, for whatever reasons, I think they all should've been there but in all fairness I don't think it would have changed the outcome, but looks matter to me.

What's been made glaringly obvious from this encounter is that TFL, the City and all those in authority have no intention whatsoever of giving an inch. Even with the WCHCD's involvement in the matter, who in my view have been too silent for too long, no movement towards compromise was at any time forthcoming so in my mind the deals had long since been done, probably over dinner at one of London's lodges.

So it's game on!!

Turning to COs, a recent video clip has highlighted just how ignorant, useless and utterly shambolic these individuals are. Rickshaws were on the pavement outside Selfridges, as usual, touting for business in front of 2 COs who were doing absolutely nothing to stop them. 

When challenged by @Seandrivingabaght the answer was "We're not trained in that". Unbelievable. 

I've made my feelings known that the orgs should set up our own compliance teams to roam London and police the streets ourselves. Teams of volunteer drivers drawn up from a rota on a weekly basis driving round the streets keeping ranks clear of rickshaws, rats and whoever else takes the piss. They could also watch TFL COs and make sure they're behaving themselves and doing their jobs properly. We can't rely on these people anymore, we can't keep hoping something will eventually happen, we have to make it happen now. 

We're now in the mindset where we're taking matters into our own hands and bypassing the orgs that are there specifically to represent us and safeguard our future, but it's happening because we all know they're largely impotent. 

Governed by red tape, restricted by laws implemented for the purpose of suffocating us. This has been the case for too long, which is why we now have ITA, DDD and so on. It's got to the point where I've lost all faith in all the orgs so I say thank God someone took the initiative and went for it.

All praise to them.

This is also born out by the fact a march by drivers families is in the early stages of being organised by Paul Sweeney and Save Taxis. A great idea but at the same time how embarrassing is it that we, as grown men and women, can't galvanise ourselves into a fighting force that the need for a family's march is needed?

It sickens me to think we've reached this point after 5 years of tyranny, having been treated in the most disgusting way possible by TFL for all this time, ignored constantly, shat on daily, laughed at regularly etc,etc, and still we let it happen. There's still a large section of our trade who are willing to let others fight while they work, happy to let others make a stand against injustice and the corruption that's nearly brought the trade to its knees. It both shocks and disgusts me but it's a burden that we must bare in the pursuit of victory in the face of insurmountable odds.

Now we've drawn the battle lines we can't back down now.

To add fuel to the fire, a meeting was held recently at TFL with all the orgs present. The subject of medicals was on the agenda and their latest plan is to no longer accept a medical certificate from your own GP. They plan to make it all in house so you have to use a TFL approved practice, the contract for which will obviously be put out to tender, no doubt doubling the price and providing a nice little kickback for TFL. 

Trevor Merrills told Mike Brown the UCG would not accept their plan and that under no circumstances would he hand over his medical records, at which point Mike Brown said he wouldn't re-license him. 

THIS IS WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST!!

Once they get their grubby hands on our med records our numbers will fall like a stone. Not because we're all too ill to drive but because they'll use them to make it look like we are.

You know it as well as I do.

Face it, no amount of meetings, discussions or anything else is going to help us keep our jobs. With TFL licensed Uber's working all over the country now this virus has reached epidemic proportions that can no longer be tolerated. The surrounding areas of Heathrow have been blighted for over a year, Gatwick has now been made victim with the local country lanes laden with the filth and Southend has recently been in the news citing two previously imprisoned drivers somehow obtaining a license from TFL and working in the Southend area. 

The LTDA are not going to save us with Mac being more interested in reviewing papers on Sky rather than turning up at demos and branch meetings, not to mention the dreadful feeling amongst its members, the Club have little resources by their own admission and the UCG are bound by section 12/14 and various other laws. That being said they're all pursuing legal routes which, as we all know, take time.

Precious time we haven't got.

So it's down to us as drivers to lead the way and the fight for survival, we must be resolute in our cause and completely unforgiving. When asked for a meeting we accept without canceling or postponing any existing action, no giving time, no favours, no surrender, no backing down, no give and take, GIVE THESE RATS NOTHING!!

This must be the most relentless effort with utmost conviction without stopping as from March 1st.

Behave like TFL and listen to no one, give nothing yet take as much as possible without any mercy or remorse. At the same time be mindful of why WE are doing it ourselves, why it's necessary and who's responsible and never forget.

 

Those in TFL will sort themselves out just like Mason when they realise the ship is hold. You won't be surprised to know he's senior management at a debt recovery company, so he's a senior bully now as opposed to a minor one, but still vile.

Uphill battles can be won and we can prove it, this our chance to prove it, our chance to shine again, so can we show the world we're the gold standard we're supposed to be please and fight tooth and nail beginning March 1st.

Don't rely on the orgs it's up to us, the drivers.

Please, please get behind any driver led movement from now on as I honestly believe we really can make a difference where our reps fear to tread.

Be lucky, Harry Wall.

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On-Off Insurance Nightmare, To Become A Waking Reality.

STOP THE BUSES : Statement From The Independent Taxi Alliance (ITA), After Meeting With CoL.

Stop the buses!

At yesterday's meeting, officials from the City of London said that although they understood the taxi trade is concerns, unfortunately they had to be guided by TfL, even though all the statistics provided by TfL's were proven to be faulty and unbalance.

The City of London seems to be hoodwinked by a devious TfL, out to protect their own interests in buses at the expense of our livelihoods.

Even under an avalanche of evidence proving Taxis will not be detrimental to the bank junction scheme and knowing that their decision will affect 25,000 families, The city reluctantly told us they are not going to listen to reason.

Well that rationale is a two way street !

Even though we know our argument is with TfL and not the City of London, lies at the heart of the square mile.

Unfortunately we have no other option, so there will be a return to direct action where we will be hitting the city at various points and various rush hours from Monday, 27 February, until the end of this very unreasonable and discriminating Bank Junction scheme.

Our target will be TfL, more specifically TfL buses.

We will set out to stop TfL buses running for two hours every single day, Monday to Friday, at various locations and times (mornings 8 till 10 - evenings 16:30 till 18:30).

Is TfL and the City wish to impede our trade, then we have no choice other than to impede theirs.

We are not going to standby and accept a situation where everyone, including our enemies no we are right, but still insist in trying to bankrupt us.

We have nothing left to lose, for if we lose the city, we will lose much of our livelihoods.

Make no mistake, this is a fight for survival.

   

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