The Primark Effect....Or Congestion Making Taxi Fares Look Expensive? By Jim Thomas

Virtually empty segregated cycle lanes causing massive congestion and dangerous pollution levels.

I'm fed up with being told how expensive Taxis are, when in fact what we're experiencing, is 'the Primark effect!'

If you shop exclusively in Primark, Poundland and Iceland for a few months, then suddenly go in to M&S or Waitrose, you get the shock of your life. 

But it's not like for like, you've become accustomed to low quality, substandard goods produced by children in third-world countries and when you compare the quality, M&S and Waitrose win hands down. 

People want cheap....until it comes back to bite them on the arse. Ask a rape victim if they would have preferred to pay another couple of quid ...and got home safe!

Ask the celebrity who bought a cheap Disney dress and saw her daughter engulfed in flames if she'd like to go back and pay more for a flame proof dress!

When the unspeakable happens, cheap doesn't factor in, it's just too late after a tragedy!

Let's now go back to Taxi prices!

We appear to be expensive because we are being compared like for like to a company using slave labour (willing to work well below the living wage), fares subsidised using vast investment from huge financial corporations, operating an illegal form of predator pricing, with drivers using a vehicle half the price of ours, subsidised in many cases by the fact they don't have the correct insurance. 

This has been sold to the drivers as a part time job, where you can just pop out and take a few quid when your not doing anything!

Also look at the costs involved in doing the knowledge as compared to signing up to Uber!

Taxi Fares:

The Taxi trade have had little to no fare increase in many years and suddenly...we've become too expensive?

If we wasn't too expensive 6 years ago, why are we too expensive now....we haven't had a noticeable fare increase!

What we do have now is congestion....massive congestion. 

Caused by road works in virtually every major street, with side streets closed to through traffic. 

We also have a new phenomenal of the segregated cycle lanes which (although the Lycra brigade won't admit it) also cause congestion 24/7.

Take a trip to tower bridge along Upper and Lower Thames street at one o clock in the morning....its mashed!

A scandalous victim of the greenie cycle brigade which is causing massive congestion, pollution and lengthy journey delays.

And they have the ironic cheek to have speed cameras along this route. 

On top of this, in the day time, we no have the bank Junction exclusion of Taxis.....adding to the surrounding chaos.

Add to this madness the congestion caused by the escalation of an uncapped Private Hire Trade, with TfL selling PHV licenses like sweets..... Of course Cab journeys are taking much longer than they did five years ago...... and it's being reflected in the price!

Should we reduce fares to compensate?

If the drivers themselves decide to reduce prices, then (in Taxi Leaks opinion) it should be done across the full spectrum of rates, with a set percentage drop. 

There has been a call to scrap rate 3 but this comes mainly from day and evening drivers who wouldn't be affected. 

What good would this do as the problem of traffic and higher journey prices is a 24 hour problem?

A set percentage drop would be much fairer. 

Plus if you take away the incentive to work unsocial hours, then you could be creating a shortage of drivers at night, going back to a pre-Livingston era.

There's also been plenty of talk about a set price (bell the meter) for journeys to Heathrow, but why should airport jobs get a discount yet a Northwood Hills resident have to pay the full price?

As we've said many times before, it's no good blaming the Taxi trade, it's really not our fault. Our prices are set by TfL and ratified by Parliament. Hire journey prices have resulted from avoidable congestion.

To solve this problem, you have to look towards TfL and local councils who make these crazy planning decisions. 

What ever happened to the traffic Zhar who's job was to coordinate road works?

If we were to have a competition to find the worst council of all, Camden would win hands down!

The new traffic schemes implemented across Fitzrovia have seen greatly increased journey times/costs, through extremely bad planning. Three major transport termini are within minutes of the worst transit scheme ever seen on London streets. Everything appears to be geared around cycles, with no thought whatsoever to travellers using the three stations. TfL won't get involved because the current schemes encourage travellers to use the tube.  

In the run up to the Mayoral election, Sadiq Khan promised us "use of all bus lanes" to help with journey times/ cost but has now done a U-turn saying Bus drivers have complained that they don't want Taxis in 'their' lanes....how ironic....as many bus drivers now work part time for uber!

One bit of good news...Taxis are to be allowed to use the bus lane in front of the UCH in order to ease traffic from the Euston underpass. But don't use until the TMO is in place and the new signage has been uncovered. 

There's been a lot of meaningless sound bites from TfL and the Mayor's office lately, but the one that gets my blood boiling is "London is open"

It should be "it'll be nice when it's finished"

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Victory For Addison Lee Drivers As Tribunal Finds They Are Entitled To Basic Workers’ Rights

An important ruling, which will affect thousands of Addison Lee drivers, the Employment Tribunal has today ruled that a group of Addison Lee drivers were not self-employed, as Addison Lee argued, but are workers who are entitled to essential workers’ rights, including to be paid the National Minimum Wage, receive holiday pay and not have their contracts terminated because they are members of a Trade Union.

The drivers’ claims, which are supported by the trade union, GMB, were heard in the London Central Employment Tribunal in July 2017.

Liana Wood, from the Employment team at law firm Leigh Day, which represents the drivers, said: “We are very pleased that the Employment Tribunal has found in favour of our clients.

"This judgment acknowledges the central contribution that Addison Lee’s drivers have made to the success of the company by confirming that its drivers are not self-employed but that they work for Addison Lee as part of Addison Lee’s business.

"Addison Lee advertises itself as a premium driving service and seeks to ensure that its drivers meet the high standard required for that premium service. However, Addison Lee drivers very often work very long hours, in excess of 60 hours a week, in order to just earn enough to cover their basic living costs. Addison Lee has sought to deny its drivers the most basic workers’ rights, including to be paid the National Minimum Wage and to receive paid holiday.

"This is a very important decision by the Employment Tribunal and will go some way to addressing these issues. This decision will not just have an impact on the thousands of Addison Lee drivers but, following on from the decision in Uber, on all workers in the so-called gig economy whose employers classify them as self-employed and deny them the rights to which they are entitled.

There will now be a further hearing in the Employment Tribunal to calculate the holiday and pay that the drivers should receive. 

Source : Leigh Day.

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Uber Spelling Tips From The Producer Of The Knowledge Play At The Charing Cross Theatre!

Good Advice from this driver advising you to go see this fabulous show .

Today's topical spelling tip :

" licence " is a noun 

" license " is a verb 

( in British English, the Americans use " license " for both ) 

Hard to remember UNLESS you think of " advice " and " advise " , which work exactly the same way but their respective pronunciations give them away. 

FYI " practice " and " practise " also work the same way 

SO to choose a random example : 

Uber have lost their licence 

Uber are no longer licensed 

Uber were not deemed fit and proper to hold a licence 

TfL's licensing decision re Uber was the right one 

Uber are appealing against the loss of their licence 

We all hope that Uber are not relicensed 

Hope that helps !

Vaughan Williams.

Taxi Leaks Extra Comment :

Yes it's very true....this blog needs all the help it can get with spelling !

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Cambridge 'looking closely' at Uber licence after London drops the ride-hailing app

The Mayor releases statement over UBER petition:

In response to a petition on Change.org about TfL’s licensing decision on Uber, The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:

 

“Transport for London (TfL) yesterday informed Uber London Limited (Uber) that it will not be issued with a private hire operator licence after expiry of its current licence on 30 September.  This decision was made independently by TfL as the legal taxi and private hire regulator for London. 

 

“TfL has concluded that Uber’s conduct is not fit and proper to hold a private hire operator licence. TfL considers that Uber’s approach and conduct demonstrates a lack of corporate responsibility in relation to a number of issues that have potential public safety and security implications. These include Uber’s approach to reporting serious criminal offences, its approach to how medical certificates are obtained and its approach to how Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks are obtained.  

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2yhssmC

 

“I have written for The Guardian about why I have backed TfL’s decision, however, I want to be absolutely clear that there is a place in London for all private hire companies that play by the rules.

 

“Uber’s current licence does not expire until the end of September so the service will continue until then. The company can also continue to operate until the appeals process has been exhausted.

 

“I know that Uber has become a popular service for many Londoners – but it would be wrong for TfL to license Uber if there was any way this could pose a threat to Londoners’ safety or security.

 

“As Mayor of London I welcome innovative new companies that help Londoners by providing a better and more affordable service – but providing an innovative service is not an excuse for not following the rules. All companies in London must play by the rules and adhere to the high standards we expect - particularly when it comes to the safety of customers.  

 

“I have every sympathy with Uber drivers and customers affected by this decision but their anger really should be directed at Uber. They have let down their drivers and customers by failing, in the view of TfL, to act as a fit and proper operator. 

“I suspect it will take some time before this situation with Uber fully plays out. In the meantime, I will continue my work to help support innovative businesses in London and to create a vibrant and safe taxi and private hire market.”

 

ENDS

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Fake Medicals, Fake Topographical Test's, Fake DBS Certificates.... And now

THEY'RE AT IT AGAIN

Remember the petition, Uber handed it in at the wrong building. You remember the one, it had tens of thousands of signatures from people who said they never signed it!!!

Well they are at it again and now, the Media onslaught begins.

Uber has launched an on-line petition with figures of apparently half a million signatories being regularly mentioned on TV and Radio.... and yet no one states the plight of the sweat shop economy Uber operates by... no, its the "me me me" attitude of no longer being able to get home below reasonable cost riders not even caring one jot about the many victims of sexual assaults and the clearest dismissive attitude of their Uber app provider who felt it was in their own remit to choose and adjudicate as to the seriousness of reporting crimes committed by staff under their watch. 

This whole seedy episode was brewing daily and clear for everyone to see for the last 5 years, prospective Uber drivers were even recruited with interpretors to assist their applications and now they have their feet firmly under the table and irrespectively finding themselves being threatened as completely damaged by the un-removable stain of corruption greed and exploitation and complete irregularity, their resurrection plans and tactics are becoming clearer by the hour, ..... bribery by populism.

Uber have launched a campaign of popularity by launching the petition to overwhelm adjudicators and influence future judges into making decisions purely on popular grounds which has nudged online signatures in return for cheap and even cheaper journeys home....same old corrupt Uber using the only tool in their box of buying influence by cash burn ideology.

I was reading about an Uber driver who joined 4 years ago simply because the local mini cab firm he had worked for for years had gone bust because of high rents and overheads of providing TFL legally required offices, phones, staff to check driver validities such as insurance driving licenses mot's and CRB's and equally importantly eye contact with the prospective driver to plainly assess their capability and ability to do the job, That requirement was avoided by Uber, And now TFL has made the decision they have about Uber, he would be delighted to return to a local service where he had excellent local to-and-from knowledge and importantly received a living wage according to the reasonable competitive fare and not being exploited to having to work 8 hours a day to achieve break even before profit began as with Uber.

Right now, there are large sections of the press and media stirring up the completely laughable notion that somehow 30-40 Thousands of Uber drivers will be turning up at the unemployment offices being rendered out of work if TFL are not forced into changing their minds about not granting Uber a new license from 1st October which is complete rubbish.

Every good private hire driver will return to where they once worked and some may even find confidence to open new offices, and a more technological private hire system will be resurrected where (as now) texts are sent to the booked caller wherever they are, stating the car type, registration number and drivers name, and yes it may be slightly more expensive....that is the reality of fair business practices.

If the BBC or any Newspaper ceased tomorrow all the better journalists would soon find another job...as for the rest, it seems unemployment would clearly suit them in the longest queue we'd have seen for ages because that profession is clearly lacking in moral fortitude and honest thinking, and remember how much governmental subsidy and tax credits are being paid to all those underpaid Uber drivers which could now turn into unemployment benefit helping finding new honest employment instad of shoring up one... if not 'the' most parasitical business enterprises ever created on planet earth.


Be Lucky

greenbadgejohn (on twitter)

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And So The Madness Is To Come To An End. TfL Refuse Uber Licence To Operate In London.

Uber will not be issued a new private operators licence, when their current licence expires, Transport for London (TfL) said today. 

Their current licence expires at the end of September and then they will have 21 days to appeal, during which time it can continue to operate.

TfL concluded the ride-hailing app firm was not fit and proper to hold a private hire operator licence after a number of contributory scandals hit the media earlier this year. 

Also a mass of FOI requests from members of the Taxi trade, exposed emails which showed an unsavoury relationship with senior TfL staff.

Uber's approach and conduct demonstrated a lack of corporate responsibility which could have potential public safety and security implications, it said. 

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said in a statement: "I fully support TfL's decision - it would be wrong if TfL continued to license Uber if there is anyway that this could pose a threat to Londoners' safety and security. 

Current statistics have shown that in London alone, Uber drivers were responsible for committing one serious sexual assaults including rape of vulnerable passengers every eleven days. Last year showed a 50% rise in passenger attacks from Uber drivers.

A spokesman for the Taxi trade Gerald Coba said:

"This decision from TfL will almost certainly make traveling on London streets much safer. Bus drivers will no longer be doing uber shifts before starting work driving buses. 

"It should also make driving along one way streets safer too.

"But this isn't the end. Uber will try to carry on using PHVs registered by other licensing authorities. 

"But now TfL have refused to relicense, I strongly believe other authorities around the country will now follow suit."

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