What’s Good For The Goose : One Rule For Taxis And Another Rule For TfLBuses

Just over a week ago, we saw TfL step in and banned super side adverts on a number of Taxis. But we now see the weakness of this licensing authority who are not fit to do the job as the adds appear on a number of London buses. 

More than100 buses have been criss-crossing London with advertisements for “Free Balochistan” as part of a campaign by Baloch nationalists against Pakistan’s alleged human rights abuses in the resource-rich province. 

The campaign was launched days after a similar drive on London’s taxis was stopped by authorities. The advertisements on the buses have the slogans “Free Balochistan”, “Save the Baloch People” and “Stop Enforced Disappearances”.

Transport for London (TfL), the body that runs the city’s transport network, removed similar advertisements on taxis by the World Baloch Organisation following complaints by Pakistan, which described the campaign as “sinister” and “malicious”. 

However, WBO said it would continue to peacefully and respectfully speak out against rights violations in Balochistan.

Bhawal Mengal, a member of WBO, told Hindustan Times: “We have delivered our message through taxis, billboards across London and now on over 100 buses. So far the buses are carrying the adverts but we can expect pressure again from Pakistan authorities.

“We are in touch with TfL to challenge the removal of our adverts from taxis, and will do it again if they are removed from buses that are actually owned by TfL. This is the third phase of our campaign after taxis and billboards.

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :

Again we see TfL being selective in their administration. 

 • We’ve seen them do nothing when Addison Lee refused to take off Rugby World Cup livery

 • We’ve seen them fail to suspend the 13,000 drivers with fake DBS certificates, and probably the same number with fake medical passes

 • We’ve also seen TfL fail to suspend or revoke Uber drivers convicted of fraud and sentenced to jail. All five Uber drivers who were convicted of theft and fraud are still registered on the TfL website as licensed Private Hire drivers.

   Licence no                                      Name                                               Expires 

But in their defence, their COs did remove copies of a Taxi trade publication from sight in the rear windows of Taxis. 

Well done Helen, you must be so proud that our customers won’t be advised about the risk of UberRape.  

Source  : Hindustan Times, London.

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Deliveroo Wins Landmark Victory Against Union Claim....But Will It Affect Uber's Case?

Deliveroo has won a major legal victory in a union battle over its drivers' employment status, in what will be seen as a boost for the "gig economy".

The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) ruled that the food delivery app's couriers are self-employed, rather than workers, dismissing a challenge from the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union.

Deliveroo had argued that if riders were classed as workers, they would lose their current flexibility, which allows them to pick up orders as they wish, and be paid by the delivery, rather than working in shifts.

It is a major victory for Deliveroo, which greeted the decision as a victory for riders, and comes just days after Uber lost a key appeal over its drivers' working rights.

The IWGB had sought to have Deliveroo drivers in Camden and Kentish Town recognised as workers, which would have granted them rights such as the minimum wage and sick pay, as well as allowing them to unionise. While the case only covered a small area, it was seen as a test case for Deliveroo riders and the wider gig economy.

However, the CAC declared that since drivers have the ability to "substitute" - allow other riders to take their place on a job - they cannot be classed as workers.

"We find that the substitution right to be genuine, in the sense that Deliveroo have decided in [its new contract] that riders have a right to substitute themselves both before and after they have accepted a particular job; and we have also heard evidence, that we accepted, of it being operated in practice," the CAC said.

"Since we have found that the riders are not workers, we cannot accept the Union’s claim for recognition and for rights to negotiate on pay, hours and holidays with Deliveroo."

Dan Warne, Deliveroo's managing director for the UK and Ireland, said: "This is a victory for all riders who have continuously told us that flexibility is what they value most about working with Deliveroo. We welcome the decision of the Committee.

"As we have consistently argued, our riders value the flexibility that self-employment provides. Riders enjoy being their own boss - having the freedom to choose when and where they work, and riding with other delivery companies at the same time."

The company has previously argued for changes to employment law that would allow it to give riders benefits while allowing them to continue working when they choose.

Last week Uber lost an Employment Appeals Tribunal case on whether its own drivers were workers, and said it would appeal the decision.

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Will the Government, TfL and Mayor mind signing a liability document covering every driver? 60 hours per week sitting on batteries.

Letter to Taxi Leaks : From Lenny Etherige 

Has the Government invested £300m in Geely, without checking if drivers are being used as guinea pigs? 

 If the new eTaxi has been deemed safe;

Will the Government, TfL and Mayor mind signing a liability document covering every driver? 

60 hours per week sitting on batteries.

We are all in favour of clean air. But on a personal note, I don't wish to swap COPD for Cancer. If the new eTaxi is safe; we need a signed recommendation that our families have a legal recourse. 

Comment From The GMB :

We are preparing a formal letter to London Electric Taxi & the Secretary of State as they have ignored our informal requests. (Something to hide???)

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT: 

The question needs to be asked ;

Why haven't our representative orgs and unions checked this massive driver health issue out?

Why haven't they confronted TfL or the manufacturers?

Taxi Leaks has been on about this problem since an electric vehicle was first first mentioned. Our concerns have fell on death ears and we've never had one sensible reply from either our orgs or TfL. 

We did manage to get a sentence once from one of the manufacturers. When asked about the dangers from electro magnetic particle radiation, they replied;

"It will probably be OK"

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When You See What Other Countries Are Doing, You Realise How Weak TfL Really Are.

UBER TYCOON AS TOXIC AS THEIR DRIVERS : US billionaire used secret legal system to gag "The Sun" identifying him

US billionaire used Britain’s secret legal system to gag The Sun from identifying him after arrest for rape

A US billionaire used Britain’s secret legal system to prevent The Sun identifying him after his arrest for rape.

Major Uber investor Shervin Pishevar, 43, spent £100,000 to win a legal injunction blocking us on privacy grounds.

Shervin Pishevar spent £100,000 to win a legal injunction blocking us from naming him on privacy grounds

He went public about the case last week when his lawyer confirmed the arrest at a top London hotel to US magazine Forbes.

But The Sun could not report it, or even identify Mr Pishevar, until the weekend when we challenged the High Court order.

Top media lawyer Mark Stephens said last night it was stupid somebody arrested over an allegation of rape in the UK could be reported by the American media but not the British.

Mr Stephens, of London-based Howard Kennedy, warned such court orders were paving the way for secret arrests.

A woman alleged Mr Pishevar raped her at The Ned in the City hotel in May

He added: “It is potty that you try and hermetically seal jurisdiction in this country from the rest of the world.

“This is one of the most abusive injunctions that I have ever heard of a rich and powerful person taking out in recent times.”

A woman alleged Mr Pishevar raped her in the £3,500 a night penthouse suite at The Ned in the City in May.

Cops arrested the Iranian-American Silicon Valley venture capitalist and he was led out of the hotel in a private lift.

This allowed his lawyers to argue his arrest took place in private.

Mr Piveshar went public about the case after his lawyer confirmed the arrest

Forbes claimed to have a police report confirming details. But The Sun was told it was not genuine.

The police investigation was dropped in July, shortly after we published an article limited to revealing that a billionaire was arrested for rape.

The divorcee, estimated to be worth more than £2billion, has invested in more than 60 companies including Airbnb.

Mr Pishevar is also executive chairman of Hyperloop One, a futuristic high-speed train. He was Barack Obama’s top fundraiser on his two Presidential campaigns.

Mr Pishevar’s lawyer Mark Fabiani said: “In May, Mr Pishevar was detained briefly in London in connection with an alleged sexual assault, an allegation he categorically denied. In July he was informed that no further action would be taken against him.”

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Uber – Key Hurdle Crossed From Good Law Project Founder, Jolyon Maugham QC:

        Good Law Project Founder, Jolyon Maugham QC:

The contention that underlies my case against Uber – that it is it and not its drivers who are supplying transportation services – received a significant boost on Friday with the decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal confirming that Uber is engaging workers and supplying transportation services. This is a powerful vindication of the decision to seek to do HMRC’s job and pursue Uber where it will not.

More difficult has been how, in practice, to advance a claim against Uber worth over £1bn in avoided VAT with a budget of a little over £100,000 in a setting where the loser is liable to the winner’s costs. My strategy to address this was two-fold.

First, I would sue Uber and ask the High Court to grant me a protective costs order so that, in the unlikely event I lost, I would not be personally bankrupted.

Second, I would seek to advance the claim in a setting where the loser is not liable to pay the winner’s costs. To this end, as I explained here, in a recent VAT return I claimed to be entitled to recover the VAT on the Uber taxi ride I took (the “Claim”). I anticipated that, if HMRC rejected the Claim, I could appeal against its rejection and my appeal would be heard in the specialist tax tribunal. Were I to lose I would not have to pay HMRC’s costs. And if I won it would be because a specialist tax tribunal had decided that Uber was charging VAT and – in such circumstances – HMRC would have no alternative but to act in the public interest and collect that VAT.

My application for a protective costs order was due to be heard on 13 November 2017. On 10 November 2017, and after some chasing, I finally received a meaningful response from HMRC to the Claim. That response is not a model of clarity but I believe – it is not possible to be certain – that it amounts to a rejection of the Claim and is a decision against which I can appeal to the tax tribunal.

A consequence of having an appealable decision in the tax tribunal is that the High Court would be unlikely to grant me a protective costs order. With that in mind, I agreed with Uber that my application for a protective costs order should be adjourned. If the tax tribunal disagrees that I have an appealable decision then I will, of course, pursue that application.

What does all of this mean? It means that I can, I believe, pursue without costs risk in the technical tax tribunal the contention that Uber is dodging VAT.

I will lodge an appeal against a rejection of the Claim to the tax tribunal in the coming week and push for the earliest possible hearing.

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Letter To Taxi Leaks From Rob : I Wonder If Helen Chapman Is Sleeping Easily In Her Bed Tonight ?

I wonder if Helen Chapman is sleeping easily in her bed tonight? 

Almost thirteen thousand criminal record checks still to be completed on Uber drivers with alleged fake DBS certificates. 

Didn't Helen intimate she couldn't live with herself if checks on licensed hackney carriage drivers should fail to detect the presence of undesirable characteristics. 

How is this litany of failure to be halted ?

Sexual assaults, criminally negligent driving, highly dubious business practices, indifference from government tax authorities, probable financial bribery in many spheres of authority and so on and so on. 

The TfL office in charge of Taxi and private hire is an utterly worthless organisation. 

It's dragged our trade into the sewer. It seems to be a plague of pestilence emanating from America.

Such a disregard for decent business and human ethics, their desperation, a mantra of money /profit at all costs,  seems to run through so many of those gig/tech style companies. 

It won't be until the affluent upper middle classes experience this level of absurdity and diabolical dishonesty and lack of ethics that things may change.

Or a sense of 'stop this insane carousel of profit and to hell with a sense of decency '. 

Do we have to wait till someone’s wife/daughter/sister/mother is raped and murdered before action is taken?

Taxi Leaks Extra Bit :

In a reply to an FOI received earlier this week, TfL admitted they haven't bothered to contact all the 13,000 Uber drivers thought to have fake DBS certificates. 

They  admitted they have only written to just 2,621 private hire drivers, saying that they will need to obtain a new enhanced DBS check through GB group.

There has been no mention of any revocations, or suspensions while this process is ongoing. 

Later this week we heard 5 Uber drivers were convicted of fraud and theft. All received prison sentences 4 were suspended. 

All these drivers are still registered with TfL on the TfL licence checker as Private Hire drivers. 

Helen, what does an Uber Driver have to do to get their licensed revoked. Are you that scared of Uber’s legal team, that you would overlook this matter ?  

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