ComfortDelGro acquires London taxi circuit operator Dial-a-Cab for £1.2 million

Com Cab owners ComfortDelGro, have acquired London taxi circuit operator Dial-a-Cab's business and assets for £1.2 million (S$2.2 million), the company announced on Thursday (Apr 19). 

The deal was undertaken by ComfortDelGro's wholly owned subsidiary in the UK CityFleet Networks. 

ComfortDelGro's managing director and group CEO Yang Ban Seng said the acquisition will "enable the Group to grow and strengthen its position as the leading taxi circuit operator in London through an expansion of the customer and driver base".

Radio taxi circuits are operators of a door-to-door transportation service that uses London's black cabs.

Currently, ComfortDelGro is the largest taxi circuit operator in London with around 1,900 London taxis. The acquisition will add about 1,100 black cabs to bring the total fleet to 3,000.

Mr Yang also added that London Councils and Transport for London recently awarded CityFleet the Taxicard and Dial-A-Ride contract for another three years, with an option for a fourth. 

Taxicard is the largest public sector day-to-day transport service in London for passengers with serious mobility impairments or who are severely sight impaired. 

CityFleet has held this contract over several decades through its taxi subsidiary Computer Cab. 

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THE LTFUC PURCHASE A MUCH NEEDED SPECIALLY ADAPTED TRICYCLE FOR LITTLE HOPE, AGED 5

On Tuesday 17th April I went along with our Appeals Officer, Colin Greaves, to officially present little Hope aged 5 with a Tricycle, cost £945, to help and enable her to walk again as she suffers from a very rare metabolic condition called GA1 (Glutaric Aciduria 1), which unfortunately also caused her to suffer brain damage.  Her condition affects muscle tone, strength and motor control throughout her body which has made her very weak and her mobility extremely difficult.  The Tricycle has been specially adapted for her and will great benefit her physically, socially and emotionally.

Hope lives with her grandparents who said since she has received the Tricycle she cannot wait to get back on it after school and it is obvious that she has already started to get a tremendous sense of enjoyment and achievement from it, accompanied by lots of fun.

Every month Colin looks into the numerous Appeals that the LTFUC receive and the Committee were very pleased on this occasion to grant this appeal for such a worthy cause.

Raymond Levy (PR)

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BREAKING NEWS: Statement from The ITA to the City of London

At midnight on Sunday 15th 2018  the ITA decided to withdraw the motion to call direct action over the decision made by the City of London to grant access through Bank Junction for the duration of The Commonwealth Games.

Members of the ITA reserve their right to resume direct action at any other time.

The decision is in response to concerns by  officials that the security risk in the area could rise sharply if the area became ‘over populated’. 

The point must be emphasised that whilst the ITA considers statements that pertain to a compromise in safety, we will not automatically take on board the legitimacy of  that statement.

The ITA has it’s own checks and balances set in place before direct action is announced publicly. 

More-so, the propensity for local authorities to ‘scare monger’ is a tried and tested one, and we will not succumb to disingenuous rhetoric to justify unjust policies.

Compounding on this, it is a timely reminder that the restriction imposed on licensed Taxis using Bank Junction as a ‘through route’ is implemented under the banner ‘Bank of Safety’. The service provided by London’s Licensed taxi trade (black cabs) is- according to TfL and the CofL’s own verifiable data- the safest transport option available, so once again, we call upon the City of London to lift the restriction on taxis forthwith. 

Failing that, provide a satisfactory reason why the public should be denied access to the only door-to-door public service option available. 

Assuming an observant position, we urge the City of London to lead the way and resume negotiations with relevant trade groups. It is not the mark of a progressive or democratic process to dismiss trade representatives who’s advocacy to serve their members is far higher than that enjoyed by the policy makers.  

We trust the City of London will find our request reasonable

ITA.

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THE LTFUC PURCHASE A MUCH NEEDED SPECIALLY ADAPTED TRICYCLE FOR LITTLE HOPE, AGED 5

On Tuesday 17th April I went along with our Appeals Officer, Colin Greaves, to officially present little Hope aged 5 with a Tricycle, cost £945, to help and enable her to walk again as she suffers from a very rare metabolic condition called GA1 (Glutaric Aciduria 1), which unfortunately also caused her to suffer brain damage.  Her condition affects muscle tone, strength and motor control throughout her body which has made her very weak and her mobility extremely difficult.  The Tricycle has been specially adapted for her and will great benefit her physically, socially and emotionally.

Hope lives with her grandparents who said since she has received the Tricycle she cannot wait to get back on it after school and it is obvious that she has already started to get a tremendous sense of enjoyment and achievement from it, accompanied by lots of fun.

Every month Colin looks into the numerous Appeals that the LTFUC receive and the Committee were very pleased on this occasion to grant this appeal for such a worthy cause.

Raymond Levy (PR)

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Mercedes Finds An Outlet For Unsold Taxis With Ride Share App.

In recent years, we have seen many big-name vehicle manufacturers trying their hand at the private-hire market, coming up with all sorts of ideas on how they can get a slice of the ride-hailing and ride-sharing economy. 

Whilst Uber are waiting to hear from. The court about their licence renewal appeal, Mercedes believe they have found a gap in the London market.

Not a great surprise really, as they needed an outlet for the vehicles designed to be London Taxis, now that the Taxi trade can no longer licence any new vehicle other than an electric vehicle.

Regulation Out The Window At TfL.

It seems the regulation that stop purpose built Taxis being used by Private Hire companies, is another regulation swept under the carpet under the watchful gaze of Mike Brown's TfLTPH.

The German car-makers have this week announced that they are introducing an on-demand ridesharing Vito's boasting  a strong demand in London for ride-sharing solutions.

ViaVan is the name of this new service; a joint venture between Mercedes and American ridesharing service; Via. Together, the businesses will allow commuters of Zones 1 and 2 to access vans with vacant seats in real-time, allowing them to jump in and share ride fairs with those heading in the same direction as them.

Having already tested the model in Amsterdam, they say they will be excelling where Uber very much fell flat. This venture is centred on safety and reliability, with ViaVan offering the residents and visitors of the capital city an honest, easy way to travel. Doesn't mean diddley squat as customer who use Uber don't give a fig about safety or reliability....they just want cheap!

In a statement to the press, Chris Snyder CEO of ViaVan said:

“Our mission is to power truly dynamic mass transit systems, which reduce congestion in our cities while offering drivers the opportunity to earn a decent living.# “We are delighted to launch in London and finally give Londoners an alternative to expensive and inefficient private car services.”

Same Old Workforce, Still A Danger To The Public

Unfortunately for unsuspecting Londoners and Visitors alike, they will be drawing on the same work force that Uber have exploited and let's not forget that 13,000 of this workforce have acquired their PH licence using fake Criminal Record Check DBS certificates plus many have fake medical. 

Last year custom rape from this workforce rose by 50% to over one a week with sexual assaults rising to almost one a day.

London is to be flooded with new ride share apps in the wake of a Uber licence renewal knock back and TfL are still dishing out operator and driver licenses like sweeties to kids, (trying to make a dent in the forecast £1b deficit for the next financial year). Over. Recent years, we've seen a dramatic escalation in road traffic collisions where these untrained drivers take their eyes off the road and smash into other vehicles. People have died and the blood is on the hands of the directors at TfL who have shirked all responsibility once they've taken the cash.

Gone out the window are the days when public safety was paramount. 

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BREAKING NEWS: The Case Against Driver In The Exhibition Road “RTA”Attack Is To Go Ahead.

The driver, still unnamed by police, was driving east along Cromwell Road with passengers picked up on the Uber app, when he suddenly veered right, mounted the pavement, ploughed though concrete blocks, into pedestrians before smashing into two cars waiting at the traffic lights southbound on Exhibition Road. 

He than got out of the car, screaming at onlookers and tried to run off, but was pulled to the ground and held till police arrived and arrested him.

The driver has been charged with:

* possession of false documents, 

* obtaining a driver’s licence with fake documents

* obtaining a PH licence with fake documents, 

* causing injury by dangerous driving. 

The question has to be asked, is this one of Helen Chapman's 13,000 drivers with a fake DBS check certificate?

Did TfL contact this driver and tell him he had to resubmit for a DBS check?

TFL's Helen Chapman new in January 2017 that there were 13,000 PH drivers with fake DBS's and said nothing until it was exposed in the media. 

Without an enhanced criminal record check (or letter from embassy staff) he should never have been granted a private hire licence. 

Should everyone injured in this RTA be suing Helen Chapman and TfL???

Perhaps one for the no win no fee lawyers out there!

When the news broke that a car had ploughed into a crowd of pedestrians outside the Natural History Museum, almost everyone with children fleetingly entertained the same thought: it could have been us.

Everyone made a guess at what had happened. 

Some shared their guesses as fact. 

Car, pedestrian injuries, high-profile venue, panicking crowds, immediate police presence, swirling rumours… "Terrorist Attack"

But we are now told this wasn't the case.

This was just a driver, with a falsely obtained drivers licence, a falsely obtained private hire drivers licence using an Uber app, having a bad day at the office. 

It begs the question "how many more of these fake PH drivers are still out there using the Uber app?"

We've been told that 2,600 resubmitted DBS checks, so at an educated guess I'd say about 10,399.

    TfL UNFIT FOR PURPOSE...

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SUNDAY SPECIAL REPORT: What’s it like, having your Uber account hacked ?

The story of celebrity Anthea Turner hit the media back in 2015. TfL never commented on the story, or took action over, even though they knew what was going on. 

2.7 UK Uber accounts had been hacked and many customers couldn’t close down their accounts because the hackers had changed the login details. 

The stories soon disappeared even though other celebrities and dignitaries had also been hacked.

Posted April 8th 2015:

On that day, Anthea Turner like many Uber London customers, woke up to find that her rider account had been accessed illegally, by a third party who had been using her account over the bank Holliday Weekend.

Anthea made this tweet at 10:53 yesterday morning after discovering the money had already been taken from her bank account.

Many people (who use the same password for multiple applications) have found their personal bank details and social media platforms have also been accessed. TfL have never mentioned this either. 

Anthea had been unable to find help from Uber as their twitter helpline has been swamped with customer complaints. 

Uber denied reports of a major hack. 

In fact, Uber immediately took down their London user Twitter account and replaced it with a nation user account, hopping this would dilute the complaint statistics after the major security breach.

Uber again denied their systems have been hacked. Nine months previously, their systems were breached with drivers details stolen including; drivers names, addresses and credit card details. 

Amazingly, Uber said nothing about this for five months, according to the New York Times. 

Anthea's celebrity friend, hard man actor Tamer Hassan had this bit of advice for her at the time:

A the same time, 35-year-old record producer Mike Crossley alleged that over the course of 10 days, someone took 142 Uber rides using his account — racking up a £3,000 bill. 

"Most of the time they were using the expensive luxury service to run up the bill," he said. 

"They were quite random although there was an address in Westminster they went to more than once."

Uber denied there had been a breach — but hurriedly refund customers. 

It wasn't until 2017, we found out just how big the hack had actually been. 2.7 million UK accounts had been hacked, 57 million world wide and Uber had covered it up 

Here are some more hacks reported at that time on Twitter

Next week....Uber's Spy In The Sky... GreyBall. 

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT:

Just how corrupt if this company?

The advice given below, was taken from an UBER driver forum post, on how to beat the Gatwick out of licencing area situation:

"I'll go physically into the McD's on the N road and sit with a coffee with the app still running. It can surely then be claimed to be accidental in that case if there's an issue."

Also, incase you may have missed this: 

Recorded clip from the Cristo show on LBC, an Uber driver discusses how his system is set up to deceive and over charge the Uber customer. 

            

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