Can TfL lawfully revoke licences for social media posts?

Odd how TFL will send out letters for social media posts but will allow a foreign company that did not report thousands of sexual assaults/stalking cases (2500+) in London??? 

We all know now that TfL covered up the fact that 13,000 Uber drivers had fake DBS certificates and is still allowing them to continue to work on. 

We also know that TfL director Leon Daniels lied on behalf of Uber drivers on multiple occasions to the London Assembly Transport Committee. 

Bizarre world we live in.

More recently, we've seen reports on social media, that some licensed driver’s have had letters from Transport for London (TfL) threatening to revoke licences for content posted by these drivers on social media.

Can TfL lawfully revoke licences under these circumstances?

Ultimately, TfL will need to show that a licence holder is no longer a “fit and proper” person to continue to be licensed.

Freedom of speech is a fundamental principle of life in the UK.  No citizen should have their freedoms unreasonably restricted or interfered with by a public authority.

Licensed drivers must however be aware of the law relating to Defamation of Character.  

Defamation of Character is a legal term that is used to describe a false statement that is written or spoken about an individual – or an organisation – with the intent of harming their reputation.

The full article below is a detailed look at where TfL stands in regards to the law, from Taxi Defence Barristers 

http://www.taxidefencebarristers.co.uk/2018/07/can-tfl-lawfully-revoke-licences-for-social-media-posts/

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London's Boroughs Alarmed By Met’s Collision Data

In the wake of TfL hiding the fact that 13,000 Uber drivers had fake DBS certificates, it appears that complaints have been made to the Mayor of London by London Borough's Engineers that the quality of the information on road traffic collisions provided by the Metropolitan Police has deteriated. 

It's been alleged that although road traffic accidents involving TfL licensed private hire vehicles are at a record high...information sent to borough engineers in respect of collisions by Transport for London, has been steadily reducing. Are they now sweeping these stats under the carpet too?

London borough officers have written to the mayor’s office to express concern about the deteriorating quality of road accident collision data provided by the Metropolitan Police. 

The issue is highlighted in a letter sent last month by Mark Frost, head of traffic & transport at the London Borough of Hounslow, and chair of the London Technical Advisors Group (Group 1), to Rebecca Lawrence of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime. 

Said Frost: “Since the Metropolitan Police introduced a new input database in November 2016, borough engineers have noticed a reduction in data and data quality in respect to collision information sent to them via Transport for London.

“It seems that previously the Met had a designated team who would process collision data but it has now been disbanded and police officers are recording their own collision records electronically via COPA, the Case Overview and Preparation Application.”

Frost says boroughs are now receiving records “with no description of how the collision occurred”. 

“This makes it near-on impossible to identify patterns in the collision data or within clusters of collisions. Poor data quality is impacting on the level of analysis boroughs can undertake, making it harder to prioritise and plan our programmes, or to design effective remedial measures. 

“Also, because the data is very delayed it is affecting reporting of annual and quarterly targets in a timely manner.” 

Frost says injury severity reporting has also changed. “The criteria for severity categorisation has been altered in such a way that more collisions than in previous years are now being classed as a serious injury where before they would have been recorded as slight injury. This means, going forward, producing meaningful data comparisons with previous years and the tracking of year-on-year trends will be extremely difficult.” 

Frost told LTT he was hoping a representative from the Metropolitan Police would attend the next LoTAG Group 1 meeting on 11 July to discuss the matters with borough representatives. 

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Another Open Letter To TFL's Mike Brown, Plus On LTR, A Star Is Borne.

Why Is It That TfL PCOs Don't Work Closer With Westminster Marshals ?

Anger as Ferrari driver 'moves cones out of way' to park in taxi rank, despite 'being told not to'

One witness said he laughed when confronted about it

Onlookers say they couldn’t believe their eyes after watching a Ferrari driver move traffic cones out of the way to park in a taxi rank.

The driver of the sports car was seen moving the cones out of his way to pull up at the spot designated only for taxi drivers. 

A traffic marshall was seen speaking to the man, only for the driver to allegedly laugh before putting the cones back around his vehicle.

He was far from the only person parked up there when they shouldn't have been - but perhaps unsurprisingly, the very conspicuous Ferrari was the car that most people noticed.

And those who saw it have been quick to make their feelings known about what happened.

One woman, who was with her husband at the time, but didn’t want to be named, said: “I was quite amazed to see this guy remove the cones and pull up.

“Several other people witnessed it, including the taxi driver and a parking warden official, who did make some comment to him.

“I thought it was inconsiderate and totally out of order as there was no room for any taxis to use the rank. And if a taxi had pulled up next to it, he would have had to double park, which would have caused congestion.

“It is not fair on the taxi drivers to take their spaces.”

The woman was left further enraged as she says the driver ignored advice given to him by traffic marshal.

“I am not a confrontational person,” she said. “I said something to the taxi driver about it and then the traffic warden spoke to him, but he just put the cones back round his car and walked off laughing.

“He walked off like: it's ok, I drive a Ferrari driver, cones don’t apply to me.”

Another man, who didn’t want to be named, said that others were also parking on the Taxi rank. 

A sign clearly says only taxis can be parked there!

However, he says the driver of the Ferrari as well as the others could have easily have parked elsewhere.

Rule 240 of the Highway Code states 

Motorist must NOT park on taxi rank bays as indicated by upright signs and markings.

It is a contravention of code 45 for any vehicle other than a licensed taxi to be parked on a taxi rank. No observation period will be applied. Fines can be issued immediately. 

Only Licensed Taxis are permitted to park on Taxi ranks. Private hire cars (minicabs) are not permitted to park on a Taxi rank and should be enforced against the same as any other road vehicle.

•  Loading/ unloading is not permitted. 

• Blue Badge holders are not exempt on Taxi ranks 

Exemptions to enforcement

Vehicles (other than taxis) are not permitted to park on a taxi rank with the following exemptions:

• council/ government department in pursuance of statutory duties

• Emergency services (fire, police, ambulance, customs)

• Road maintenance

• Statutory undertaking or water, gas, electric, BT, and so on. 

Anyone caught is liable to receive a fine.

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People need to think before parking in any taxi bay, as the are stopping working drivers earning a living.

Moving ‘no parking or loading’ cones is also breaking traffic laws and could lead to a fine to anyone who is caught moving them.

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London Taxi Maker Geely LEVC, Joins Brexit Chorus

Traditional London black cab maker, the Geely owned London EV Company, has also warned about the impact that a hard Brexit could have on business, with its chairman saying it could dismantle Britain's rejuvenated car industry.

Reuters noted Jaguar Land Rover, the UK's biggest automaker and employer, had said earlier a so-called hard Brexit would cost it GBP1.2bn (US$1.59bn) a year, curtailing its future operations in the UK.

"What we really worry about is if there are big difficulties transporting goods via the [English] Channel, whether it's increased costs, or anything else," LEVC chairman Carl-Peter Forster told Reuters in Berlin at the launch of its electric taxi in Germany.

"Even with no tariffs, lorries could still be stuck at the border for days," he said, highlighting how the industry relied on frictionless supply chains to transport components and assembled vehicles back and forth across the channel.

Chief executive Chris Gubbey told Reuters 33% of LEVC's suppliers are in the UK, another third in Europe and the rest elsewhere worldwide.

Reuters noted LEVC spent GBP300m (US$398m) on a new plant in Ansty near Coventry when it made the shift to electric vehicles, the first new automotive plant to be built in Britain in over a decade.

Forster said "if the wrong decision is made" people should have no illusions about the extent of the impact on Britain's car industry which has been undergoing a revival in terms of manufacturing in recent years.

"You won't see it overnight, it's a process that will take 10-15 years.... It would be madness to wake up in the morning in London and read in the papers that there are virtually no carmakers in Britain, it would be a real shame," he told Reuters.

Forster was speaking as LEVC launched the electric version of the traditional black London taxi cab in Germany, where the market is dominated by Daimler's Mercedes, in which Geely also owns a 10% stake.

LEVC hopes that the electric taxi, which is available in the more typical beige colour of German taxi cabs, will find takers as a debate about clean air and urban mobility rages, Reuters said.

The automaker is close to finalising a deal with also Geely-owned Volvo for sales and servicing in Germany.

Gubbey said LEVC was looking to sell hundreds, rather than thousands, of taxis in Germany and wasn't seeing Brexit having any impact on negotiations with potential customers.

Along with the Netherlands, Norway and now Germany, LEVC is also in negotiations in France and has plans to expand to customers outside of Europe from next year, particularly in the UAE, Australia, Singapore and China, Reuters added.

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Taxi Leaks Withstands Hacking Attempts And Is Back Up And Running

After a couple of days down time... Taxi Leaks, in association with London Taxi Radio are back up and running,

As we posted last week, the Taxi Leaks Blog have been the target of malicious attacks which have made it quite difficult to keep up our standard of posting.

We know where most of these attacks and potential hacking come from, so therefore we have taken measures to secure our place on all social media platforms and in fact have also branched out into other fields....but more about that later.

One of our problems we believe -facing not only us but every driver posting on social media- is allegedly coming from the Twitter police team, currently working away for TfLTPH. Anyone can be "targeted" by Tfl for anything.... but obtaining a clear judgement by their legal teams... is very different.

 Tfl employees (directors, managers, and others) dislike criticism and take offence very easily, so its not surprising they are behind the scenes scheming and plotting.

In Britain, we still live in a society where we can voice our opinions freely and without fear of twisted retribution in the name of a legal definition "fit and proper person" argument and Tfl know only too well a suspension or revocation will attract a legal challenge and scrutiny if only once on this subject delivering judgement surrounding this clear attempt to close down dissent or critique in UK law under the auspice of the rights of freedom of speech law.

I really wouldn't worry too much about what is voiced on social media if it is presented as either a "question" or a "checked and proven fact"

If this principle is adhered to, there is never going to be any chance of Tfl's underhanded involvement as they will have neither any legal argument or right to be in any position to involve themselves as self righteous regulators of taxi driver trade press or social media commentary remembering their (us) clients pay licensing fees into their bank account and the use of our funds to follow a fanciful argument is a dead end argument. 

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